Mistreat Her and You Will Suffer

Driven by a determination to reach Siliguri by nightfall, we push the chariot to its limits. We bonzai the craters and push along at 20 km/hr. Several times, we are lifted from our seats by the force of the collision of wheel with hole. We begin to sing soprano.

Somewhere outside Kursela, our exhaust falls off and the chariot’s engine is bursting at a deafening volume. We limp into town and have the exhaust re-welded and attached to the chariot.

Continuing forward, the chariot comes to a halt. There is a strong smell of petrol and we discover that our tank is leaking. It is nightfall now and the Bums are stuck on the side of the road on a highway running through the most lawless region in India. A passing motorcyclist stops and informs us that there is a mechanic some 7 km down the road. Another man on a bicycle stops and slants our tank so that we can start the chariot and drive it towards the mechanic.

The mechanic shop is actually a tire puncture fixing station run by an old man and his sons. The “shop” is a three walled enclosure of bamboo and straw and it appears to double as home for the family. They pull the tank from the chariot and find a gash in the plastic. They are ill equipped to fix the tank, but they improvise a solution. They melt a plastic bag into the gash and cover the area with soap. The improvised weld holds and we are able to fill our tank.

Bennett, meanwhile, has gone to fetch tea for himself and the old man. At first, the old man refuses the tea, but Bennett’s persistence persuades him to take it. His son is livid. He runs back to the tea hut, fetches a new glass of tea and presents it to me. He is upset at the old man for accepting someone else’s tea even though I had refused it earlier.

We ask what we should pay for the service. They insist on taking nothing and smile pointing toward the road. We force the issue and give them two hundred rupees. Again, one of the sons is upset. He seems to believe that we shouldn’t be charged anything for their hour of work. Once again, we encounter grace; this time in the most lawless region in India.

We continue on our way to Siliguri, but we decide not to push our luck and spend the evening in Purnia.

Posted at 02:00PM Jan 08, 2007 by D Bums Comments[0]