A night crossing

Danger seemed to lurk just around the corner

A lone car hugging the only drivable road in the middle of a dense forest. Suddenly, from nowhere, robbers 8212; a gang of them 8212; jump in front of your car and tie you to a tree trunk8230; Quite filmy, what? But I could foresee precisely such a situation, as we drove through Kaziranga National Park one night.

The flight from Nagaland to Kolkata had been cancelled and we, a group of eight journalists and entrepreneurs, did not like the idea of being stranded at Dimapur Airport. The airport authorities suggested that we go by road to Guwahati and then catch a flight to Delhi from there. That8217;s how we found ourselves in that lone car on that lone road. Our driver, with his eyes full of sleep and his mind on alcohol, didn8217;t believe in accommodating himself to the trucks coming from the opposite direction. But despite that, he had lots of stories to tell about the terror in the Northeast, especially in the parts we were driving through.

Pherim 8212; a village on the way 8212; was known for tribals who would be offended if you happen to laugh or smile. They kill you there and then, he told us. Karbianglong, the first district encountered while crossing into Assam from Dimapur, had declared itself an independent state. 8220;I am going to drive very fast through this area, as they could notice us any time and attack us,8221; the driver said. That obviously scared us out of our wits.

Then he went on to dwell on the ways Nagas cook their dog meat. The poor creature is kept hungry for days together and then given uncooked rice to eat. Soon after that, he is beaten to death with bamboo sticks and cooked a few metres above an open flame. The rice in the dog8217;s stomach is cooked this way and the meat is roasted, or so our driver said. If his intention was to keep us awake, he certainly succeeded.

But the most beautiful sight that greeted us was that of the sun rising at 4.30 am over the blue waters of the Brahmaputra. It made us forget the wild elephants, the insurgents, the accidents we had almost met with, and the the gory tales of a drunk driver. And, you know what, we also survived half a dozen security checks along the way. Thank God, we were not mistaken for NSCN militants!