Return of the itch to ride again

Oops!

It's tough to control. Am talking about my itch to hitch a ride on trucks/trailers.

"Didn't you complete 10,000 Km recently?" asked my 20 plus daughter when she heard me discussing the route plan with Mercurio Pallia Logistics bossman Vipul Nanda a week ago over phone.

"So, what?... That's was long ago," I blurted.

"Long ago? You returned home mid June and went into writing your book subsequently. And just 10 days ago, you got your maiden book 10,000 Km On Indian Highways published. What's the hurry?" Well, she was hammering at me as if I am about to commit a crime.

Poor girl, she does not understand the thrill of being on the highways. Not in CRVs. Or Volvo airconditioned buses, but in ordinary heavy commercial vehicles ferrying goods facilitating trade and commerce.

"What's your plan?" asked Nanda, the portly fortyish chairman and managing director of Mercuiro Pallia Logistics, on whose car carriers I had traversed approx. 4,000 Km of my previous trip.

"Now that you have recently opened a new branch office in Guwahati, how about a trip to the north east?" I responded.

Guwahati, according to http://www.liveindia.com/distance/Delhi.html is approx. 2,000 km. Close to Bhutan on the northwest, Bangladesh to the southwest and Myanmar in the east. Almost close to China. Wow!

The distance of 2,000 km is nothing great. Shorter than the Chennai-Gurgaon trip (2800 km) I did November 2010 and longer than Jamshedpur-Ludhiana (1,650 km) trip I undertook February this year.

Cool. I will be crossing at least five states: Delhi (National Capital Region), Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim and then Asom or Assam. Will I touch West Bengal? Not sure at this moment.

Though I had been to Jamshedpur in the east and Kolkota, the state capital of West Bengal couple of years ago, seldom did I venture into the north east.

North east has been on my radar for quite some time. A few months ago, Mr Arun Rawat, a senior government official at the Cabinet Secretariat, casually mentioned that north east transport scenario also needs attention. This came in the form of a letter to my transport guru and mentor Mr Chittaranjan Dass, director of SAARC Centre for Transport Studies and Editor of SAARC Journal of Transport, with whom I am associated with currently.

Mr Rawat, incidentally, belongs to the Sikkim cadre and held the transport portfolio in the federal government couple of years ago. Sikkim is clubbed along with the Seven Sisters of India:the north eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Assam and Nagaland.

Good friend Sanjeev Tripathi, Chief Operating Officer, Mercurio Pallia Logistics, has already set the ball rolling by issuing orders to arrange for my Delhi-Guwahati trip as part of the first leg either from Rudrapur or Noida - wherefrom his car carriers will originate for their north eastern state sojourn."Look for a comfortable vehicle and a good driver," is his instruction. So sweet of him. Thanks, Sanjeev!

What about the weather? Have you checked? demanded my spouse.

I said, I will. Well, I am yet to.

(To be continued)