Ode to a road

The Srinagar-Jammu road is a part of our folk-lore, and many a tall tale as well. Haven’t we all listened to hair raising stories of experiences (with the expected garnishing)  along this road, of landslides that almost buried a bus or again the taxi that missed the boulder by a mere whisker, of the vile winds roaring near the Khooni Nallah and the yawning gorges waiting for human prey! As a kid I would find anyone relating these stories to me a far more real an adventurer than any Sindbad, so much so that at that stage of my life my most cherished fantasy and my ambition in life was to become a truck driver and spend my life dodging malevolent demon-faced boulders and dash through killer avalanches and the stuff! Of course, my sister will tell you that after listening to these tales I would scream in my sleep and the day would witness my mattress hanging out to dry, but then she always likes a joke at my expense and you mustn’t take it to be true. And yes I might as well put it on record that the fact that I didn’t make it as a truck driver has nothing to do with lack of courage, it is just that my parents forced an education, as well as a career of their liking, on me!

Anyway the road has always meant different things to different people. One of my friends who traveled along this road only once and did not have the courage to traverse it again, so much so that he never returned home and instead landed in the U.S., insists that Einstein must have had this road in his mind when he talked of  traveling back in time. It is his contention that a journey along this road is like traveling into the past and, while one is at it, any mention of the progress that technology has made over the years as well as things like travel to the moon, the channel-tunnel, etc. sound like science fiction!

   

Like I said, the road means different things to different people. There is this fellow who is quite ‘protective’ about the unchanging status of this road. He claims that this road has a ‘heritage’ value as it remains more or less unchanged from the times of our forefathers and will hopefully maintain the same dangerous qualities in future as well. He does have a point! 

Now there is another chap, who is into politics (nothing serious, as he always makes it a point to point out, just a hobby!). He keeps changing his affiliations and right now favours the ‘separatist’ point of view. He maintains that the road has always been a ‘reluctant’ road – a tenuous link that goes against what Nature intended. He stresses that this is the single most important point that should have been taken up with the U.N. (or whosoever is dealing with these matters these days) and laments that we never attained our ‘objective’ because we always ignored this vital issue!

His brother, who is also into politics as a hobby, and keeps experimenting with different ideologies and adjusting his alliances accordingly (usually at extreme variance with his brother’s) hotly contests this theory, which is to be expected considering that nowadays he is rowing his boat in ‘mainstream’ waters. “In fact,” he said when we met recently and had a discussion on this issue, “I suggested to one of my friends in the parliament that he should move a resolution on this road during the coming session.”

“Will he?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” he shook his head. “You see somebody told him that it is dangerous to move anything on this road in this weather!”

“Even a resolution?” I said, not quite believing him.

“Even a resolution!” he maintained. I haven’t been able to decide whether he was pulling my leg or whether someone had been pulling his! 

A budding ‘extreme-right’ politician has rather strong views about this road. Last time I asked him about this issue, he let loose a tirade against it. “I don’t understand all this fuss about a road! The way it has been pampered is another example of vote-bank politics. I say this road has caused enough disruptions in traffic and especially after they showed this live ‘encounter’ on the news channels with all those ‘shooting-stones’, we should not delay applying TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities act) on it!”

The debate continues to rage on… Meanwhile, I came across a senior bureaucrat who said something that puts the whole thing into a totally new perspective! He revealed (as always on conditions of absolute anonymity) that the unchanging conditions of the road and the recurring episodes of blocked roads might actually be a well planned strategy. He even went so far as to suggest that at least some of the avalanches and ‘shooting stone’ episodes might be ‘contrived’!

“Why?!” I couldn’t believe my ears.

He lowered his voice to a confidential whisper and said, “Of course, to promote ‘adventure tourism’!”

(Truth is mostly unpalatable…but truth cannot be ignored! Here we serve the truth, seasoned with salt and pepper and a dash of sauce (iness!). You can record your burps, belches and indigestion, if any, at snp_ajazbaba@yahoo.com)

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