The reception at Bareilly was
chilly to begin with – we landed up at 4:15 – dog-eyed after an hour and half
of waking and waiting. The train from New Delhi had left at the right time, but
the fog seems to have delayed it. The rooms at IVRI were not fitted with too
many amenities – but it boasted of being an ‘International Guest House’ – at
that hour, we were not much of choosers. So went off to sleep promptly. Early
morning, after a breakfast that was nothing to write home about, we got around
to the driving off on a bumpy road to the Air Force Station.
Air Force hierarchy is a bit
‘flatter’ than the Army – there is Air HQ, followed by Commands, followed by
Wings, and then Squadrons. Even the Wings are not in operational command of the
squadrons, who get their directions from the Commands. Wings are simply
administrative attachments. So this Air Force Station was the base of the 15
Wing, headed by an Air Commodore. It had two squadrons of Su-30 MKI’s and one
of ALH Dhruv. After the 6PC, squadrons are not led by Squadron Leaders, but by
Wing Commanders, who have ceded Wings to Group Captains / Air Commodores.
The visit was any engineer’s
fantasy come true. We got to get up and close to one of the mightiest birds in
the sky – amongst all Air Forces of the world – Sukhoi Su-30 MKI. We saw the
whole airframe and the components, and we were given a tour of the cockpits
(there are two) and the associated controls. Unfortunately, we did not get to
fly in them! But it was attempted tp be made up by giving us flying time in the
Su-30 MKI simulator – which did not even come close to the real thing. I
remembered my own ‘F-16 Aggressor’ game, which was much similar. We did get to
see two of them take off – the noise they made was deafening – felt pity for the
guys nearer to the runway.
The next day, we saw the Tactics,
Weapons and Command Centre – basically the thing one sees in movies – like a
war room. Yes, such places do exist, with wall sized maps of our adversaries
and their offensive and defensive capabilities. But, the highlight of the day
was climbing atop the wings and the back of a Su-30 MKI with the maintenance
engineers – I got the same feeling of rush as I had on my first visit to a
Diesel Shed in 2006! We saw the massive jet engines from above, with the panels
removed. The skinnier ones got the opportunity to climb up the air intakes of
these beasties. The visit to the ALH
squadron was also enlightening – firstly, my idea of Advanced Light Helicopter
was some twig and strings thing – this one looked pretty sturdy and impressive.
And we got to sit on the copilot’s controls – though on the grounds only. The
real surprise came later, when the pilot, a Flight Lieutenant, who was
instructing us happened to be a close senior from Oak Grove!
We left Bareilly early in the
evening to avoid the morning fog and to get rested before our attachment at
Lucknow – how wrong could one be. Murphy had a field day with us – the vehicle
in which we were to leave was deemed road-unworthy by the driver at the time
when we were about to leave. The first replacement got banged up on the way.
The second replacement arrived one and half hours past our scheduled departure
time – it had no leg room, but we weren’t choosers here either. As soon as we
cleared Bareilly precincts, we encountered a 10 kn long jam – so had to take a
detour. By the time we were scheduled to arrive in Lucknow, we were not even at
Shahjehanpur (50 minutes by train). We made the mistake of going for supper! By
the time we finished, fog had come in a big way, and it kept on worsening. The
driver was adamant on continuing, and after much deliberations, we let him go
on. The cold wind kept leaking in through blind eyelets in the window glasses,
and it got really chilly. Woollens were pulled out hastily out of whatever bags
were accessible. Road conditions improved as we hit Sitapur at 4:00 am, and
finally, we pulled up, cold and bedraggled, at Civil Services Institute,
Lucknow at 6:30 am. The journey that was to be completed in four hours
according to Academy manuals was completed in fourteen! It gave us a good
insight into what a cold wave really means for someone on the road, all
homeless.
Lucknow was a short stop to begin
with, and the long sleepless journey led to further curtailment. The official
work was an attachment with Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL). Well, it was
good – but it was not at the scale which we were expecting. It was an
accessories plant – so all the work was of subassembly level – good from
engineering point of view, but too technical and trivial for a lay mind. The
social do with the Commissioner and the District Magistrate was enjoyable –
good experience sharing was done, and I got some idea about the cadre I am
supposed to be joining. The visit to the Ambedkar Memorial near Hazratganj was
a revelation – whatever the political connotations of it, the thing looks
mighty impressive – reminds one of the famous seated Lincoln statue in
Hollywood movies. I had always found Lucknow to be a beautiful city, and all
these beautification efforts had definitely added to the charm. It was nice to
notice batch-mates from other states wondering at the shimmering city lights,
the beautiful monuments and the sheer grandeur of the Hazratgunj market.
We boarded the Pratapgarh Bhopal
Express from Lucknow in a totally freezing sort of climate. Next day, much
delayed, we stepped out sweating in the city of Bhopal. We had our attachment
at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) – and the rest houses of this PSU
were really impressive. Again, a social do with the administrative brass of
Bhopal, along with many top Police officials. The venue was especially
impressive – a hotel of MP tourism, overlooking the beautiful serene Bhopal
lake – all lit up, with live music, and really excellent food. No state has done
better at marketing its tourism potential as MP, and it was indeed an honour to
meet the MD of MP tourism, a 1997 batch IAS officer.
The next two days were earmarked
for our official attachment with BHEL. The liaison officer was a senior
executive who took pains to remember everybody’s name – and he was witty. The
first day was mainly about electrical equipment – huge switches – filled with
toxic gases to be used as an insulator, huge transformers – that generated
coronas strong enough to require globe size shielding, factory sheds that rose 40
metres high. It was impressive, but not stimulating. For stimulation, I had to
wait for the second day – when we visited the turbines section – and we saw
mammoth machines – butterfly valves the size of a mini truck, Kaplan turbines
with human sized blades, chucks the size of dance floors, milling machines with
27 metre long beds. However, the main attraction was the steam turbine section,
where the HoD took a very detailed class about the theory, and later showed us
around the shed – where we saw all sorts of steam turbines with their blading
exposed. For an engineer-who-could-be, this was a dreamland.
The real fun, however, was
outside. The Museum of Man – sounded tricky at first – was a revelation. They
had excellent life size replicas of various tribal dwelling units –
informative, as well as good for photo-ops! And a cruise on the Bhopal lake was
amazing – a nice good boat, very nice music – and the water looked so
beautiful. Bhopal authorities have really got the lake front right – all
marine-drived – may be they did not have to deal with those pesky
‘environmentalists’. It appeared really beautiful. MP really lived up to the
hype around it – even though Bhopal is scarcely mentioned in those
advertisements.
The next morning, we packed up
for Pachmarhi – a hill station in the Satpura range. The journey had many stops
– the first one was Bhimbetka – the sight of the prehistoric rock paintings.
This was one place I was really eager to see, and I was not disappointed. The
sun was all ablaze, and hence, we were without woollens – good for photography!
The paintings were just there in the open –totally unguarded. It felt as if we
were intruding into the homes of those cave-men – it was just so
matter-of-fact-ly out in the open. I wondered if nobody had thought about
dangers to these paintings from vandals. Then I realized that these paintings
had survived through ages that had lesser regards for historical artefacts, and
hence, they are good for now. Next stop was a forest guest house at
Hoshangabad, where, amidst nice refreshment, we met the Chief Conservator of
Forest, the Inspector General of Police (and his Deputy), followed by the
District Magistrate. It is to his credit that the District has won a number of
accolades in various schemes of the Central Government. In continuation with
this, we visited the factory of Prakrit – a silk mill – where we saw the
production process of silk. The cocoons were being unloaded and sifted outside.
Then they were boiled – to kill the pupae and to soften the yarn, whose strands
were then pulled through a spinning jenny to get the thread. Of course, we had
to learn to breathe through the overpowering stench of the boiling cocoons
before we could see that. From then on, we took the NH 69 and SH19 to reach
Pipariya, quite late. We had a good lunch, and the spice in some of the dishes
really burnt our guts out – not that it prevented us from devouring it all.
Finally, weary and exhausted, we reach Pachmarhi by the evening. Finding our
place of stay – the oddly named Old Hotel Guest house, was another hour spent.
But the accommodation was huge and old style. We enjoyed a nice bonfire outside
– both in a mixed polite company, and later in a men-only no-holds-barred
style.
The morning began according to
plans – late rising, huge breakfast, and just sitting in the sun – with my
battered library copy of ‘Catch-22’. Others had gone looking at churches and
waterfalls, but my philosophy is, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen all. Few
more shared these sentiments, but being more active types, they explored the
Pachmarhi roads, and came across – Para Sailing! They were generous enough to
spread the news back to the Old Hotel, and two of us went – it was basically an
expansive grassland, a kilometre from our rest house. We were padded up and
loaded in an open gypsy and taken a kilometre further. We were strapped in and
instructed to run with the jeep as we took off! Luckily, the ‘running’ was just
for a couple of steps, before we were
airborne – this was my first shot at parasailing – and, by God, it was an
unforgettably delightful experience. Hardly a couple of minutes, but the
feeling of being flown like a kite was awesome. Plus, as you might have guessed
it, extremely nice pics and vids were shot – these were used to torment our
fellow travellers who returned later from their churches and their falls! Talk
about misplaced priorities – the parasailing (and trampolining – as we learnt
later) were hardly sold to us – they were busy showing us waterfalls and old
buildings!
It was a delightful road trip
from Pachmarhi to Kanha National Park – smooth road, snaking through the
undulating plains and plateaus, tea halts at twilight – watching the burning
headlamps and sipping the tea, friendly banter on the speeding Traveller – nice
food at ‘official’ halts. We arrived at Kanha at 2330 – bursting from a
delightfully tasty and heavy dinner. It was painful to set the alarm for 0500 –
and still more painful to get up at that hour. I had visited Kanha once
earlier, in 2006, and had been content with few glimpses of bisons. So, as we
rode out on the safari Gypsies at 0645 in the morning, my only thought was to
grin and bear the cold and the monotony. I did that for around forty minutes.
And then, suddenly, at a T-junction
on the dirt track, appeared a huge tiger. We were speeding along the stem of
the T towards the junction, when it came at a brisk pace from the left branch
of the T, also towards the junction. I feared we might collide. Indeed, it
stopped and stared at us – I had a fearful thought – what if it charged us – it
was hardly 15 feet from us. Mercifully, it continued on the right branch of the
T, and we started following some 15-20 feet behind. Three more Gypsies joined
us – including one of our own. We followed it for close to five minutes. The
beast was huge – we were later told it was a 12 year old male named ‘Munna’. It
did not bother much about us – though it gave us many disdainful glances now
and then. It walked along the road – marking its territory at its convenience.
When the crowd and the noise became too much, it slunk away in the dense
vegetation, leaving us waiting for a reappearance. That never came, but this
long, full head-on encounter really made the day and the trip – few are lucky
enough to even get to look at a tiger in the wild. Most who do notice it far
away in a shrub. Fewer still have the good fortune of getting to follow the
beast for so long. Again, good pictures and videos were shot, to tease the
group that missed!
In the afternoon, we packed up
and left for another nice road trip, this time along the famous Jabalpur –
Balaghat Narrow Gauge railway. Fast SUV, nice music, good road, fine weather –
what else do we need for a good ride? We reached Balaghat by late evening, and
were shown into smaller accommodation units. This was our Insurgency Affected
Area Attachment. Balaghat is a border tri-junction district – it touches
Maharashtra, and most importantly, Chattisgarh. The district had seen extensive
Left Wing Extremist (LWE) violence in early 2000’s – and, to date remains known
for extensive movements by the dalams – given its peculiar location.
It is a cliché that the LWE
problem needs to be addressed through a ‘two pronged strategy’ – security
measures and developmental measures. The day one was for the latter. We were
briefed by the Collector, the Superintendent of Police and the Divisional
Forest Officer. We learnt how the State has gone an extra mile, forgoing its
(by that logic, the rest of the country’s) economic rights, so that the locals
shed their grievances. The forest produce revenues are being ploughed back into
the local area, to the extent of 100 %. We also learnt the way IT and high
quality human resource are being used to ensure last mile gap-closing on the
governance front. Two Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellows were present in
the District, and they had designed an automated system for payment of state
subsidies / wages to the beneficiaries directly. After the presentation, and
the lunch, we drove off to a few nearby villages, in a 30 km radius from the
District HQ. The cash was being disbursed through banking correspondents, who
carried battery and GPRS enabled hand held banking devices. The device offered
the services as any rudimentary ATM would. Instead of PIN, it used the
impression of any of the ten fingers. The cash was handled by the BC, and the
machine also read out the whole transaction in Hindi! More than the simplicity
and ingenuity of it all, it was the enthusiasm of the lower functionaries that was
encouraging. For the first time in my various interactions with the government
offices, I saw genuinely motivated staff. Everyone of them had a distinct pride
in their work.
Day two, we studied the security
aspects – by visiting one of the erroneously named Offensive Forward Post. We
drove through 160 kilometres of very smooth and picturesque road – to get to
one. Well, to put simply, it was fort. Layers and layers of concertina razor
wires fenced the camp. Any vehicle (including ours) was greeted with a high
alert, with at least 30 Kalashnikov barrels pointing towards the gate! The main
building was designed on the pattern of the famous ‘Greyhounds’ force of the Andhra
Pradesh police. It had narrow openings with sloping ledges above - to avoid ingress of grenades – the walls were
blast proof. The design was circular to enable coverage of all directions both
visually and by fire. All walls had secure gun positions. And the design of the
place inside was like a maze. Even if a wretch managed to get inside, he was
sure to get lost and gunned down. The whole thing was awe inspiring. More than
the infrastructure, it was the quality of personnel deployed here that was
great. They looked like Army-men, and behaved liked Army-men. Even the weaponry
was modern. If I were an LWE idiot, I would surely avoid even venturing near
this place.
On day three, we visited the
Managanese Ore mine of MOIL. Not sure how it fitted in the whole LWE picture –
may be because mining companies are frequently painted as villains in the whole
LWE debate – even in movies like Chakravyuh. Well, this one was a PSU, and not
the lapdog of some heartless tycoon. The high point was that we got to visit
the mine – 300 metres below the surface of the earth – that’s my personal
record that I’m sure would not be bettered. We did not go far from the inlet,
but whatever we saw gave us a good idea on the hardships the miners face – it
as steamy only 10 metres far from the vent! As a railway enthusiast, I was very
much interested by the mini railway that carried the ore. They had wee little
wagons, wee little locomotives, and even an underground Loco Shed! It was all
Enid Blyton come alive! Late that evening, we had the worst 3 hours in MP – we
watched ‘Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola’ – I may have come across shittier movies,
but I never sat through whole of any worse.
That brought an end to our
sojourn in Madhya Pradesh – the heart of India. It would take a bus and two
train rides to get us to Vizag – for the next leg of our WST.
To Conclude
To begin with, MP was just a huge
landmass that we were supposed to cross to get from the earlier fun to the
later fun. Once we entered the state, however, we were simply floored by the
richness of the experience. From the bright lights and sunny lakes of Bhopal,
to the chilly tracks of Kanha, we got much more than we had ever expected. We
found excitement in the most unexpected of places. And we saw various
entrenched beliefs about the state breaking down. The roads, which were once
butts of jokes, were now comparable to the best in the country. It may have
been a BIMARU state, and may still be underdeveloped, but if what we have seen
budding here was in any way representative of the state, it is surely going to
see much better days in the future. And then people shall wonder and say – “MP
ajab hai; sabsey gazab hai.”
