I do not know. But I am a bit
emotional in scripting this episode. Because it was the journey that taught me
what sacrifice is.? A journey that taught me what patience is.? A journey that
taught me what commitment is.? A journey which evoked the hibernating patriotic
feelings in me. A journey that made my vision broad. A journey that brought
change in me. A journey which can me scripted in my heart forever.
As I updated my status over my FB
wall saying. “Anjaw a place much awaited
by me to explore. Hope the place delights me with its lush green charm and with
enigmatic wildlife. Of to the destination 2mrw. Jav jav china ka border anjaw”.
The place really delighted me. As ever, I started my journey from Itanagar
but it was with my friend anup this time. Anup’s short intro would be, “a man
who is working on pine species in Anjaw district for his thesis”. We reached
Tinsukia the town in Assam the next day morning. From there, we travelled to
Tezu a town in lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. As usually, the driver of
the sumo in which we were travelling took the short-cut route to reach the
place. We had to cross a river to reach the place and due to some local bundh
around tezu, the ferries were not operating. So we had to cross through the
river on small boats run on raft sticks I mean poles. Ha ha ha. We reached the
other end of the river and hired a 7 seater. The driver told us that he was
taking us on his own risk and hardly can drop us till landing ground in tezu
which is 4-5kms from the main town. I was seated in the front and literally to
tell the 7 seater looked as if a piece of iron just being in the shape of a 7
seater as it should be pushed to get started and at every push, the radiator
peed the hot water over my feet and the skin got burnt. It was a scorching
sunny day and we had to walk 4-5kms to reach the hotel carrying 30 kgs of
luggage. Face dusted and hair over blown in cargoes being folded over the
knees, we looked like labor. Ha ha ha. And looking at over faces that too in
place where the bundh was in progress, we were inquired by a police about our
belongings and ourselves. We reached the hotel and rested over there. We
chilled that evening however. We came to know that the next day was even a
bandh and the other next day, we travelled to walong. It was a lovely journey
over the roads cutting through the mountains with lush green jungles, streams
and snow caps. A scene from a chopper can be portrayed as a cobra cutting
through a green and white carpet.
Walong.. An overview and an insight towards a tribute:
I did not knew walong being a
place which had importance during the Sino-Indian war of 1962. It the place
from where the Chinese troops tried invading our country after tawang. But
there were not successful in crossing walong due to the strong fight back from
the Indian Army.
About the War:
A war memorial at Walong would
tell us the whole story and will surely bring the images to one’s mind. The
words engraved over the war memorable are that strongly written. A bloodshed
occurred during the sino-indian war in 1962 where the water in the rivers
around walong turned to red from blue indicating the impact of massacre. In
1962, there were no roads that connected walong and kibito from tezu (240kms).
The Indian army carried their arms and other artillery using the mules from
tezu crossing hills and fought the war is such a difficult terrain. The Chinese
troops couldn’t move beyond walong because of the strong hold by the Indian
army. The prestigious times magazine of US wrote stating, “Indian troops lacked everything. The only thing that they did not lacked
was guts”. And thus the counterpart termed this place as the “TigersMouth”. And beyond this place (nearly
7kms from walong) are the Namti Plains. Namti plains actually remembered me of
the Hobbiton (www.hobbitontours.com).
The Awesomeness:
As usual, the place is blessed with
amazing wildlife. Hundreds of golden eagles, blue waters, pines and the tits,
warblers, thrushes etc made us delightful. The raptors soaring along the cliffs
was an amazing sight. The cliffs made me remember of the highlands of Ethiopia
where the mighty geledas are found. Due to heavy downpour and some army issues,
I was not allowed to roam around and there are needs for heavy permissions. The
Dawn Village (nearly 4-6 kms from Walong) was an another delight for me. It is
the place in the country that receive the first sun rays. The Mayor community
around has got some extremely skillful people.
The Return back:
The return back journey was a real
test of patience. After two days of waiting, we got a sumo that was about to
leave to tezu so we bordered it. And before this, the sumo had some wiper
issues. The wiper was repaired and thus the driver accepted us to drop in tezu.
After crossing walong, the wiper got jammed again and we had to drive back to
get it repaired. It was drizzling. We started our travel and tyre of the sumo
got punctured which was repaired later after a massive struggle. We reached
Hayuliang a place 100kms from tezu towards walong. We had our lunch and the
journey started again. Some technical trouble was observed in the sumo which
stopped our journey. So in the middle of night, we had to get another sumo to
drop us back at Hayuliang where we halted in a booth bungalow like hotel that
night and the next day, we reached tinsukia from Hayuliang. And I reached
itanagar from there. The bus even broke down several times that night however.
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