Heart to Heart

  Jamshedpur diary                                                                                 With the newlyweds  For those of us northerners ensconced in the hills and vales of Himachal, and accustomed to making occasional sorties to Chandigarh, Punjab or Delhi, the prospect of a travel to the northeast evokes a sense of eager anticipation. My maiden October-end Jamshedpur trip (for a wedding though) felt quite so, even if tad less exciting than, say, travelling to the pristine and remoter Meghalaya or Arunachal Pradesh.   A 4-lane highway (NH 43) cuts through the terrain between Ranchi and Jamshedpur. On either side are vast vistas of paddy fields to soothe your weary eyes, being cradled by mother nature to yield a bountiful harvest for the Jharkhand’s Adivasi-kisaans.  Far beyond these fields, at frequent intervals, a graceful curve and arc of a hill juts into view. Clad in dark green canopy of sals, mahuas, bamboos and a lot many other trees, these hills seem to be watching th

  Trip to Kullu                                                The Chandra, Lahaul In the first week of October, while nymphet autumn, with a sunny but shy grin, was wrapping my Palampur valley in its ruddy pristine charm, we – the ageing duo of husband and wife – set off to the  apple-valley Kullu for a wedding.   The NHAI, past Mandi, has made travel easy. But at what terrible  cost – both financially and ecologically – is not hard to fathom. However, the winding kilometers  between Joginder Nagar to Mandi continue to be a pain in the arse. Abandoned, neglected, forsaken,  and left to the mercy of the gods and weather, this pitiable road-stretch seems like no one’s baby; a  poor  orphan. Despite the widening, and new state-of-the-art tunnels that make the famous Atal tunnel pale in comparison, the massive landslides, mountains of debris and ugly gashes on the pristine hill slopes tell their own story: A sad tale of greed, corruption, and bribes from bottom to the top. A grim story