You will like some & don’t like some (4)…

My 1st Escort!
Any sign board which reads “Vehicle drivers be alert! Vehicle lifters can away vehicles using drugs & pistols!!” on a red background is def not a great sign to read in no-mans land! The stretch between Jorhat & Nagaland border is where I came across this sign board. Shall I say, I wasn’t nervous, but def was on the look out for any kinda trouble. 40-50 kms from the Naga border, I saw few jeeps & buses lined up; I see a check post & the traffic had been halted. Upon enquiry at the gate, I was told that I had to wait to catch an escort of army jeeps to take me from here to the border of Nagaland. The sad part was that I had missed the one in the afternoon & had to wait for another 3 hours for the next one.

The 2 jeeps had some devotees in them; 10 mins later the guard let the 2 jeeps go with another jeep carrying armed jawans to some temple (15kms away, off the main road) in between. He suggested that I could go with them & then head off towards Nagaland all by myself. I thought this would be good instead of a wait for 3 hours. So I took off behind the jeep with devotees. In some time he exited the Main road & headed towards the temple. I followed him throughout & then stopped in front of the temple to ask the jawans if it was ok for me to continue; for my bad luck they suggested otherwise & asked me to get back to the check post. I was so pissed at the sentry back at the check post. I followed theses guys back; couple of kms later, far away we could see 2 massive army vans going towards the border, the guy sitting at the back of the jeep shouted at me & showed me the oncoming vans & hinted at me to follow them.

Without thinking much, I slowed down; waited for the vans to pass me & I immediately turned around (towards Nagaland) & followed them. There was no way I wanted to be left out at the back, so I overtook the 2nd van & got myself comfortable between them. For the next “howmanysoever” kms I had my own unofficial escort taking me towards the border. We reached the Naga border at the same time & they went through; & I was asked to stop for a regular check for identification & ILP.

It was awesome 45 min ride; riding stuck in between the 2 army vans & also tried to do some stunt taking a picture in one hand. Ask me for the snap.