JAMMU TO PATHANKOT BY TRUCK
Well, before I proceed further with the current write-up, I have recollected an interesting incident, worth sharing, that happened in the year 1958, on Jammu-Pathankot National Highway.
Until sixties, access to J and K State was allowed only on a permit and the permit so obtained was used to be thoroughly checked and stamped at Lakhanpur Barrier either way.
Chacha Udham Chand had asked Dadi to come over to Jammu for a change. Along with Dadi and Bhen Swarno, I also accompanied them on a time bound permit. After having stayed at Jammu for about a month, Dadi and Swarno Behan returned to Pathankot while I insisted to stay back.
I had not sufficient clothes with me and, therefore, I used to wear Ashok's clothes. Chachaji was very kind and he noticed this. One day he took us both to a very big cloth show room in Raghunath Bazar and bought for us similar blazer, black trousers and white shirts. We were also given a pair of leather shoes each with socks.
After a week or so, we both Ashok and myself, were to leave for Pathankot but we did not have the permit. Chachaji asked someone in his office to arrange for our travel to Pathankot in one of the trucks going to Pathankot loaded with wooden sleepers.
The other day, a person came and took both of us to truck union office. He asked a truck driver to take both of us to Pathankot in his truck. We were asked to sit besides the driver in his cabin. When the truck reached short of two kilometers of Lakhanpur Barrier, the driver stopped the truck on the road side and asked us to get out of the cabin and climb up on the cabin roof from outside. We did so. The driver also came up and asked us to lie down in the pit.
Until sixties, access to J and K State was allowed only on a permit and the permit so obtained was used to be thoroughly checked and stamped at Lakhanpur Barrier either way.
Chacha Udham Chand had asked Dadi to come over to Jammu for a change. Along with Dadi and Bhen Swarno, I also accompanied them on a time bound permit. After having stayed at Jammu for about a month, Dadi and Swarno Behan returned to Pathankot while I insisted to stay back.
I had not sufficient clothes with me and, therefore, I used to wear Ashok's clothes. Chachaji was very kind and he noticed this. One day he took us both to a very big cloth show room in Raghunath Bazar and bought for us similar blazer, black trousers and white shirts. We were also given a pair of leather shoes each with socks.
After a week or so, we both Ashok and myself, were to leave for Pathankot but we did not have the permit. Chachaji asked someone in his office to arrange for our travel to Pathankot in one of the trucks going to Pathankot loaded with wooden sleepers.
The other day, a person came and took both of us to truck union office. He asked a truck driver to take both of us to Pathankot in his truck. We were asked to sit besides the driver in his cabin. When the truck reached short of two kilometers of Lakhanpur Barrier, the driver stopped the truck on the road side and asked us to get out of the cabin and climb up on the cabin roof from outside. We did so. The driver also came up and asked us to lie down in the pit.
The pit was full of coal dust. First we hesitated but there was no other option. We had worn our new clothes, black trousers and white shirts. What a pity! We laid down in the pit like obedient children and the driver covered us from all the sides with a torn, dirty, full of micro dust and heavy tarpaulin as if we were not human beings but a commodity. The driver also instructed us not to move even slightly until the Lakhanpur Barrier is crossed.
When we alighted from the truck at the truck union office at Pathankot, everyone and anyone who saw us, burst into laughter as our black trousers had turned white and white shirts black, faces blacken and the hair shooting towards sky from all sides. We felt extremely embarrassed and reached at the verge of crying for our new clothes! We stayed back in the union office answering queries of people and waiting for the night. When the night fell, hiding we ran fast and reached home like frustrated silly fools!
When we alighted from the truck at the truck union office at Pathankot, everyone and anyone who saw us, burst into laughter as our black trousers had turned white and white shirts black, faces blacken and the hair shooting towards sky from all sides. We felt extremely embarrassed and reached at the verge of crying for our new clothes! We stayed back in the union office answering queries of people and waiting for the night. When the night fell, hiding we ran fast and reached home like frustrated silly fools!
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