On 4th July, we fly to Mahendranagar. The flight was at 12:10. When I talked to people about flight, they use to say, ….. the flight will not be on time so, need to wait longer at the airport. We reached airport one hour before the departure time, completed boarding on time and waited for the flight. While roaming round in the waiting hall, I met one senior, Mr. ……Bhujel (I don’t remember the first name) who is an officer at department of education, Ministry of Education, Government of Nepal. I met Mr. Bhujel about after 8 years. I first met him in Kirtipur while I was studying master’s degree in 2003. One of my uncles who was also preparing Lok Sewa (public service commission) exam, introduced me with Mr. Bhujel. At that time, they were 4 people preparing for the exam. My uncle was living with me in my room. After all of them successfully passing exam, I had a grand party with them in their room. Mr. Bhujel told me that he is also flying to Dhangadi where his team are going to organize district level training for high school teachers.
After about one and half hours flight, we landed at Dhangadi airport, Dhangadi. This was my first time to western Nepal. The temperature outside was about 340C and we were completely sweating. Within a short time we reached 340C from 170C (temperature in Trondheim when we were leaving for Nepal).
We have to go to Mahendranagar where sharmila’s one of the uncle, Mr. Dharma Banjara working. We talked over phone and are going to live with him in his flat. He is working as a branch manager at Nabil Bank, Mahendranagar branch. Accorind to plan, a Jeep from uncle’s office is supposed to drive us from airport to Mahendranagar. We have to wait at the airport until the vehicle arrives and the driver said, it will take one more hour for him to reach airport. Mr. Bhujel and his team left after the vehicle from district education office came to pick up them while I have to wait for ours. At the mean time, I remembered one of my friends during my stay in Kirtipur, Mr. Raju Ojha. He is originally from Dhangadi. I had his mobile number and called him. Luckily he was near by airport and we met.
We talked about ourselves and other things. He told me that one of my colleagues during masters at TU, Mr. KR Bhattarai is now at District Plant Resource Office (Jilla Banaspati Karyalaya). He is an officer at department of plant resources.
After having tea and talking couple of things, the Jeep to Mahendranagar arrived. We left for Mahendranagar. It is about 45 minutes drive from Dhangadi airport to Mahendranagar. One of the bank staff was also in the Jeep. They came to Dhangadi to deposit money from branch office to central bank (Rastra Bank) office in Dhangadi. According to them, they use to come twice a week for such deposit.
We reached uncle’s office at about 15:30. Uncle and aunty were waiting us outside the bank. They were so excited to see us.
After banking hours, we had short tour to city. At the same time I have to buy ticket to Jammu, India. I was looking for ticket in a train which I could not book from Trondheim. Uncle called many people whom he knew and are booking tickets in Indian rails but all went vain after I knew that all the seats are full even there is a long queue of Tatkal (emergency) ticket.
The locals instead suggested us to hire a Jeep. The driving distance from Mahendranagar to Kashmir is more than 1000 Km. So, I was wondering about hiring a Jeep and the time it might take. At the same time, I have to find a driver who is very honest and good in driving because I have to bring back samples after field work and the Indian authority might create problem to bring those samples. So, I have to find an Indian driver who is honest, good in driving such that Indian authority will not create problem on us.
The locals suggested us a driver Banbarilal, who is originally from Banbasa, a small village near by Nepal boarder, has a good contact with locals in Mahendranagar, drives a Jeep owned by Nepali and has an Indian number plate. He is very fluent in Nepal also. I talked with the driver and he agreed to drive us to Kashmir and at the same time the price was affordable.
So, we decided to leave for Kashmir tomorrow at 6:00 AM because the Nepal-India boarder opens twice a day: from 07:00 to 11:00 AM and from 18:00 to 19:00 PM. So, we have to cross boarder after 07:00AM.
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