Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 F R I E N D S H I P 06River, and heading for the city of Muzaffarpur in Bihar. There was analternative, though. In very small writing on the old map I had with mewas the word “ferry” and it was on a part of the river that is to the eastof where we now were. If we could cross there we would be able to visittwo other Buddhist sites, Lauriya Nandangar and Lauriya Areraj. Bothhad pillars that had been erected by the great Buddhist emperor Ashoka,and Lauriya Nandangar also had a large Buddhist stupa. It would alsomean that we could then follow the river south instead of the road, andrivers usually meant lots of wildlife.We reached Tamkuhi around five. It was a small town that had grownup along the trunk road. The road was the main street and was linedwith transport cafes, stalls selling snacks and fruit, figures squatting onthe ground behind small piles of produce, and lots of people millingabout. The small road we were looking for led off to the north and onits corner was a tea shop with a group of young men sitting outside. Westopped for tea and to ask the way. The young men spoke English butwere hazy about whether we could go to Bettiah, a town on the otherside of the Gandak, this way. So I got them to ask the people in the crowdthat had gathered about us. Their question, in the local dialect, set offan animated discussion with one old chap seeming particularly agitated.“This old man says there is a ferry this way.” The old man nodded andgave us a betel-juice grin.As we walked on some of the young men joined us, walking abreast,and started asking questions about our journey. They were wearing thestandard Indian version of Western dress: black shoes, black nylontrousers, and a white short-sleeve shirt with a pen in the pocket. Everyyoung educated Indian male we met was dressed that way; the only variationI ever spotted was in the quality of the pen and whether they hada wristwatch. Our new companions had proper fountain pens, not ballpoints,and they all had good-looking watches, so they must be frombetter-off families. After a while one of them suggested that we couldstay at his house. We were reluctant but he was a nice lad with an open1 0 7