Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 T H I R D M O O N 06I had learned to look for these long-distance lorries when I was after alift. They were slightly bigger and more important than the other lorries,and on them the painted designs, which cover all Indian lorries,were always Sikh. The Sikh spear symbol was on either side of the companyname above the windscreen. The Sikhs seem to run much of thebig merchant business in India. That, combined with their affinity forthings mechanical, had allowed them to corner the long-distance transportbusiness. Those lorries were a great way to travel. Sitting with thecrew of driver, co-driver, and a boy who would be out at each stop cleaningthe windscreen, we would thunder across India, stopping only formeals at Sikh transport cafes. The lorries did not go that fast, maybefifty miles per hour at the most, but they would drive them all day andthen all night while I slept above the cab with one of the drivers on thetwo rope beds, under the rocking stars.The same lorries rumbled by us as we made our way along a straightroad rising slowly to the bridge. The Indian government is proud of thisbridge, which, to cope with the Ganges in full flood, is one of the longestin the world. We had seen it mentioned as one of the highlights of Biharin a tourist brochure. For us though it was the famous river that wasimportant, and we had decided to have a little ceremony to acknowledgethe crossing. However, we were very tired, and as we had beenwalking since early that morning without breakfast, we were also gettingboth hungry and weak. Once on the bridge we seemed to cross forages with no sight of the river, over miles of cultivated land that presumablybecame river during the monsoon. The bridge just went on andon, and we got more and more tired. Finally sand banks appeared belowus, and there, at last, was the Ganges, even bigger than the Gandak, andeven more full of silt.Looking down from the bridge as we walked out over the river, Iwatched men filling four sailing junks with river silt from the bank: carryingit in baskets on their heads as they walked up planks to tip it intothe holds. I was wondering where it was going (I have since discovered1 7 4