Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 F I R S T M O O N 06after dawn; an hour or two in limbo looking for transport to the border;then a sudden scramble onto an old biscuit tin of a bus with Nick shovinga grease-sodden newspaper bag of vegetable mush and puris, smallfried breads, into my hands. At the border there was more waiting. Buta pilgrim’s duty is to be patient, fanatically patient. And so one entersthe waiting realm, a place around which irritation and the frustratedpossibility of action continually flicker but do not burn. If you can willinglysurrender yourself to that fire and go beyond hope, the gods saluteyou: men in uniforms whose sole purpose seems to be to ask obtuse andpointless questions about the purpose of your visit and have you hangaround in fly-blown offices filling in forms will gradually metamorphose.The supreme dharma of patience melts official formalities, andglasses of sweet tea are produced. With smiles, intimate recollectionsand archaic courtesies, after hours, one has passed the test. The passportis stamped and returned: you can move on.N I C KReally there didn’t seem to be much difference between Nepal and India,at least when it came to the border town of Sonauli. Both sides had adusty street lined with shops selling food and not doing much business.Both sides had the same slightly shifty-looking characters who tried toget you to change money, and on both I could see through gaps in therow of buildings to a flat land of rice paddies with no obvious borderwhere the two countries met. The crossing consisted simply of tworaised barriers each with an empty sentry box and each with a queue ofwaiting Indian lorries. The immigration official on the Nepalese side atleast looked Nepalese, a man from the mountains, shorter, squatter,with a slight Mongolian look, and a friendly open face. Everyone else onthe Nepalese side looked Indian, and they passed unheeded back andforth across the border. It all made the actual border post seem a bit surreal,like something set up for a Hollywood movie.3 2