I had always tried to speak to the river from my sub-conscious mind as I had stayed in Patna, and now was the time to say a temporary ‘Good-Bye for now’.

As I crossed the Ganga and started moving on the route to Muzaffarpur, I had no vague idea of what was awaiting me ahead in Bagaha. I was not very clear even about the routes of the destination that I had been asked to move overnight. My driver and bodyguard from Patna were accompanying me on the overnight journey and were also not quite familiar with the route to be taken. There was some confusion at a cross-junction in Muzzafarpur due to which we took the wrong route and traversed about 50 kms on the wrong highway before realizing the faux pas. We then decided to take the route though village roads to reach Chakia on the highway to Motihari instead of returning back to Muzzafarpur to take the proper and regular route to Motihari. But this again was an ill conceived decision as we realized later when we were moving through different villages in the dark and foggy cold night trying to find ways to reach Chakia, without anyone awake to guide. 

I reached Bettiah at about 9 am and met my old mate from IIT Kanpur Days in the Circuit house for breakfast. Bagaha was still 65 kms away and the road ahead had seemingly not been repaired for almost the last 15 years. It was then that I noticed the TV in the room flashing the news of my transfer. Another major incident that morning had been the capsizing of the rail overhead bridge called Ultapul in Bhagalpur under which some bogies of a train had been damaged.

To be continued...