Silkuri

Alternative names for this story could have been : "Double breakdown in Silchar" or "Life on a green campus". You choose ! Events are sometimes hard to sum up, given the diversity and peculiarities of travel encounters...
- - -
Early morning, I leave the Bengali family, wave goodbye to Chukriya, and start cycling towards Silchar. Still without a phone.
Like often, I hear a voice calling "Hello, hello" from the side. I am preparing myself either to ignore the person or to grump back a laconic "hello"... But looking at the guy, I'm surprised. A real cyclist (and a good looking one ;)) ! With a helmet and a "modern" bicycle, he is cycling fast, apparently for a long ride. First time I see someone like this on nepali or indian roads. I usually never engage into conversations with cyclists beause they ride slow. Sometimes children race me for a few minutes, which is quite funny, but they soon forfeit : they usually dont venture very far from home.
But here is this young man, polite, handsome, who speaks English well and asks more diverse questions than the usual "where are you from"/ "where are you going"/ "are you single". And who also has many things to say about himself. He thus tells me that he trains because he wants to climb Mount Everest. Nice ! He goes out 2 or 3 times a week for 100 km rides, as fast as he can. He understands why I'm sometimes fed up with the unwanted attention, because he also receives many comments on his way ! People for instance make fun of him just because he wears a helmet...

I tell him about my worries : the broken phone, my fear of not being able to repair it in Silchar, of not finding my couchsurfing host, etc. He offers to help. So here we go, cycling side by side for 30 km ! I have never cycled so fast during this trip. I realise that It's actually fun and motivating to cycle with someone.
Through him I discover that it has been 2 days that Silchar and the surrounding area suffer an Internet breakdown, set up by the government in the aftermath of some Hindu-Mulsim tensions in a nearby village... Not something the Bengali Muslim family mentioned, even though I was telling them about my phone issues.
Anyway... Once in Silchar, "Angel Gabriel", as I am calling him in my mind, directs me to an internet cafe, where we are hoping to get data. But everything is down. We then go to a mobile repair shop. Our cycling duo is warmly welcomed by the bengali shop keepers. I am being offered a cold coffee can (Nescafe is adapting its products according to the temperature !). In India, Internet can be down for many days and it can be a hassle to know when a train is coming (cf the 8 hours of delay of my Siliguri-Guwahati train...).. but Bengali guys can fix a destroyed phone in half an hour, not even in their own shop. Incredible India ! They are very proud of having helped. Selfie time.
Gabriel wants to get back home and does not like eating while cycling so he declines my invitation for lunch. Another selfie time, to wave goodbye.
I have a delicious meal at ISKCON Temple (International society for Krishna Consciousness, a hindu sect decidated to Krishna, that seduced many foreigners thanks to his guru preaching in NYC . They always serve good food - a good tip for travelers in India !). Then I ride 8/10 km to reach my next couchsurfing destination: Silchar NIT, a high-level technical university where abouts 4000 students live on a vast green out-of-town campus. Professor Avishek comes to play his part. He is a very affable, gentle and litterate guy, a professor in "English cultural studies" and wrote his thesis on... The images and representations of "errants" (vagabonds) in India". Haha. Coincidence? Both easy going and caring, he is also a delicious cook. I have a separate room and can wander around and relax in this huge green campus, remote from the hustle and bustle of city life. No surprises I end up spending 2 nights instead of one here ! I use this quiet time to ask for my Burmese visa, sort out administrative issues, read, eat his tasty meals, etc. Neha, a PHD student under the conduct of Avishek, shares dinners with us. She is writing her thesis on the map of urban mobility through uber data in Kolkata. Haha again. Coincidence? She is also very keen on explaining the intricacies of indian politics and discussing many other society and religious issues. Good moments.
But after one and a half days of this good treatment, for both my stomach and mind, I have to keep on going. I am getting well prepared (I even cooked 1kg on Ratatouille to take away), because the next urban destination, Imphal, is be in 260 km, which means 4 cycling days. In between: bumby roads, hills, and...the jungle.

PS : Internet eventually came back on my departure day. This means that the whole area did not have internet for 4 days. Afterwards, i could find NO news at all on what happened. Only mouth to ear rumors. I found it incredible and shameful for the Indian press, but my host & Neha did not seem to be surprised. Strange democracy.Read more