Kumaoni Recce

Our hill transport revolution was triggered by the Chinese threat of 1962. Prior to that you walked or hired pack animals. Then overnight, roads for strategic purposes appeared, plied by the daily Kumaon or Garhwal Motor Owners bus whose driver would deliver you to your doorstep miles off his root route if he discovered an affinity with his "upper" passenger. (You were warned sternly neither to fall asleep in the front seat nor to stick your feet out of the window!) Feeder services saw the emergence of the tearaway Government Roadways buses whose drivers drove like the clappers and made realistic such trunk route possibilities as a daily bus between Delhi and Dharchula. And recently, thanks to bank loans, every hill parav (halting place) is blessed with local taxis hypothecated to unemployed graduates who will bounce you into the interior, squeezed hard against the neighbourhood goats and chickens.