T

he mottled road

comprised of nicely

tarred sections, pot

holed sections, and bare

sections. This mix bag

of bad and good worried my driver who

bought a new car a few months ago. He

complained that the “all-weather” road

(he smiled) was harsh on his new vehicle.

Wear and tear was high so was the cost

of car maintenance. The ruinous road

would shorten life of the car, his sole

bread earner. He forgot to mention related

irreparable physical damage to the backs

of all the regular occupants. Ironically,

money always clouds our minds first

and forever. We forget indirect medical

expenses caused by the ill-planned roads.

Joys of the money lose its luster when the

mental and physical illness constantly

frustrates the accumulator.

Yet driving in spring had an advantage:

negligible traffic, especially related

to pilgrimage. The annual pilgrimage

season in Uttarakhand starts in May. The

pilgrimage traffic spills on this road for a

pair of reasons. The Badhani Tal, a lake

full of colorful fish, is a side destination for

the pilgrims. Sometimes pilgrims also use

this road to avoid the traffic jams during

the season. So, width of the road was not

a concern. He had no competition from

the fellow drivers as only four-five vehicles

shared the road on Tuesday April 23, 2019.

I did not find any public or private bus on

the road during 8-9 hours trip. The shared

jeeps mainly used by the villagers were

rare.

Beside the road connecting Rudraprayag

town (610m) to Badhani Tal (2,310m), the

plush valley of the Lastar Gad supported

small and big villages on the edges of the

thick forest suitable for a variety of fauna.

Despite all the problems, the motley road

of broken and paved sections is valuable

for the villagers and the visitors because it

takes them to their homes and mountain

destinations respectively. The road did not

offer the mobile network uninterruptedly.

In some sections, the Airtel, BSNL, and

/ or Vodaphone-Idea worked efficiently

and in others, all the networks slept like

logs. For example, mobile went silent in

Badhani village where the lake sits.

Joys of the money lose its luster

when the mental and physical illness

constantly frustrates the accumulator.

62
Volume 4, Issue 1 | June 2019