Panipat in Hariyana (famous for the three battles)

30.4.2011

We are staying at Panipat tonight.

Three great battles were fought here. No trace of them remains now. It is a dusty, rickety town of a few very rich and mostly very poor people. It is also a town of perennial power cuts and countless country liquor shops.

Here youngsters, wearing ear rings and Reebok shirts, ride Royal Enfield bikes. But they first remove the original silencer pipes and replace them with Patiala-made ones, which sound like defective stone crushing machines. They feel proud of the sound.

Once again we are facing the typical question: “How much does your trip cost?” They are just not interested in knowing where we visited and which places we liked most. They don’t waste time asking silly questions.

Young women are hardly seen in the streets. When they appear, they wrap their faces in a manner Arab guerillas used to do once.

In our hotel, we have to ask five times on an average for a bottle of water. The hotel owner is going to Australia tomorrow.

Panipat is 100 kms from our national capital and within the NCR region.

Panipat is in the state of Hariyana.

Our plan was to go to Delhi today. We had started early. But when we stopped at a place called Karnal to adjust our baggage, the bike toppled and the wire of the ampere meter snapped. We were relieved to find a Royal Enfield showroom less 500 m away. But the great mechanic took seven hours (10.30 am to 5.30 pm) to fix it.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow. Anything can happen here. Anything.

I hope to catch some sleep tonight, which I really need. But our room is full of fleas and I am yet to get used to such power cuts. Pat is trying to kill the fleas with his toothbrush cover. He is doing a great job. Actually.