Ten Lost Tribes Challenge - India: Stories from the bus

From Nagaland we head south into the state of Manipur, bordered on the east by Burma. We enter Manipur at the Mao border crossing. It takes about 3 hours to drive 25km on these roads, which are incredibly bumpy and windy. We're heading towards Imphal, the capital of Manipur state. Manipur is crossed by a large mountain range and we're heading down it towards the lowlands.

We drive past forests and rice terraces [our guide says that if we are not used to eating a lot of rice, we'll get some stomach problems, but that some chocolate helps]. Manipur was described by India's first prime minister as the Jewel in India's crown because of its beauty. It is filled with mountains, forests and rivers. Just in case I haven't mentioned it before, there are 21 people on this expedition - eight men with their wives, three men who left their wives at home, a single woman and me.

This is a no-frills expedition; really it is quite challenging and demanding. We're not staying at fancy hotels [there are none], we're traveling in a local, simple bus [anything else would break down and shatter on these roads] and we're packing a lot of events in. What's great about it is that nobody in the group complains about anything, so un-Israeli. Through everything they sing and tell stories from Jewish history and Israeli battles from 1948 onwards; and pass around food. By the way, all the food we're eating here is prepared for us locally by Bnei Menashe from Shavei Israel and is kosher. Shai Bar Ilan tours did bring some things over from Israel like pastas, rice, jam and other things. During breakfast we make ourselves sandwiches to take with us for lunch. I don't see how any Western traveler not used to the way food is prepared and consumed here can survive this place without serious hospital time. Kosher is quite a smart way to travel India.

This is not anything like an organized tour to an exotic location with all the comforts. We're getting jolted on our trips in the bus. Jolted is an understatement, a joke of a word really for the violence the road is performing on our bus. And the bus is taking it out on us. I don't know how none of us have broken any limbs or ruptured internal organs. We're constantly driving into holes in the road and are flown up in our seats when we go over bumps. It's like everybody in the bus is undergoing an extremely violent exorcism, and the demons inside of us are putting up a hell of a fight.

Israel, the photographer, who is just as optimistic as the rest of the group, says that if you sit up straight in your seat, then the jolting is actually good for your back. According to him, the constant moving creates space between your muscles and the vertebrae. Not everyone on the bus agrees with this theory. Arms and legs are being flung everywhere, but that doesn't stop one of the women from knitting - its incredible how she manages. Yaffa, a former teacher and headmaster and who now works at the Education Ministry, has managed to fall asleep! Only someone who has taught in Israeli schools for 37 years could pull that off.  Also it sounds like an exorcism in here with all the groaning, moaning, and occasional screams. It's quite a sight to see 12 kippa-covered heads bobbing and bouncing in front of you [I'm sitting towards the back of the bus.] During trips in our bus, even I join in the tfilat ha derech [prayer for the traveler]!

My handwriting on my notepad looks like I'm also going through a violent exorcism. I wish you could see my notes. During a slow turn the words form almost normally but as soon as we drive straight into holes and over bumps and just generally shaking the my pen jabs at the page, lines stretch for centimeters, jarred words look grotesque and incomprehensible, tight together, under, over, and through each other. They look like words written by someone undergoing shock therapy, and my notepad looks like it belongs to a schizophrenic, or a violent man. Like Mr. Hyde's notebook. But like a man obsessed, I cannot put the notepad down. Since I arrived my mind has been racing, I'm picking up so much information and I don't want to lose it. 

Passing a small village on the way to Inphal, I am reminded that this region is quite Christian. We drive past Levi's Pharmacy and Ebenezer Computers, and Mt. Zion elementary school. There are many references to Zion in Manipur. 

We pass a gas station sign: We wish you a very long and happy drive.

PREVIOUS ENTRIES:

• The plot thickens - Nov 20,2008
• Under my purple shawl - Nov 20, 2008
• So how many Bnei Menashe are there? - Nov 19, 2008
• Ben Hur loves Zion: Inside the home of a Bnei Menashe - Nov 19,2008
• How did a small tribe from Samaria get all the way out here? - Nov 18, 2008
• Conversation with a Bnei Menashe tribesman - Nov 18, 2008
• Indian airports spell chaos - Nov 18, 2008
• News from Amman - the first stop en route to India - Nov 17, 2008
• Dreams of reunification and travel preparations - Nov 16, 2008
• Meeting the lost tribe of Menashe - Nov 16, 2008
• Government approves aliya of 150 Bnei Menashe - Nov. 12, 2008