Words : Shahwar Hussain
Photos: Anuj Singh
The sky had promised rain since dawn and when the clouds opened up in the afternoon, the rain came in
thick and hard. Big blobs of rain stung my face through the visorless helmet, forcing me to take shelter in
a shed by the side of the road. In Nagaland, you will find sheds like these all over. They are meant for the
villagers who have to walk very long distances to get to the nearest town.
There were a few old men in the shed waiting for the rain to stop so that they can carry on home. But the
rain didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon and a man got a fire going. He put a piece of
bamboo in the fire with water and tea leaf inside and let it boil. I got talking with them as the man poured
strong black tea in a bamboo mug for me and offered me a handrolled cigarette. The man who spoke the
least, said the most interesting thing which set my mind racing. As I strapped on my helmet when the sky
held, the drone of an aircraft drifted down to us from afar. He looked heavenwards and said... “I hope this
won’t fall like the plane in the jungle...” My helmet came off in a flash and I said “plane in the jungle??”
he said he once saw the remains of an airplane in the jungles many years back.
An airplane in the jungles!! He pointed to the blue mountains yonder and said it lay beyond the third
range of mountains. Vague, but I will trace it out I thought.
Tracing it out was easier said than done. It took the jungle 9 long years to share its secret with me. I got
to know that the remains of the airplane lay scattered over a large area under the jurisdiction of a new
village named Tsurevong.
Public transport in Nagaland is not the best in the country and we didn’t want to be at its mercy. So, my
photographer friend, Anuj and I decided that motorcycle was the best way to travel to these far flung
villages where you can see life in all its rustic glory.