"Stay Safe" The new greeting!

The term "Stay Safe" has become a common greeting in these troubled COVID 19 times, replacing others greetings like Good Bye or Best Regards.

This took me back to the 1990's when I worked in Nagaland, often called The Far Corner of India. There, the greeting as you leave on a journey near or far is "Safe Journey"

Though not the most remote in terms of accessibility to mainland India (Tripura and Mizoram are far more inaccessible), there is a certain mystic aura surrounding Naga people that keeps people from India venturing there. And the people there also seem to like it being that way. Add to it the hassles of obtaining an Inner Line Permit and the trouble of having to carry ID papers and ILP on you all the time.

But the reason for the parting greeting of "Safe Journey" is because of the treacherous stretches of road on many routes, where a road could simply slip down the valley and vanish right before your eyes. A thundershower, and a swelling stream can do it. Only when one sees it happen will one marvel at the kinetic energy present in water. GREF (Border Roads Organisation) Teams know these vulnerable stretches and park bulldozers at strategic locations to clear the roads ASAP. It is often not one of clearing the debris, but cutting into the hillock to form the road afresh. The locals are so used to such occurrences, that passengers are dropped off at the point where the landslide occurred, from where we trek with our luggage through the hillock in the slush (the soil there being clayey) and flowing water. to find a taxi or bus waiting on the other side, ready to take you on the onward journey.

Another reason for wishing you a "Safe Journey" is to wish you safety from being caught in the crossfire between the Army and the Underground, another ever present hazard.

Only after completing my tenure there and returning to the Mainland do I now wonder, how did I make it out of there?

Here's wishing all of you "Stay Safe".