ORANGE FESTIVAL
The slopes are gentler, the forests not as deep, the trees smaller, livestock more plentiful
Our annual Dambuk pilgrimage
HERE’S THE STORY geophysicists narrate about the far-out spot that I’m heading to. Many millions of years ago, the land emerging into my view through the windshield of our cab was at the easternmost edge of a piece of the earth’s crust, that floated over the oceans and collided with another tectonic plate, creating the greatest mountain range in the world. Having the great fortune of being Indian, the Himalayas have stunned most of us at one point or another, but the mountains before me seem different. Milder, as if they took the easy end of the shock in that great event which shot the sea into the sky. They aren’t the strenuous Shivaliks or the solemn snow-capped Greater Himalayas. The slopes are gentler, the forests not as deep and dark, the trees smaller, livestock more plentiful, and the people genial. Where the sun from the flatlands of the East shines an easy orange glow on the rock faces, each morning. They call it Arunachal Pradesh.
Arunachal Pradesh has been seeing a revolution of sorts off late, not in any small measure thanks to its 38-year old, crocsand-bomber-jacket-clad chief minister Pema Khandu. New interest, new money and the need to develop this frontier with the large neighbour has ensured that the land that once remote physically and in terms of the national conscience, is finally coming under the warm shawl of a nation’s culture. Privately organised and wholeheartedly supported by the state authorities, festivals seem to be the way the State is looking to attract new visitors. Unfortunately, all these plusses do not make it easier to get to Dambuk. Fortunately, that’s exactly what makes it fun for anyone who is interested in having an adventure behind the wheel.
Dambuk lies in the valley of the Dibang, a tributary of the Brahmaputra before it reaches its swollen form in Assam. It happens to be the place of birth of senior Arunachalese bureaucrat, Abu Tayeng, who reportedly has a life that resembles a nature show from NatGeo, and who planted orange orchards in the region some twenty years ago. The citrus connect has created
the Orange Festival of Adventure and Music, in its third year running, and that’s where we were headed, as it got pitch dark at 17:30 hours IST. Through its recently launched national TSD rally series, Maruti Suzuki had decided to hold a round of the rally to take place alongside the festival, bringing buckets of interest, action, and all kinds of the-people-cool to the place. JK Tyre has had a long and fruitful association with the event, and was present with their Orange 4x4 Fury – a three-day off-roading event in and around Dambuk – to coincide with the festival.
And of course there was going to be lots of music, each night of the five-day fest. The star attraction was 80s Swedish shredder guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen – an international star whose technical rider ensured a massive stage the organisers had put up, right underneath the mountains. The alt-math-rock madmen from Shillong Sky Level were there, GingerFeet from Kolkata brought the barn down with their energetic funk. Those lovable boys from Bhutan, the Baby Boomers, overdosed the crowds with their sweetness on one of the evenings. Delhi veterans Menwhopause and the Shubhangi Joshi Collective from Mumbai brought in some metro values on stage. Good, good music, great listeners with an instant recognition of a song that was swinging, and most of them were local.
That being said, we weren’t there for the music, but to look at the trials and time-speeddistance tribulations of the participants of the
Maruti Suzuki Indian National Superleague TSD Rally Championship, which shall be hereforth mentioned as NStsdRC. It’s an easy name to get wrong but the idea itself is one that holds surprisingly strong water. The championship has been conceptualised as an entry point into the world of rallying for just about anybody with a car, since it is open to cars of all makes, with or without mods. Besides, it’s an interesting game to be cracked that does not necessitate the god-like driving skills of rally drivers, since TSD is not about going flat-out, but about staying within the bounds set by the organisers – here the great men from Himalayan Motorsport. The shorter overall duration of these TSD events has also been designed to make it easier for amateur enthusiasts to appear, compete and rush back to their day jobs.
The plan was to unleash these competitors over 600km of tarmac, broken roads, gravel, dirt and river beds through two days. And true to its open-armed promise, there were vehicles of all kinds and makes competing. Altos and S-Crosses and few snorkeled Gypsys, Pajeros and Boleros and Accents, even one of those new Isuzu pickups. Many were from Arunachal or Assam, local participants urged on by the organisers, and there were lots of cars carrying HR number plates from Maruti’s headquarters too. The Rally of Arunachal was to be the penultimate round of this year’s NStsdRC, and the straight fight for the championship was supposed to take place between tally leaders Karthick Maruthi and S Sankar Anand, and the team of Sachin Singh and Jagmeet Gill. On the second day, the Southern duo seemed to take some heavy penalties, which took the rally first place to Sachin/Jagmeet.
The Orange Festival itself is an astonishingly daring exercise given the remoteness of Dambuk and anyone expecting a couture experience ought to stay away. It is a place of genuine beauty, simplicity and mildness that must be experienced, and in the big picture it doesn’t quite matter how one gets there. Malmsteen brought in some nut from Nepal who left his hometown with nothing on him, just for the joy of seeing his idol. Motoring brought participants from all over the country, journalists too. It’s just about getting this story going between an ancient, gifted, far-out landmass, and us, who happen to fall within the same country as it is. L
True to its open-armed promise, there were vehicles of all kinds competing at the NStsdRC