Finally, it was decided that we would sing 'Hum Honge Kamiyab', as we thought that at least this was a song they might know.

Just as we were about to lend our voices to the song, we heard 5 gunshots fired in the air, very quickly, one after another. We later realized that this was a warning; some of the people up ahead had tried to move forward.

Boom! There was a huge sound and something exploded on our left. Without a second thought, the entire crowd that had gathered turned around and fled.

We weren't sure what it was- was it a small bomb? As we were thinking that, three more of the same exploded near the fleeing crowd, one of them straight ahead of me, in the middle of the only path there was to run.

And then we knew what it was. Tear gas. Not having any other option, all of us ran straight through the cloud of smoke. People around us were toppling over and recovering. Some small children in the crowds grabbed our hands and we ran together.

All of us ran as fast as we could. We arrived at our cars, shivering and sobbing with pain, with shock and the sting of the tear gas in our eyes and face.

We all piled into the waiting cars and left. We found out later that the Meira Paibis could not regroup again that night. No one had gotten hurt.

Tear gas is supposedly harmless. It is commonly used in riot control situations by the police and army, and is said to have no side effects. The gas is a chemical compound that causes painful stinging in the eyes, making it difficult to keep them open.

The people of the North East have lived with tear gas for 50 years. While we were shivering with the effects of the gas, I remember asking for water.

I was told by some experienced protesters, not to use water, as that intensifies the sting. They told me to rub onion on my stings instead. Bizarre isn't it, that you would rub onions into your eyes to get rid of a sting.

But for some reason, the onion neutralizes the effect of the tear gas. We weren't carrying any onions on us, so we suffered it out for a good 20 minutes, after which the sting simply died away.

We made it to our hotel, and exhausted went to bed. We were both thrilled and shook up by our experience of the night. Lying in the hotel room that night, I tried to think about what was going through my head as I ran from the shells that were being dropped on us.

It wasn't fear, it wasn't pain, and it wasn't just anger.

It was a queer mixture of all three things, combined with the bizarre feeling of being in a war movie, with people screaming and running around me, torches burning, shells exploding, gunshots, and a dark night in the middle of nowhere.

1 tried to think of what my parents would say, what my brother did say (I had called him and couldn't help telling him), I thought about the people who live with this every day of their lives, the ones who had told me about the onions, I thought of their struggle and their cause, and about why do people do this to each other, what could be so precious that to protect it you would sacrifice lives and the peace of mind of an entire nation.... I'm not sure when I drifted to sleep.

We woke up early and jumped out of bed. It was our last day and we had only a few precious hours left before our 2:30 pm flight home. We packed up, ate breakfast, settled our accounts and left for the market. By now we knew the way to Ima Market well.

So we decided to walk and even took the short cut to enter the market. We shopped and shopped and shopped. Then we said goodbye to all the familiar faces, and left.

At the airport, after a very tough security check, we wanted to take one last photograph of the hills. But as soon as I pulled out my camera, I was strictly told that I could not take any pictures here.

So we boarded the plane. But I couldn't resist it. I took one last picture of the hills that eluded us still, from the window of my plane, with two layers of fortified glass defiantly standing between us.

Note from the author:
I chose to call this travelogue 'Timeless in Imphal' for a very simple reason. My prepaid Airtel connection didn't work there, and I didn't have a watch. So with no phone and no watch, I was literally 'timeless'.

Also, for all practical purposes, Imphal is a different timezone! According to IST, the sun rises at 4 am, and the day's activities start with the rising sun. It sets at 6 pm, and everyone eats dinner by 6:30 pm and goes to bed.

For us it was not advisable to step out after sunset in any case. So we were pretty 'jetlagged' when we returned. And had completely lost track of days, dates, events....

Concluded.....

Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5