Monday, 18th October 2008
Manipur, on the border of India and ChinaBalan climbed out of the helicopter wearing a thick bearskin hat pulled down over his ears and a thick overcoat to protect him from the sleet and biting cold wind. They had landed along the northernmost border of India, close to Nepal at the foot of the Himalayas. With two armed guards following closely in attendance, he jumped briskly into the grey darkness below the rotating blades. Looking up briefly into the howling wind, he saw the blurred vision of a train carriage standing forty yards ahead of him. Memorizing his course, he put his head down into the collar of his overcoat and trudged forward.
It was an old-fashioned wide-gauge train and, wiping his eyes with his gloves, he climbed up the metal plates at the end of
