Dileep Muktan pulled over his car at Bhalukpong, where soldiers watched over every vehicle entering Arunachal Pradesh. After the driver entered his name and car number in the register, the army clerk inspected our inner-line permits. All clean. Two shops farther, a liquor shop awaits us. Arunachal Pradesh was the cheapest of all our destinations, when it came to foreign liquor. But what bowled us over was the ingenious brew called rakshi, lower in price but higher in spirit. After chasing a bus which left us at a roadside dhaba in Orang and fleeing from a group of rickshahwallahs in Tezpur last night, we terribly needed a drink. We fix it in the speeding car, reminiscing our nocturnal adventure. We were sipping lal tea (black tea) at the dhaba when the conductor smiled at us and
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