Jeep ride—a real village experience: Suspa Chhemawati
Through social networks and a series of chance encounters we found ourselves, one day, in a private Jeep driving down a stupendously bumpy and muddy road with the headmaster of a private school in Charikot. He had brought us here to experience a real “village road”. We braced ourselves against the jolts and rocking of the vehicle and twice were stuck for more than several minutes in deep mud. Extricate ourselves required a patient process of reversing and then surging forward with the Jeep’s 4 wheel drive straining audibly. The road, with all its flaws, was funded by the people living on and around it, built for the purpose of better connectivity and in case of emergencies. We were interested at the time by the notable lack of vehicles owned by people on this road—who was it actually for? Later we learned about the ubiquity of privatized Jeep services that develop to serve these communities. Indeed, for larger roads, these Jeep routes can become more or less daily routines, sometimes with drivers and residents forming close ties over years of service. In such cases the Jeeps become a vital part of the infrastructure, enabling the circulations of people, things and information between more distant villages and larger roadside market towns.