PHIDIM: No one travelling by the passenger bus -- Me 1 Kha 575 bound for Kabeli from Birtamod -- had imagined that their fellow traveller, Arjun Tamling, would die en route for no perceptible cause. A resident of Sablakhu in Taplejung, who had got a ticket for Ganeshchowk in Panchthar, breathed his last at Pauwasartap, which fellow passengers could notice only after a while.

According to Devi Kumar Limbu, who shared the seat with the dead, Arjun was in good health as far as Ranke. "It was beyond my imagination that he would die in the midst of my talking to him. When the bus moved toward Gumbadanda from Rankebazar, he stopped talking. I did not call him supposing that he was asleep. To our shock, he had died by the time we arrived Pauwabhanjyang," Devi Kumar said

Some passengers got to know about Arjun's sudden death when the co-traveller screamed to inform them about the death. Most of the travellers came to know about the incident only after reaching Phidim, the district headquarters of Panchthar, 30-kilometres away. Two passengers, who were sitting by Arjun, abandoned their seat following the incident.