Just for kicks - I

What will happen when you don't like sitting at home and road seems to your best friend? You think of driving for really long.................. and sing with Metallica "and the road becomes my bride". It was a long time desire that I wanted to drive to Delhi and being in Hyderabad was a perfect opportunity to do that. It was not a comfortable or safe choice but it was a exciting one. This meant that I had to plan as I never drove for so long, there were only handful of people who did this and I didn't come across anyone who did it alone.

Alone was a catch here and a potential jeopardizer. This meant that all information has to be there with me before I hit the road. Diwali, was around the corner Nov 1st 2005, and weather was perfect. Somehow October looked to be the best time to do this, it was not hot, it was not raining and winters haven't hit northern India yet. So timing was fixed, end of October, 28th to be exact as it was a Friday, which meant that I should be in Delhi by Sunday.

Phase of collecting information started, there was guy in office who travelled a lot by road so he was the best person to ask for planning. He suggested night stay in Nagpur and then may be one more stop and I should be in Delhi on third day. He also promised me a map too, which was very important in deciding route. But I think maps in India are not printed keeping road travellers in mind, direction and highways are ok but the size of thing is so huge that you have to pull over, open the map and then check if you are going in right direction. So there were two alternative from Nagpur, either go via Bhopal (following the train route) or go via Seoni following NH-7. I was told that following NH-7 will 100-150 Kms shorter (which meant a lot in the end). As far tools and equipment goes, I had a good spare tyre, flash light, enough cash and smaller denomination bills, some snacks and water. I also wanted to transport a mattress to Delhi so this was the right time :)

Equipped with all the information and plan I was ready for the drive so I strated talking to few of my friends and most of the conversation went like:
friends: "wow drive to Delhi sounds exciting, lets do it, lets plan for it"
I: "well I am driving on 28th, I have space in car wanna join"
friends:"this 28th??????????"
I: "yes this 28th before Diwali, I want to be in Delhi for Diwali"
friends:"yaar, I already booked my ticket, may be next time"
I: "OK"

One of my friend was dead against my driving (all in good faith) and one of them offered me to travel with him as he had train reservation. All of them were right in their thoughts and I agree with them, it would have been really bad if something might have gone wrong.

But even then sometime desire of doing something is greater than any advice on offer. In my mind it was drive and it is just a road.

With everything going on my mom was not aware of this plan and my friends in Delhi were in for a shock. But I couldn't tell this to anyone in Delhi as it would have transpired into tears and forcing me to not do it.

In office Unicode conversion was in full swing and I gave all the numbers to my team to contact me in case they need anything but didn't want to postpone this.

28th, India was playing Sri Lanka in Mohali, it was a day night match. India thrashed Sri Lanka after scoring 350 runs in previous game. So this one was suppose to be good. I load everything in the car on 27th night and around 11:00 I left my house in Kondapur and started towards Medchal highway. I stopped at ballaji to have breakfast (aalo ke paranthe) and as I pulled out of the restaurant I received a call from Karim (senior developer from Infosys) for some issue and I asked myself should I start this journey or go to office and take a flight on Saturday.

Traffic was very heavy and city drive was terrible. It took me almost 2 hours to hit the highway and as I hit the highway weather changed, clouds taken over the sky, Sun decided to relent and everything looked perfect for a long drive. I felt happy and rolled down the window and tried to tune my radio on my newly fitted MP3 player to listen to match commentary.

So the plan was to stop at Nagpur for 28th night, start around 4 AM from there and reach Gwalior before sunset, rest there for 29th night and reach Delhi in day on 30th. Route was:
Hyderabad (NH7) - Adilabad - Nagpur - Seoni - Lakhandon - Narsimhapur - Sagar (NH26) - Lalitpur - Jhansi - Datia - Gwalior - Morena - Mathura - Faridabad - Delhi (approx 1460 Kms).

I was expecting to reach Nagpur by 10 PM and then call up Anjan's uncle for a hotel and then have dinner and crash for a good night sleep (plans are plans and they don't pan out as expected). As I started moving towards Maharashtra border India started bowling. Irfan Pathan was in really good form with bat and with ball. In 12th over Sri Lanka was 54/5. Looks to be a great day for India team too. Just near Adilabad there was road which goes up a hill and the view from there breath taking. Sun shimmer in a pond and from that distance and height it seems like a giant reflector but minus the harshness.

Indian highways shows so many things. There were farmers putting crop on the road for what I couldn't understand but I had to go around on a 2 way road with just one lane for each side and no divider. As I was moving on I started to observe that on highways truck with full load are safest vehicles and buses & jeeps were the worst. Looks that human life is the cheapest thing in the country. There was not any small village till Nagpur but highway was a mixer of smooth road and pot holes (in second part of journey I realized that this was better). But as I moved in Maharashtra, Sri Lanka slumped to 122 all in 36th over.

India was set to win this one and I was merrily driving around 60-80 kms/hr speed and occasionally hitting a pot hole which meant wheel balancing after reaching Delhi. As light started to diminish India took the field and somehow they thought that it was Diwali. Suddenly Shewag was hitting the ball to all the parts of the ground. About the same time scariest moment of my trip hit me. My stirring wheel started to wobble which indicated that I had flat tyre. It was pitch dark and I could see anything on either side of the road, it felt like a forest with no street lights and hardly any other vehicle on the road. Road was bad and occasionally trucks were passing by but there was no sign of any human inhibition there. I stopped the car and put on the emergency blinkers on, took the flash light (thankfully I was carrying it) and stepped out of the car. Left rear wheel was flat, I thought of opening the trunk and take out the spare tyre and change it but once I looked around it didn't look like a good idea. I was visualizing that as I sit to change the tyre, someone come out of the bushes and slit my throat. So I decided to drive on with blinkers on in hope of a better place. With each passing moment wobble was becoming worst and I was putting more than wheel on risk. It was almost end of my patience and I was thinking of stopping and changing the tyre I was a reflection in distance, it looked like parked trucks and seemed to be a logical place to stop. As I approached those parked trucks I realized that it was a dhaba with a puncture shop. As I parked there I took a sigh of relief, in that small dhaba they had a small tv inside and handful of people were watching the match and enjoying fireworks from Shewag and Tendulkar's bat. I approached the guy working on tyres in puncture shop and the told me that he only mend truck tyres and not car tyres. I was feeling exhausted and ask him if he can atleast change the wheel for me. He agreed but the rim and wheel was very hot because I drove the car in that state for a while. I was more than glad that he changed the wheel and I gave him around 25 rupees which I think was lot more than he would have earned if he fix the tyre but it was a not a payment, it was gratitude for his help.

By the time I started from there India almost wrapped the game and I was driving very carefully. Every time I hit a pot hole I curse myself as I didn't have any spare tyre. As night spread its cover all over the place I started to see city lights in distance. By this time India completed a comprehensive victory by 8 wickets with almost 30 overs remaining, Tendulkar scored yet another 50 and Shewag sadly out on 38 on 29 balls, he would have finished the game lot earlier. As I hit the city I called up Anjan's uncle to find out a hotel for the night. He suggested Sunny International which was on the main street. I was almost 11 in night and I was planning to start around 4 in the morning, not lot of sleep but surely something to eat as I didn't have anything after I left Hyderabad.

At this time there was no option to buy tyre and if I wait till the time market opens then it will too late for onward drive as I want to cross Chumbel before sunset. As I talked to hotel staff they suggested to buy it in Sagar. I had a light dinner and watched some highlights of the game and crashed. I set the alarm for 3:45, as alarm rang I got up gingerly and took shower. There was no arrangement for breakfast but still managed a cup of tea.

Cleaned up the wind shield and hit the road around 4:30AM. Now it was the time to see a different India.