We just had a series on our trip to Kolkata by car, which we did during last summer. Then why on earth I am bringing yet another story similar to our trip so soon to all of you. You might have guessed from the headline that it was a journey to Kolkata on NH-2. However, I am sure that this story will definitely surprise many of you. First of all, it was so sudden and so unplanned for such a long distance, many may not even think to repeat…but I am sure there will be many Ghumakkars who might had already taken such steps in their life in the past and may plan for such trip in future as well.
So, enjoy this trip of mine, which took place in October, 2008 – this story may cause some serious adrenaline rush.
October 24, 2008
Being a true Cancerian, I am a dreamer and one of my childhood dreams was to be a cyclist and paddling across the country. I got my first bi-cycle when I was in class VIII and it was beyond explanation to share the joy with anyone even today…so many memories. I still remember & miss my first best friend.
With times, things changed a lot, so the priorities. However, unlike a lot of my other dreams, the passion for adventure and travel remained and whenever I got the slightest opportunity, I never thought twice.
The thought to go home by car was in my mind, since the day I bought my first car. During the last one year, I gathered all the relevant information such as route map, distance from one city to another, the number of toll plazas, condition of NH-2 (% completion, courtesy NHAI) as well as about the towns/cities in an excel file. However, the decision to execute the plan was all of a sudden.
Deepavali or Diwali is the “festival of lights”. It is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. We had four consecutive holidays, a very rare scenario in private sector. However, I didn’t have any plan to go home, since I just returned Gurgaon 10 days back on October 14 after celebrating Durga Puja at home.
Deepavali, the festival of lights
It was a deserted look in the office by 3 p.m. on 24th of October, 2008, as most of my colleagues had left for the day. “What I would be doing when everyone would be celebrating Diwali with their loved ones?” and I became homesick once again. I felt to be with everyone at home, particularly with my son who just completed one year a month back and this would be his first Diwali. I checked with Airlines, however, I had no other option left when I found the air fare on 24th/25th October was well above 20K one way and ruled out.
Then, it is the idea of a Dream Drive to be with everyone at home (West Bengal), if belting up in my car to hit the road and zipping off to different places and then writing about the driving experience and the journey is not the case otherwise, has brought me close to my childhood dream. So what if it’s not a bicycle, that doesn’t matter anymore.
I opened the excel sheet, which I prepared & updated so meticulously for over a year and finally made seven blocks of 200 km each (Delhi – Kolkata is around 1450 kms), setting-up a personal target to cover every block by 3-4 hours, so that the estimated travel time would be approx. 21-25 hours, excluding occasional breaks. By the time I finally decided to go and left office, it was 10 p.m.
Within minute I crossed Hotel Bristol roundabout, which is just opposite to my office. I slowed down before the diversion – left to IFFCO Chowk and right to Delhi…it was still a half ‘yes’ and half ‘no’; still thinking whether I am taking any risk or not”…and finally took the right turn. The car was serviced few days back after completing one year last week, however, pollution certificate just expired. When I reached the IOC Petrol Pump at Gitorni, Polution Control center just closed and the person was leaving. However, on my pleading, he opened the center and prepared the certificate. After filling-up the tank (Rs.43/litre) at Badarpur, I was well set for the dream run.
I was quiet excited with the route (N.H.2) I had chalked out for this trip, covering Delhi – Agra – Kanpur – Allahabad – Varanasi – Sasaram – Dhanbad – Bardwan – Home & back, as it promised an exciting offering of history, culture and scenic beauty, not to mention the thrill to drive alone.
Driving is my passion…I even enjoy my daily drive to work, which is less than 2 km from my home! I once read that first 200 km or first 2 hours is very crucial when you plan for such a long journey. I was excited, but just stick to that – no mistake in first 200 km.
I made my first pit stop at a dhaba at Mathura at 1 a.m.The food was simple, hot Chilli Chicken and noodles, which had me sweating despite the chill in the air but the ambience was fantastic. Sitting in the open, watching the stars was certainly not the routine experience in our city life.
Dinner at Mathura
Left that place around 1:45 a.m. and continued driving till I reached Allahabad around 9:30 in the morning, non-stop driving for nearly 8 hrs. It was an wonderful run on the NH-2. Crossed Kanpur in the morning and will remember the sunrise at Kanpur in all my life.
Sunrise at Kanpur’s never ending flyover
Sunrise at Kanpur’s never ending flyover
Only once I could see the needle briefly wander over the 120 kmph plus mark before sanity prevailed. “You should know the limitation of this car” I thought and slowed down to a moderate speed of 90-100 kmph for better control.
A 80-70 kms stretch of NH-2 at Allahabad (35/40 km on either side of the city) is not yet converted to expressway. The work is in progress for a completely new road which will bypass the city altogether. However, it took nearly two hours to cross the city. I made my second pit stop at Saidabad for breakfast, with lovely aloo-ka-paratha and curd. The post break-fast drive was on good road till Mughal Sarai (approx. 180 km from Allahabad). With no one to talk and bored with ‘Bhumi’, the famous Band in Bengal (I was carrying only one CD with me), I switched-off the music system and rely on my cellphone for sometime – though, I kept it secret to everyone till reached home.
Crossed Varanasi and approaching Mughal Sarai
Crossed Jawahar Setu – Dehri on Son
[Pic 6 – Crossed Jawahar Setu – Dehri on Son]
I skipped lunch, since I had a heavy break-fast and carrying plenty of sweets and dry foods and continued driving till I reached Sasaram around 4 p.m.. I wanted to have a taste of proper ‘Litti’ (a popular dish of Bihar. This mouth watering traditional dish can be consumed long after being prepared and is quiet frequently used while traveling), since I was passing through Bihar, I stopped my car on a road-side eatery joint, along side NH-2. The old man gave me four ‘Litti’, alongwith tea. I also picked-up hot ‘Samosa’ from him before leaving.
‘Litti Choka’; pic courtesy ‘Walkthroughindia.com’
It was towards dusk, when I reached Chauparan and I was desperate to reach at least Dhanbad, which is approximately 150 km from there. Twenty hours since I started my journey – my eyes started paining and at times, it was difficult to keep my eyes open. I realized the situation and slowed down, till I reached a safer place. One truck driver offered help and asked to follow him. After reaching Dhanbad, we exchanged Diwali Greetings and offered him some sweets. He was coming from Jallandhar and learnt that he has to cross this stretch (NH-2) at least twice in a month. It was 10:30 at night and 24 hours since I started driving. I didn’t want to spend another day on road, since my home is around 200 km from Dhanbad – ‘I have to reach home today’.
For the first time after 25 hours, I felt really hungry and wanted to sleep when I reached Raniganj. I stopped my car at a dhaba & was very tempted to put up my legs on the chairs for some time. I ordered few rotis, a chicken dish – though I was dying to eat rice & fish. The food was really good and it took nearly two hours to finish my meal. The rain started when I left Raniganj at 1 a.m. My home is still ~ 150 km away. At 3 in the morning, I left NH-2 near Gurup (approx. 60 kms. before Kolkata), my home is just 13 km. from there. I felt a strange feeling in my whole body, a totally inexpressible feeling – but, wait you still have 13 km to drive.
Finally I left the well pitched road and my car was entering our village road for the first time. My home is just 1 km from there. I used this road so many times in my life, but on that particular night, the same road seems so different thanks to the powerful headlight with high beam that cut through the pitch darkness.
Village road
My home
It was 3:45 a.m. on 26th October, 2008. I stopped my car in front of our house (1450 kms from my office in Gurgaon, the Hotel Bristol roundabout) and dialed the landline. It was a surprise Diwali gift for everyone at home. Since morning, I was giving all the wrong information about my whereabouts and they believed that I was at Simla with my colleagues. Were they surprised? Shocked? May be both – I didn’t give them any time to ask for the time being. That could be asked & answered next day. Though, I was not tired physically, I wanted to close my eyes & give them rest for some hours.
The dream drive was over, I knew that I wouldn’t have enough time to rest, as I would have to visit everyone’s place, including my sister’s place, which is approx. 150 km. from my home and also I had to return to Delhi after three days.
When I left my Gurgaon home a day before, I had no idea that I would set-off to explore the interiors of U.P., Bihar; Jharkhand & West Bengal by that night. I do not know whether I did a mistake about not to share about this trip to anyone till I reach home, as no one in the earth knew about this adventure, except me. However, the thrill & the excitement in it, I would never forget in my whole life. I was never scared even for a second and observed that truckers are much more disciplined on Highways. NH-2 is excellent, except a few patches, but overall I would give 9 out of 10 to NHAI. The only regret is that I forgot to carry my camera, as it was so unplanned and had to satisfy myself with my mobile.
First road trip – did you notice that there is no Ghumakkar sticker this time
Returning to Delhi was another story. I was stuck at Dhanbad for the entire day due to a major accident and next day covered 1250 km in 17 hours (4 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.) non-stop to reach Gurgaon on 30th October. I had covered 3300 km in 5 days, Rs.6,600/- on fuel
The superb NH2
The significance of this journey is not about my solo drive to enjoy the Indian highway only, but it’s also a gift to a son from a father to be with him during festival period, even if he doesn’t know the meaning being so small, as well as to my family, who never expected me to be with them during Diwali. This small adventure of mine, brought happiness to everyone and what else would you expect in life.
Isn’t it worth taking this risk…
Just wanted to see this moment
Let me keep everything ready (Y-2011)…why time flies so fast
Life doesn’t always require a coat and a tie. Life doesn’t also require extensive planning always. I completely leave it to you to judge this adventure, in terms of excitement or risk. My love affaris with Highways continues…I am still nurturing my childhood dream. May be once I retire from office, that can also be taken care of, I wish!
Wishing all of you a very Happy Diwali. May this Diwali brings lots of happiness, peace and prosperity to you and to your near & dear ones. Enjoy this festival of lights with everyone in its’ true sense of words.
Take care of yourself…
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???? ????? ??? ??? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???? ???? ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ??? – ???? ???? ?? ?????? ????????? ???? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ???? ????? ??, ???? ?????? ?? ????-???? ??????? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ??? ????? ???? ???? ! ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ????? ?? ?? ????? ?? ! ?? ?? ???? ? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ? ???? ?? ??? ??, ???? ?? ???? ????? ?? ? ??? ?? ???? ???? ??????? ?? ?? ! ?????, ????? ?????? ???? ??? ?????? ??? ???? ?? ???? ??? ?? ???? ???? ???? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ???????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ?? ???? ???? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ???????? ?? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ????? ?? ?? ???? ? ??? ??, ??? ???? ???? ??? ??? ?? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ?? ????? ! ?? ??? ! ????? ! ??? ???? ???? ?
???? ???? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ?? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ??? – ??? ?? ????????? ???? ??? ??? ?? ????? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ??, ?? ?? Audy ???? ??-?? ???? ??? ??????? ????? ??? ?? ????????? ??? ???? ????, ????? ??????? ?? ???? ??? ?????? 28 ???? ???-????? ????????? ? ??? ?? !
?? ?? ??? ??? ????, ???? ?? ??? ? ??? ?? ?? ????????? ?? ???????? ?? ??? ???? ???? ????? ?? ??? – ??? ?? ? ??? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ????? ?? ?? ?? ?? ????? ??? ????? ! ???? ?? ?? ???? ??? ?? ????? – ????? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ?????? ??, ??? ??? ?????? ??? ???? – ???? ?????? ????, ?? ?? ????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ????! ????? ??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ????????? ??? ?? ??????? ?? ??? ?? ??????? ???? ???? ?????, “? ??? ???? ??? !” ?? ???? ???? ?????? ?? !
??? ?? ?? ???? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ????? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ???? ????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? ?? ????? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ??? !
I will be foolish to ask anyone to repeat this and this post is not to let anyone to break the records….”look I also did this in xx hours”. Please…my request.
I knew the consequences once I reached home, so the thought that everyone would be happy never came to my mind – on that fine day, I just thought to be with my son…who knows in few years down the line he may be in some other parts of the world and I will be left alone, so try my best to be with him during these formative years – If you see the positive side of this story, you can also say that I am investing on my future as well :) clever Amitava.
True, I didn’t have time to look around much but I did enjoy my driving. Road journey is a fun and if you want to roam around, you can go there next time as well. To hit the road is matter the most, unlike which car you are driving or who is your co-passenger(s), driving alone – these are all relative and mind-game. Forget the story – Hope you enjoyed my trip.
ps.: Did you read my previous posts, which I shared with you all in June-Aug. You will also find me a responsible person as well, this summer that little boy was also part of the journey – however, we stopped at Varanasi on Day 1. You may like to read if missed and let me know.
A very hectic day in office, just returned home – hence the delay.
Thank you for the compliment ‘Sanki’ – I am used to this word “Ma-thai ki tor bhut che-pe-che a-bar”. While reading comments here now, I am remembering my parents & everyone in the family – they told me exactly the same thing…Tx.
I can say a lot about life to defend myself, but I may sound either exaggarating about me or my nature or a philosopher – so, I choose not to take that path here. You also accepted my trip (and your son’s as well), except those two points…yeah you may be correct. But, I always think if anything will start with a firm ‘NO’, then it is better not to discuss about the same with anyone…as I don’t like to hear ‘No’, may be it is my weakness, but I can’t change myself now at this point. It was completely my decision and other person may not be at the same wave length of mine…tell me who will agree if you say let’s go to Kolkata by tonight by car and he has only few hours left! Sometimes we are driven by our emotions also…
?? ??? ?? ?????? ! ???? ?? ?????? ????? ??? ???, ???? ?? ?? ???? ?? ! ???? ??? ??? ?
:) Hope you have seen them now
Hello Sushant
Brave act…. Drive solo for such a long journey.. Hats off to you…. We miss your pics…
Hi Kailash..
Tx…hope you enjoyed my post.
Hi Amitava,
Quite a risky journey, but thanks to your alertness that you managed it well. Good that you enjoyed .
One thing which I noticed in your post is that i found someone who also believe in sun signs and I am sure You must have read Linda Goodman;s sunsign…
Good to read Cancerian story…
Thanks for sharing your experience
From,
A true Libran…
Hi Abhee,
Hope you enjoyed this post, as I did. Life itself is a risk so why we run away from taking risk.
I am still not a firm believer of sun signs or astrology, but once I read, I could relate similarities in me ‘Yeah, I am like that only’. One ‘Cup’ presented by my friend keeps on reminding me that…you may find this statement a bit contradictory. I feel good to read them…totally confused :)
Take care of yourself,
??? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ??? ???? ???. ?? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ??.
Greetings.
So, hope you like the post – forget what would happen or what will happen.
Have a wonderful day…
O’ naughty Omeet, bravo! but not to repeat such risk.
Do play the games of surprise but with the requites & rescue.
Hay! where are the pics? it is six month to APRIL foul/feel/fool/food.
Don’t mind.
Do you really think I would mind
:) Cheers and enjoy…it’s not game of surprises but game of emotions…difficult to explain and I am very bad in that area
Hope you like the pictures now…Take care
Sorry folks for the missing pics. We are working on it.
Thank you.
Have you seen my gravatar picture…I will try a new image tomorrow, as it is not legible to read.
Tx a ton…once again
I’m spellbound!! I can feel the excitement as well as pleasure of your yarn for being with your dear ones during festival times. But, oh no, this should be the last time…don’t repeat it please. You will be doing a great disservice to your family for the sake of “giving surprise”!
Thank you.
But sir, it was four years ago and it’s been repeated alreay in May-June this year, with a break.
I would like to invite you to read my previous posts…hope you will find them interesting as well.
However, points taken, will surely give it a thought.
Take care,
he..he..he.. crazy Amitava !!!
i seriously think u should start writing a novel….really..u have the gift.
Anyways, best part was when you stopped outside your home and dialed the landline……goosebumps literally.
Keep writing and keep travelling.
Good to hear from you and I like ‘crazy Amitava’…crazy Amitava is investing for his future ‘Old age’ life, you know :)
and I am serious that you are just joking…you will find a lot from me here, if Nandan and editorial team permits (keep it a secret!)
Tx,
Amitava sir..wow…and simply wow…
fantastic journey..really a unplanned long driving a gives a different pleasure .. SAIDABAD ..where u have taken your breakfast is my native place..which is situated between allahabad and varanasi stretch
(NH 2).life is nothing but a long and unplanned journey..you have proved it…keep travelling,keep driving,keep writing and last but not least keep smiling..
Tx a ton, Rakesh and I am glad you enjoyed this trip. Yeah, it was a pleasurable trip for me personally and difficult to explain my feelings.
How was your Puja in Jamshedpur. Hope you had a nice time back home. Do let us know your story.
Yeah, I like the place and will remember. After you cross the bridge on Ganga (or Yamuna), Saidabad comes (30 -40 km). As you know this summer we took Allahabad by-pass, so we didn’t go there, but visited there once more during my trip to Allahabad, again by car and had the breakfast one morning – just to visit the place. Many may not agree, but we really don’t plan everything, did we? Sure this journey will continue for a very long time…you too take care and keep smiling – it doesn’t cost us anything
Great & adventerous journey.My only suggestion is that next time you should take a break for sleep for atleast couple of hours.
I you are tired & doze of for a fraction of a second can lead to accident
Pradeep
Thank you for liking the post.
Point taken and yeah we did break our journey. This is one such trip when I was alone and I didn’t have much time – four days and you need to report back to office. No approved leaves since I myself didn’t know about that. I just talked to the Patrol car near Agra whether it is safe at night to cross Etwah stretch – they suggested keep driving straight and don’t leave highway – nothing will happen and I saw few cars and many trucks at night and if you are a careful driver, this should not be a problem.
I feel night driving is much more safe, but yes with family we shouldn’t take any risk.
Well , I don’t have words to explain my feelings.You know 150,000 people die every year in road accidents in India.Two major reasons of such accidents are 1. drunk driving,2. sleepy driving.These two make almost half of the fatal accidents.Its my sincere advice that never repeat such foolish act in the rest of your life.This time some unseen power has saved you,but He will not be there every time. I sincerely request all the ghumakkars to please adopt & follow safe and defensive driving habits.Your life is most precious.Many lives depend on you.I hope you all would travel a lot ,enjoy the beauty of this mother earth,but safely.
Greetings and Thank you.
It is good highlighting the facts once again and I completely agree with you.
These two are the most common factor in any accidents. Never mix both the thing.
The first one is not applicable in my case.
I have a different take on this issue. You should know your limitations very well, instead of your strengths. How much you can stretch yourself should be the key. If you think you are not a good driver on the road from your heart, never ever venture out to put your or other’s life at risk.
We often hire cab/taxi for airport, station or for our long vacation, without knowing the man behind the wheel…how good is he in driving? does he follow rules on the road? what is the criteria of a good driver? what is his mental strenghth or what if he had a fight at home just an hour ago? just because he is driving the cab, are we in safe hand. Can you trust him completely. I can be a better driver than him. Once I ask my son whether he was scared during our recent trip and his answer was “Why should I? You are driving (in bengali).” That’s the trust, complete faith in me – I am talking about. So, for me it is “to know one’s limitation + trust + responsibility”, we should give much more importance. Suggest you to stand in any major crossing in Gurgaon and you will find the rule breakers are mostly by the high-end cars…the reason, most of them either being driven by some illeterate drivers who doesn’t have any road sense or know what signal means and the owner of the car doesn’t bother at all or the owner himself has lots of money without proper education and road sense. Just few months back, when Kshama Chopra died on May 5 in BMW hit and run case in Gurgaon, we were also coming back from Medicity after my Dad’s check-up and reached the place just 15-20 minutes back. It could have been us also and the distance is not even 2 km from my home. What was her fault? Do we really have an answer? If we have proper system in place, this number will drastically come down. Is anyone listening? Will we stop going out?
Have faith in you, nothing will happen and we can’t beat out destiny. I am eagerly waiting for my gift a ‘Ferrari’ which he promised me once grow up, believe me – so there is no hurry to go to another planet and even if God calls me, he will be ‘Paresan’ of me and what is the distance – may be it will take a few months’ drive…enjoy
Dear Amitava,
“Whether we are safe in the hands of an unknown taxi driver?” is the valid point you have raised here. This certification is, in fact, the very purpose of driving license system introduced by the mankind through out the globe. When a person gets a driving license, the state government has tested his skills, knowledge, physical and mental health and found him / her ok. It is another matter that in our country, you can get a DL (arey, vo apne wale DL nahin! :D) i.e. driving license even without knowing where the clutch or gear is!)
The same is true everywhere. When you get your child admitted to a school, do you check the skills, knowledge and character of the teachers who are going to teach your child? No, you know that it is the duty of the Principal and management of the institution to check and only then allow the teacher to teach the students.
There is a very fine demarcation line between confidence and overconfidence. If you are only confident and not over-confident, then it is fine. While entering into this debate, I am sure that whatever we are writing here is prompted by the sole reason that all of us love you very much and don’t want to find you in any kind of problems.
Sushant
Love you Sir.
I know that and I don’t mind believe me…everyone at home always says the same to me and I just smile and repeat the same thing or do I say mistake again and again.
It is just I thought to explain in detail about how we can minimise the risk…that’s why I mentioned “I leave it completely to you to judge…”
“arey, vo apne wale DL nahin!”
??? ?????, ???? ???? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ?? ???? ???????? ?? :-)
Hi Amitava,
It read like a pure fiction. Too good, I must say. Delhi Cal non-stop (or say non-sleep) is mind boggling. Perhaps motivation for me to do a modest 2 (or 3 days) one-way on this route :-)
First 200 kms/ 2 hrs – that makes sense.
Bhumi in 2008 – was it ‘Baranday roddoor….’ ?
Litti looks tempting.
Enjoy and drive on..
Auro.
Hi Auro
Thank you so much.
The exact travel time was 29 hours including occassional breaks and total driving is ~ 23 hours.
You can very well cover in 2 days, as you read in my earlier series. Three days, unless and until you stop either in Allahabad.
If you want, I will share a plan tomorrow, which may be of any help to you whenever you plan for such journey. First 200 kms/2 hour – that’s trick I still follow whenever we go and it works.
True, that’s the song I like the most like everyone…but 45 minutes CD and 29 hours journey…so I was totally bored.
I like Litti very much, but we don’t know how to prepare – tried many times at home from Internet help/recipies but it was not worth a try…
Do take care,
Amitava
This one for me was your one of the best narrations. I was excited at the start and even after reading the entire post left me wanting for more .
If you have more of these please share . I don’t mind if you dont have pictures . Your lovely Narration is enough .
Hi Vishal…
I am glad to hear from you. I tried my best and I couldn’t write more for this hurricane trip of mine. I never thought someday I will post this trip for all of you. But, it was narrated as it happened.
Yeah, I do have many more such stories and will definitely love to share…Take care,
Hiii Amitava…
I am glad to read your post. You written nicely & informative post with enjoy of driving on NH-2 (in future NH-44). Picture are good.
Greeting to you for Diwali in advance
Thanks
Thank you Ritesh for liking this post.
Pictures were taken through my Sony erricsson WC-350 mobile phone…I was not carrying any camera…If I gone home to collect camera, this story would never see any light
Happy Diwali to you and everyone at home.
When you was crossing bridge of Yamuna river on NH-2 at Agra then My house just 1.200 km away from this bridge.
Thanks again for road description.
Good…may be we will meet sometime on our way to Agra
We are actually planning to go there in December. Last went there in 2004 to see Agra.
Nice to read that your planning.
Note down my email id for further communication and number exchange….
riteshagraup@gmail.com
riteshagraup@facebook.com
Tx. Noted Ritesh. Will be in touch definitely,
As usual another brilliant write-up.
Like everyone else :-) I’m also bad in putting down feelings on paper or in words, still would say we all do crazy things which hardly make any sense to anyone and even sometimes to us, but that feeling of contentment / that joy can only be experienced and probably that keeps us going.
Certain things in life are worth taking risks, and your reason tops my list too.
Tx a ton Sandeep.
I really feeling the same as you mentioned and how true certain things in life are worth taking risks.
Do take care of yourself and keep coming back to encourage me.
Have a wonderful day.
Hi Amitava,
This is your own ‘On the Road’ trip. The road looks excellent. Never imagined a road in Kanpur would look spotless.
I believe in resting and driving especially when you are on your own. Indian roads can become your enemy anytime.
Nice Post.
Thank you Nirdesh.
Absolutely correct – this was my own trip. The inner road in Kanpur city is not like that but if you are driving on NH-2 – yes the road is like that only.
We talked so much before about the same, let me not to repeat anything here. However, I feel safe on Highways, rather than driving in Delhi & NCR, particularly at night.
Nice post, Amitava. In retrospect, it was probably not a good idea. However, impulsive decisions are like that. You wanted to be home and you found that desire irresistible. You just had to do it, period.
However, resisting sleepiness and persisting with driving is never a good idea. It is best to pull over at some safe location and sleep it off for an hour or two. Then, have a steaming cup of kadak chai and you can resume your journey. I am telling this from personal experience. During a long drive, we had stopped for lunch at a wayside dhaba. After resuming the journey, I found myself sort of drowsy and I drifted off to sleep without knowing it. When I woke up, I realised I had driven a couple of kilometres with my eyes fully shut. If I were not so incredibly lucky, I would not have lived to tell this tale. Today, being older and wiser (hopefully), I no longer ignore the warning signals given by my body.
Thank you DL.
First of all how is your health. I was just reading few days ago about it, unfortunately I couldn’t ask you before. Hope you are well now and recovering.
Yes, we should not ignore the warning signs…and there will be plenty of them during such long drive. Everyone has some qualities, good or bad and that’s your strength…and once you know your limitations, you can very easily cover-up with your strengths.
Really feeling nice to receive your response.
Regards,
OK, so a road trip and a lot of debate and I am missing, not good.
Enough has been said. My pick would be to keep someone informed (through out). I have this bad habit (and my better half often laments me) of calling people whenever they are driving out and asking them on where did they reach, how is it going blabla. So keeping someone informed, in my opinion (and I am just giving it without being asked) is what is the ‘Common Minimum Program’.
I also did Delhi-Darbhanga during 2008, NH2 only. But we were lazy enough to stop at Allahbad and then at Varanasi for a total of 3 nights. I still yearn to do a Delhi-Kolkata one day.
:)
I will…actually I did after that…last time, my closed friends in Gurgaon knew about our trip – however, didn’t inform at home – why to give them unnecessary tension at this age…and regarding our next trip, few already knew about the same including you…I really love and like this affection & attention…it’s really like a family, since I did experience the same situation from everyone at home – instead of being happy to see me, they just blasted at me…I had no other option but to listen quietly…here I can debate but there I couldn’t even open my mouth to say anything…all fundas in life, which I actually believe from my heart went for a toss in front of them.
I think I had already mentioned before that I planned for this solo after reading your trip in Ghumakkar in 2008 – so, I am not a new entrant here – I am visiting this space since then, but only during our last trip in May-June this year, I broke the mental barrier finally. I am sure you will someday share your trip – will wait for that…
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Thank you Parveen.
It’s nice to know about your trip to Motihari…is this near to Sitamarhi? One of my friend belongs to Sitamarhi. You must have enjoyed the drive. Yes, when the condition of the road is good, your drive becomes very easy and you will always have a clear view on highways.
Sure, this caravan will continue for a long long time.
Take care,