Me , Farzana and a Highway

     Years back when i was in my early twenties and had just got engaged to Farzana, my wife eventually ,i received a call from my cousin from Mumbai. The cousin gang had made an overnight program to a place called Khardi, a town near Mumbai at one of their friend's bunglow. Since everyone was going from Mumbai and i was the only one of my side of the family who is in Pune , i too wanted to go since i had not met them since a long time and i did not want to miss the fun. I did not want to go alone but with my fiance. Convincing my parents was easy since everyone except me was married , elder and quite protective towards me also since i was the youngest of my generation. Now  regarding my mom in law ,it was slightly difficult to convince but eventually she gave in.

Now for my road trip, since those days there was no expressway and i was still very inexperienced in driving my old Maruti Van on a highway , yes i had one of those at that time and i was feeling slightly scared and anxious but i decided to be positive and move ahead.  So on the D Day early morning i picked up Farzana from her house and we moved towards our destination, the climate was perfect and it was drizzling and the drive was amazing and i had just bought a music cassette of the movie Rangela, for those who came late those were the days of cassette players , the music was too good so we decided to keep playing the same along the way and also i did not have any other cassette.
      
All was well and i blessed my stars for this wonderful drive and a picnic kind of a weekend , when suddenly just before the ghats the horn stopped and yes in India and on a ghat you need a horn.I got a little scared but seeing a repair shop along the way we stopped and got it repaired. The rest of the journey till the destination went well and we reached in time and what a great time we had. Fun food and time pass. It was a memorable trip so far .

The next day around 4 pm as all good thing come to an end we all had to part ways and we headed back to our Pune. I  remember we took the Mumbra highway where my old Van stopped along the way .It had become hot under the bonnet, luckily it was still not dark and we waited for the car to cool down and we started again silently and praying in our minds to reach home safely since once my Van used to get hot it had the habit of doing a repeat telecast and the destination was still far and darkness was near. 

Alas my worse fear came true when we reached the ghat. In one of the narrow section on the climb the van gave away again, stranded and darkness around and no one in sight made me nervous, scared and anxious. Waited , waited and waited for the Van to cool down and after what seemed an eternity it started again and we reached Lonavala. We decided to stop at a restaurant and eat and relax for the last leg of the journey.

When we started again and just near Karla section the highway was blocked with cars and trucks and rain pouring like it was on a mission to flood the area. I wondered what i have done to deserve this and i could see my memorable trip was turning into a disaster.Of all the things the Van petrol also was getting over because of this continuous jam and the pump was still a good 12 km away. With the traffic jam still intact and no signs of the rains stopping , i was getting nightmares of us getting stranded on that cold wet night. I was praying to God so loudly at that time that if someone would have passed my car would have thought poor guy , he has lost it . Finally i reached the pump and eventually my destination with no further Hiccups.

I wish to travel all over India , its a dream i have since a very long time and that experience has taught me a lot , since that day i have traveled far and wide and have experienced fun and sometimes anxiety along the way but that particular experience can never be replicated , it was a memorable trip for me even with all its hiccups.

 ( This picture is taken much later after that trip since i did not have a camera then) 

This is a true story with no fictitious characters.

[This is my entry for 'The Perfect Road Trip' contest, hosted by IndiBlogger in association with Ambi Pur 
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