Three Amigos and a memorable drive – Part – 1 -

So it was decided, we three (myself and my two cousins - Prasad and Prashanth) will be going to my native place Hulekal (another 16kms from Sirsi) in my car which would be marking my first night drive of my life. Mission: - To pick up my wife from her native place and get back to Bangalore. Well, problem was to convince the elder people now. Since Prasad had done night driving many times when he was in US, it was probably not difficult to convince my mom and grandma anyway. So that would mean our key to this night drive was to get my mom and grandma convinced. Another problem – this was in month of November-2008, and it was raining from last couple of days.

It was Friday night and we 3 met at my place with our bags packed. Slowly we had to talk to my mom and grandma somehow. We were looking at each other to see who is going to start first. So then, I began “Hmmm… so shall we leave at 12 am?” This was only to get my mom’s attention and it worked like a charm. Mom: “WHAT? Did I hear 12am? NO…NO…No… It is very risky. No night driving.” Me: “No its fine mom, We 3 are there and all of us know driving. Prasad has done it many times in US… right Prasad?” I turned to him. My Mom too turned to him and gave him a scary stare. Prasad was cornered now, he coolly started back “Yeah Maami, its ok. We will manage.” Mom: “What if it rains, no no… cannot allow. You guys can go early in morning around 3am or 4am.” Prasad: “Oh maami, that would be difficult. It would be like we all will be half-asleep. Instead we will not sleep for now if we have to leave at 3am.” Mom: (cooling down but half-convinced) “Hmmm ok, alright. That’s fine then. So you guys decided on route? Check with your uncle about the routes once.” I agreed and called up our elderly uncle who was always the first pick when we wanted to decide on some routes to take to our native place.

Me: “Hello uncle… We wanted to know which route to take”

Elder Uncle: “yes. There are two routes from spot1. First route has some shaky road and second route is a bit farther but it is good. I suggest you take that second route. So when are you guys leaving?”

Me: “At around 3am morning.”

Elder Uncle: (Sounding disturbed) “You 3 people leaving so early. Don’t be stupid guys, listen to me. Have a good sleep, get up at around 6 have a cup of tea and leave by 6-30.”

Me: “Ok Uncle. Thank you. We will do that. Bye.”

So kept the phone and we discussed about that and again stuck with our 3AM plan. My mom watched for another half hour, none of us were willing to take a nap fearing it will be difficult to wake up early. Realizing that it will be of no use, she tells us to leave by midnight itself. Atleast we would reach there early morning and can sleep peacefully. Overjoyed with our plans on track, we freshened up and got ready to begin our journey. Exactly at midnight, we started our journey.

I suggested taking a short-cut and we start off. 10mins into that short-cut route and we see a road-block (Road under construction). We have to get back all the way and half an hour after our journey started, we are still in front of our home. We silently take the longer route and re-start our journey again. Finally we are on the highway. The weather is also pleasant with small drizzle here and there. One and half hours into the journey and I am beginning to enjoy my first night drive when Prasad’s phone starts ringing. It is my mom on phone asking where we are. Prasad says: “Yeah Maami, going fine. Everything is good…. Yeah… No rain yet…. Ok bye” Then he keeps the phone. As soon as phone is kept, it starts raining heavily. For the next 4-5 hours, this repeats every hour - Mom calls, we tell “No rain” and once we keep phone, it starts raining heavily. Then we take our normal breaks for photographs at night somewhere on highway. Finally at around 6 in morning, we search for fuel, Fuel for our car as well as for ourselves. All 3 of us are feeling hungry now. We had never thought staying awake at night makes you feel hungry sooner and much before normal breakfast time. So first we stop at a petrol bunk but find nobody there to fill the petrol. We search for a while, shout for a while but nobody yet. So we again continue our journey looking out for petrol bunk as well as a hotel….

(To be continued… Click here)