No apologise this time… u kno wat am talking abt don ya??…. Lemme carry on with my blogging spree from here on (I hope so) ….
This happened few weekends back (2 or 3). The Friday was too long for me to work… Ive started at 7 am in the morning and had bloody load of issues to solve and winded up around 4.30 pm due to reasons… it was the team outing that day in my office and am organizing it and as an extra flavour (rather, to rub salts on the wounds) the participants (for the dinner) gotto get their spouse. (What the ….???) I was mentally prepared to face the music… I went home got dressed up and reported to the spot promptly with my wife … I initially planned to drive to Chennai on Friday evening but later changed my plans as I am indirectly forced to take up this responsibility ..uhhhhhhhh….managed to get back home around 10 pm and hitting my bed straight away bearing in mind that I have tough morning next day …
“Wake up hun, its 3 o clk and get ready”, I cant really open the flippin lids of mine… gosh… (some body take me to the world of no-humans) ahhhhh…. I planned to leave at 4 so that I can reach Chennai on time for the breakfast (however, the brief plan was to eat on the way if we cannot survive any more) mom, grand mom, my wife and her mate was busy in getting dressed (I dunno why ladies are always curious to dress up knowing its gonna b a boring car journey and no onez gonna watch them) and packing stuffs… (ooops have I mentioned ‘packing truck load of stuffs to stuff em in to a car)
Pretty much expected behaviour, I (male) got up late and got ready on time, others (females) still checking their outlooks…uhhhhh…. Finally we all loaded the car by 4.15 am… and managed to start cracking by around 4.30 am… I started to roll the wheels slowly … filled the gas last nite, had a strong cupa tea to chase the sleep off… wat else….my goodness forgot my audio cds….for f**k sake why is my memory ripped off???????? All I got was 2 mp3 cds (one with an assorted/stupid collection of my own and the other is a set of old songs) I gotto live with this (ofcourse with 4 other ladies) for the rest of my drive…i was not surprised to see flowing traffic at this manirathnam’s time zone…. Its very normal in bangalooorrrruuuu… lucky I stay in the border which is very close to the exit that connects to Bangalore- madras highway…
“yayyy my office”, my wife with her low icecream voice… my grand mom has slept, my mom was listening, her mate wasn’t keen, I kno that its her office and the place is pitch dark… I dunno waz the point in screaming… I started picking the micky outta her…we now reached hosur…It took around 20 mins for me…I am mentally pissed off with the boring ambience inside the car as almost all have slept….i now made up my mind… the last time when I was driving from Chennai-bangalore, I made it in 5 hours… I thought ‘why not lemme break the record?’ … any way the inmates doesn’t kno if its raining or snowing outside the car and am sure they won give a damn….
I wont think about anything for too long… got my sandals off..pumped up the audio a bit and got cracking….from ther I made 100 kmph average and I cannot sleep as I gotto concentrate a lot …. The light was handy enough to pick the potholes and speed breakers… gotto keep an eye on those ‘intelligent human beings’ who
- cross the road with out caring anything in the world
- drive the vehicles (basically trying to sneak) in thro the opposite way
- stopped the vehicles in the middle of the road wth out any indicators
- changing lanes wth out any indication to the following vehicles
driving in India (no matter if its highways or in town) is always a kick-ass task and Indians are always pretty good in that (specially chennaites, trust me I found this out from my personal experience ( as a flavorà naren karthikeyan is a chennaite ) )
I have now crossed 90 kms in an hour time… the car is a mere grave yard… (heyyy don think that, I meant that all are quiet and sleeping) I am not enjoying this at all… however, I din give up I kept the speed ticking up… at times I reached 140 and I wanted to raise more than 143 but I cannot find a stretch…. The road was completely desserted most of the times…. I liked it… I reached vellore in 2 hours time… it shouldn’t have happened… I SLEPT FOR A BIT … kreeeeeeeech…..i applied the pumping break and my mom murmered from sleep ‘is that a dog on the road? ’, “yeah mom! I guess” …oh yes… really lucky to get away from that truck that was too close … and ther I got this quails guys who is very much enthusiastic… he doesn’t wanna let me go… he kept chasing me and took me over… iam now a charged up chap… go Aravindh go….
A killer 1 hour I should say…. We were racing against each other… given a scare almost to all the vehicles on the way… am sure 98.8 % of the vehicle drivers wudve cursed us… I din care tho… I am helping myself to keep me awake ….i managed to stay ahead most of the time…. Some point near sri perumpudur I gave up and let him go as my mom & my wife are awake and I don wanna give any scare to them… I still kept up 90 odd speed… its only 30kms left to reach Chennai outline…the time is 8.20 am… I am really really hungry & sleepy but I thought I can make it completely as I crossed most of the tough time… “better, lets go home for breakfast”, my mom said as if she was driving all the way and she don’t mind hanging on for more time… “Ok.. no issues”, I generously knoded my head and kept a good pace until I reahed home … we touched Chennai around 8.45 and I haven’t pulled over at any point… we reached home around 9.30 due to heavy traffic in the city…
I really love my long drives specially when iam with my friends and got my own/dad’s car with the woofer attached… don’t ask me how my car looked after the trip… I paid extra to make the car look clean again :”(
Few of the high lights of the trip:Bangalore – Chennai high way is a master piece of the Indian road ways as the roads are laid with high quality ingredient with 4 lane traffice and well painted lanes…made me drive comfortably… hey did I said I broke my record by making it in 4 hours approx…(300 kms)
There are 4 tolls which collect apprxly 30 – 40 rs. When u cross them.
You have to take diversion to go inside the town at any point as the high way is a mere bypass road.
All the passengers were sleeping most of the time leaving my driving fun in total jeopardy.
No food all over the journey (very important point)
All are still alive with out any trauma ;)
General tips on a long drive:
The one sitting next to driver should make sure they are awake and keep the driver entertained to ensure the safety of the trip
Have a good strong tea to keep yourself awake….
Don’t listen to those slow music specially when you are driving at night….
Make sure your tyres are good, got proper stepne and filled up the fuel before your journey…
Give a proper indication if your are changing lanes or stopping the car…its for your safety
From my experience… the more early you start the better you enjoy your drive as the roads are empty most of the time… better go to bed soon before night…
