Driving into a Ditch, Literally!

Not this one but one like it with a bigger ditch, roads in the National Capital Region, Delhi

It was after seven and I was driving home from work today, after a game of Table Tennis in the evening.

I don't know how I did it, I went towards the side of the road where it was quite broken. Of course I am used to such roads. I turned the car a little over what was a small mound of mud and the fellow in the next car by my side gave me a really alarming look. But by then I had managed to get my car stuck into the deep hole that was next to the mound of mud and was not visible from my angle.

I tried reversing the car out of it and then tried to drive forward. Both didn't work. I got out of the car and I had panicked a little by then. Then there were two people walking by after their factory shift and I asked them if they had any clue what could I do? They said they can try and push the car out if I switch on the engine and try to reverse the car. Those angles tried and failed. They stood by me and asked for help from others passing by. Two declined and I don't blame then, the car was really in a nasty hole.

Then there were four people coming towards us and I asked them myself. They gave me an ugly glance (stupid female driver and all that, can't even see where she is driving, she deserves to be in a hole and we poor folks have to get our hands dirty now) but agreed to try. Once again I started the engine and tried to reverse the car. With six people trying and the car being a light Maruti 800 it came out of the hole!

I thanked them a lot and the crowd moved on. The two men who had stopped originally, I tried to give then some money for all their trouble but they just waved me off!

Note to self- don't get yourself into a hole in the first place.

When the Car Felt Like a Boat!

Yesterday (14/08/2008) I needed to get out of the office around 4.00 in the evening to attend a meeting elsewhere. There were three of us. A little while ago the skies had opened and the rain was coming down like anything. Standing at the gate of our office, we saw a river on the street (it happens whenever it rains heavily around my office area). The meeting was canceled because the river on the road would lead to massive traffic jams later and we would never be able to make it back to our office again. Not before 10 at night at least!

I went back to my room and did some work. The rain continued. In situations like this you either leave early or leave late, else you just sit in the traffic jam. I usually leave late. But by 5.00 the rain still was pouring and even I started to worry. I thought 5.00 pm was still OK and decided to leave.

I took the car out and 100 meters ahead there was a small jam. I did not think too much about it. But the next door big software consultancy office also decided to let their employees go before time. They have more than 20 buses and they started to come out on the river err ... road. And then the traffic just stopped moving. I was still lucky that every 20 minutes we would crawl a meter (and I am not exaggerating). The traffic towards Delhi was just standing still. And the rain kept hitting the windscreen of my car with such a force! I had to keep the windows closed, switch the engine off (as we were not going anywhere and petrol is expensive) and it felt quite claustrophobic.

One hour later, I was still sitting on the same stretch of the road. Usually when massive rains occur I leave office around 8.00 pm. I called home and told them that it looks like I would reach sometime after 8.00 only, as the traffic is just not moving.

One and a half hour later I crossed the 'big consultancy' office road and across the turn, the river got even bigger. A lot of people where ditching there stationary office cabs and just walked through knee deep water. The factory workers were also wading through the water, sometimes with their bicycles. I took solace from the fact that as none of the other small cars have stopped, my Maruti 800 would also hold! When a group of people or motorcyclists would cross together, I could feel the water hitting the floor of my car, and it gave a sensation that I was sitting in a boat!

Thankfully the rain lessened after a while and I could roll the windows down. After crawling for another 20 meters, a gentleman (a foreigner too, by the look of him) going in the opposite direction in a big SUV asked me, "Excuse me have you seen the blockage, what is it?" I told him, "No I have not seen the blockage, but I have not seen a single car moving even an inch for the past one and a half hours in your direction". He said, "Well, I have been sitting here for an hour myself, at least in your direction the traffic is moving." My reply was, "You call this moving? In one and a half hours I have just moved beyond those huge office blocks." He told me there was even more water ahead in my direction! After a while my side traffic crawled another inch or so and our conversation ended.

He was right about the water, on the stretch ahead there was even more water but thankfully the car didn't stop. Struggling for some more time, I finally managed to take the turn towards my residential area. The traffic was moving normally here.

At 7.30 in the evening, two and a half hours later I had left, I managed to reach home, covering a distance of 8 kilometers! And it was a pity I didn't had my small camera with me yesterday or surely to pass the time, I would have clicked a few pictures and posted it here.

I have to say one thing, Maruti Suzuki makes decent boats err... cars.

And Happy Independence Day!

On a Speeding Bus

My blog friend VJ finds himself on a speeding bus that met a horrible accident. He is safely back but he tells that not everyone was so lucky.

I looked out – Delhi was still 67 kms away. It was 3:37 in the morning. Then I saw a lime color mini truck coming from the other side with two young guys sitting in the front and it came too close. I was wondering – can he still swirl this time. Something inside me said, he couldn’t. My body voluntarily flung to the aisle as a reflex. There was a loud impact and everything went black. I experienced glass flying, metal sounds, sound of iron hammering and a few second later, as the metal sounds subsided, I heard loud human sounds screaming for help. This was an accident and I was still alive. I got up thinking I am hurt, I wasn't. I located the exit door and flung it open. As I opened it, I saw a body under my feet. People behind me shoved me out of the door.

DRINKING AND DRIVING ABSOLUTELY DO NOT MIX.

A Small Incident From the Road to Yumthang Valley, North Sikkim

Getting Back on Track after the Tata Sumo Skidded about Half a Meter: Yumthang Valley, North Sikkim

The picture above was the most popular picture with the folks I met on the Yumthang Valley trip in North Sikkim. We were returning from Zero Point to the Yumthang Valley. Pankaj, our driver for this trip told us later, "I was tried to change the gear but it did not happen, so I braked and the jeep skidded." That is how we ended up about half a meter off the road on snow. He asked everyone of us to get down. The fellow travelers were really supportive and all of them decided to push the jeep back on track. Apart from me, the only female member on the shared jeep was a young girl of 11-12 years of age and both us were shooed aside. That is how I had the time to click the picture. After a few shouts of "Jai Bajranj Bali" (loosely translated God Hanuman be Praised) by the crowd (Sesha excluded, he is almost a non-believer) the jeep was back on track.

Later, on our way back to Gangtok, we stopped for tea in the evening near Pankaj's village. The young girl who served us the tea was a stunning beauty, and not in the rural sense. She was young, pretty, dressed in jeans and a shirt and knew how to use good makeup. Someone you are more likely to meet in a mall rather in a remote town of Sikkim but many people in Sikkim have wonderful dress sense, even in the remotest corners. We also had lunch at the same place on our way to the Yumthang Valley.

So, on the way back, I started showing her the pictures on my camera. Suddenly she shouted, "Pankaj, come here and see, there is a picture of the jeep in snow." Pankaj came running (and who will not at the bidding of such a beautiful girl), he anyway had been talking non-stop about the jeep skidding incident. Soon, Pankaj called others in the kitchen and everyone else wanted to have a look too.

When we reached Gangtok, Pankaj and a friend of his helped us find a hotel room. The favor in return? I showed Pankaj's friend the same picture on the digital camera again. I said to Pankaj that if he wished, I can send him the picture. He thought for a while and then "Jane dijeye" (Let it be).

I will also remember Pankaj because he was the coolest driver I have ever met. He must have been in his mid-twenties but he was never in a rush to reach anywhere. Anyone who wanted to overtake him, he would move aside and let them go.

F1 Driving on the Indian Hills

Tata Sumo at Zero Point, Near Yumthang Valley, North Sikkim

Himalayas draw both of us like a magnet. It is the roads leading to the Himalayas that are a different story. The serpentine roads induce motion sickness in us and Avomine is a must. However, we are pretty used to the medicine by now.

But there is something else on the mountain roads over which I have no control. It is the tendency of the drivers to imitate Michael Schumacher (the formula one race car driver) or whoever may be the latest champion now, on the narrow curving roads.

We met Toni in Ladakh. He was the driver of the Toyota quails jeep that took us to Pangong Lake. He was not a rash driver but the way he would negotiate the curves on the road would make my heart skip quite a few beats. Snow, water on the road, nothing would deter him. When we would ask him to slowdown he would tell us, "I have done this route so many times, don't worry." And I would think, "You may have done the route so many times but for me this is the first and I hope not the last!"

This time in Sikkim, the very first driver who took us to Pelling from New Jalpaiguri was an aspiring F1 candidate and he would talk or listen to no one (but he was not really rash). He seemed to be in a foul mood due to some reason and I was glad when the journey was over. But apart from him, everyone else in the Sikkim trip preferred to drive safe, or so I thought, till we meet this real deadly person on our way out from Gangtok to Siliguri. He was driving rationally for most of the journey, not even a hint of F1 aspirations. But when the town of Siliguri was about 15 km away, god knows what went into him, he started accelerating rashly. All the passengers protested and he would slow down for a while and then try to overtake someone as if he had a death wish. And he nearly got it.

Indian roads are chaotic, to say the least. When a pedestrian might run across or a cyclist will materalize out of nowhere, you can never say. Many roads are single lane and that means you have to mind the traffic coming from the other direction too.

On such a road, this person once again went into an accelerating spree. Suddenly out of nowhere two young chaps on a bicycle came in front of our jeep. Now the driver was breaking like maniac. Still, he had a contact with the rear wheel of the cycle. The kids escaped just with a bent rear wheel but they were really really lucky. After a short while of name calling, everyone went their own way. But this time every passenger in the jeep had given a piece of their mind to the driver and the idiot managed to drop us safely to Siliguri.

Apart from this single incident, I have found the drivers in the hills really responsible, whether they are imitating Schumacher or not.

The Jeep that Took Us to Pelling (West Sikkim)

The Shared Jeep From Siliguri to Pelling

From New Jalpaiguri railway station we were looking for a shared jeep to Pelling (West Sikkim). From the station the shared jeeps run only for Gangtok. We had to go to Siliguri (around 8km) from the station and this is the jeep that took us to Pelling finally. It was standing like this in a yard and people were working on it. The condition did not inspire too much confidence. But once they put it back together, it took us to our destination safely. Only, the driver thought he was on F1 circuit and not tortuous mountain roads.

Going Places ... I Didn't Mean To!

After all the drama (that I mentioned in the previous post) of the weekend subsided, I headed to my sister's place to catch up on my weekend. I absolutely love playing with my one year and four months old niece, she has started speaking like a tota (parrot) and tries to repeat everything we say. And then, of course, no one can pamper you like an elder sister even though I forgot their wedding anniversary for the second year in a row. She still lets me enter her home and insists that I eat loads of delicious stuff every 10 minutes. No wonder, I lazed off and decided to go back home early Monday morning instead of Sunday evening. We chatted up to 1 in night and then I reluctantly went to sleep. I am so chirpy at night but I wake up like an almost dead fish in the morning.

So when the alarm went off at 6, I got up like a dead fish and left in 10 minutes to start my 30 km drive home. Being winter, it was still pitch dark when I got out and reversed my car. Soon my favorite songs playing, I was congratulating myself for starting early as the roads were nearly empty.

There are a few diversions (very minor I must say) from Noida to Kalindi Kunj due to Metro construction, near the roundabout that has a road going to Greater Noida Expressway. I had to get on the Kalindi Kunj road. In the dark, I read a signboard saying no right turn and kept left.

I reached a well lit road and was a bit confused. I shrugged it off, thinking they have improved the lighting on the road. But the nagging persisted as the road was too wide to be the Kalindi Kunj road. Soon, a signboard (after about 1km) confirmed my doubts. It said Greater Noida X km ahead! I realized that I have taken a wrong turn and hit the Expressway.

Two options flashed through my mind. I could pull distress signal and drive on the wrong side of the almost empty road but I remembered a fatal accident on DND flyaway through the same action for some people and decided against it. I decided to drive ahead and wait for a U-turn. But obviously, they do not design highways for people with my sense of direction. I rarely look at the distance on my dial but I took notice this time. And I was still looking for a U-turn after driving 16 doubt-filled kilometers on the Expressway.

I saw a police vehicle and a few other stranded ones but decided against seeking help, it was still pitch dark and I did not feel overly safe in pulling over as I was alone. Anyway, I can say this much, the expressway is well laid out and you can easily reach the speed of 80km/hour without even noticing it.

So, driving at that speed, I finally notice a small break in the road that could be used for taking a U-turn. Then I started applying breaks and with my Maruti 800, I stopped about 15 meters ahead of the spot. I knew there was no one around for miles, so I reversed my car back to the spot and took that U-turn and started driving all those 16 kms back. Now that I knew I was headed in the right direction, and the highway was completely empty, for the first time in my life, I reached the speed of 100km/hour for about five seconds before going back to the regular 75/80.

After about 50 minutes and 32km of extra ride, I was once again on course. Drove for another hour to reach near my home. And this time they have changed the diversion near Uppal Orchid and ahem, I once again went ahead of the spot where I was to take a turn (I wonder if they are ever going to complete the Gurgaon-Delhi Expressway and stop changing the diversions every few seconds). But this time, just after 150 meters there was a U-turn. After sometime, I reached home, finally.

Husband had a good laugh on my account and I thought I would catch up with sleep for 45 minutes before I start for office. After 45 minutes I decide to call the office to say I am not coming (I could afford to do this because I had not taken an unscheduled leave in ages and there is no teaching right now). When I woke up again it was 2 in the afternoon!

So the lesson learned: Not start when it is dark even on a road I have taken a zillion times, because I am still not sure which turns to take even if there is even a hint of a diversion. How I hate road diversions!