There's nothing like a good road trip

As I was scrolling through my snaps uploaded on the Net, this one caught me. We took this pic while coming from ISM to Calcutta after the convocation, travelling on the GT road, thanks to Sher Shah Suri. This post is an account of that trip.

Well, from the beginning. Convo was on friday, March 30th 2007. We took the degree in the afternoon, then partied all night, with Hard Booze and Hard Rock. Wish i could write more about it, but really dont remember much (He He He...)

Anyway, we got up, one by one saturday morn after the wild night... hangover all over us, head throbbing. We were supposed to get back to Calcutta Saturday evening.... The last train which we could have taken was gone at 11:00 am .... I was one of the few ones somewhat awake by that time ...... sitting on the floor (All 6 were in one cagey hostel room, somehow ended there together.... some poor junior had been kicked out, cant remember who...Sorry dude)

Outside, Juniors were yelling at the mess workers to bring LEMONADE for us .... thank God for that ... we were all so groggy, and smelled of sweat and liquor (Thank God nobody puked)

Now, we're all looking at each other like mentally retarded creatures. Nobody has a clue what to do Nxt. Ridiculously Mind Blowing Jaikishan Jalaan looked as absent minded as usual, Chetan still snoring abnormally loud, sleeping with his mouth open, Shaitaan Bhoshi nd his sutta huddled cozy in a corner, Gupta with his typical scornful facial look,disgusted at everything that is wrong in this world, Si--ha--g looked like he's thinking really hard on something and DJ ParagLaal Victor Stone Waale listening insanely to a shit song I'm a freebird.

Then finally Lord of the Chill (Pulkit Goel - The CHOJAN one) enters the room ...... slam, the door opens.

"oye bhoffadi**** , kab tak maraane wale ho yahaa, kya karna hai, utho saalo"

There he was, all dressed up (God knows how). The Bang ! on the door woke up Chetan Chaat Masaalaa, and made others sit straight. It was around 11:20 am.

And then, I made my move.... I'd been nurturing this thought ever since some of these guys had taken a roadtrip back and forth Delhi-Jaipur...........so I said casually"Lets go by road"

Immediate sounds of dissent followed. Skeptical murmers , which died down quickly. And the numbness again. I spoke again "The Nxt train is at 4:30 pm. wanna reach cal at 10:30 pm, Huh?"

And then the unthinkable happened.....Shri Shri Mad Bhagwat eternally frustrated faridaabad ke Bade gharaane wale Mahaa-Matiyaau GuptaJi rose to the occasion. He said "That sounds OK, lets find out" He went with Pulkit to arrange the ride. And we all went back into our cozy slumber, after all, we had sent Two mighty Baniyaas to negotiate a deal, what was there to worry .....

There was a frenzy of phone calls btwn them nd us .... to get everyone agree on the cost, to get the jerks like Chetan out of bed......... Then around 12:45 pm came their final call "All set, Rs 3500, AC Sumo with Muzik, we leave at 2 pm"

We were all OK. What other choice did we have. In fact, we were all simply tooo lazy to bother. Jackie got this thing of goin in Shatabdi at 2:30 pm, but the cost ws same as a Roadtrip.... so we made him give up.

All set nd done, we left ISM at 3 pm, after the awesome lunch in our beloved mess .... Nice hot sun, nice cool AC ..... and Bottles of Beer. Of Course, we were all Engineers who spent 4 years in a Hostel ... what else can anyone expect ????

Now anyone reading this must be thinking how the hell could things go so smoothly ?? Guess what, the Muzik system didnt work. We all got angry, after all, how can you not have a Rock song being played all the time on a road trip? That's insane....

And then I heard one of the most ridiculous arguments of my life "Saab aapne poochha thaa ki CD Player hai ki nahi, to wo to hai....aapne poochha hi nahi ki chalta hai ki nahi"

We were all stunned momentarily. The Twin baniya Brigade had let us down. But the driver gave this argument with such innocence and sincerity that we all laughed till our stomach ached...and all was hunky dory.

We sang songs, stood in a line to pee simultaneously on the roadside, Had serious discussions about life and death, about Girls and careers, And even jumped merrily on a stack of Hay kept roadside as fodder for a bunch of Buffalos. Roadside naashtaas, secrets of past year at the jobs being revealed....... It was tooo good.

Now we came to the outskirts of Calcutta ...... Then the question arose

"What do we do now"

We had the whole evening to kill..... DJ Victor wanted to goto Tantra, Bhoshi had to go home, Myself Chill n GuptaJi wanted to have a nice dinner (With Booze, Of course) ..... and then follwed the heated arguments.

But a quintessential Planner like me knows it too well that things seldom work out when thought too well.........the killer Kolkata traffic ruined our plans .... frantic phonecalls were made to all concerned, but the damn traffic.......with the Heat and the Sound and the Dust.

Finally, as destiny had it, we landed up at Park Street........ Said TATA-BYE BYE to the Sumo, had dinner and eventually landed at Buddhi's and Sihag's homes...... and that was the end of a long, eventful ride on the road........

Quote:

~ Its the journey that you will remember, not the begining, not the end ~

Just for the Record:
1. Ladhe, we missed you
2. My NickName is Bhale / Ankit Spam Bhalerao SK