Cars and to a lesser extent 2 wheelers constitute my second nature.
From an early age I
have been very fond of cars, so much was the affinity for cars that my birthday
cakes were all car shaped cakes.
I began driving as
soon as I hit the legal age limit in 2003. But it was not until December 2009,
that I undertook my first road trip in the most humblest of cars the Maruti
800. It was an awesome learning curve, driving on the NH17 in the dark of the
night, with my Dad guiding me.
My first solo road
trip (without parents/guides) with friends was to follow soon. It was New Year
soon. This year our engineering buddy was spending the winter in Mumbai instead
of US. I knew it was great time to go on a road trip with friends. We decided
on Shirdi as I had been there a couple of times but never driven all the way.
Hotel reservations were made.
We four friends
Hemal, Kalpit, Ashish and me, decided to leave on 2nd January after lunch, hoping to reach our
destination right around dinner time. Plan was to get up and go for the Kakad
aarti held at 4 am in the temple the following day.
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Hemal has also
written a blog about our roadtrip. You can find his version at :
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Checklist items
ticked off :-
- Battery
- Brake oil
- Radiator coolant
- Engine oil
- Tyre pressure
- Fuel
- Couple of Gandhis, should I run into trouble.
- Munchies for the road ahead
We began at 3 pm and
I picked everyone up from their homes. We set sail and immediately were hit by
traffic at the Dahisar check naka. 2 hours thereon we just managed to steer
clear on the NH3. I have to say the NH3 and NH8 are best surfaces I have driven
on, this side of the expressway.
We were inching
toward our destination at steady pace of 80 kmph, stopped for tea and were
moving along when I started to feel the car dragging. The speed was decreasing
and the car literally began to die. Choking and stumbling until it came to a
halt in spectacular fashion with white smoke emanating from the hood near Asangaon. We pushed the car off the road to a small dhabba.
Tensed I called my
father and he advised to open the hood and let the car cool down. Meanwhile I
also called my mechanic, who asked me the symptoms and magically knew the
radiator fan had stopped working. He asked me to find a mechanic and callback
for the temporary solution.
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A radiator fan has a
thermostat attached, whenever the radiator temperature increases beyond a
cut-off, the fan runs to cool it down. In my case the issue was the thermostat
had stopped functioning.
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We let the car cool
and then started moving slowly forward to find a mechanic. It was 7 pm on a
Saturday and mechanic's were a rare commodity. I was mulling the option of
going back home. Fortunately luck was on our side and we soon found a mechanic.
The mechanic was directed and he clipped the radiator fan directly to my
battery.
He said that this
would work continuously and charged a mere 20 rupees. We set off once again and
confidently I pushed hard. We touched Nashik at 9 pm and found peace in the
Kamats restaurant. An hour later we started on the 90 km still ahead of us. This is part of the Nashik-Pune
state highway for some 30 km after which it is an internal road for the
remaining 60 km.
It was dark and I
had to drive carefully as there were no markers to indicate where the road runs
off. This is also the time when most tour buses heading to Mumbai have started
their return journey. It was a scary drive, judging the run-off areas on the road.
I did managed to scare everyone including myself once when the left wheels were
off the road and in the gravel. We did get some serious jolts which even woke
up Kalpit.
We reached Shirdi at
midnight, 3 hours behind schedule. We located the hotel and were in for a rude
shock when we were given shabby rooms instead of deluxe rooms that I had
booked. Kalpit was in no mood to sleep in the room assigned and he and the
others went to the reception and fought to get our deluxe room. Well worth as
we needed the 3 hours sleep to Kakad aarti.
We changed and slept
soon after. It was around 3:30 am, that we managed to drag ourselves out of bed
and got ready to go to the temple. We get there and began a 2 hour wait through
the long queue. It turns out we were super late and got to see the Kakad aarti
only on the installed tellies in the complex area. It was 6 am when we got
Darshan and by 6:30 am we were back in our beds.
We were travelling
back the same day (3rd January) and decided to leave after breakfast around
11am.
As Steve Slater (F1
commentator) always says - "the drama simply doesn't seem to end ..."
Surprises weren't
done yet. The car simply wouldn't crank up. It turns out the battery had
drained out powering the radiator fan.
We tried to find a
battery shop where it could be recharged. Being a Sunday two things happened
most repair shops were closed and even we managed to find one it turned out
that there was load shedding and it would be a couple of hours before the light
would return.
Trauma as one would
guess. Luckily we managed to find an enterprising chap who was in to make a
quick buck. He said "I'll jump start your car, you just prevent it from
stalling. Ultimately it will get charged on running a 50-60 odd km".
So there it was, he
cranked the car and we set off. This was the most nervous part of my journey as
getting out of a crowded town and getting to Nashik without stalling the car.
Dare it stall, we'd be stranded for God knows how long. Inching nervously, we
reached Nashik, found a mechanic and got a reading on the battery. Our troubles
were over, the battery was charged, enough to get us home.
Lunch was to follow
and Kalpit instead on a place that he had heard, but roaming the streets of a
unknown city proved to be futile and we didn't manage to find it. Time was
ticking and I wanted majority of the journey to be completed in daylight. So we
started on empty stomachs, cleared Nashik and found a rustic dhabba on the
roadside. Kalpit was apprehensive about eating there, but it was a very good
meal, as if blessed by God. Parathas , paneer subzi, dal tadka and jeera rice.
Its 4 pm and we have
to cover 150 km, I step on the gas and we are doing three digit speeds. Return
journey seemed fairly relaxed when the ever attentive Kalpit noticed the
temperature rising. Drama again. After what it had been through, the radiator
had developed a crack and was steadily leaking fluid. We waited for it to cool
and poured water to replace the depleted coolant.
We began in half an
hours time and were now moving at a fairly reduced speed. We reached home at
around dinner time.
The journey had made
us richer in our experience and we together braved some seriously scary
situations to triumphantly complete our road trip and a sighed relief went -
"All's well that ends well". Indeed.
