Once upon a time not so long ago,
a boy decided to go on a trip with his friends. The idea was to experience what
made Mario jump around, and for this he needed mushrooms of high quality.
Destination: Kodaikanal. The not so young boy was a budding entrepreneur, in
near future to known as “the Devdas with many Chandramukhis”
.
The stage was set, the car was
booked, and 3 out of the 4 people travelling had reached Bangalore and were
ready to roll, when they received a call from the boy at 9:30 in the morning –
“Wadddap! I have just reached Bangkok. What’s happening people?”. Historically,
the boy(let’s call him Kemcho) claims to have been very regular and punctual,
always being there to pick up his friends from Kolkata airport and taking them
around, but his friends knew there was the dark side to the boy. He was not so secretly
known for his subtle but apparent ditching skills. That call took everyone by
surprise, the possibility of him not showing up increased many folds, but he
assured everyone that he will make it in time. As time passed his friends
waited, having a good lunch (kebabreez and butter chicken) followed by excellent
desert. 3:00pm the boy announced he had reached Kolkata. True to his word and
against his nature he caught first flight out to Bangalore and made it to the
meeting point at 10:00 pm at night.
Excited as ever, he claimed not
to have slept for 30 hours, and was extremely eager to get the car and start
the journey. As the gods would have it, things were not meant to be easy. As
soon as the people left to fetch the car, it started pouring. Braving against the
rain, the boys went and got the car. Formalities were completed courtesy a
Qatari passport of one person, signature of another and cc of the third. A
brand new ford figo, gps enabled (Thank god for that) and a music system.
And so the journey began. They
headed to Empire for a midnight dinner, Grilled chicken and kebabs do make good
journey starters. As they headed out of the city, they suddenly figured that
they couldn’t synch the music system with the phone (An iPhone, HTC one, and a
Google nexus 4) Big phones no music. So the engineers started working out on how to operate
the music system. 45 minutes and 50 km later, they had cracked the code. They
got music. The boy exclaimed, this trip marks his journey to “make out” for all
the time he had lost (There is no typo here, he was indeed out there to make out).
They drove fast and they drove
well, taking turns, enjoying music, the boy sharing stories of his happening
life and explaining nuances of the leather industry. 80km from kodaikanal they
stopped to refill. With Petrol filled in the car, they set off again. Soon they
were at the bottom of the hill. Driving on hill was a new experience,
especially when you start of the journey looking at some idiot who banged his
car at a curve (accident one), they
drove slow and steady, playing by the book, honking at turns, gaining confidence
with every turn only to find yet another accident, this time the car had
collided head on and was parked on the side. The roads narrowed out, and the
drivers exchanged. Kemcho took the
wheels, as they climbed to the top they witnessed yet another accident scene
and this was live, some guy driving a duster decided to take things to a next
level and banged an ambulance. Now they weren’t sure if the guy on stretcher was
already in that state before the ambulance got banged or if they just pulled
out the stretcher from ambulance and laid him on that after the accident. But
they drove on, witnessing guy taking shower in the waterfall. 5km from
kodaikanal....they reached silver falls. They had made it, as the boy had said,
he always managed to complete road trips without any mishap. Again and again he
had said it, for the others to gain confidence and here they were safe and
sound, clicking pictures at the falls, cherishing the moment.
They returned to the car, and
suddenly the world changed. The car wouldn’t start. Maybe battery went dead. They
tried jump starting it in reverse...nothing, pushing it forward on an uphill...nothing,
turning the car and forcing it to gain speed as it went downhill and shifting
gears...nothing. Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong. Maybe the engine
heated, but then it struck them, what if it was a bigger problem. They dashed
to check the papers of the car, flicked it across, and stared blankly at the
price of the car, at the small ‘D’ next to the name of the car. As the fact
dawned to them, the fear sunk along. It was a diesel car, they had managed to
drive 80 km in a diesel car filled with petrol.
They needed a mechanic. They were
stuck 5 km outside kodaikanal staring at an uphill drive. Zero possibility of pushing
the car, no language skills to communicate. And yet against all odds they found
a guy, a guy willing to tow the car. Let’s call him Dilshan, now that i think
of him he looked like Dilshan. And the tow started, slow and steady they
climbed, the driver, Kemcho’s friend (named kyunki going forward) suffered loss
of concentration, it was hard, for all the planning he had messed up and there
was always that fear of engine being seized.
They continued the journey, inch
by inch, no mishaps, no further mishaps and then came the slope, and the cops.
Dilshan sped up, then hit the breaks. Kyunki was too slow...CRASH, the
front bumper gone, liquid falling out of the car. People backed off from the
car assuming it to be petrol that was leaking. They were lucky this time. It was
only wiper water. Slowly they guided the car to the mechanics. The mechanics
looked at the car discussed among themselves (the boys could not understand) and
asked for 4500 bucks if they could fix it.
They were ready to pay. They needed the car to take them back. Kemcho
had an important business meeting 2 days later and he could not afford to miss
the flight.
They headed back to the villa. It
was well planned. It was a big place and had nice rooms. For all the troubles
they faced, the Kemcho was unfazed. He kept saying it was all right, there was nothing to worry about and they were In Kodaikanal for partying. And so it began, they had some awesome stuff , followed by
good lunch. Then a short nap. They went to the mechanics, those guys had the
car running, but demanded extra money. The boys obliged.
It was a legendary night. They laughed
about it, they drank to the fullest. One by one they went down or one can say
high. US boy spent hours in bathroom. It was a good night, a memorable one.
There was dancing and lot of chit chats. Kemcho had his moments as he went on a
spree with Rajni jokes and yes, everyone was so high that they actually loved
the jokes.
Next day, they went sightseeing,
following the jungle girl all the way down to Dolphin’s nose. It was tiring ,
especially the climb back. Kind of made people realize how unfit the world had
made them. Soon after, the return journey began. They drove back. There wasn’t
much to worry about. They expected to be fined for the bumpers. They were tired
from the trek. They just wanted to get back home. They reached back at 1 in the
night, grabbed stuff to eat at empire. The Kemcho took the first flight out.
Next day, at afternoon, the remaining
people of group went to return the car. It was not as bad as they had expected.
The argued, and they argued well. They were stranded in the hill, the other
options they had was to leave the car for the owner to come and pick up, They were
forced to cut the trip short and they convinced The car renters that it wasn’t their
fault and they had done all to ensure that the renters have minimum trouble.
They got a small refund.
The entire time Kemcho kept saying
“When all of this is over, we will laugh about this, and we will remember this falls and the trip as the time when we drove a diesel car filled with petrol and came back unscathed”
So true.
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