The ENDless journey...

After the visit to the Ganga, I felt that my trip to Haridwar was not so worthless after all. After i came back to the hotel, I had some good food and slipped into the blanket. There was some movie coming on TV but the walk and the crowds and all that excitement drained the life force out of me. I was in deep slumber, dreaming about the shit load of work I had to do after I returned to Vizag, when my uncle interrupted my beautiful slumber. I woke up sleepy eyed. It took quite sometime for me to get back my surroundings into focus. Time was 3.00 AM. MY uncle was telling me something about getting to Delhi fast so that we could get my brother to a better hospital in case he didn't get better. I went, took a bath and dressed my self in a t-shirt and a short. The driver took sometime to get ready. So, 3.45 AM we said good bye to Haridwar and took to the roads. Again, the roads were uninhabited. The driver was zooming away as he was on roads very familiar to him. Roads on which he took thousands of tourists. As we were cruising at top speed, our journey was interrupted by a road block. The guard was looking sleepy was a bit irritated when the driver approached him to ask some information on what new route we had to take. He spilled out some random directions and identifications most of which I was not able to catch. But the driver looked convinced and confident as ever and was again zipping through the cold night ( didn't know how it was outside because of the AC. Brr!!) the night looked perfect as we passed on countless intersections, small villages and places that looked unaffected by time. It was beginning to took all comfortable. Then, we approached this junction which was blocked because a rock slide took place somewhere and it was too dangerous to go that way. We then entered this diversion which was a huge industrial settlement. I was hypnotized by the huge chimneys glittering in the neon lights of the street. The whole place was very well maintained with perfect roads and if it was not for the street signs, we would've definitely lost our way. It was here that our relatively inexperienced driver made a mistake. He took a wrong turn that took us to a mud road that passed though a small village. The road was built for people to walk and was not that helpful for our car which was groaning to pass through the innumerable pot holes on the road. After a while we convinced ourselves that we were lost. The time was about 5 o clock. We were desperate for help when this milkman boy popped out of nowhere. He guided us though the network of mud roads and then, soon we were back on the highway. He refused the money we gave him, saying that he was performing his moral responsibility. I looked at the boy who was about 15 years old, refusing the 150/- that my uncle offered him. I felt proud! My uncle was filled with admiration. The driver was shocked. The situation didn't get any better on the highway. We were still not sure about the route. As dawn approached, we were still passing through Uttarkhand. Nevertheless i was still taken by the beautiful surroundings we were passing through. Tall trees that grew for hundreds of years. The lush green fields and the occasional petrol bunks scattered here and there. The time was about 6 AM. My bro was still down with severe stomach ache. But, luckily the pills put him to sleep so he was not really aware of the long journey we were taking. At six, hunger pangs started giving ME a stomach ache. My uncle was reluctant to stop for breakfast. So, we stopped at this small store and i got myself a big bag of uncle chips, a pack of good day biscuits and a bottle of chilled slice! I was not complaining anymore. Just as we are hopeful that we were back on the correct road, there was a huge traffic jam at this place called sharanpur. The time was about nine in the morning. We took a huge detour. The driver did a smart move and asked a farmer sitting nearby about an alternative route. He suggested us a 50 KM road through a set of paddy fields. That part of the journey i can never forget for the rest of my life time. We just went on and on. I guess i saw half of rural UP. The sun was blazing so much that we were sweating in the AC.
We were beyond pain by that time. At 10.40 AM we saw a street sign suggesting that Delhi was 39 KM away.
We didn't have much time to rejoice. We entered the outskirts of Delhi at 11.25 AM. The midtown delhi traffic proved too much for our already about-to-break patience limits. There were traffic jams for every ten minutes. It was twelve by the time we reached our hotel. We were numb from the journey. We ate our lunch in silence and then i don't remember. It was a total blackout! I passed out! :P

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