My Drives!! Till now!!

Most of you might know but my 5 years of job and 2.75 years of driving my car, I have over 70K kms in my single hand driving!!
My all drives have a story of its own!! not all but I remember few important ones!!

First Drive.
I am in Hyderabad. 1st week of the car!! I call my friend Amit Prabhaker (AP) and ask him if he is free .............. a love this guy for this ............. always ready for going out!!
First trip started from Begumpet to Shameerpet ............. about 35 kms one side .................. we reached back Begumpet at around 5 PM!! but driving se pet nahin bhara!!
we looked at each other and thought ............ maza nahin aaya .......... lets go for a longer drive!! so we called our Local Colleague, Mr. Navneet Kumar Vooplanchi. Asked him ......... we wanna a slightly longer drive, what do you suggest?
He said ........... Nagarjuna Sagar Dam chale jaao ............... humne poocha ki kitni door hai? He said about 160 kms ........... we again looked at each other and decided that we will go .......... we were not close to our homes. Just asked Navneet the Highway that we need to take!!
with that information .......... we thought why to waste time to go home and pick clothes ......... decided that we would pick clothes, towels on the way ............ thats what we did!! Started at around 7PM and reached hotel at around 10 in the night!!
wonderful trip ............. almost 350 kms is what we covered!!

So, 1 trip to Nagarajuna Sagar Dam.
next trip to Machalipatnam from Hyderabad - 830 kms
next trip from HYD to Kurnool and Belum Caves - 750 kms
next trip to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam again with Mom - 350 kms
next trip from HYD to Srisailam with Mom - 550 kms
next trip from HYD to Machalipatnam - 830 kms again
next trip from HYD to Bangalore - 1200 kms
next trip from HYD to Bangalore again - 1200 kms

then I changed my job and came to bangalore ............ so travelled another 600 kms 1 way!!
I started from HYD at 6PM for Bangalore along in my car with my stuff stuffed in the car!! I was driving in the night on a lonely highway all alone!! ............... around 40 kms ahead of Anathpur ........ I see something moving on the road ............. I put multiple flashes, no reaction ............. I apply brakes n horn at full intesity ............. the car is screeching and honking and moving towards that moving object!! .......... it is an highway with barren land around!! .............. wow!! it is a villager crossing the highway as if he is walking in a garden ........... they guy does not hear the horn, nor the brakes, he ignores the light of the car as well ............. it is 9 in the night!!
boom ............. the guy gets hit first by the left bumper, takes a arial somersault, rests his hand on the corner of my windscreen ........... I see pressure of his hand cracking my car's windscreen .......... the crackes propogate through the complete glass and i start boiling .......... the guy takes another round over my roof and falls on the road ............ his villager friends come running .............. I stop my car ............. come out really smoking!! ............. his Hindi speaking friends tell me not to worry nor be afraid!! .............. I say, I am not worried or scared but feel like slapping ur friend ............. the guy is alive with some blood comoing from his head ........... I ask him and his family to sit in the car ........... took them to the hospital ............... drove back 40 kms to anathpur .................. with 7 people in the car apart from me .......... the car has capacity is what I realised then!! ................ got the guy checked at a small hospital then ............. my bank account was towards Chapter 11 (read about Lehman Brothers) .............. so on the way I called my friend sidgu in Bangalore who helped me and transferred some currency into my dry account ........... I paid the hospital bill ............ everyone except me got benefitted from this ........ the doc said that he would have to keep the guy under observation for 2 days ......... so I paid 2 days rent ............... they the villagers decided that they would like to take injured back home!! the guy was so damn drunk that he was drowsy even after 1 hour of accident ............ so the doc was not sure if medicines have worked on him or not!! so the doc earned his 2 days of room rent .......... i gave some money to the injured guy as he has small children at home!! ............ the guy had a dislocated clavicle (collar bone) ............... so I left him at his home and started my journey again by 1 AM .............. reached Bangalore at 3AM after actually killing a dog!!

So now I am Bangalore.

Once I reached Bangalore, my elder bro's marriage was round the corner ............ my mom did not deny my suggestion of getting my car for my bro's marriage ............ by the way the marriage was in Haridwar (Uttaranchal) .............. so my mom n my bro travelled to Bangalore and we started for Hardwar (or Haridwar).
The drive of about 2800 kms from Bangalore to Haridwar took 3 days .......... 3 nights sleep too ....... almost 36 hours of driving ............ Bangalore ---> Anantpur ---> Kurnool ----> Shamshabad ---> Hyderabad ----> Medchal ----> Nizamabad ---> Adilabad ---> Nagpur ---> Sagar ---> Jhansi ---> Gwalior ---> Agra ---> Delhi ---> Meerut ---> Muzaffarnagar ---> Roorkee ---> Hardwar
amazing drive ............. u wanna see India ............. take this drive!! you would again fall in love with India .........
touching 7 states and 1 Union Territory ............. karnataka > Andhra Pradesh > Maharashtra > Madhya Pradesh > Uttar Pradesh > Rajasthan > Delhi > Uttaranchal

and the the same drive back ............... so the round trip ................... total of 5600 kms!! drive of a lifetime!!

3rd weekend in Bangalore and I am pissed off with my stay in city over weekends ........... this time I have a time of 4 days ............. 2 holidays also with the weekend.
10 AM on Saturday morning .............. I am online, chatting with my first room mate in Bangalore, Sushant Pattnayak (SP) (who was not room mate that time) ................ we stay about 5 kms away from each other ............ then we chat on what are we doing .......... I tell him that I am getting bored ............ how about you?? SP is also getting bored ............. lets go for a drive ........... How bout Nandi Hills? SP says ................ thats like 70 kms roundtrip ............. bad idea ........... dropped ............. how bout Pondicherry? SP suggests again ................ no yaar ........... it will be hot this time ........... then where?? SP asks .................. how bout Goa?? .............. SP thinks for about 10 sec and then says .............. chal!! (I love SP too for this!!) ............. kitna rokra (money) lagega? I have only 2.5K in my A/C!! SP said .............. I also have only 4K in my A/C ........... lets go ......... so we decided to start by 12 noon.
While I am getting ready ............ I call Abhinav Banerjee (AB) and this guy has hats-off enthu .......... he says, OK .............. he gets another common friend Nikhil Singhal (NS) ready and we are off to Goa by 1 PM ............. amazing trip.
So round trips from Bangalore are:
BLR - Goa (SP, AB, NS) : 1500 kms
BLR - Belum Caves (Jibitesh Swain, Priyanka Panda, Nikhil Kumar): 500 kms
BLR - Coorg (JS, NK, Prabhash Jain) : 800 kms
BLR - Pondicherry (Swapnil Bhatnagar) : 900 kms (amazing drive on East Coast Road)
BLR - Yercaud (SB, AB, Rahul Godara) : 500 kms
BLR - Hampi (JS, SB, AB, Punit Sharda, Ashish Agarwal, Abhishek Thakur) : 850 kms
BLR - Bellary (JS, PP) : 850 kms
BLR - Hampi (with Mom) : 850 kms
BLR - Munnar (JS, PP, AB) : 1250 kms
BLR - Goa (JS, SB, Rajesh Pujahari) : 1500 kms
BLR - Wayanad (JS, PP, NS) : 550 kms
BLR - Wayanad (with friends) : 550 kms
BLR - Wayanad (with family) : 550 kms
BLR - Yercaud (SB, PS, RG) : 500 kms
BLR - Yercaud (with friends) : 500 kms
BLR - Yercaud (SB, PS, AB) : 500 kms
BLR - Goa (AB, Ankur, Salil) : 1500 kms (I hit my under chassis - Gear Box Casing)
BLR - Goa (SB, AB, Chetan Indolia, Ashit Baijal) : 1500 kms
Last drive from Bangalore is while changin my next job ........... so I again drove back to Haridwar to Delhi
BLR > Hyderabad > Nagpur > Sagar > Jhansi > Gwalior > Agra > Delhi > Hardwar > Delhi : 3000 kms

so lots n lots of driving till I was having my free bachelor life in hyderabad and bangalore.

Now I am in Delhi staying with my family ............. have I stopped?? No!!
I have been in Delhi to 2.5 months now (about 10 weekends), I have stayed in the NCR region for only 3 weekends ........... otherwise travelling ........ sometimes by car
Delhi - Haridwar (twice) : 220 kms
Delhi - Jaipur : 600 kms
Delhi > Lucknow > Gorakhpur > Allahabad > Lucknow > Delhi : 3000 kms

The last trip mentioned above we had another experience ............ my, my mom n my younger bro were driving from Gorakhpur to Allahabad in day time .......... due to road quality it took lot of time .......... so as sun went down .......... we touched the limits of the MOST NOTORIOUS AREA in India .............. AZAMGARH ............. and the experience in night on those road could be really sad ...............
I generally drive fast but safe (atleast I feel :-D) ............. so I was driving at 120 Kmph when I was trying to overtake from a black safari who suddenly turned right the moment I was crossing ........... i thought a typical road ego could have made this happen ............ so I sobered down by giving horn, flash and tried again ............ again the guy suddenly moved to right lane (road without divider) ............. then we realised that it was a convoy of 3 cars ............ 2 black n 1 white SUV ............. some different kind of numbers ...........
After few attempts we observed that they are driving in a formation with first car towards the extreme left, second car in the middle of the road and the last one on extreme right ......... the the last car used to come to left lane only when there is any vehicle coming from opposite direction.
So now as a humble guy i tried again .......... slowly ............. this time the window of the back seat on the left came down ........ and a face came out of the window and started observing my car and the number ( it is a AP registration vehicle) .............. still not realising the risk, I tried again ....... this time a nozzle of a typical long gun came out of the window along with the head (thank fully not pointing towards us) ................... we were then like ................ hang on!! ........... we slowed down our car like Delhi city limits and let those guys go ahead ............... creating huge distance ........... and only then we moved ............... so this is what I call as "Uttar Pradesh Experience"

In major changes .............. gear box casing changed ............. twice the wind screen changed (only 1 due to accident) ................ brake shoes (multiple times) ........... clutch and pressure plates .......... wiper blades ............ tyres .............. tubes .................. fog lamps (4 times) ............ side rear view mirror once!! so all in all a nice drive!!

- Any takers if I wanna sell my car?? ;-) though I dont intend to at all

Disclaimer:
The distances mentioned above are approximate and include local travel as well. I can not be hold liable for any misrepresentation of distances, if any. :-)