Road Travel Conundrum

A new Indica car carrying three passengers was passing through the longest highway called Grand Trunk road also known as GT road, at about 0600 hrs. It was Kishore Kumar's song on the radio filling the silent and open road with melody.  The month was of March, but the winter cold breeze made its presence felt even in the comforts of the car.

The journey for a new beginning in my life started from my maternal home at Muzaffarnagar, I was about to tie Nuptial knot that day. Destination Dehradoon was about 147 Km and there were four other cars driven by my cousins and relatives. Just to reiterate few details here, the road was a single lane highway and potholes were in fashion during those days.

Back to the Indica car where I was joined by Rahul, Sonu, Sudesh(Sister's Husband), and the driver, we somehow were the last car of the family convoy. Preparations were proper and timed and we started post all the rituals in the temple, So it was a perfect itinerary executed by my younger cousin Rahul and blessings of Almighty.

Nothing could go wrong.

We were about to experience two of the Murphy's Law (an adage) 

 "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong".

Passing through Chutmulpur highway we felt the small thud and from the window of the car, I saw a tyre making a run for the group of people in the grass busy attending nature's call. What I could not deduce from the scene that our Indica was now a three-wheeler since the fourth tyre(wheel) must have had a disagreement with the other three and decided to go solo. 

Of course, the villagers were spared by the tyre 'devta', as we lived to tell the tale. 

How difficult will it be to find the repairman or the replacement car at 6 a.m.? with no means of communication, (Murphy's Law) never thought it was needed so the elders had all our mobile phone safely kept in their vehicle. Rahul started walking towards the nearest PCO which took about two km and sixty minutes.

And we saw a white Maruti 800 approaching us with several welding joints holding the chassis to the body and it is safe to say that except the horn whole body was musical. At about 0830 hrs we started towards our destination but soon realized this vehicle may not hold long on the serpentine ghats, somehow we made it to Roorkee and Dehradoon was still looking long and uncomfortable journey now.

We decided to get a different cab for the onwards journey, Let me also add the Subh-Muhurat (Auspicious time) for the marriage to take place was at 1030 hrs and it was already 10 and we were
70 km short, it was a hilly terrain which meant traffic and delay.

By this time all my family members and would be In-laws were sending people to check different approach roads to the highway and it meant two things either there was an accident or maybe the groom has runaway due to cold feet, latter one could have been the bride's family fear. 

Now it was time we experienced the second Murphy's Law:

"Shortcut is the longest distance between two points".

In the meantime, we decided a shortcut to avoid traffic and yes you guessed it right, trouble followed us in the form of traffic jam in the interior near an unmanned railway crossing. Twelve in the afternoon the wedding schedule must have been a miscalculation by the pandit or he was not paid well😆.

Finally, the road signs changed the name and we were in Dehradoon. As we made it to the ceremony, Josh of people and Bandwala both took charge, at about 0200 hrs that day I tied my knot with my better half Sushma.

Eighteen years ago, the most eventful beginning of our marriage, Since I made it to the venue although late,

I would like to repeat the famous dialogue from a Hindi movie:

"Ek baar jo meine commitment kar di, to mein apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta". 

Also Contributed by: 

Sushma 

Sudesh (Brother in law)

Anju (Sister)

Rahul (Brother)