We left Goa at around 2330 hrs or was it 0000? I frankly don't know...because the girls were shaken up by the "autograph hunters" and we were busy commenting on the level until which people stoop... It was only when the driver stopped for fuel that we realised that we were actually headed home. We made ourselves comfortable in the Sumo, and Goks and Shan went to the front seat, giving the driver some "awakening" while Rupa and Santu settled themselves in the middle row with LT1. We put in all the tote bags between the spilt seats in the rear and made it into a flat platform. Ayhay alone sat on one end (there was no place for anyone else) and I and V sat opposite him, with our legs outstretched towards each other. The arrangement was quite fine, and we rested in the fact that Pune is only a night away.
10 minutes after the refuel, the problem started. The driver said he was not able to control the vehicle, as the power steering had failed. He was spinning the wheel, but the car wasnt turning. Few metres ahead, the brakes gave way. Now the car was stranded 10 kms from the fuel station, in the middle of nowhere. It was pitch darkness everywhere and the only sound was the distant hum of the lorry in the distance, which presented itself ahead on the curve a few moments later. Initially we thanked God that there was no rain. Me and Goks started to assess the damages. There was nothing on the road 5 kms on either side, even the nearest streetlight was 200 meters away. Ayhay was running a temperature. LT1 and LT2 were asleep. V was throwing a tantrum that she would not sleep. (She will kill me for writing this). There was a garage down the road, but no one there but a dilapidated old lorry in front of it. All Airtel phones were down. Idea was working on the road, but not on the footpath. The driver called up the owner, who asked him to check the battery, because the power to the power steering and power brakes had failed. After a lot of blah blah, he said he would go back to the fuel station where we had filled gas, and get some brake oil. So we flagged down a mini-truck and sent him along. And until he came, me and Goks were on the road, with a torch in hand, holding up the light everytime a vehicle came, to show them that there was a breakdown here, and they may pass with a considerable distance to spare. We were impressed with the way highway drivers responded by flashing their headlights dim as soon as they saw our flashlight.
Presently a policeman came along with his deputy in a bike. Thankfully he did not ask for vehicle documents or anything like that. He offered to take me in search of a mechanic, but he was not sure I would get one. The time by this time was almost 2. Anyway, I went along with him, and searched in a few garages, but there was no one. The cop suggested that we leave the vehicle and sleep in the station that night, and he would send across a jeep for us. But then, after hearing that there are ladies, the guy said you take the jeep and go along and find a lodge ahead.
The driver returned with the brake oil, and tried to do some magic, but the spirits were not on his side. By this time we had Santu up, and Ayhay too, and a few damage control tips from sleepy Rupa, and had collected V's phone (Idea). The driver led the Sumo a few yards ahead where there was a bus-shelter. He parked the car on the side of the road, well apart from the road, and went off to sleep in the bus shelter. We were standing there gaping at his action, and all he did was roll over and sleep. We took the hint, and Goks said, its almost 3, catch some sleep before it dawns. So Santu and Goks went to the bus-shelter to see some snaps on Santu's cell, while I climbed back into the rear seat with V. Ayhay reclined himself on the front seat, and the three remaining girls were in the middle row.
Then the rains started, and Santu came into the car, while Goks was in the bus shelter. But he started feeling suffocated, and he took the bedsheet and went back to the bus shelter, where he slept till 8 in the morning. The sight was awesome. Wearing an adidas T-shirt and Nike slippers, he was sleeping there, soundly, in a government bus shelter.
Goks, however kept circling the car, watching the Volvo buses rip by at breathtaking speeds. Whenever LT1/LT2 would let their heads slip out of the window, he would appear, pushing them back and rolling up the window glass. V was awake for a long time, but eventually, she also caught some sleep. At around 6, Goks came to me and said, "There's a shop there which will open soon". For a few minutes we searched out the surroundings. There were two-three shops interior of the road, on the other side, and one of them seemed to have some sort of chai-pani bandobust. A guy nodded when I asked him about some chai-pani, but when he opened shop, I could only see Haywards and Kingfisher. Back in the vehicle some of the girls had risen, Rupa being the first, and soon everyone was more or less up. Now, the girls started hankering for a proper place to "download", and we were like scouting around the whole place for signs of habitation. The whole place was almost up now, some people were waiting for the bus, and some others could be seen going somewhere with pails of water in their hands. The STD booth also opened up, and we started asking them about the availability of a mechanic, and of course bathrooms.
This place is around 30 kms from Panjim, and when I mentioned bathroom, people laughed. Literally. They said the "go into the fields". I promptly returned and gave the girls the reply. I also showed them the "fields". But you know girls, and like girls, they stepped up their hankering. So finally I had to flag down a lorry in the rain, and ask him to drop the girls, and me, at the next hotel on the way, which looked decent enough to have some "download center".
For what happened next, wait till the next blog.
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