The Start-
It just happened to be one of those things that I got on without planning. No kidding. If I had thought about this a wee bit more I might have backed out. And as it turned out it was better than most of my well planned trips. Actually a truly memorable experience.
So I packed my bag, printed out the first driving direction that google spit out, filled up two bottles of water (the only edible thing I carried) all in 30 minutes and started on a journey I never imagined I could embark on all alone in a car (a six year old wagonR) that many, including me, would have thought is a little misfit for such a trip.
It was around 4:30 in the afternoon when I left home and headed towards Darjeeling More, filled up my car's gas tank at Mahananda petrol pump and yes didn't pick up beer on the way (was too eager to get out of the city and get the journey started).
The first (fortunate) miss-
I didn't care to look at the maps until I was about 10 kms past the Bagdora airport, being so sure in my mind that this was the route that would take me to Delhi. When I did, I realized that I was already off the Google driving directions. Google suggested that I should have headed straight from the Bagdogra junction towards Naxalbari/Kakarbhitta on NH-31C. I'd rather driven towards the airport on NH-31. So I stopped by to ask someone if this road will take me to Patna (the first of the many GPS checks that I'd have to make enroute) and getting an answer in the affirmative I continued on that road more because I didn't want to turn back 12-13 odd kms in the first 25 that I had traveled and given that I'd started as late as 4:30 pm, turning back would mean loosing half an hour though it was all in the mind at that time cause I had no clue how this route compared to the other one in terms of length and quality of roads.
Anyhow, as it turned out this was best thing that could have resulted out of an error cause the route pointed by Google though about a 100-150 kms shorter in length would have been a difficult one to navigate given that they aren't the major highways and pass through areas unsafe at night. If I had taken that route I would have been forced to eventually merge on NH-31 at some point.
So, I continued driving and hit the first major town on my route- Kishanganj. Beyond that the drive to Purnia was quite uneventful with only the occasional need for a GPS check. Here I hit the first patch of bad roads which lasted about 5-6 kms.
Didn't miss the sense of occasion -
It was a very rare night in terms of celestial activity. A blue moon new year's eve with a partial lunar eclipse to be seen between 10:45 pm and 2:30 am. I had read in the news earlier that day that such a coincidence had not occurred in the whole of 20th century and will not occur again until 2028. I'd imagine that I wouldn't be embarking on such a drive any more frequently than that. Or maybe :)
So while driving I had kept checking on the time and the moon which could be seen from my side of the window. The moon was visible till about 10 pm and with me constantly moving west during that time I realized that the sky was getting cloudy. Soon the moon was no longer to be seen and the thought of having a good look at the phenomenon turned into a disappointment specially when I knew I would be driving all through the duration of the eclipse.
Entering Bihar -
In the meantime I had crossed Purnia and was on my way to Patna, the next big city and only Barauni falling in between that I had ever heard of before. It was well past dinner time for most even though it was new years eve. I realized few people had any interest of the occasion in these remote areas than one would see in bigger towns and cities. The streets were deserted and I could sense little activity anywhere else. As the night wore on, the traffic almost completely disappeared and that helped me cruise past the many villages that my route wound through. Even with a few patches of not so smooth roads I was maintaining a good average. The same route at day time would have taken almost twice the time it was taking me then.
Dinner time -
It was almost 11:15 when I stopped for dinner at a restaurant which appeared to be the best of the lot since I started looking out for one. And a new year party was going on in the rear part of the building. I walked over to the desk and asked if I could get some food. They restaurant was all but shut down. The guy said he could arrange for something so I ordered from the brief verbal menu that I was asked to choose from. Later when I went to check on the hungama going on in the back I realized that I was served from the buffet spread for the party. Nice eh !! It was an all-male celebration, drinks flowing freely, tandoori chicken being the prominent among all snacks and bollywood numbers playing on a biggish screen with all chairs turned towards the screen. After my hunger subsiding meal I spent a few minutes talking to the guard hating to drive right after a meal. But the chill in the air soon forced me into the car and on the road once more with a plan to halt at a road side hotel somewhere near Patna.
Looking for my first halt (had to be before Arrah)-
At around 1:30 I reached Patna, having covered a total of about 475 kms till then. I continued looking for a hotel to stay and soon had crossed the city without finding one. I was still hopeful of finding one on the highway ahead and didn't want to turn back and head towards the city.
I knew I had to inquire someone on a place to stay but at that time of the new year's night there were very few on the road and even less were those still sane enough who I thought could potentially guide me. After looking around for a while I pulled up by the side of a Maruti van and asked the driver. Though he didn't have a confident definite answer for me, he did warn me that it wasn't safe to drive through that part of Bihar alone so late at night and under no circumstance should I drive beyond Arrah which was another 60km ahead. He said he was himself headed towards Arrah and offered me to drive together. More than anything else I suspected that guy himself, now that he knew I was alone and a stranger to this place. I thanked him and said I was good to drive alone and that I surely won't drive beyond Arrah. So I continued hoping to find a place to stay soon. I'd driven almost another 35-40 kms from that point getting restless and a bit nervy about not finding a place to stay and being keenly aware that Arrah was not too far away when I finally spotted a lodge. This was some place between Maner and Koilwar on NH-30. It was almost 2:30 when I stopped. I rang the door bell, banged on the iron door, repeatedly until I got a response from 1st floor. He heard my request and offered to send someone downstairs. At Rs 250 I was offered a room for the night, probably the worst room I'd slept in as long a time as I can remember. This is all looking back cause then I was glad and quite relieved at finding one no matter how bad. In all I had driven for 10 hours and covered around 530 kms in the first stretch and ready to get some sleep. I planned on resuming my journey by around 10 in the morning so that would roughly give me about 6 hrs of sleep.
Day 2 (Maner/Koilwar to Kanpur) -
6 hours of sleep ... wasn't to be. Slept in installments through the night and couldn't beyond 8:00 in the morning. Ran around the housekeeping staff for half an hour to get a bucket of hot water (luke cold is what I got) and a soap for which he insisted on getting Rs 6 even before I was served. Anyhow I was out of that place by around 9:30 for the second leg of my journey.
Drive through history -
The drive till Arrah during the day had nothing much to write about except for the bridge that I had to cross some 15 odd kms before reaching Arrah. Driving through the bridge had a very old world feel in it. The lanes were just wide enough to allow one vehicle at a time and just high enough to allow a truck to pass through. The way traffic was regulated through it made it clear that the authorities had concerns about the strength of it. Measured it to around 1.5 kms. Later figured out from wikipedia that this bridge is called Koilwar bridge and was over the river Sone. A two tier steel rail-road bridge constructed in 1900 by the Britishers with the two lane road running under the rail tracks. Sand mining near the pillars of this old bridge has created structural problems recently .. huh!! Interestingly this bridge features in the film Gandhi.
Koilwar Bridge:
A memorable stretch -
Soon after I crossed Arrah and from there on till Mohania it was a two lane highway (NH-30). Though it was an undivided highway, the traffic was minimum, the road was decently tarred and there were paddy fields on both sides right up to the road with dense trees lines up by the road side all along. This stretch was swift if not express and thoroughly enjoyable. I still have the memories of this part so vividly fresh in my mind. Can almost feel driving through it. Looking back I'd say this stretch was amongst the most memorable one though there were roads ahead and earlier that were far more comfortable. I was able to clock an average of 60km over the next two hours or so that it took me to cover this part.
Check out the Google terrain view of this stretch:
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On G.T Road, Entering U.P -
Mohania, the last major town in Bihar, was the point where I touched NH-2, more popularly know as the G.T. Road, the longest highway in India. As soon as I touched NH-2 I knew what lay ahead and started recalculating my estimates of reaching Kanpur. And true to my expectations the road didn't disappoint me all through. Was 4 lanes and shoulder space if not six lane for most parts. Very smooth almost throughout. So true that it started getting a little boring at times. But the music on my deck gave me good company during this time. This was when I could enjoy the music with minimum distraction in terms of traffic and outside noise. I was averaging well above 70 and in an hour or so I had reached Varanasi.
Chance to catch up with a friend -
After I'd crossed Varanasi I calculated that I'd be in Kanpur no later than 7 pm and its then that it struck me that I had a good opportunity to catch up with my old pal, my drink buddy in Guwahati, Kapil Khemka. I immediately called him up, really hoping that he would be in town while the phone rang. When he answered - my first question - "Kaha hai tu?". Was relieved to hear that he was in town.
"Tu Kanpur aaya hai kya".
"No will reach by evening"
"Kaun si train se aa raha hai"
"I am coming by road"
"Kaha se"
"Siliguri se"
"Itna lamba journey .... and a few expressions of amazement.
So we decided to meet that evening over dinner and I'd imagined a couple of drinks was very much due.
Imitating the west -
Anyhow, I continued on NH-2 and again averaging above 70 I reached Allahabad in less than two hours from Varanasi. The drive wasn't much to talk about expect that it was smooth and comfortable.
Beyond Allahabad, the road became even better. I could take a bypass and head straight to Kanpur through the outskirts of Allahabad. The highway now was designed on very much the likes of what we get to see in US. Overhead bridge for cross traffic. Clover leafs exits and entries. Gas, hospital, hotel signs similar to what we see in US before exits. Even the sign for the next exit would be marked 1.5 kms before rather than 1 or 2 kms. I couldn't help realizing that 1.5 kms was closer to a mile than the km(s) itself. As if in their enthusiasm to copy they decided the exit should be marked as far as they are in the west. Well to give them the benefit of doubt and be more reasonable, maybe 1 km isn't long enough to alert the driver of the next exit. This part of the drive did keep taking me back to some of those that I had taken in the US. Only the car here was much smaller and I was on my own. As far as I can remember only once before I've been out of town on a drive alone - the one I took from Siliguri to Kalimpong. 150 kms roundtrip. But the sweet thing there was I started after 9 at night and drove for the next 3 odd hours through the hills to reach Kalimpong way beyond midnight and had to struggle to find a hotel like I did last night. Anyhow that part was a bit off-track.
Not a good sight, eh -
The highway between Allahabad and Kanpur though top notch, I saw the maximum number of accidents on this stretch. All of them involving trucks and except one (which had collided with a car head on) going bust solo. Was hard to understand so many accidents on such a good strip. The only reason I could attach was the trucks are not really good at handling the speeds that the drunk drivers might have been tempted to test on such good roads. One would imagine how did the truck collide with the car head-on on a divided highway. Well yes, people in these part of the world are insane enough or smart enough depending on whose side you are looking from to drive on the wrong side to save some distance/time. And its a very frequent thing. Pretty much the only thing I had to watch out on these highways.
And talking about accidents there was one that I saw happen right in front of me and was very terrible indeed. The highway was passing through a small town and driving 20 meters ahead of me where two men on a bike with a child in between. Of course they weren't wearing helmets. And for no good reason the guy was driving very close to the divider. I don't know what happened, if there was something on the road or the guy got too close to the divider, the bike lost its balance, good speed at that and the pillion was thrown on the divider. The driver and the child was on the road. I curved left and stopped by the side. Before I could get out of my car there were already two more people by their side. The guy on the divider wasn't moving, the child crying furiously though miraculously he looked quite unharmed and the driver lying on his back holding on to his leg writhing in pain. Looked like he almost had a leg bent backwards. I was caught in a few moments of indiscretion. Wanting to go out and offer help but realizing that I was in a remote area all alone and have heard of horror stories of police harassment in such cases. Just then one guy from the crowd that had by now grown to half a dozen started staring at me in a way that was hard to judge. Was he looking at me with an expectation of getting help or was he getting an idea that I had anything to do with the accident was hard to tell. The later thought instantly made me start my car and head away though with a feeling of guilt that maybe I should have offered help given that I was the first car following that bike and the only one that was available. I checked on my rear view and saw those people trying to stop an auto on the other side of the road. That gave me some relief and I kept driving on though I was completely shaken off. Couldn't get the episode off my mind for quite sometime.
Halt at Kanpur -
The road continued smoothly till Kanpur and I was in the periphery by 6:30 and at a hotel on Mall Road before 7. So, another 9 hours of drive today covering around 550 kms. Kapil had got caught up with some guests being the 1st of Jan and knowing he would be a little late coming I went out on the Mall Road, walked around a bit, grabbed a quick bite and was back at the hotel to get some rest. No sooner than I lay on bed I was in deep sleep and probably snoring too. The tiredness of the last two days and lack of sleep previous night had caught up with me. The next thing I realize that its almost 9 and Kapil was on my door, my cell not reachable for some reason. We had a good long chat, catching up on all these years since we last met.
Day 3 (Kanpur - Delhi)
Next morning I checked out of the hotel around 9:30 and figured that a good blanket of fog had enveloped Kanpur. Wasn't the norm I was told and was the first of the season.
Getting back on NH-2 -
I figured out that I have to finding a connecting road and get back to NH-2 even if that means loosing an hour or two. So after traveling for about 160 kms on NH-91 and having crossed Bewar some 10 kms back I took the connecting road to Shikohabad. That connection which was around 65 kms and took me around 80 minutes got me back on NH-2 and was a relief. At that point I estimated that if I had taken the NH-2 straight from Kanpur I would have been at Shikohabad 2 hrs earlier than I actually did and saved myself a lot of bad roads.
The last leg -
Anyway from here on it was smooth sailing except for a couple of intersections that I had to wait on while crossing agra. I did make a halt at the famous Panchi shop to pick up a few boxes of Peta. The kind of rush you find here all the time really amazes me (the owner literally mints money just selling Petas). And as much amazed I was seeing how people forget all sense of civility over a thing as trivial as a Peta. I continued towards Delhi, enjoying my Petas, the only thing I'd eaten that day. I realized fasting when on a drive was much much easier than if I am at home and specially if it is a work day (Over the last couple of years working from home has really got me into munching all through the day). Not long after, at around 7 pm I was on the outskirts of Delhi and beyond that it was the usual Delhi traffic until I reached my destination, my brother's place in Dwarka around 9 pm. The last day turned out to be my longest drive, being on the road for over 11 hours covering around 520 kms.
Huh, I really made it. In all I drove for 30 hours covering almost 1600 kms. The sense of achievement couldn't be missed. The trip can't be forgotten. The range of emotions that I went through, from doubt, pain, anger, anxiety, fear, guilt, frustration to joy and exhilaration, and that special feeling for someone which can't be described, all in one trip was quite striking.
Route Taken -
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Route Should Have Taken -
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