A Ride to Remember : Part 1

Mana, India's last village and our last destination. It's been more a week that we have been exploring different areas of Uttarakhand. A place referred to as Devabhumi (or Land of the Gods), has diverse flora, beautiful valleys, and many historical religious monuments. We had been mesmerized by the serene beauty of this place. If nothing less, it has been a real feast for our eyes. Every day has been a new experience for us. Every day has been a new beginning. But who, would have known that the journey which started as a spiritual expedition will be ending with an adventurous ride.

It was a fine sunny day when we left from Mana. I was accompanied by 6 of my friends in a pre-rented car. Everyone was tired and wanted this 12 hour long journey for Rishikesh (our way home), to end soon. Last few days has been challenging for us, sleepless nights, tough treks, few injuries, and what not. The enthusiasm with which this trip has started has now exhausted. Our driver who happened to be an outsider (like us) showed no interest to any of our queries. His red highlighted messy hair has outspoken his personality. We ceased our further inquiries for his obmutescence.


"Someone was playing a Bollywood romantic songs through his playlist."


The wind was blowing South one could feel, the humid! The overused seats of the car were effortlessly complementing the rocky roads of the valley. There was hardly any breathing space inside the car. With each sharp turn, I had to adjust my initial seating position. I was dozing to the uneven rhythm of the drive. 


"Driving through these valleys at night is highly dangerous."


I was brought to my senses by the sudden halt of the car. My drowsy eyes took an effort to establish the situation. 'Our car broke down'. Pissed by the situation, we settled in the nearby cafe to let our driver handle the issue. It was late in the afternoon. The Intensity of the sky was decreasing with each passing minute. It took us 1 hour to resumed our journey. 


"The Sun finally set."


It started drizzling. To kill time, we started playing Uno. The person seating at the front was constantly giving us updates on the remaining kilometers through online maps. It was still 40 km left for our destination. The road was quite and, we hardly saw any vehicle. There were few warning sign board at every turn which reads 'Landslide Zone'. Our car which was moving spiral to the mountain had a river flowing in the trench to the left. 


"Fireflies on our window"


Stop someone shouted. We looked outside everything was pitch, black. The headlights of our car had stopped working. There was nothing visible to our sight. 'Bhaiya light on karo' (Please switch on the light), we shouted. Sir it isn't working, he replied. The moment was scary. Middle of the road, deep in the valley with nothing visible and thunder.




to be continued...