It was 5'o clock in the office on 5th evening of the 8th month of the year two thousand and thirteen. only few hours left for the journey to start. I was very much excited due to two reasons, firstly i had not gone on a vacation for a very long time, secondly Amarnath, in itself, is more than just a pilgrimage. they picked me up in a white indigo at around 9 pm while the decided departure time was 8 pm. i met with Babbu (the third guy, who was lovely's friend) and satti (the driver..a so called singapore return). After settling down, we started chatting about the routine things. I chose to sit on the back seat to have a good sleep and moreover i did not want to adjust music or AC controls throughout the journey.
It was 3'o clock in the 11th morning of the 8th month of the year two thousand and thirteen i came back to my room. i was feeling sad again due to two reasons, firstly the splendid journey full of twists and turns came to an end secondly i needed to join office after few hours. a few lines ago, journey just started and now, journey has ended also. what a description to narrate a 5 days long adventure into just 5 lines by summing it up as splendid journey full of twists and turns. so let's roll back...
after travelling for whole night in the car, next early morning we reached a state called J&K. From now onwards, it was not easy to reach the holy destination. earlier also, when we started journey last night, we departed at around 9 pm instead of 8pm..the reason was the cab booked for around 5 days, denied to go along with us at the last moment due to his own some unavoidable circumstances and some other taxi was hired at the last moment only. Nevertheless, in Jammu, when all things were on track, we got another setback i.e. cab silencer got broke in midway and the singapore return driver had no tools to repair the same. on highway we borrowed some basic tools from a fellow truck driver to remove the silencer itself because there was no workshop to get it repaired.
Still we were in the awe of travelling in a car without silencer on hilly roads, Babbu noted some smoke coming out of the bonnet. we stopped immediately and got out of the car. it was green colored coolant which was bubbling out like anything due to heat. for me it was a new sight to watch. others were experienced in driving a car so they knew about the problem. somehow we cooled down the engine by putting plenty of water. we lost lots of time in between before finally starting our journey once again. it was getting dark and we needed to stay at srinagar as we had passes for Baaltal route where we could reach only through Srinagar. we had covered few kilometers only that yet another problem welcomed us and this time a bit serious one. Driver complained of break fail while escaping from an accident. WTF...in middle of high mountains, steep turns and sloppy ground, how could one think of driving a car without breaks.
we managed to find a small mechanic shop nearby and after screening he told us to rest for one hour or so coz car break oil was not working due to excessive heat and engine also need some rest as we were travelling for last night continuously. By this time we got to know that we had made a mistake by hiring that car for the reasons that driver was not experienced for mountainous routes, car was not serviced etc. after taking required hault, we started again keeping slow speed and regularly monitoring heat meter. we reached srinagar safely around 9 pm and decided to stay in srinagar only and leave for Baaltal next early morning.
To be continued...
Regards
Parul Goyal
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