Day 3 of the Great Indian Road Trip to the Himalayas with the Roadaasura and the Beast

Day 3 - April 5, 2013

Guna to Karnal

3:55 pm to 3:55 am

The day dawned early for us. As we were very tired the previous night we slept like logs in Hotel Sara that we had checked into the previous night. The Hotel was very good and comfortable. We got up a little late at 7:00 am and got ready. We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and Ashok set out to the Rishab Auto the service centre of Mahindra motors in Guna. Ashok’s friend Anand who is the DGM of India Garage had called his counterpart, Archana Dixit at Guna and intimated her about the urgency of the situation. Both her and the works Manager Ankit Pachauri took special interest in our situation and started work on our car with all the mechanics at their disposal.

Me, Apsara and Amrita stayed in the hotel room. I took the time available to post my first day’s post on fb.
It was 2:30 pm and Ashok called to tell us to have lunch. We had packed and were all set to leave. So we went to the restaurant and had very tasty lunch and also got some lunch packed for Ashok. We checked out of the hotel and brought all the luggage downstairs and sat down to wait for Ashok.  Ashok returned with the car at 3:50 and we finally set out of Guna at 3:55.

Again we were driving through the crazy MP roads. The two-laned roads that had no road divider. People walking on the roads, sitting on the roads. Trucks and buses. I noticed that the number of private cars was very less throughout MP as compared to other states. I wondered whether the state of roads was the reason for hte less number of private cars or the less number of private cars was the reason for the state of the roads.

We encountered quite a few traffic jams that were very peacefully sorted out by the MP walas. Whenever there was a traffic jam, there was no honking as is common in Bangalore, no shouting, no fights, did not see any traffic policemen or regular policemen. The people, usually a tempo driver or a truck driver or an auto driver took the initiative and the traffic jam would get moving slowly but surely.

5:45 pm                : Gwalior 117 km away

6:00 pm                : Gwalior 105 km away

1^st Fuel fill up stop            : 43.87 lts             : Rs. 2349.67       Trip metre 1995 km

8:40 pm                : Crossed Gwalior             : roads are still bad          : Agra 104 kms away

9:20 pm                : Agra 64 kms away          : Roads are amazing now. 4-lane with divider.

Finally we were back on 4-lane roads. The roads had road divider. There were signs at regular intervals and reflectors and early warning systems. We were finally relieved to be out of the mess that we had inadvertently got into from Adilabad and were in for the past 48 hours.

10:00 pm              : Agra 27 kms away

10:20 pm              : Had very tasty Kulfi at Agra

we were so happy to finally be o good roads that we decided to celebrate by eating some Kulfi. We found a very nice Kulti cart and had two Kulfis each as a mark of victory over uncertainty and unpredictability.

11:15 pm              : Entered Yamuna Express Highway         : Delhi 197 kms away

11:20                     : Toll Stop            : Rs. 320

It was beautiful to drive through the Yamuna Express Highway. It is a 6-lane international standard highway and a sheer beauty to drive on. We were cruising along and Ashok surprisingly maintained a steady 100 km/hr because the signs kept reminding at regular intervals that the speed limit was 100 km/hr. Ashok was getting sleepy and the kids were fast asleep on the back seat. I kept cracking lame jokes and kept a chatter going to keep Ashok awake.

When it became really unbearable, he stopped at the exit point. We ate the left-over food from Hotel Sara. It was still tasty and the kids also woke up to have a share of their bite as well. Suddenly three dogs came charging out of nowhere smelling the food and we had to keep shooing them away continuously. It was surprising to see dogs on Yamuna Express Highway.

We started again and soon entered Delhi at 2:15 pm.

2:30 am                : Fuel fill up         : 34.74 lts             : Rs. 1684             : Trip mileage 2418

Navigating through Delhi was tough as we had to drive through Delhi to reach the Karnal – Chandigarh highway. We crossed Delhi at around 3.30 pm and drove on the Karnal road. We started hunting for a hotel to stay and found that all the ones on the highway were full and did not have any rooms. Ashok was really sleepy and could not drive any more. After the Shock absorber spring breaking episode at Bangalore and the Alloy wheel breaking episode at Guna, we had the third road trip experience. Ashok drove into a petrol bunk and parked the car under bright lights. At 4:00 am we closed all the windows and locked the doors and slept in the petrol bunk.

On this day Ashok became ROADAASURA from Monster Driver.