An Epic Road Trip-Part 2

Jude was a bit reluctant and argued with them to let us go because we were already very much behind schedule but the Police were reluctant to let us go. What made them suspicious was that we didn’t have any luggage for such a long journey. SK was going to Trivandrum only for the weekend so he didn’t have much luggage with him. Both me and Arun just had a small bag with our clothes. They felt that something somewhere didn’t add up. Arun was wearing a black Lungi and Superman T-shirt. Jude and myself were in our slacks which didn’t give an impression that we were on a road trip. SK was the only guy who was properly dressed. Finally I had to call up a friend of mine from my IAS coaching days in Delhi who was currently an I.P.S officer in Karnataka to let us carry on with our journey without any further delay.

We decided to take it slow so as to get over the harrowing experience and stopped the car to get some tender coconut water. Arun struck up a conversation with the Lorry driver and even got him tender coconuts to be allowed to take some photographs in his Lorry.

 
  

  

Finally in the evening we reached Bangalore. Our dear friend Rakesh a top notch lawyer came to us with food to show his support and wish me luck. We saved a lot of time because of this and were off to Cochin driving through the night. As a matter of fact we had covered close to 1500 kms in little above 24 hours. In the wee hours of Sunday as they dropped me off at my Uncle’s place in Cochin it was a job well done and would later go on to be known as “The Cochin Job” in the lines of the Italian Job.

On the way back there was just one driver Jude and gradually the arduous journey started to take a toll on him. Now for the uninitiated it has to be noted that Arun hardly knew driving at that point of time and didn’t even have a driving license. The Lawyer who got 3 of us to undertake this crazy journey decided to try his luck to persuade Arun to take up the wheel for some time so that he could rest. Moreover, there was a 200 km 4 lane stretch ahead.

  

Understandably Arun was fast asleep, slowly Jude parked the car to the side of the road and woke up Arun . With a fair bit of coaxing and cajoling Jude managed to convince Arun to take up the driver’s seat .Jude in the meantime was cheeky enough to hand over the steering wheel to him and go to sleep for a considerable amount of time.

At one of the Toll Plazas in between, 2 men requested for a lift to Mumbai. The men said that you need not pay the toll tax all the way till Mumbai courtesy because of them. Jude and Arun were perplexed , firstly these guys could be anybody and secondly they couldn’t make up their mind to trust those guys on the road. The hitch hikers turned out to be Army Jawans who were stationed in Lebanon as part of the International Peace Keeping Force. At every toll plaza once they show their ID cards they are allowed free transit. They had come to their respective native places and were returning to Mumbai for their onward flight to Delhi where they were supposed to report. They began narrating their experiences in Africa and slowly Jude and Arun warmed up to them.  Incidentally one of them was a military truck driver, Jude promptly handed over the Steering wheel to him and went off to sleep again with Arun on the watch.

The travelling party reached Mumbai as a new week dawned over the horizon they were dead tired but their minds buzzing. After dropping off the Armymen in the airport they picked up Shilpa who drove them over for an early morning breakfast to a restaurant overlooking the sea. As the couple were gazing into the sea Jude was contemplating as to what was in store for his brother. This was first among his many long distance drives from Mumbai. Jude had undertaken a total of 3 road trips from Mumbai to Trivandrum out of which two were solo and one in a Tata Nano.

As for me the meeting with the girl did not yield a positive result and I lived to fight another day. My mom who had come to Cochin was delighted to know that her younger son and friends pulled out such a coup d’etat. But equally angry because Jude didn’t meet her and say hello to her after travelling such a long distance. Till date SK’s wife doesn’t know the real reason as to why many years back her husband reached for Lunch on that Vishu day and took his flight back to Mumbai after a couple of hours

Years later Jude was having a bad day as a Corporate Lawyer trying to close a deal with an important client. He took a breather and went out for a smoke at that instant he gets a call from Arun who was in Dubai informing him that he had just cleared the UAE driving test and expressed his sincere gratitude to his first driving guru.  Ambrose reminisced “ If I can get those 3 jokers to undertake the crazy trip in a car for close to 56 hours nonstop, covering four state of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala along the way I can very well convince anybody”. He took a deep breath and walked back in to the boardroom to clinch the deal. As for the 3 jokers they realized that Engineering was not their calling and thankfully moved into Managerial Roles. 

At the end of it when I look back that slip of the tongue from Jude where he said that we could go from Mumbai to Cochin and come back within flat 20 hours turned out to be one of the most badass moments in my life. This trip will be the gold standard to which all later trips were compared to.I have often come across instances where after days of planning when we finally undertake a trip it wouldn’t be that great. Most often than not the trips that come out of the spontaneous decisions turn out to be absolutely exhilarating and liberating to a great extent. You just let your spirit soar into the unknown and the rest will be history. The experiences that we have in these kind of scenarios are totally out of the world.  In a nutshell “Great memories are made of impromptu outrageous experiences”.

 Friendship is the one of the vital keystones in a person's life, true friendship overcomes distance, time and what not .Myself, Sreekumar and Arun have known each other for more than 25 years now. We first met at Holy Angels Convent School, Trivandrum during the course of our Primary Schooling then went on to study in Loyola School as well. It also helped that we lived nearby during that point of time in our lives until we completed our graduation. Post that we haven’t been in close contact much because life had taken us all in 3 different locations for many many years. Even today all 3 of us live in 3 different cities but still we manage to keep touch .But true friendships overcome distance, time and what not. It only takes time and a little effort to nurture friendships into something truly special. Come the hour and the men delivered, Period.  

  

If you ask me, one has lived a rich and fruitful life if you are able to tell stories such as these to everyone around you. An experience need not cause an impact at that moment of time but years later when you look back at the memory that is the moment when nostalgia hits you. This trip was undertaken by me and my friends 4 years ago but even today this tale has been told and retold in the countless get-togethers we have been to. That is precisely the reason why I wanted to put this on the record so that this memory does not get lost in course of time.

P.S:- For the travel junkies who are wondering as to which route we took.

Mumbai-Pune-Satara-Kolhapur-Belgaum-Hubli-Davangere-Chitradurga-Tumkur-Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharmapuri-Salem-Erode-Palakkad-Thrissur-Cochin

The End

With inputs from Ambrose Jude, Sreekumar and Arun Sudheendran

  
Click here for Part 1