A one Diwali night stand.

9-Nov-2007/New Delhi:-..A night not to be forgotten. It was Diwali the festival of lights in India. An experience of a kind. I had taken a flight back home from New York to Delhi. So by the time I reached Delhi it was exactly 0000hrs and the diwali day about to end. I quickly called up people, family, friends the excitement to be back home and moreover to be able to to wish in time was ….fantastic.I quickly headed back to my guest house, after a 24 + hr flight I was planning to rest a while and take the journey ahead to home. I reached noida guest house at about 0200hrs, and found the house locked, caretaker on leave. I jumped over to find if any gate is open or somebody inside, banged all doors and doorbells, for half and hour the efforts continued, but no result. Then I tried the second house, if the caretaker there is still there.

The guy Bahadur, I don’t know for what reasons, did not wake up, probably too much of local liquor, or the bursting crackers, or the fear of somebody banging the door at this time or he might be banging his wife….or probably all of these factors together, he decided not to leave his so called comfort zone. I had to resign from this place too. I headed to my office hoping that a set of keys might be available there, the guard there too had no key. Meanwhile, the taxi driver was like” Sirji, ab kahin jaayenge kya? I felt like giving him a bashing, bhains ki yahan rehne ko jagah nahin tere ko nikalne ki padi hai….” Anyways, I decidet to stay back at the company, wait till morning for bahadur to wake up …..Naturally.

The company had not electricity since evening, also no bed, no couch (occupied by guards to sleep), so I had to help myself join two tables and rest a while. But could not, so enjoyed FM station 92.7, It’s good that these play all night long now a days.

0330hrs, I felt it was slightly morning and the visibility enough to drive, so I decided to take a car and go home. I picked up my luggage, and started home. Firstly, the cracker smoke made it difficult to drive, suddenly one head-light stopped working (fortunately left one), then the rear view mirror fell from the ceiling. The fuel gauge was not working fine, I did not realize this, until I saw that I had not come long and the gauge fell from ½ to less than a ¼ tank, the driver confirmed this next day. So now here I felt like being on an adventure ride. All along no petrol station, gave petrol, either closed or only giving diesel.

Then I reached a place from where, the road was not safe as told to me, it passes through desolated fields. I was expecting that it would be morning by 0500 a.m but it did not turn out that way. Then with the thought that nobody is fool enough to wait for one person, when all know this is not safe, nobody will come, so neither the bad guys would waste time, at least for a fakkad like me.. Taking this benefit of doubt I moved ahead, thinking I will drive at 80+. Again, the fog was so thick, difficult to drive beyond 20km/hr. I somehow made it home in 4 hrs, double the time usually it takes. My parents happy, surprised, and kind of little tensed on what a crazy fool I was. After taking a 24+hr flight, and waking up all night, I drove 150 km with such a car, in such foggy conditions, at such odd hours through that so called unsafe road. I enjoyed it.

But, life main yehi toh masti hai, majaa aa gaya..ghar aa kar, these are the kind of things you will remember some time from now. So, go ahead take a chance, you would not regret having done this.