Third Day
The third day was mostly spent in the College, we set out around 3 in the afternoon , it was racing against the night and the harthal.There had been rumours that an all India harthal had been called for the next day.It was against the oil price hike that had taken place.The funny part was that there was a harthal for the very same matter a few days ago in Kerala.But no one there had any inkling of what was happening or even the call.But we cud'nt afford to be stranded for a whole day in the middle of somewhere.
So the race had begun, we wanted to get out of Tamil Nadu by 12 which was supposedly the time where it should begin.Palani was reached in no time and it had only started to get dark.We refilled the car and our stomachs on the way to Pollachi.Dark in TN is dark indeed,even the vehicles are dark indeed.None of the lorries we met in so great numbers along the road had any tail lights.Driving into the back of a lorry was the best or rather the worst was of knowing it was there.Thankfully we never had to do that.The derserted roads were some consolation.
We were within the "Kerala sphere of reach" and very upbeat, the only problem was that the road we took when we came here was in too bad condition to force us to take it again,moreover we would have wanted a better approach to Palghat. So we took the direct route to Palghat ,it was a great road except that we lost about an hour at a railway cross due to an overzealous bus trying to get through the small crossing along with two other vehicles.The signs of the hartal were showing up ,as trucks began to thin out and eventually disappeared.It was much easier to driver and more nervous too.A drizzle had started already itching our frayed nerves.It was like driving through ghost towns - not a soul in sight.Our speed was broken occasionally by few invisible gutters on the road that had lay hidden in the water of the rain which had now grown stronger.As we neared Palghat the rain stopped leaving us wondering wheteher rains occured only in tamil country.A heave of relief and entry into kerala, but no sign of a good settlement.
We had a break 25 km from Palghat and learnt that the harthal had been dwongraded to a lorry and bus harthal.It had struck 10 and we were wavering on whether to spend the night there or press on.Though we did enquire into a hotel - the rates forced us to seek refuge at home 115 km away.It was here the fun started.
Nature decided to remind us that it does rain in Kerala , that too the hard way.It began to rain real hard, the roads began to get flooded and visibility was going down ,the only way to know a vehicle now seemed to be it bright headlights.It rained so hard that the shoulders (the sides of the carriage way) had been washed away and any hard left turns could end up in big messes.
A new phenomenon had begun to cause us trouble - trucks in huge numbers lying on the road sides had begun to stir as on disturbance from an invisible hand.They took to roads in convoys kilometres long - slowing the whole highway down. Not only were they slow they were too hard to overtake in the rain, a good stage for frustration.One convoy led to the other as news spread that the strike had indeed been called off.There was no respite untill the Kuthiran where the trucks slowed down too much and let us pass easily.
Sleep was beginning to get us after the tiring 3 days of driving and the shops showed no sign for satisfying an urge for a tea.We drove on to Angamally the 4 lane point and soon to Kochi to reach home by 1.30 in the night. The end of a 831 of road ,the first on our Maruti Omni at a stretch.
The third day was mostly spent in the College, we set out around 3 in the afternoon , it was racing against the night and the harthal.There had been rumours that an all India harthal had been called for the next day.It was against the oil price hike that had taken place.The funny part was that there was a harthal for the very same matter a few days ago in Kerala.But no one there had any inkling of what was happening or even the call.But we cud'nt afford to be stranded for a whole day in the middle of somewhere.
So the race had begun, we wanted to get out of Tamil Nadu by 12 which was supposedly the time where it should begin.Palani was reached in no time and it had only started to get dark.We refilled the car and our stomachs on the way to Pollachi.Dark in TN is dark indeed,even the vehicles are dark indeed.None of the lorries we met in so great numbers along the road had any tail lights.Driving into the back of a lorry was the best or rather the worst was of knowing it was there.Thankfully we never had to do that.The derserted roads were some consolation.
We were within the "Kerala sphere of reach" and very upbeat, the only problem was that the road we took when we came here was in too bad condition to force us to take it again,moreover we would have wanted a better approach to Palghat. So we took the direct route to Palghat ,it was a great road except that we lost about an hour at a railway cross due to an overzealous bus trying to get through the small crossing along with two other vehicles.The signs of the hartal were showing up ,as trucks began to thin out and eventually disappeared.It was much easier to driver and more nervous too.A drizzle had started already itching our frayed nerves.It was like driving through ghost towns - not a soul in sight.Our speed was broken occasionally by few invisible gutters on the road that had lay hidden in the water of the rain which had now grown stronger.As we neared Palghat the rain stopped leaving us wondering wheteher rains occured only in tamil country.A heave of relief and entry into kerala, but no sign of a good settlement.
We had a break 25 km from Palghat and learnt that the harthal had been dwongraded to a lorry and bus harthal.It had struck 10 and we were wavering on whether to spend the night there or press on.Though we did enquire into a hotel - the rates forced us to seek refuge at home 115 km away.It was here the fun started.
Nature decided to remind us that it does rain in Kerala , that too the hard way.It began to rain real hard, the roads began to get flooded and visibility was going down ,the only way to know a vehicle now seemed to be it bright headlights.It rained so hard that the shoulders (the sides of the carriage way) had been washed away and any hard left turns could end up in big messes.
A new phenomenon had begun to cause us trouble - trucks in huge numbers lying on the road sides had begun to stir as on disturbance from an invisible hand.They took to roads in convoys kilometres long - slowing the whole highway down. Not only were they slow they were too hard to overtake in the rain, a good stage for frustration.One convoy led to the other as news spread that the strike had indeed been called off.There was no respite untill the Kuthiran where the trucks slowed down too much and let us pass easily.
Sleep was beginning to get us after the tiring 3 days of driving and the shops showed no sign for satisfying an urge for a tea.We drove on to Angamally the 4 lane point and soon to Kochi to reach home by 1.30 in the night. The end of a 831 of road ,the first on our Maruti Omni at a stretch.
posted by adarshnat at
11:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home