My first long drive

The year was 1992 end and i was almost 19 years old. My dad's friend came with an offer that if i could accompany with him to tirupati for the new year darshan on his bike. though i wasn't particularly religious, the prospect of going for such a long drive got me excited and i was raring to go. somehow i pursuaded mom to permit me for this long road journey on bike. my dad's friend Radhakrishan, with whom i was to go also pitched in to convince her about my safety.

Without much of a struggle, my mom atlast agreed. mom always had the last word in my home, as dad was always easy to assent to any request. thats the reason mom took over the reins of all decision making of our house ever since i can remember.

Radhakrishnan chetan and myself had lunch at our house and left for our journey on 31st December 1992 at around 1 pm. though i didnt have a licence, i couldnt care less, nor could chetan. He had a helmet was well as a rayban glass, while i never thought of arranging for a driving glass. our journey started with him on the handle, and made pit stops to have little refreshments and rest on the way. we kept riding alternately every 80 kilometres or so.

At around 7 pm we reached our destination, and quite quickly got freshened up and stood in the long queue of devotees awaiting their turn for darshan. from all that i remember, we kept standing in the queue for the next 13 hours till 8.30 in the morning the next day i.e. 01 Jan 93. for all the hardship we underwent the darshan only lasted a fleeting moment. even before one could put together our hands in obeisance to the lord, we found ourselves away from the diety. such was the flow of pilgrims at tirumala, especially since it was the new year.

By the end of our darshan we were two tired souls. we didnt want to make a stop-over as Radhakrishnan chetan had more pressing works to be attended to at bangalore. without having as much as a wink of sleep we once again freshened up and set out for our journey back. though quite tired and deprived of sleep, my energy levels for driving was never deflated. i took the front seat and set off riding for almost more than 2/3rd of the journey back. without a riding glass for eye-protection, my eyes were blood red in colour, thanks to all the lorries that were ahead of me, injecting spray of sand and other things into my naked eye.

We reached back bangalore by around 4 pm and i felt elated about having had a blast of a journey. its another matter that my eyes took more than 3 days to regain its white colour. lots of sleep and rest later, they resumed their normal stance. but atleast i had this story to tell u all.