You’d think human endurance has a limit,
but apparently you can cross those limits sometimes.. We’ve been on the road
for 25 hours this time, starting at 11pm the previous night from Bhopal and
reaching at 12am the next in Lucknow. (Nope. It didn’t take 14 hours.)
Oh, correction. We think they were roads. But it was something else altogether. You
know how when they’re gonna make the road, they break it up and there are all
rocks and stones there, uneven and unsorted? That would still be bearable. What
we drove over was 10 times worse. The total journey was some 600-odd km and at
least 400-odd was like this. And to think this was the National Highway. Where do all those funds go that are
allotted for maintaining roads??? It made the drivers reduce the speed to
like 10-15 kmph and the vehicles got some damage too. One got a hole in the
diesel tank and a gear lever of the other broke. To add to that, they drove through the night and all through the day. And we thought the
last time was bad..
The driver’s plight was their own, but
for the rest of the group we were a little better off. It was terribly
uncomfortable, yes, but I think that the
reason everyone stuck it out was because the sense of mission that we that came
with was so much bigger than anything else, that in the long run, this was
actually minor. And like they say, it’s the tough times which make you grow
more than the rest. So this was undoubtedly one of them. By the end of it, we
were stronger for the experience, in body, mind and spirit. And we realized
that we could endure so much more than we thought.
Plus, since we were all together, we got
to keep each others spirits up and talk and laugh and all. Like remembering the
time in Jharkhand, when after Deepika had emceed for the first time and
Solomon, who generally does it, went to her, put his hand on her shoulder and
said, “Deepika, mujhe tumpe farak hai.” And the way we laughed at it! Prashant was
like, “Tum ladke ho aur ye ladki hai. Aur
kitna farak chahiye?”
And there was a time Solomon, Jennifer
and I wanted to talk, but still manage to keep the conversation private. Solomon
was working on his laptop, so he opened a new file, typed something and handed
it back to Jennifer to read and respond. Jennifer would type her answer and
hand it back. Then Solomon typed and handed it back to me. I typed and
forwarded it to Jennifer. Jennifer handed it back to me. I gave it back to
Jennifer. Then Jennifer gave it back to Solomon. Solomon gave it back to
Jennifer. Jennifer gave to me. I gave to Solomon. Solomon gave back to me. I
gave back to him. He gave back to me and Jennifer and I looked at it together
and laughed. It was like chat, but one where you pass the laptop back and forth. Hahahaha..
And how in this one place Joice was
called Kumari Joice Mary Antony and
by the end of the same program she was Shrimati
Joice Mary Antony. And Ravi Rounak Robin became Ravi Kujur in Chattisgarh. And in Bhopal they announced him as Miss Solomon Gomes. And have you met Rockesh Singh?
Now we have Lucknow to look forward to! Lets
see who becomes what!
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