9pm
"saab parking se nikaal doon kya?"
'naah!'
"city se nikaal doon kya?"
'zarurat hai kya?' in a bit rough manner.
and here am set for non stop Nagpur to Jalgaon 8 hours long drive at night. wow! its heavenly! infact i dont want to go to heaven they dont have cars over there!
right turn from under the aadivasi govari uddaan bridge and here we head towards amravati.jostling for space in the not so thick nagpur traffic.fiat linea fighting neck to neck but i wont let it 'win'.
"saab aaram se!" comes a voice from back seat.
"saab pitaji ka phone aaya tha. bole baarish mein gaadi slip karti hai."
oh! yea! dats some valuable advice! i must remember.
the road is under construction and u never know when would it bifurcate and when it signs a merger with another road!
'yesssss!' i just avoided three craters at gud enuf speed! and a punch in the air!
"saab dhabe pe rokna."
and there we stop he went to have his dinner. i had already had chinese and mix juice supplemented by vitalising red bull!(it was my first time and it dint taste dat good.)
he comes back wid a bottle of mineral water and a good news dat the road is very good for next 50kms.
now its the time to press the throttle cover up some distance. but weather slows me down a bit.
when it clears i find heaven. amravati bypass-its gorgeous! i pick up speed jam the needle to around 90kph and hum a few songs to keep me active.
ah yet another toll booth.
'kitna?'
"10"
a cop comes to my window i get a bit worried because i dont even have a driving license for a LMV and am driving a commercial LMV.
"Sir ye bhaiya ko agle toll booth tak chhod denge?"
'ah! sure!'
the road is great and i push the engine harder. it comes to life and starts chewing the miles.
'bhaiya zara bottle ka seal tod dena.' i hand him over the bisleri bottle.he obliges.all i get for my smooth n swift driving between the toll booths is an exemption at the too booth i drop him there dat means a saving of Rs.10.
its already past midnight and the words of wisdom from the rear seat have tranformed to long chain of snores.i like those when am driving, it makes me feel the person is easy with my driving and the ride is more or less smooth.though he jumped up for few late brakings for most of the part he was asleep. and wen he woke up in between he never forgot to threaten-"main chalaun kya? neend aa rahi hai?"
'arre nahin aaram karo!'
So what makes night driving so fascinating? less traffic,less distractions,no cattles,cyclists and bikers to hinder smooth progress,empty markets and towns,absence of unwanted horn beeps,sense of oneness with darkness. night driving on highways is ultimate pleasure.the downside being poor roads,poor visiblity,drunk overstressed truck drivers,glare of high beam and the 'hool' that truck walas give when u r not punctual in giving low beam or when u r just a fraction late in getting out of their way!one such trailer driver almost got successful in knocking me off the road.he cleared the frontal portion and left whole of the trailer lumbering to my side of the road i did pretty well to negotiate it but it was a fairly close shave!
Jalgaon-68kms.
"saab main thoda aur so loon sawa ghante mein gaadi aapke room par hone ko hona!"
'arre! aisa thode hi hota hai. let me take my time.'
i stick to 85kph thereafter and he sticks to his snoring. its 4am and i am still feeling good enough to continue going on and on. cant say it was for the red bull or anyway i was going to perform the way i was doing.this is something i have dreamt of doing all my childhood,its like dream come true!
they say most accidents take place in the first or the last leg of journey. so i get a bit more cautious and try not to take anything for granted.but still the poor cautionary signals catch me a bit unaware when i get confused mid way a turn that whether it was leading to the left or to the right. in another nano second i am back on track and finish the journey with clinical perfection.
4:53am-mission accomplished!
so this was my first long trip i.e.from jalgaon-chandrapur-nagpur-jalgaon in which i dint do a single mistake. its quite an achievement! atlast i did it.it makes my driver from whom i have learnt driving to say that i completely resemble his driving and am no different!
cheers!
12 hours gone am still hallucinating of passing trucks and the steering inputs! and the hangover was to an extent that i literally lifted my right foot off the foot rest of my bike as in cars to brake!
hope another chance beckons me soon and for an even longer distance!
how about Jalgaon to Muzaffarpur in couple of days? where are my road atlases?
TIPS FOR NIGHT DRIVING
1.Do not overspeed.Never go beyond 85kph. 90 must be the limit on any vehicle on any road and under any environmental condition in India.
2.Do not overdrive i.e. do not ride in speeds higher than the distance u can see.
3.Use dipper(low beam) at night.Now this might be the zillionth time u r reading this.(contless times behind a lumbering truck!) Dipper is not just for others its equally useful for u. Even if the approaching vehicle driver is not putting the lights to low beam you make it a habit to do so. cse at least u will be visible to him and u can be avoided from a crash or misjudgement on his part.
4.Put ur light on high beam 2 seconds before u pass a vehicle so that u will not be blanked by the glare and can se wats in front well in advance.Do not also put it earlier than two seconds because that gives the truck drivers a chance to swerve their vehicle towards u as a mark of protest! I love that! But most of the times I try to avoid that by not giving them chance to even think of doing that.
5.While overtaking the sequence of switching ur light must be as follows-
when u get near to a vehicle keep it low beam.When there is no approaching traffic move to right flash high beam and when u find dat u have been given way to overtake put it back to low so that he is not blinded by the glare in his mirror and can allow ur passage comfortably.
6.While overtaking at night always have extra 6-7seconds in your hand because it becomes very difficult to judge the speed and distance of approaching vehicle in dark.
