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Reaching there
It was a great trip. I went with my bother-in-law, two cousins and one friend. All of us made a perfect match for everything. We left Delhi on Saturday Night (1st November, 10:30 p.m.) by Car (Maruti 800 and Five People). It was really a great fun to travel on Amritsar Highway at that time in the night. The highway was not empty but full of trucks hence it was difficult to travel at high speeds. We left delhi around 12:15 and traveled without much stoppage. Our first stop was after crossing Ludhiana around 6:00 am in the morning. There we had one of the world's Best Tea. We were too tired, that might have the reason behind our liking. Cool breeze was blowing and surrounded by green fields, we felt for the moment that we have reached the heaven. Everyone was very excited at this new environment. After half an hour stay, we proceeded towards the destination and then stopped 10 KMs before Amritsar to have Breakfast at around 9:00 am. We had never before Aaloo+Gobhi Paranthas there. We reached Golden Temple around 10:30 am.
The Day
We took bath in the Sarovar, visited the main Temple and had breakfast at the Langar. We were out by from Golden Temple by 12:30 p.m. Then we went to JalianWala Bagh. You get such a patriotic feeling by being there. Jalian Wala Bagh has a museum which will list you some of the very unpopular names in Indian History. You can see how cruel can a human being can be to other human being. It is the display of the highest level of cruelty. One thing which stuck my mind was:
General Dyer ordered firing but the firing people must be Indian. so it was not the display of British cruelty on humans but Indians being cruel on themselves.
Anyway the signs of Bullets are still there and they will remain.
The evening at Wagah Border
After this, the next junction was Wagah Border. It is 30 KMs from Amritsar City. We reached there at 3 p.m. thinking that we will get an easy entry to the stadium and can have a better view of the parade to be held at 5 p.m. after which we had plans for coming back to Delhi. To our surprise, the entry to stadium was scheduled to open at 4 p.m. We wandered here and there for an hour after which the entry was very tough as hundreds of people assembled there before 4 pm. Anyway, we entered the stadium and had to ran a lot (as it was too far from main gate) for getting the seats or good seats I should say. Everybody was running like anything to grab those seats. We were lucky.
Hundreds of people were there just to see their jawans doing parade in front of their opposite country soldiers. It was a lovely scene where people were differently dressed. Some in Tricolor clothes some on other. It was fantastic. Around 5pm, the parade started and we saw how our jawans did that enthusiastic act. It was great simply great.. After the parade, all the Indian went into the middle and started dancing on the tunes played by BSF. I bet that it was the most patriotic + enthusiastic scene where 300+ people are dancing at the India+Pak border. It became a headache for BSF later on as people started moving towards the border gate. Anyway they controlled the mob and We had some snacks there and left for Delhi around 7 pm.
Journey Back to Delhi: An Unforgettable event of my Life
We were all tired and feeling sleepy but had to drive and reach Delhi by morning so that we all can continue for our works on Monday. Somehow we were carried on with it. We reached Jalandar, we crossed Ludhiana. but it was too hard to be active and driving so we decided to have dinner. and so we stopped at one Dhaba which looked good. It was too cold there at 11:30 in the night. We had a good relaxation there and we again started back after a long break of more than an hour. Everything was back to normal(sleepy) in 5 mins. Everybody was sleeping other than the driving person "Rahul". He tried his best to drive and he carried on for another 80-100 KMs when he stopped saying that it is too much for him. He needs some refreshment. We had tea there. We had just crossed Ambala and were going towards Karnal. Nothing was working for us as even after that we were totally sleeping. Then it happened.
Finally, 'Rahul' who was till that time fighting with sleep gods lost the war and at the speed of 80-90 kmph, our car turned and we dived into the side-lanes jumping into the 12 feet deep jungle. It was so silent, so noisy we all started screaming, we were frightened. We didn't knew what to do, how to react. What we could feel was that we are running into the jungle for unknown reason. We were shouting. 'Save', 'AAAAAA'...... It was 3:45 am.
Just then other Friend 'Prateek' pulled the handbrakes and Car stopped. We didn't knew where were we, what happened to us. We didn't knew that we had actually jumped the road and were 12 feet down. Just then I tried to saw the road. Felt the reality but was not ready to agree. Good thing was we all were safe and Car had its headlights working. I was brave enough that I tried to same out of car at that dark in the bushes. I came out and saw the reality 'We were too down the road' to believe. But we had to. We were silent, we were afraid of what happened. We couldn't believe what happened to us was reality or a bad nightmare. It was a reality which we had to believe. We traveled around 100 mts in the jungle without any hit to any of the BIG trees which we managed to escape with few cms margin. If that would have been the case, then present might have been something else.
We instantly came back to our senses. We climbed to reach the road. We stopped the trucks for help at 4 in the night. Nobody was looking at us. Few of them tried to help but it was helpless. Just then one Truck stopped and he helped us out by tying the rope. We tested the car. We decided to proceed from that point. Car was making noises like anything. We stopped 10-15 KMs after that and repaired it ourselves so that we can start further. We stopped and traveled slowly and reached our homes in Delhi at 9:00 in the morning.
I think we were lucky.
Moral: Do not travel two nights continuously while driving without rest.
