The Great Driving Challenge – A truck driver’s helper in top 100 too!
Well! Well! uduao…Mazak uduao (make fun of me!) It was in May when we had just come back from our 5-day trip to Manali-Manikaran-Shimla from Delhi. My colleagues and I were discussing the trip when one said, “Most probably you must have been a truck driver’s helper in your previous life. You didn’t get to drive then and so now you are making up for lost time.”
Actually on that trip, we were on the road on all three days- one day to Manikaran, the next day to Rohtang Pass, return, check out and on to Shimla (we reached at midnight)!
Almost all our other trips have been the same. I still remember all our friends discouraging us when we decided to go to Corbett on December 31. They were concerned that something untoward might happen owing to the thick fog that usually envelops parts of North India. The next day at around 2pm one of our friends who had called Deepa to enquire where we were exclaimed, “Paagal ho gayi ho kya? (have you gone mad?)”. Actually we were in Ranikhet!!
On the morning of January 1, we had intended to go to the national park, before our return to Delhi. But we were told by our resort guide that it would take time to get the permits. So we thought why not go for a drive…and we did…all the way to Ranikhet! It’s about 80-odd kilometres from Corbett. On the way we called up some friends who’d been there earlier to enquire about a decent place to stay in. We reached Ranikhet and took the number of the resort from a hoarding, called up, were told that rooms were available, and made bookings. Then we realized that we didn’t have enough hard cash with us. So off we went in search of an ATM which took a while. Thankfully, we found one and so that’s how Ranikhet got included in our trip. It was a nice stay though!
The downside of all these trips comes to light at March-end. All my colleagues proudly display their leave encashment cheques except for me.The joke doing the rounds is that if I were to go to my accounts department enquiring about my cheque, they would instead ask me to pay up!
Well, not to be paid and to be roaming all around the country — that’s a truck driver assistant’s life.
The Great Driving Challenge — raring to go further
As the clock turned 1pm on Monday it was as if time had stood still. I dared not open the very website that had for the past two weeks been viewed and read hundreds of time. I almost willed the phone to ring and get the news! Exactly after three long minutes my intercom rang: “Mubarak Ho! You have been selected.” It was my colleague who was rooting for me all these days.
“Don’t fool with me,” I said, shaking with excitement. “I’m coming downstairs,” he said and disconnected the phone.
He came up to me and said, “Click on the first ‘L’ of the word ‘C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E’.” I did and lo and behold it was our profile! We are in the top 100 of the Great Driving Challenge!
After a couple of tense days the ordeal seems to be over. We were amongst the Top 100 contestants of the Great Driving Challenge. To have been selected from thousands of other deserving applicants was never easy. We had few votes (146 to be precise) compared to applicants who had more than thousands of votes in their kitty. I had told Deepa that we would not make it! But then there was motivation and encouragement coming from all quarters — from our friends and well-wishers.
However it’s not all over yet. From here on the journey becomes tougher and tougher. Contesting with the top 99 will not be by any means easy. We have decided that from tomorrow we will work on a strategy to give our co-contestants a tough fight in the right spirit.
As for today — we will celebrate our victory!
