Major Most Accident of my Life

It’s 29^th Dec 2007; since morning I was not feeling good. Even tough I got up on time; Enjoyed nice shower, had healthy & tasty breakfast, still something was missing. Now what? I called up my friend Kaushal; (together we used to develop small scale software’s for local companies of our city Raipur few years ago, later on I joined software company but he’s still continuing the same business and has got enough base to live with it. He had some problem with a VB code where data entered by operator was not getting saved into the database, also he had written one complex query and wanted me to simplify that (you know it’s always difficult to simplify things; life)); I asked him to send me the code and promised I’ll look into the problem. After that we chatted for 1 more hour and remembered our old days.

Mausiji: pinged me and we had general chat (aur ji, kya ji, haan ji, ok ji, bye ji, bbye ji).

Code Review: I looked into the code and found some problem related to commit transaction because of that data was not getting saved properly for specific conditions, ok Quila Fatah (1 problem solved)!

What tooooooo dooooooooo nowwwwww? Thought of going for shopping so searched in the Google (no doubt Google’s America’s killer company, it exactly gives you what you are looking for) for near by stores. I got the address of family dollar (I actually wanted to go to Dollar Tree but thought let’s checkout Family dollar also); family dollar is bogus store, nothing interesting to buy, came out with empty cart and grab the GPS for nearest Dollar Tree, one was there in 6.2miles towards South - West. I headed there following my GPS & purchased few items, after that came back to home. Had stomach full of lunch and started looking into other problem of Kaushal (complexity of simplification) but was not in a mood that time so left it half way. Now what? I thought of going to Wal-mart; I went there and purchased one Alarm clock and one Harmonica (Learn & Play kit). Came back home and was not feeling to have dinner.

At night 11.30 I had a chat with one of my Delhi friends Rahul Maheshwari and we were discussing about job opportunities in Google. After couple of minute I told him I’m going for a drive; I grabbed my GPS and headed towards “Zebulon Rd” again but this time I took different root thinking, anyways I’ve GPS so wherever I go I’ll be able to come back. It was raining and complete dark; since it was around 12.00 midnight only couple of vehicles were there on the road, I was driving whole long way straight, wherever I was finding turn I ignored and kept going straight. I drove for around 20-30 mins and thought of taking turn many times in-between but again dropped the idea and kept moving straight, at one point finally road was divided into 2 (left / right). I took right, gusty winds were blowing and whenever such chunk was kissing my windshield, making me unable to see anything outside.

Holy $&#% man: I was driving happily and enjoying the weather this was an unknown route to me; I never came here before. Car was going @ the speed of “I don’t know I didn’t notice”. There was a sudden, complete 90’ right turn that moment; which I couldn’t take and WHOOOP; I could see some tree leaves on my windshield and all the air bags of the car were blown out, soon I realized I’m in “holy $&#%”. $&#% I was shocked what happened? Where am I? Smoke is coming out of the car, both the airbags are blown out, I tried opening the door but ^#*@ it’s locked; I realized I’m in a DITCH. I had to break the driver window glass in order to come out of the car. Wow, perfect dark, I couldn’t see anything & I was standing in water… WHOOP its CREEK. I climbed the ditch and wanted to call 911; Holy &##@ man no network coverage at all. Now now now, I’ve recently met with a major most accident of my life, my car is in Creek, No network coverage, No one around and it’s raining (forget about cold).

Steven: This creature of nature was definitely sent by someone to help me, no doubt he was drunk and coming in his junk truck with loud rock and roll music, I waived him and he stopped the truck;

What man, in the middle of the road are you here to give me a heart attack?

No man my car is there in that ditch, could you please help me out.

What? Where is your car?

That’s in this ditch, right behind me.

He took out his torch and focused on the car, Holy $&#% man, I don’t believe you are still alive, this car must have flipped the upside down man, you’re one of the luckiest person I’ve ever met.
Please drop me till home & also I’ve to call 911, here no network coverage

Nooo don’t call 911 they’ll lock me up (Steven said, He’s drunk).

What road is this? Steven told “Pate Rd”.

Ok then please drop me home and then I’ll call 911 later, he agreed saying he need to get the gas filled and if I’ve some cash we’ll go to gas station, I said I don’t have my wallet with me if you drop me till home I’ll give you the money. He dropped me till home I prefer using credit card and don't carry cash; so found my wallet empty; and also realized that all my car documents are still in the car ($&#%).

His Girl Friend:

I took my credit card and came back to Steven. Hey man we need to go back to the location because all my documents are in car. He asked for my cellphone saying he has to make an urgent call, he called up a number and later on I came to know that he called up his Girl Friend who was waiting for him; he was supposed to meet her 1 hour before, she was not allowing him to stay anymore here and wanted to come back right that moment, he said he’s helping me but she was not believing him, Steven gave me the phone saying please talk to her and tell I’m here to help you out, I talked to her and tried to convince, she finally agreed.

Back to spot:

Truck again headed towards location and Steven took out all papers of my car. We drove back to gas station and I said let’s fill the gas, he said no, he needs cash, I don’t have cash, but still I can get gas filled using my credit card, he said no, he needs cash. Then I told him if you come till my apartment again I’d give you the cheque; he said it’s not required. Then also I gave him a cheque thanking for all his kind help.

Sleep: I was dozing so thought of taking a nap.

911: early morning I called up 911 and sheriff asked me all the questions related to accident, she asked me where am I, I’m at home. And where is the vehicle? It’s there in the “Pate Rd”, where is that? I don’t know ma’m I’m new to this place and all I know is my car is somewhere in “Pate Rd”. Ok that doesn’t come under our county please call Monroe County. She gave me another number and I reported this incident with them, they gave me a file#. One sheriff went and verified that the vehicle is there in the ditch.

Progressive.com: I called up my insurance company (progressive) and told them about this accident and also that my car needs to be towed away from the ditch, lady said it’s Sunday and they’ll be able to take out the car on Monday morning, what? Are you mad? You want me to leave my car whole 24 hrs. there in the mud and water? I suggested her that I’ve an AAA membership and I’ll get the car towed away from the dig. She said go ahead.

AAA: I called up AAA and asked for help to tow away my car, Linda asked me where is your car, it’s there somewhere in Monroe county (Pate Rd.), ok tell me any other intersecting road or some other land mark so that we can reach there, I said I donno except Pate Rd, Linda said she won’t be able to help me out if I can’t tell her any other land mark. I called up 911 again and asked them for other landmark to that place, lady cop replied saying it’s near to Hwy 87. Now I had enough information for Linda, she promised me within few moments one towing truck would come to the “Pate Rd”. But then I’m here @ my home, what? You are @ home; then we can’t come there at all, because we provide emergency service only if you are stuck up somewhere, I said yea ma’m I was the one who was stuck up in that ditch but since it was raining and dark there; also no network coverage I had to come out of that place. Finally she agreed to send the truck to my apartment and I with the towing truck moved towards location.

Bobby: By this time it was 7.30 in the morning, and after seeing the CAR in ditch Bobby said you are god dam lucky man, how did you come alive out of this CREEK? I don’t believe this, I also donno, please don’t ask me. It’s impossible to take out the car from the Creek; he experienced no network coverage there, so he said he’d have to go back. What will happen to my car, He called up his office and informed them that the car is stuck in an impossible ditch and he’s never handled such a situation before. I’ve full coverage of my car so officer said just give a try anyways customer has full coverage, Bobby said he can only try nothing more than that and also that car may break in 2-3 pieces while towing from the creek. He asked me to sign on a paper that if anything happens to car; towing company would not be responsible. I had to sign, he called up his office for even a bigger truck to carry the car back, after 30 minutes one even bigger truck came to the place and Bobby pulled the car out of the Ditch; while pulling the car out of ditch there was a point when car was about to flip upside down, but it’s only because of his years of experience he could successfully take the car out of ditch. After seeing the damage Bobby told, it's 'TOTAL LOSS' and if wanna get this car repaired it'll cost 12 great grand ($12,000), Hufffffff. Now he loaded the car in bigger truck and dropped me till my home. He took the car with him, as he’s to get the towing charges from my insurance company.

Sixth Sense: For the last one month I had been getting some sort of signal that something similar is going to happen (we call it sixth sense) and finally it happened just before 'new year eve'. something similar was expected; that's the reason I'm not so shocked / surprised with this, but yea little bit of injured. OOOHHHOOOOOOOO let's back to life. Bacardi says "Life is calling, where are you?" I'm still alive man :).

'Accident pictures" of “lal pari” [before and after the accident]

Survivor,

Only Krish

Trip Memories (My VAISHNODEVI Yatra Vivran)

MY VAISHNODEVI Trip ( 31st Jan – 2nd Feb 2003) Memories

Few pages from archive (I Originally wrote it around 5 years back).

Last Friday (31-Jan-2003) We (myself, my friend Umesh, Deepak Bhaiya, Sunil Sir & his bro) went to 'VAISHNODEVI', the instant plan was made by Deepak Bhaiya (one of my very good friends) at 3:00pm Friday when we both were in office, he told me that Sunil sir has already booked 3 tickets, "let's go to VAISHNODEVI", I called up Umesh to know whether he is also ready; he replied yes, since we didn't have tickets booked for us we were supposed to reach the station a bit early and get the tatkal reservation.

I left office and started for home at 5:00pm, since it was a sudden plan we had to do packing also. At 7:15pm I reached home, Umesh doesn't have cell phone, I called him on his friend Rinku's number and informed that we're going by Jammu Mail (9:10pm) from Old Delhi Railway Station and also we'll meet in front of main entrance of railway station, Since Cell phones are not allowed in Vaishnodevi temple I also planned not to carry it with me and told Ajay bhaiya [my roommate] that don't accept any call until I come back [since incomings are also charged before 10.00pm night, and I didn't have much balance on my card]. after taking dinner at 8:00pm I started for Railway Station, I faced a lot of problem getting auto. Since Old Daily railway station is too far from Katwaria Sarai (South Delhi), Auto drivers were not ready to go at that time. Luckily I got one at 8:10pm & had only 1:00 hour in my hand to catch the train, I asked auto-wala to drive as fast as he can and anyhow take me to station on-time. I reached railway station at 9:08pm, but I didn't find Umesh there; I was searching for him, and exactly 9:11pmJammu Mail departed from platform. Whole plan seemed to go for toss; I was anxious why Umesh didn't come. I came out of station and wanted to call Rinku to know where Umesh is? Since mobile phone can store numbers with name, people having cell phones usually don't remember the numbers. I'm no exception, Even I couldn't recall Ajay Bhaiya's number also; Now when I'm trying to remember Rinku's number I'm not at all getting. What to do? I called up on my cell phone (which I left with my roommate) but as I instructed Ajay Bhaiya didn't attend the call (no wonder I only instructed him not to do so); now it's a problem.. I again called up on my cell, but no luck... I kept trying continuously thinking after getting so many calls definitely Ajay bhaiya will pick up the phone, and yeah after 3rd call he did, I requested him to search Rinku's number stored in my mobile and I'll call him after 5 minutes. After getting number from him I called to Rinku, he told me that Umesh left home at about 7:40pm and he must be in station, I decided to take a final look of platform. Oyeeeee I saw Umesh leaving the station, I shouted.... "Umesh" actually when I didn't come until 9.00, he went inside the railways station (till train) to see me and when he didn't find me there, & finally train left in front of him he was going back to home.

Deepak Bhaiya, Sunil sir and his brother had already boarded the Jammu mail and were on the way to Jammu, since we had missed our train we decided to go to Jammu by next available train POOJA EXP.(10:40pm). We purchased the general ticket since no reservation was available. The train arrived on-time and hundreds of people were ready to board the train, people had locked the train door from inside and sleeping, no one was ready to open the door, somehow we stepped into one of the coaches, after getting in we realized it's coach reserved for Army staff. They asked us to step down immediately, we requested them saying no other door is opened and we have to go to Jammu, few of the soldiers allowed us to sit in their compartment (on top of their trunk). Train departed at 12:40am, the train was going very slow; Umesh & me were feeling sleepy but there was not even a single inch space to stand also, coach was full of Arms & Soldiers trunks. Somehow Umesh found a place below two of the side seats and adjusted himself there :). I managed to sleep on top of aluminium trunk (which was ice cold). We reached JAMMU at 12:00noon late by 3hrs, Deepak Bhaiya & Sunil sir were waiting for us in Jammu station, they had hope that we'll definitely come by next train.

After taking bath & lunch we hired a taxi and went to bus stand. We stepped into a bus for KATRA which was already filled with a group of around 30 girls who came from Punjab for outing. Because girls were waiting for some more friends to join and bus conductor said they'll start after half an hour, Sunil sir said instead of wasting time, we'll go by another bus and we got down of this bus (even though me and Umesh didn't want to ;) ).

From bust-stand we went to KATRA & after keeping the luggage in cloak room, we started our VAISHNODEVI yatra by walk, Vaishno mata is sitting on the hilltop (13kms away from KATRA). When we were on KATRA the local people told us that it's snowing on HILLTOP. After walking for 2:30 - 3.00hrs we reached ADHAKUNVARI; where the famous "GARBH JOONE" cave is located, we queued up for more than 2:30hrs, it was horrible to stand without shoe & shocks on wet mat and also cold wind was pinching every moment, many people gave up and they came out of the queue without getting DARSHAN of MATA'S CAVE. My friend Umesh's condition was also very bad. After waiting for a long while finally we entered into GARBH JOONE, (according to Hindu mythology this cave is WOMB of MAA VAISHNODEVI and people get rebirth after coming out of the cave) . It's the remarkable cave.

After DARSHAN of ADHAKUNVARI we started for VAISHNOMATA temple 6kms from ADHAKUNVARI. At 2:00am midnight we reached hill top; before going to the DARSHAN of VAISHNOMATA me & Deepak bhaiya took bath in ice chilling water (Umesh & others refused to take any risk to life :) ). After bath we went for DARSHAN OF MAA VAISHNODEVI and again queued up. After strong security checking we got the DARSHAN OF MAATA at 3:30am. Then we took a nap for 2hrs and again started our journey for BHAIRON BABA. It's a mythological axiom that without the darshan of BHAIRON BABA the VAISHNODEVI journey is incomplete. On the way to BHAIRON BABA temple, it was snowing. I think all of us first time touched the SNOW, we enjoyed throwing BALL OF SNOWS first time in life, AT THE BHAIRON BABA people were offering nuts to Black face monkeys and getting clicked with them, I also got clicked with my great grand fathers.

The return journey from hilltop to KATRA was very interesting; we were taking snaps, fighting shouting, running, stopping, looking pilgrims, & enjoying the adventurous journey. While returning one beautiful BLUE BABE (I couldn't see her face but Umesh describes she was beautiful) with two of her friends (girl was wearing blue jeans with blue top; so I named her BLUE BABE) was also stepping down behind us. Umesh noticed, "hey man it seems they are following us". I said abbey "this is just your doubt, let's go". But nooooooooo, Umesh said we'll wait for them so we stopped in between and were watching the mountains as if we are really interested in watching mountains :D Suddenly we heard an "excuse me"; Umesh firmly turned, and without loosing a chance said yea yea, why not I'll surely click you all. But the gal said sorryyyy.. We want you to be aside; we want to click here. hahahahahahahah Umesh was soooo embarrassed; that he said we'll move this immediate moment. I told you Bro, you didn't listen :D

Still Umesh said Blue babe is taking interest in us (we were unable to justify taking interest in whom). at 3:30pm we came down to the BAAN-GANGA. And finished our vaishnodevi yatra after taking lunch in Gulshan Kumar's BHANDARA (what a delicious "Halwa" Yum Yum, I had 4 plates of Halwa).

Our train was in the evening, we were already late & Katra to Jammu is 1.30 hrs journey, Deepak bhaiya, Sunil sir & his bro said it's tough to reach station on-time in such a short time span so they'll leave by bus, me and Umesh said let's take a chance. One bus was about to leave towards Jammu we boarded that, we got the last seat. Oye lottery lag gai sonioyooo... the girls group was in this bus only and BLUE BABE was one of the group members sitting just next 2 seats to us, one of the girls came to us and said this seat is reserved, I said "madam reservation train mein hota hai local bus mein nahi". She got frustrated, she went back and came with 1 more girl MONIKA, she was a calm lady, she requested that but is already full and if we can share some space she'll also sit; Umesh the kind hearted, could never resist :). After sometime Umesh started... all the questions you can't even think of, he started asking to Monika they became friends after sometime she offered chewing gum to both of us. I refused but Umesh heartily accepted. Sometimes later BLUE BABE also wanted to come to back seat she asked one of her friend to swap the seat but the one who was sitting with us refused, then after sometime she forcibly came back and sat next to Monica. Umesh said boss she's after you, I said 'shut your mouth', I don't have any such misunderstanding. but Umesh said 'abbey atleast talk to her once...' since I had fight with one of the girl of the group I didn't care till last... even while getting down @ Jammu BLUE BABE shouted and told her Phone number to her friends (repeating each digit twice), as per Umesh "bol ab isse jyada kya? "Perhaps I could have noted down the number :) ". As per the information Umesh got from Monika, they are students of B.Ed. Jammu college and BLUE BABE is from punjab. This 2hrs journey (from Katra to Jammu) was memorable journey, most of the girls from the group of 30 were singing, dancing, and enjoying the moment. We also had very good time with their company. All the Girls got down at Jammu (K.C.). Taking beautiful gals memory in heart we moved to Railway Station.

Hey hey hey did I say; 'sometime I feel myself lucky...' what a luck we thought that we'll not be able to catch the train but after reaching station we came to know that JAMMU MAIL is 2 hrs late. At 8:00pm we boarded Jammu Mail back towards Delhi and arrived next morning 6:20am.

That's all about my Vaishnodevi yatra... It's one of the remarkable journeys of my life.

VAISHNODEVI Tour

31^st Jan– 2^nd Feb 2003

Travellers,

Krish, Umesh, Deepak Kela, Sunil sir with brother

Trip Memories Las Vegas & Grand Canyon

Las Vegas, Grand Canyon (22nd – 26th Nov 2007) Trip

Trip Images: http://picasaweb.google.com/AgrawalKrish/Las_Vegas_Grand_Canyon_Trip

Trip Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syXtmCvuRDo

It all started with the idea coined by Naveen Muthennagari; one of my very good friends…. “Hey Krish what about Thanksgiving weekend yaar… let’s plan something”; the core idea was to have a get together of Naveen, Cherukuri (one of our old Keane batch mate) & me, we had many long hour conference calls (which disturbed Cherukuri a lot during his weekend activities [boozing , sleeping & again boozing] :)); finally one fine day Cherukuri dropped saying he’ll not be able to join us. Naveen said anyways since we two are ready let’s meet somewhere; we settled down with a common opinion for LAS Vegas & Grand Canyon. Naveen told me with him few of his friends will also come, but the count of people was always doubtful for me; I could never knew how many of us are actually going to meet there in VEGAS; before we actually met. Later it was finalized that total 9 adults and 1 kid will be coming to VEGAS.

Krish, Naveen, Richa, Monica, Nishant, Sumit, Sunita, Arunesh (with wife + 1 kid).

Hotel Room Booking: so in order to have a pleasant trip we should have proper and advance booking of room as well as CAR… Even though many good deals were already gone since it was only one week for thanksgiving, we didn’t give up and started searching, I booked Super 8 hotel (3 rooms for 2 nights @ VEGAS) and informed the same to Naveen & Richa (Naveen’s Friend who was also coming for this VEGAS trip); Richa took the charge of booking hotel for last two nights @ Vegas; we were facing problem booking room @ Grand Canyon which was also finally somehow booked… just before 3 days I came to know that the hotel booking of Super 8 is not done (reservation was cancelled because of some connection problem while booking; which I didn’t realize before) so the same hotel which was coming for reasonable fare was kissing the sky - standing on top of money. I remember, me and Naveen had more than 2 hrs of conference call with http://www.cheaptickets.com/ guy to book the room again; we didn’t get a single hotel, which was value to money, so decided to book two separate hotels for two nights :). So for 5 nights total 4 hotels were booked :)

CAR Booking: out of 9, Me, Naveen, Richa & Nishant reached Las Vegas by flight and rest of the 5 people with 1 kid were coming by car from San Francisco & Sanoje CA; we did online booking for Hyundai Sonata from Mc Carren airport (LV) for 4 days; thinking that we’ll have our own conveyance to roam around the strip & Grand Canyon.

Drivers License: I’ve recently (1 month before) got the Georgia Drivers License and a novice driver; Naveen has just the California’s learner’s permit.

Journey Begins: so finally the day came (22nd Nov 2007) when we all started from our respective locations, my flight from Atlanta was at 12.15pm; I had booked a parking lot around 3 miles away from airport and was supposed to reach there at 11.10am in order to catch the flight. It was my first journey to Atlanta alone, and I had no idea of the parking lot (where it is?) I just had one Google map in my hand; I started @ sharp 9.00am for parking lot and followed the map; after going around 15 miles on I-75 (interstate) I realized that I’ve not fasten my seat belt (which means heavy fine if a cop catches), I was going in the right most lane of interstate and became furious; in hurry I made worry, car slipped into shoulder (roadside), I was just a lucky coz the way it was pulled into shoulder would have been very costly if any heavy vehicle was there behind me. I took a long breath and started again after buckling, but that was just beginning, I just completed 20 more miles and heavy rain started, even though wipers were doing their best, I was not at all able to see outside, somehow I kept driving (getting late every minute)… after a little while I realized I’ve taken wrong exit and following the wrong route to parking lot (I became more tensed thinking this trip is gone)… I took one wilder exit and kept driving… oh mannnn I got I-285 WEST somehow (that means again came back on track). I was very happy that again after 2 minutes I’m on the right track. But this happiness was just for 5 minutes because of my confusion again I missed the route and this time I was sure that I’m not at all going to go LV since I’m completely lost now; and coincident happens only once. So thinking let’s try luck again I took another wrong exit. ma ma miaa it was second coincident in a day, I was in front of CAMP CREEK PRKWY (The parking lot; which I booked). Lady over there took care of parking my car and I headed towards the shuttle for Airport, nice journey till Las Vegas (city of entertainment).

Reached Las Vegas: I reached LV by 5.35pm; Naveen Richa & Nishant were supposed to reach there before me by 5.00pm, I called up Naveen but Richa lifted the phone; I was surprised – she said they missed their flight and came by another flight; that too Naveen will be coming in next flight which will reach LV by 2 hours, meanwhile I tried one of the Gambling machine with $1 and yea yea I got $1.5 back so 50% profit (not so bad :)).

CAR Rental: We thought let’s utilize the time we’ll go to CAR Rental counter and get that done… we reached the counter and everything went fine, we got the papers of car and now it’s turn to pay the money. I recently crossed the limit of $1000 in my credit card and there was no more balance, my debit account was also nil since I paid my credit card but credit card payment takes 2-3 days to complete so ultimately money was hanged in between and I didn’t have money to pay for car rental, Richa was ready to pay but counter lady said since booking is in my name only my credit card can be accepted; and if I pay by debit card $300 is security deposit, since I didn’t have any money we thought of waiting for Naveen since he has learner’s permit we’ll book the car in his name and then things will be settled down, we were desperately waiting for Naveen but he finally came at 9.00pm after reaching to the counter lady said person with learner’s permit can’t take car on rent in his / her name, again mess. I called up one of my very good friends (Mr. Deepak Kela) and that kind soul transferred $400 into my account but I forgot if we pay by Debit card $300 is deposit, so the money which I asked for was not sufficient to meet the payment, luckily Richa had her laptop we logged in there and Naveen transferred the rest of the money and finally we got the keys of car… Car was like “makkhan” ekdam smooth… as I told before I never drove alone and this was the situation that only I can drive, means (4 logon ki zindagi apne haath mein le ke gaadi chala raha tha main :)), we didn’t face any problem to reach hotel we booked for 22nd night.

In Las Vegas: Thursday night we roamed around the strip in LV and went to 1 or 2 casinos. In the night we met the other group (Monica, Sumit, Sunita, Arunesh (with wife + 1 kid)) who came from CA, Monica is a friend of Richa so she joined our group and rest 4 remained together. It’s said first impression is the last when we met with this group Nishant with his notorious behaviour, Naveen as usual kissing cigarette and me with a beer bottle welcomed them, Later on Richa told us that after seeing us Monica told her “Ye sab kya hai yaar”. In the night we dropped Richa & Monica into Hotel and again came back to the strip… Enjoyed the nightlife of Las Vegas (I quoted LV “City of Lights”).

Thanksgiving Friday: Nishant was tired so he asked us to drop him also into the hotel, after that Naveen said yaar it’s “Black Friday and there will be sale in all the stores, let’s explore, we said “chalo” we wanted to go to the stores (anyone of circuit city, best buy, staples…) but didn’t have any idea where these stores are… it was chilling outside (temperature was less than 0’C). We wander the whole night but couldn’t get any clue for Circuit city or any other store where offers were going on (we did have the map but it was not very accurate) finally one kind lady in the Gas station helped us to reach Circuit city.

Shopping @ Vegas: we reached circuit city by 8.30 in the morning and by that time many of the items on sale were already sold out but then also we could successfully grab 2 GPS, 2 Photo printer and few more electronic stuffs.

Freaky Friday @ Vegas: the only thing happened on Friday was U-Turn after every turn we missed again and again U-Turn… sometimes I entered into wrong side of the road (luckily no one was coming from other end), it was like learning driving on the busiest roads J. But we enjoyed a lot went to Madame Tussauds WAX museum, Bellagio’s Musical fountain, Paris, New York City, Belly’s. It was fun all the time. More about Madame Tussauds visit @ Blipfoto.com.

Saturday: We had delicious lunch @ “India Oven” and started for Grand Canyon; just 40 miles after Las Vegas on the way to Grand Canyon, we stopped @ Hoover Dam (the Grand DAM which engineers completed in just 3 years & has produced approximately 150 billion kilowatts (enough energy to supply a million residents for 20 years)). First time I parked the car in multilevel parking lot (on 4th floor of parking lot), DAM was full of crowd and because of slow traffic our car was just crawling, at 5.30pm in the evening we took a break @ KINGSMAN (Arizona).

Prescott: we were following the GPS and the address of the hotel which we’d booked @ Grand canyon was not being recognized by GPS, somehow we got the address and followed the GPS direction, oooooooooooo it was pleasant weather, straight and lonely road I speeded till 110 miles/hour (thrilling 176kmph) average speed was 80-90 miles/hour and we were enjoying a lot with our traditional Antaakshri… we never cared and till 8.30 we were driving towards Phoenix (the address we got from GPS), we stopped @ Wickenburg and called up our other group who started from Las Vegas after us, just to check where they are, and we were shocked hearing that they’ve already reached Grand Canyon around an hour before, they asked us where are we going we said we are also coming towards Hotel and currently at Wickenburg… Sumit (the person who drove the other party’s car) said lemme check; he checked in the map and told we people are in the south of Arizona and the hotel is at the North of Arizona state, means we people are completely going wrong. Till KINGSMAN we were on the right track, and the address, which we entered @ KINGSMAN matched with our hotel address but we didn’t care about zip code. What? Let’s drive back and this was going to be the most scary drive, dark mountains, swirl roads; sometimes we were going upward hills and then again coming down @ other side of it, speed limits were changing very frequently; all five people attention; we are in mess. Naveen quoted “When American’s are there in car only 1 person is driving, when Indians are there in a car 5 people will be driving, and when Chinese are there in Car no one is driving”, so we were actually 5 drivers in the car :). We drove inside the Arizona National Park and at the speed of 90 miles/hour a camel sort of animal was there in the middle of the road to welcome us, gosh I just turned the car everyone was shocked at that speed, because the animal ran other side we survived otherwise at that speed we would have been in major trouble that too at the middle of Arizona National Park (where no one was there to help for miles, even no network coverage). Finally with everyone’s effort and alertness we safely reached Prescott (our landmark, from there our hotel was not so far, and we had clear directs till that) Finally we reached our booked hotel @ around midnight.

Grand Canyon Tour: other party left early for GC tour and they were supposed to go back to CA directly so we waived them with final good-bye and started getting ready for our trip. By this time I had enough exposure of driving in all kind of roads, situation and traffic so we enjoyed a lot in Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon is really awesome most creation of Nature; over the period of more than 270 million years the Nature & Colorado River have carved the mountains so nicely that is just amazing. To feel this you need to be there.

Back to Vegas: While coming back to we were taking double caution so no way we did any mistake… smoothly driving… but Nishant had one doubt why everyone is driving in the right most lanes and our car is only going in the fast left lane… slowly Richa also got this doubt…. Bosssssss this left most lane ends ahead… shucks… this wider road suddenly turned into a single lane and by the time I applied break I was not more than 10 feet away from a HAATHI (I call American Trucks, HAATHI), huff; clean shave. Ok ok let’s follow Haathi for sometime, after 5 minutes again on the fast track… but still Nishant raised the same doubt why everyone in front of us is still shifting to right lane man… I really don’t know, we reached Hoover dam and the guard over there pointed, sir “why high beams are on, you can’t drive whole long way here with this on” ooops Nishant got his answer and Richa too J.

Naveen Quitting Cigarette: Everyone was tired and so me too; by this time I’d driven around 1000+ miles (1600 kms), can you believe this? Thanks to everyone for believing on me (I know folks you didn’t have any other option :)). It was 4 peoples responsibility, which guided me in this whole long and thrilling drive. Naveen decided he’ll quit cigarette from tomorrow, I said tomorrow never comes, he said you don’t want me to quit cigarette from tomorrow, I said boss I want you to quit before we reach Vegas, he said “yaar aaj ki raat Bar jaana hai kal se surely quit kar doonga”. Later on I came to know he really quit, good Naveen keep it moving.

Monica Left: Monday morning Monica had to catch her flight for SFO, everyone promised they’ll wake up early and we all will go to see off her, did I say no one wake up? As expected J. Airport is not so far from Orleans so it took us just 10 minutes to reach airport after dropping her I came back to Orleans. My flight was @ 6.00pm in the evening so we thought of reaching airport by 5.00pm, there itself we had to return the rental car which was booked till 6.00pm in the evening. We went to another Indian restaurant and then back to strip, enjoyed ride of Monorail and some of the other attractions of Vegas.

Towards Airport: while going towards airport GPS showed some circular route and we were confused with that, I was worried that I may miss my flight, but nothing major happened and we reached airport on time @ 5.00pm, we handed over the keys of car to rental agency and boarded the shuttle towards Terminal-1.

American Airlines: cool, I reached on time and it was the time to check in; self check-in machine denied my ticket information, I went to the counter and lady told me that my flight was @ 4.00pm and it’s already 5.25pm, wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww, did I say my flight was @ 6.00pm; I never checked the timings I don’t know where from this 6.00pm was in my mind, this was major hit, so what’s next, she said next flight to Atlanta is at 11.00pm and that too it’s not a direct flight I’ll have to go to Miami (whole long way from West of US till the Eastern most point of US) and from Miami next morning @9.00am I’ll have to catch another flight for Atlanta… she asked whether I want a confirm ticket or standby will do, I asked how many tickets are open she said 10. I decide to take a chance and asked lady to give me a standby; this way I could save 100 bucks :)

Vegas Called me Back: I had around 4.30hrs of time before check-in and didn’t want to waste this, I called up Naveen, “hey Naveen I missed my flight man; Krish, cut the crap, you can’t miss your flight because you reached airport on time yaar… nooooooooo my flight was at 4.00pm and I was in a impression that it’s at 6.00pm”. I’m coming back to you people for another 4 hrs. And we decided to meet at Mandalay bay; I took Airport shuttle, which dropped me @ Tropicana (which was around 1.5 miles away from Mandalay bay) and with that heavy bag on my shoulder I walked in that chilly weather till Mandalay bay… finally Naveen Nishant Krish & Richa met again. We went to New York City and clicked few pics, then Roller Coaster ride (man, electrifying experience). Finally Richa said since you’ve come back let’s go to Bellagio where you can enjoy the Musical fountain, it was perfect timing, we reached there and show began, after the hilarious musical show, I told Nishant “Agar meri flight nahi bhi chootati to kya mil jaata, I missed my flight but having great fun here”, Nishant smiled.

Last night @ Vegas: after the Bellagio’s show we had dinner and took a cab, all the people were dropped @ Orleans then I headed towards Airport, Richa said, “Hope this time you fly” and I did. After reaching Miami I had to wait for 1.5 hours for next flight and finally back to pavilion @ 1.15pm, I was dozing and donno how I reached home driving my car whole long 75 miles from Airport.

Monica: after reaching home I came to know when Monica reached Sanoje, she was supposed to be received by few of her friends and she had to call them, to tell her location and the only Phone available was “out of order”. She was alone and there were few druggies in the airport; one old lady driver helped her and even gave free pass till home.

Nishant, Naveen & Richa also reached home safely without anymore trouble.

It's said all well that ends well, even after all this hip-hop and zig-zags; we really had wonderful time.

Las Vegas & Grand Canyon Tour
22nd – 26th November 2007

Travellers,
Krish, Naveen, Nishant, Richa & Monica