At the Spur of the Moment

You can’t really win a battle of words against your partner of the fairer sex. I found that out the hard way. It started with an innocent statement that turned into an argument, which later turned into madness, and then silence. The perfect way to start a Sunday morning? Hardly! But, I was greeted by this lovely day in this very way. Lovely or lethal you ask. Well, let’s see.

Desperate to unwind after the losing the argument, I wanted to just go and drive my heart out. My lady obviously wanted to mend things and offered to join me. Oh, for the uninformed, here ‘offered’ is basically ‘declared.’ We were puttering about within the confines of the city when she suddenly cropped up the idea of heading for the hills, and we decided to head northwards thereon. Deep inside, I was grinning!

A few miles into the drive, and the green overhead board said Shimla straight ahead. I murmured casually “Why don’t we push off to Shimla?” The reply “ok,” sounded like a cacophony of sweet tones.

I was driving a set of wheels that could cause quite a stir! Sporting a heart of 800cc and belting out 50bhp, the Maruti Alto would perhaps be the last car of choice for any enthusiastic driver. But I didn’t have a choice. A take it or leave it situation it was, and I took it gladly.

Barely 45 minutes on the road and the twisty stuff began, little after a town called Panchkula that is. It’s pretty much a straight road, not in the literal sense, but direction wise. All you have to do is point the car straight ahead and follow the road till you reach the bifurcation of Solan, from where you carry on left. Then the next fork comes when you reach the junction of Chail.

Right takes you to the serene and the much virgin hill town (compared to Shimla) of Chail, while continuing straight takes you to Shimla. So straight it was for us on this day. The very fact that this trip happened at the spur of the moment makes it all the more exciting.

The surface of the road was beyond belief. Kudos to the government for keeping the roads in such good shape. I took my time to soak it all in, but the traffic brought me back to mother Earth and slapped me with a note stating, “Don’t dream so much, these are no Alps.” The huge number of vehicles I can handle, in fact living in Delhi and Mumbai for many years, I’ve come to accept the average of two hours it takes to travel about 40 kilometres, mostly due to huge traffic jams owing to the ever increasing number of motorists. What I can’t handle is the way people drive!

You have to hold a candle to them for their courage. And while you’re at it, hold it for a little longer as you might need to place it on their grave to wish them a happy after-life! Yes, as crude and harsh it may sound, but this is how it really is. People here have no sense of traffic. They drive and ride with a suicidal bent of mind, but that’s just second nature for most of us, isn’t it? So, here I am, again, accepting the unfortunate state of things as they are.



I wanted to enjoy my outing, so I was driving like my pants were on fire. Challenging corners only egged me harder to push beyond my limit. So much so that it seemed like I was fighting a battle against my saner self, and winning it. But the Alto, you must understand, is not really a car for very long distances. The going became uncomfortable after a while, and we had to take breathers at regular intervals. We stopped four times in the 4-hour stint. Any less and my back would be asking for a masseuse. Nevertheless, the blind corners were ever-so-inviting and the smooth road only made sure that this trip had all the elements of an epic drive!

Going uphill was a straight forward ride with not many hair-raising instances. As we reached Shimla, we realized that it wasn’t as pretty as we remembered. Overcrowded, as it has become, this little hill station has been robbed off its sheen. The commercial aspect has increased, and is killing the very essence of Shimla. We parked near the Inter-State bus terminal and headed for the much famous Mall Road. It’s a steep climb that took us the better part of 20 minutes to reach the other side of the above mentioned shopping street.

We stationed ourselves in the good ol’ Indian Coffee House, which sure sparks nostalgic feelings for some. What my lady likes about this place is that the menu remains unchanged all through the country. And, as I found out after stuffing myself, the taste is good too! We gorged on butter dosa, vada and cold coffee, and basked in the glorious hilly surrounds.

We turned around to head back to Chandigarh. With the fear of being slowed down due a broken front headlamp, I wanted to clear the hill section with still some sunlight remaining. The car’s brakes were giving me some trouble before I started this drive, and I made sure to get them checked at a local repair shop. I thank my wits for that because the events that happened hereon certainly demanded the best from the brakes.

A Pulsar rider with a pillion as a liability was just in front, and I overtook him after seeing a clear path ahead. I was in no mood of racing with him and was just driving the way I did the whole day. He took it as a challenge, and thought of it as a war! Some frenzied riding saw him at my tail after a while, and he did everything not in the rule book to overtake me. I let him, lest we all go down a few thousand meters! This done, I stopped and saw him shoot off into a distance. Convinced that he was far ahead we started again.

But we were wrong, again. He hadn’t gone far enough, and we soon caught up with him. It was the same procedure. Overtook him, he went mad, rode even wilder and whoosh he went ahead. We had no choice but to stop once more to let him get far enough ahead. Thankfully, this time around we didn’t encounter that manic biker and peacefully carried on.

Close to Panchkula, things get a lot crowded, especially near the Pinjaur Gardens. Barely averaging 15km/h, we reached Panchkula and headed straight to Chandigarh. I dropped my lady to her place and got back to my room. I crashed on the bed only to recall the happenings during the course of the day. Maybe I should argue with my lady on regular basis if it potentially offers this much fun?

On reflection, I said to myself, “Yeah, you just drove an Alto on some challenging roads. For close to 300 kilometres, drove it well too. It’s quite an accomplishment. Hmmm… life’s good.”