A trip to the road not taken.

What do you do when you lose your way in a completely alien land? And you have no idea where you are heading not even the exact name of the place. I mean it’s like you know where you are going but are clueless of the about what path to follow. I won’t complicate this further.

The story is something like this : eight nearly broke girls, correction eight backpacker girls decide not to attend the college and instead visit the famous RDB fort (where Rang De Basanti was shot) situated in the interiors of Punjab. The fort was an hour’s drive from the college and because we did not have vehicles of our own it would be an extra half hour. So in the classroom in five minutes the entire plan was made in this manner, 9 am departure ; 11 am arrival at the fort and again at 2 pm departure from the fort to be back by 4 pm and go back home in the college bus.

We got out of the college and then began our adventures. We caught a three-wheeler to the nearest town where we thought we’d get a bus to the fort. The tiny little town welcomed us with a two dozen buses each to a different place. After a inquiring from various bus conductors we found “our” bus. We quickly grabbed our seats (I think finding a good seat in these buses is a rarity) with a contended, electrifying smile on our faces. The birds had flown from the cage.  We sat with complete strangers, none of us had ever travelled in a bus before ( leaving apart the college and school buses ).It was altogether a new adventure.

A vendor at one the bus stops.

We had just settled when the conductor came to us with the tickets. But wait a sec! Tickets to where , the RDB fort where the Aamir Khan movie was shot . Hell no! no such place existed according to the conductor and after informing  this he went to give tickets to the other passengers , who by now were curiously looking at the eight girls who were new to the alien world of which they were a part. It was panic time, we were on a bus to Ludhiana and on our way to a place nobody had heard about. That is when the tube light (our friend Su) lit up and told us her cousin had been there. The cousin was called, he told us we were on the right way and the fort was actually situated in Doraha near a gurudwara.

Finally the conductor gave us the tickets and we were in our elated mode once again. Now aunty 1 gets on the bus , a senior citizen and because there is no other  seat I offer her mine . She is pleased and enquirers where we are going , we tell her. To our utter shock she enlightens us that “our” bus  is never going to take us to Doraha and we need to take another bus.

The bus stops in some town , we got down after thanking our aunty no. 1 and cursing the creepy  conductor for cheating and misguiding us. Fortunately we immediately got a bus to Doraha.  To satisfy ourselves we first ask the conductor, then a passenger, then the driver  and then the conductor again .

The second bus

So we were all set to go in our second bus. The smiles were back . All was well until Su got in a conversation with a helpful aunty no. 2 . She too is curious about where we are going  and Su explains  . Then to our  horror ( once agian)  she told us that the RDB fort was on a different road. We were supposed to go by the GT road.Although there was similar fort in Doraha but not AAmeer Khaaan walla .Everyone started panicking yet again then V told everyone that we were on our way to discover a new place ,nobody had been there before . We were on the road not taken.

After being relaxed by V's wise words we all resumed our usual talks.Tuned into my Ipod I was happily looking out from the window , the bus was now on roads that was barely 30 inches wide  . It seemed like we were going through the fields itself. Suddenly instead of Chris Martin I hear this:

                                          Tu mainu Chad de Ya Daaru Chad de

                                                          Rabba teri khair ne 

OMG! It was the music blaring out from the bus woofers , I had  noticed those on entering and laughed mentally ( the mental  evil laugh) and doubted their working .It was playing the very music I detested and giving competition to my Ipod   apparently  my Ipod failed them. All my friends exchanged the what are we doing here looks. GAWD ! I had never heard such baritones ever.To top it all Teju started singing those songs.
 

URGHHH!!! god alone knew what part of world we were in the rickety bus , going at speed of 70 km/hr on the 20 inch wide road ( the width had reduced like we wish our waists would do at the same pace  ) . Suddenly we were on the GT road and the bus halted . The conductor told us we have to cross the road and we'll reach a gurudwara and just beyond that is the fort. He even told that the same bus will take us to college at 2 so we should be back at 2pm same place and he'll pick us up.After quickly thanking him we entered the township. After a small break at the gurudwara we where on our way to the Fort.We finally made it.
Enough of Babbling from my side now the pictures will do the talking:

HIP HIP HORRAY

The road  from Gurudwara to the fort

The entrance . Magnificent !!

This is supposed to be the Mosque

At the fort 

Me

 After having a hearty lunch we went back to the highway. On the way back while we were walking some horrendous  buffaloes tried to chase us away , that was  scary , we ran for our lives. We reached college in time to boast about our day's adventures to the classmates who had stayed back and studied in the ever boring classrooms.
Cheers to the Backpacker girls Club. 


PS: Sorry this post is too long but couldn't help it . My friend V ( who religiously reads my every post ) wanted minute to minute description.This one goes to those 7 people who made my day.