A Wedding Trip (Day – 4)

The journey back to Bangalore was going to be a long one, Google Maps was predicting around 15 hours. After much debate on when to start the journey, we settled to start at 6:00 AM. Me and Pro got up just in time and did a hurried packing only to find Varsha and Niranjana were still asleep. In the end, we left the hotel around 6:30. We walked out of the hotel to find the sea in yet another beautiful but distinct state. The car was lying just next to the shoreline crying out for a photograph. This was indeed a beautiful place.

We started the journey by driving further south to Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu before turning back north to Tirunalveli and then Madurai. The road was perhaps one of the best roads I have driven to date. My eyes lit up when I saw the buttery smooth roads with hardly any traffic. The scenery of mountains and windmills all around us further increased the appeal of the road. We were cruising at 140 kmph for quite some time before Pro suggested dialing it down. But even then we were covering ground really fast. Varsha had run out of car games and spent most of the journey sleeping. Niranjana meanwhile was observing the roads with great attention and shifted the jukebox to English songs.

Our dream run lasted only till Salem though. Traffic started developing and it started feeling a lot like Bangalore again. Varsha woke up somewhere in between and we spent the remainder of our journey talking about stories from the past, aspirations for the future, and just random things of no importance. It’s funny how a road trip brings people together. Varsha and Niranjana were strangers only a week before. But by the end of the trip, it felt like we had known each other for years.

We reached Bangalore around dusk, a bit tired but very satisfied. We took the Atibelle road and dropped Niranjana at her place before heading to our home in Mahadevapura. I gave Varsha a house tour as Pro made tea for all of us. Varsha, surprisingly was satisfied with the tea this time. As we didn’t have the energy for another hour’s drive to Varsha’s hostel, she decided to take a cab.

And just like that, the eventful, loaded, three-day-marathon came to an end. A dynamically planned and executed trip. Certainly one I would remember for a long time to come.