“After a delightful party on a saturday evening in the Madras Boat Club, we had plans to hit the road once again and go to one of the several private beaches along the East Coast Road (ECR). It was me with three other guys from VGSoM. Two of us are working with ITC (Me and Nachiket) and the other two with TaFE (George abd Namit).
We borrowed the car from George’s landlord. It was an old and battered Maruti 800, the frontie version. By the looks of it, we dreaded taking it all the way to the ECR. But I wanted to drive desperately and if we didn’t take this car then the only option was a rented car with a driver, which I always despise. So I convinced them that I would drive and that it would run just fine.
George and Namit quickly packed their bags and off we were from their house. We waded through the city traffic and stopped over at some place before Thiruvonmiyur for breakfast. We set off once again after eating the usual Uttappam and Dosas. Soon the traffic started thinning as we got farther away from the city limits and approached the ECR.
As we crossed the Toll Plaza and started burning the ECR, we saw this distances board, which claimed “”Pondicherry –> 140 kms”” Immediately our eyes lit up and all of us jumped at once and decided to burn rubber all the way. Namit sounded a bit skeptical about the whole thing, because he wondered whether the car would hold on. We wanted to take our chances, and we whooshed past the beach that we were supposed to go to. The ECR is amazing as it runs parallel to the entire coast line and you can feel the sea-breeze hitting your face all the time. About 40 kms down the line, we took a sutta break and George wanted to drive then. As soon as he started driving there was some cracking noise and the engine began making some strange whirring sounds. We opened the bonnet only to find that a spark plug had come off. We stopped a biker passing by and tried to get hold of a plug-spanner but to no avail. Luckily the Maruti Service Station was just a kilometer behind and we drove the car on two cylinders. We got it fixed and wasted about an hour and a half in the whole ordeal. I was to drive after that as people had gotten superstitious. So I drove non-stop till we reached Pondicherry, around 3:00 pm, and yes what “”a quaint little place”” (verbatim) it was.
Lunch was the first thing on our minds as we sat in this restaurant called La Terassa and had some sizzlers, while leching at some of the French babes
Evening was spent on the “”rues”” of Pondicherry, admiring the french architecture and hoping to have a similar house, someday. Finally around 8:00 pm we decided to head back. If you thought that ECR was beautiful during the day, wait till you see it at night. It’s like a black lit-up snake with a smooth back. I drove half the way while going back and it was one of the best drives I have ever had. Overall it was an amazing trip.
I like improvisation.”