Funny trip of friends to Agra
It was the winter time, December was the month and year was about to end, I was just back from Jaipur after attending a friend’s marriage. And my best buddy Sanjay said we are going to Agra next month. It was our exam time and I seriously never wanted to go. Sanjay had some property related work there and he was like “I’m taking my car and you just have to come along so what is the problem?” I couldn’t say no, so I decided to take a few more friends with us, and I knew I just had to tell them the plan and they’d be ready instantly, same did happen; 7 more friends were ready! Varun, Shashank, Rajat, Deepak, Rohit, Prateek and Harshal.
So we decided to leave on the day of our last exam that had to take place on 4th January. Plan was that we’ll leave after the exam that will be over by 1.30, and we’ll reach by the evening. Sanjay will wrap up his work the next day and if we’ll get time we will visit Taj Mahal the same day. The next day was to visit Fatehpur Sikri and we had to come back the same day. This trip was meant to be very short one, but this didn’t happen, it turned out to be a nightmare trip for all of us!
So how it started – It was decided that Sanjay and Varun will their cars and we had to bring our bag packs to the college and leave from there only. I was very excited and was not able to concentrate on the exam at all. After our exam was over every one of us rushed towards the parking where our cars were parked. Both Sanjay and Varun had brought their Swifts with them. Everything said and done, we were ready to leave but one thing was something missing which was “booze”. We knew that alcohol is costly in U.P. as compared to Delhi and since we were 9 in number we had to keep our stock so we went towards wine and beer shop and took 24 bottles of beer and 6 bottles of Blender’s Pride with us. We knew that it was winter but Beer is something that everyone of us just can’t resist.
I wish Yamuna Expressway had been constructed in 2009 only, at least we would not have faced such situation at that time. We decided to take NH – 2, time was around 4 PM and Sanjay was driving and I was next to him, we were enjoying, drinking and having fun and suddenly there was a big noise. We were trying to figure out what just happened and Sanjay said “tyre punctured”. Sh*t man, everything was going nicely and this had to happen . We opened the boot and what I saw was no jack, completely bald spare tyre and a broken rod. Then we thought to take these tools from Varun’s car but to our surprise there was not even that rod or spare tyre there, only one jack was there. It was enough for that time; we somehow managed to use that jack and broken rod to fix the puncture. Then again our journey started, I had to have beer to come back in the mood. After 150 kms we thought to stop and have some food.
We stopped at a Dhabha on the highway and I randomly thought of checking the nuts of the tyre we had just replaced. I was shocked to see that every nut was so loose that if we had travelled just 2-3 Kms more, that tyre could have come out of the car and we would’ve face a serious accident. We again tightened those nuts. After having food Shashank took over Sanjay’s car to drive so I asked him to keep the car steady and asked Varun maintain his speed with him. It was already dark, fog was getting dense and we can’t afford to face any problem again. I shifted in Varun’s car as he was driving for quite some time now, I asked him if wanted to take rest and in the mean while I could drive but he said “I am fine”. Time was around 10 PM, we were driving at the speed of 40 Km/h and Agra was around 50 kilometers now, I was also feeling sleepy now, my eyes were getting closed but I was trying hard to wake up suddenly I realized that our car was slightly moving towards right divider, before I could judge what was happening I was shocked to see that Varun was sleeping! I slapped him to wake him up; he applied brakes all of a sudden, we all woke up because of the sudden jerk caused by those brakes. I got out of the car to see if we have hit something or not and we were shocked to see that we have just stopped inches from a giant truck that was broken down and was not visible due to fog. If we would have hit that truck, we definitely would have died. We all were scared as hell. I decided to drive the car further.
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We entered Agra late at night; it was around 11 PM in the night. Journey of 4 hours turned out to be of 7 hours, moreover, we were not able to find any hotel in the city, all the hotels were already closed and others were fully booked. Still we carried on our search because we had a whole night to spend. We found a small hotel near a Banquet Hall which was just wrapping off a marriage. Hotel was fine and we took 2 rooms, one room was having one bed and in the other room there were two beds, Harshal gave his driving license as ID proof to book the rooms, every one of us hungry was but unfortunately we had nothing to eat neither did the Hotel. So we decided to sleep as were very tired but I still wanted to have something so I came out of the hotel, took Varun and Rohit with me and started searching. We found nothing and it was getting cold, I was literally shivering. Only last option was to try that Banquet hall; we reached there and saw that bride and groom were having dinner. So we took one of the waiters with us and gave him some money; he was ready to give us the food prepared for the wedding.
We packed some food for ours friends who were in the in hotel, time was around 1.30 AM, while we were coming back towards the hotel, we saw a Radio Taxi which stopped in front of our hotel and 3 beautiful girls with an ugly guy stepped out from that car. We ran towards the hotel and followed them and to our surprise they were staying on the same floor where we were staying.
When we told this news to our friends it became the main topic of discussion, 3 girls and 1 guy in the same room! But then after 2-3 pegs down eventually that topic changed and everyone got involved in playing “teen patti”.
Shashank and Rajat were good boys among us as they didn’t drink, so they decided to go to the other room which was on the same floor to sleep. In this room environment was a bit different, we were playing “teen patti” till 5 AM in the morning and then I didn’t remember when I slept. The next thing that I remember was Varun waking me up at 7.30 AM, I wanted to sleep more but then I realized that we only have today’s day to wrap up Sanjay’s work and visit Taj Mahal as well.
So, I woke up and woke everyone else also. Then I went to the other room to wake up Shashank and Rajat as well, while I was returning back I saw one of those girls again, she was talking on the phone roaming in the corridor, her hair was wet and she was looking very beautiful, as I was just thinking talking to her there came that ugly faced guy, he was easily 6 foot in height and 100 plus in weight, my mind dropped that thought and I quickly entered our room. We were ready to leave at around 9 AM. We locked the rooms and while we were coming downstairs the other two girls were coming upstairs, everyone of us were continuously watching them. While we were leaving in our cars all three girls were standing in their balcony watching us, and again, the main topic of discussion was those girls.
We had our breakfast in a local restaurant and then we left for Sanjay’s work, he has to take property documents and some amount as a payment from a local property dealer.
Around 12 PM we reached Taj Mahal. ‘The Taj’ is one amongst the World’s Wonders! Regarded by many as the finest example of Mughal architecture, it is something that one has to witness to really understand the perfection in the architecture. After visiting Taj we went to see the Agra Fort and we left at around 5 PM from there.
Then we came back to the hotel, I switched on the television and India vs. South Africa cricket match was on, everyone gathered and started watching that match, only one thing was required – “beer”. After India’s batting was over we felt hungry and instead of going to a restaurant we had something else in our minds. There was a marriage going on in the Banquet hall next to the hotel. We decided to have our dinner in that marriage. Since we were 9 in number, the plan was that we will go in 3 groups of 3 persons each. We all dressed up and left for that marriage, entering that marriage though we were maintaining distance from each other but still we were catching everyone’s attention, the reason was that the marriage was very small budgeted one and we were dressed like we are going to some farm house in Delhi, everyone was staring us and we easily understood that they are aware that we are outsiders, but it was the beer that gave us strength to stay there. We had our food then we went to the ice cream corner and according to the plan left in our groups. After leaving that banquet hall we finally had a sigh of relief but the experience was truly amazing. We were very happy and Deepak told us that they even danced on the floor on the song “Jhalak Dikhla Jaa”. They even clicked their pics with the Bride and the Groom.
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It was around 11 PM, in the hotel it was our last night, so we were still drinking. Harshal was down and out. Me, Prateek and Rohit were sitting on the balcony and again the Radio Taxi came at around 1.30 AM. Prateek became very excited and said “I will go and talk to them”, we tried to stop him as he was drunk but he was not ready to listen us.
The girls entered their room, Prateek stopped one of the girls and started to talk to him, we were not able to listen anything, we were sneaking from the door what was happening, and after some time that girl called that ugly faced guy and the argument started heating up, we thought of going there but all of us were drunk, the situation could have turned worse so we decided to stay there only. After sometime Prateek came back and we asked him what he was talking with that girl. He was so drunk that he couldn’t speak properly; we understood that something is wrong that’s why that guy came out. We still were trying to ask Prateek what happened suddenly someone started beating our door. We were frightened because it seemed as there were 4-5 guys outside the door who were shouting to open the door and were saying open the door or we’ll break it. It was not Delhi and no one knew us, anything could have happened that night. I asked Prateek to sleep but he was not ready to listen us, we forcibly made him sleep so that he would not make that situation worse. Seriously speaking I was very scared to open the door. Me, Sanjay and Deepak were normal so we decided to open the door, we were ready to get the beating from those guys.
As we opened the door, there were 4 guys with the hotel receptionist who dragged us and took us downstairs. Harshal, Rohit and Prateek were sleeping and Shashank and Rajat were in other room, so it was Me, Sanjay, Varun and Deepak who were taken outside the hotel, it was around 2.30 AM and we were in shorts and not even wearing slippers. Temperature was easily 5 degree celsius, we were shivering in cold and I saw that there was 1 Jeep and 2 Scorpios standing. Around 8 people were ready to give us the beating of our life and some were watching us from those cars so that we can’t run. We had no idea what Prateek has said to that girl but one guy was shouting on us saying that one of our friend has misbehaved with that girl and he is her boyfriend. She has called her and told him everything. He was very furious on Prateek and was asking where he is? We were trying to calm him down and were asking sorry for whatever happened. But he was not ready to listen to us. One of the guy brought a hockey stick, I said why are you beating us, we are innocent. He said then tell me where is that guy then, we were just trying to explain him what happened and suddenly there came a PCR Gypsy. Seeing that gypsy those guys ran away from there, I was thankful to God that we are safe now. Seeing something happening on the road that PCR came and stopped in front of us. Police office stepped out of the vehicle and “asked what was happening there”?
We started explaining everything to Police Officer, and he was convinced but he was very angry of this thing that Prateek misbehaved with that girl. That Police Officer wanted to meet Prateek. We told him that he is frightened by seeing all this that is why he is in the room only. It was hard to convince that Police officer but he understood everything eventually. We requested that Police Officer to stay there until we leave that hotel because we knew that guy will be back.
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We rushed back into the hotel and woke up everyone else and quickly started packing our stuff. Shashank and Rajat had no idea what happened as they were sleeping in other room. We woke Harshal and Prateek who were down and out. We just wanted to leave that hotel and that city as quickly as possible. We took our bag packs and returned keys to the reception. The receptionist guy was talking to the Police Officer, I was wondering what is happening but Varun pushed me from behin and said “ Jadli kar yar, nikalna hai yaha se”.
We quickly left and just after 2-3 kilometers Harshal realized that he had given his license as ID proof in the reception and he had not taken back from there. We were furious on him but then it was nothing as compared to what Prateek had done. We returned towards the hotel.
As we reached the hotel we saw there was Same Scorpio Car was standing. Police Officer was not present there. We stopped the car few meters before the hotel. We decided that only Harshal and Prateek will go and collect that license and all of us will wait in the car. Harshal and Prateek were scared to go but they had do this.
After few minutes later Harshal and Prateek were running towards us and that Scorpio and Jeep was chasing them. Varun started the car and we were ready to run. I knew this was going to happen. Both of jumped in the car through the window and we ran from there. They were following us in their cars. We were randomly taking turns here and there as we didn’t know anything about the city. Our situation was like snake in the maze. We can’t stop to ask anyone about the direction. We were just trying to get rid of those guys.
I quickly turned on the GPS in my mobile. We finally found the direction and rushed towards the highway. Both Sanjay and Varun were good drivers, after all no one can match a delhiite in driving.
We left them behind in the highway and all of us had a big sigh of relief. We reached Delhi in just 3 hours and we were lucky that this time we didn’t have to face any car problem.
The next day we were back in our college and were laughing on the incident. We were laughing by just imagining the consequences. Everyone was asking how the trip was and we could only say that – “It was a wild trip that will remain in our memory for a long time or maybe forever.”
