बटोही

This story is about a journey, which I took 4 years back. It was a first long drive, around 1100 kilometers. Part of that decision was taken out of adventure and part of it was out of no other available options. Now a days, I have been driving a lot, drove distances, thousands of miles in one stretch, but till then, in India, always refrained to do so. The reason was mainly the unknown status of the roads, the unavailability of GPS and safety. The story is about a trip, I took during Feb 2015,  I was in USA those days, and came to India for a family function.  Inception: While we were planning to come back, as usual, the VISA stamping came up, and luckily, we were eligible for the drop box facility. Thanks to the US embassy's new rules and India-US ties. Whenever we visit our country, we plan to stay maximum with our parents, family. Our family function was in Mumbai, stamping was planned to be done in New Delhi, and my home is in Northern part of Bihar. We have secured t

A beautiful morning at Old Orchard Beach North-east of USA is the place, where I lived the longest of my post college life. For around 5 years, in fact 4+ in Connecticut and around an year in NJ, and never thought of visiting Maine. It was one of the biggest mistakes. Since 2011 till 2016, we never thought about Maine. It was a sin. Thou, the mistake was rectified, and sin was about to get washed away, as soon as we got back to the region, sadly not to Connecticut thou. It was New Jersey. It was Wednesday, a weekday and I was yet to get assigned to my new organization, and was just getting bored. The thought came in to roam around, I shared about visiting Maine and planned to start on Friday, my wifey suggested, why to wait till Friday, lets start tomorrow. 15th, 16th and 17th of September were the dates, to leave lasting impression. Since 2 out of three days were weekdays, getting confirmed hotels were not a big task.  Plan: Day 1: On 15th, start by 10 AM, to avoid