India - My Life within and without

A blaze feeling, a bit lost thought and an emotion to do something in one go; but it came from her, so I accepted it right away. Although I didn't understand it well at that point, but over the weeks, I got excited about it and finally we reached to a point, where we realized that it was actually happening. By this time I was really curious to do it.

It was the night of Dec 30, 2008, when she sent me a text to pack my bags; as we will be leaving by 1:00 PM. I packed all I needed, did whatever I was supposed to and slept in peace, dreaming about a new city, new experience.

Dec 31st, around 12.15 PM, she called and said, “I will be there soon, be ready”. I was thrilled, a long drive, a journey and most important, I will be out of LA for THAT mid-night. I was waiting eagerly when she reached to my place at around 2.00 PM. We kept our bags and other stuff in the car and without any doubt, we just left...I started driving, and we were on highway 5 within few minutes, going towards North California.

Ms. Dhano, her GPS, informed us that we will be there by 8.33. No problem. We will be there on time, and if we drive fast, we will reach early enough to get dressed on time. Almost after 2 hour of drive, we noticed the time on Dhano was different, it stated 9.20 PM, panicky feeling started coming in. She was a bit nervous and I was a bit relaxed as I was on driving seat...

SHOOT!!!! the cars in front were stopped, it was crowded and I-5 was pretty blocked. We got stuck, the bad traffic took another hour or so. Dhano informed us that we will reach there by 10.28. We looked at each other and decided not to get worried, although we were really sad. We took a small break, went to restroom and she started driving. It was all well until we noticed that its getting hard to cover 6 hour journey in exact 8 hours. The level of rush went up again.

Through out the way music was fun, company was great. In between road suddenly looked empty, so she started driving at almost 90+ dangerous speeds, but safely. We were in contact with those acquaintances, who were taking us out for party. According to them, late comers should reach directly to the party. Then came that idea, from me, but we both agreed on it. We knew that we can’t make it on time anymore, so we took a stopover at a motel/inn. We impressed that Indian owner, paid her 30 bucks and used the motel room. We changed, got dressed into our sexy dresses, high heels and beautiful makeup. Within 35-40 minutes, we were back on the road, driving to SFO.

At this point, traffic wasn't bad, but we still had to cover one and half hour journey in an hour, just to make it on time. Finally, we touched the city at 11.30 PM. We still had 10-15 minutes to play with, but luckily the destination was only 5 minutes away. We were done with being mad, angry, sad and disappointed. At this moment we just wanted to be out of car before it hits 00:00 and a new year starts. We were in front of the house, our destination, but we couldn't find any parking. We had to go around twice, to find a safe parking spot. While going around, she saw her friends; another 5 minutes were gone with hellos and Hi etc. They helped us park, with leaving a hardcore mark on the back bumper.

Suddenly there were sounds, fireworks and we looked at each other...”Happy New year 2009”, we all were screaming in one voice. People living around the houses came in to their balconies and joined us in screaming, the New Year wishes. The New Year was here, and we were in San Francisco.

Later, we had some funny conversations, some fanatical stuff, and some really stupid acts as well. But this kind of welcome to a New Year was my first experience, and I must say, I don’t regret that moment at all, just because, I was with a wonderful friend. I realized at that moment about how important the friendship becomes in our life, and how precious our friend are, to many of us. Living this unexpected, bizarre moments, gave me an uncanny grown-up feeling, which will stay with me forever and ever!