I was on a road trip from Mumbai and planned to cover the entire Gujarat for a fundraising campaign of an NGO. The idea was to go to all major district headquarters of Gujrat, camp there for a few days and create awareness about education for girl-child and organize a street play to depict the same, carry the same team to other locations in the same town. Once done, move on to the other town and cover it over the next few days. We had about 5 vehicles at our disposal with the best tyres available in the market. The suspension of the vehicles was decent and we experienced a comfortable drive once we started our tour and realised the importance of having good car tyres after travelling almost 16-18 hours on rough Tar roads with potholes all around.
We started from Valsad, moved over to Navsari and Surat and did pretty well with a huge response from all quarters. Looking at the overwhelming response we decided to increase the team size and called in more volunteers from the NGO and also a few more vehicles. We now had about 9 large four-wheelers at our disposal and a team size of about 45 volunteers. We were pretty much equipped with men and people and better way of explaining our concept as we moved over to Bharuch, Vadodara, Dahod and Anand. After covering Nadiad, Himatnagar, Palanpur, Patan, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, we reached Ahmedabad after over a month in Gujarat. A period which had taken its toll on us mentally and physically too. We all were too tired and exhausted and decided to increase our stay in Ahmedabad. The reason was to rejuvenate ourselves, replenish the lost energies and start the rest of Gujarat from Ahmedabad and finish off in one go in another month and a half.
So we all took a 3 day break from work and relaxed in our plush rooms enjoying the weather. While we were leaving Gandhinagar to reach Ahmedabad, our vehicle drivers had pointed out that the vehicles needed servicing and change of tyres for a few of them. We had assured them that we would look at it as soon as we reached Ahmedabad. So once we had reached Ahmedabad, it was our responsibility to do the servicing of the cars and change the car tyres in Ahmedabad. The next morning I left with the convoy and reached an authorized service station and got all the vehicles washed and serviced. We returned in the evening to collect the vehicles and spoke to the service centre owner over tea as the last vehicle was being washed. We were surprised to know that Ahmedabad had all the leading stores located in a vicinity of 2 kms for branded tyres. Since we were particular about the accessories and tyres of the vehicles, we shortlisted 2 of the centers and decided to go there the same evening. We did not even go to the 2nd center as the first one was equipped with all what we needed for our cars and all the accessory changes and Tyre changes was done in a few hours. I was surprised and pleasantly happy with Ahmedabad as I had presumed it would be a little bit of search and more than a day to get what I wanted for my cars. We left Ahmedabad with good memories and happy faces to cover the remaining Gujarat after getting some new car tyres in Ahmedabad for our cars.
Uttpal K
Copyright © Uttpal K
1. If you share this post, please give due credit to the author Uttpal K
2. Please DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Please DO NOT Cut/Copy/Paste this post
© Uttpal K., all rights reserved.
Disclaimer: Stories in this Blog are a work of fiction. Events, Places, Settings and Incidents narrated in the stories are a figment of my imagination. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright Notice:No part of this Blog may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Blog Author Uttpal K who holds the copyright.
wow UK… awesome and all the best for such a wonderful cause…
btw, next time you have trouble in Ahd, do let me know… half my family is there 🙂
Cheers!
Thanks Archana.. 🙂
Beautifully Penned
Thanks Ananya.. 🙂
A trip to Gujrat is like wow and problems there is like no……good cause Uttpal 🙂
Totally agree…Thanks Shweta..:)
Beautifully post …….
Thank you..:)