[krazydriver84]

14th August-Thursday. The rainiest day Gurgaon has ever seen. Traffic was to a standstill. Roads waterlogged upto knees. I practically met half the TBHP crowd of Gurgaon. I happened to meet up Khaadu and Mrs. Khaadu and Jr. Khaadu. Guruji was on his way to meet me actually to tow me.. but the mechs beat him to it and I was on my way. Suman da was resting at home after a tiring drive, can't blame him, the scene was bad in gurgaon. It was taking everybdy 1 hour just to travel from DLF Phase I to Genpact crossing.

So what happened with me was that the alternator belt had slipped off and fallen off somewhere on road while I was wading my car through a waterlogged road, and I was desperately trying to make it to 'the Mechanic'- Rakesh Automobiles. But I guess it was too much for my baby to continue on. She couldn't take it anymore and gave up on me. The battery was dead, the car heated up and started steaming. Then me & my friends started pushing the car to the left side where we parked with a couple of more cars which had broken down and cooled her down. After initial investigations, I found that no major damage has happened except for the missing alternator belt. A few mechs came there for the other cars, so i asked them to help me, and while inspecting they told me that they'd need to take it to the garage, take out the engine, check the head gasket.. all in all they said it would be somewhere arouund 3k. I was like . So I said Tata to them and called up another mechanic whose number i got from just dial. I explained the matter to him and I was surprised by his promptness. I don't know how he came so fast, but he was there with me under 20 mins on his scooter with a battery to charge my battery and a Finolex belt for the alternator. I must admit I was impressed with his efficiency. The car was ready to go and fully charged in 25 mins. All it costed me was Rs.80/- for the belt and Rs.300/- for labour. Labour was expensive coz it was a bad day. I was scared that because the battery was dead, the car wouldn't be charging enough, but to my surprise the car was charging amazingly. In fact I think I had better brights now compared to earlier.

By 10:30PM I was on way back dropping off my friends. But the agony I went through while waiting for the mechs to arrive was not funny, I had to call up GD, Suman, Khaadu to calm my nerves. Thanks guys, for being patient and listening to a nutcracker like me. While I was stranded Guruji gave me an offer to drag him on the NH8 considering my condition but as soon as I called him up and told him that my baby's fixed and lets drag. He was like "later" Kya guruji not done? I got the car fixed 'fatafat' so could drag you.

Anyways, all of you might think this was the end of my horrendous evening, well it was just the starting, one of my friends had to catch the volvo from IFFCo chowk at 10:30 so I had already sent him on his way coz I din't know when the car would be fixed. Anyways as soon as I reached home, he gave me a call saying that his VOLVO is 3 hrs late due to the downpour, so there I was on my way to pick up the stranded soul. We decided to catcha small nap before his bus came. So we dozed off after putting an alarm. We dozed so confortably that we woke up 30 mins after the alarm had gone off, so we raced to IFFCO ( I was not in the mood to push my baby coz I dint know if anything more was wrong with her) Anyways we reached ther and found that The VOLVO had left, so I asked him how long ago, he said maybe 15 mins. At the spur of the moment I decided, that lets go, we should be able to catch up to it. We sped off on NH8 towards Jaipur doing a constant 120KPH. I was surprised that even after crossing Manesar we were not able to see the bus and at that moment my eyes fell on the fuel indicator which was dangerously close to empty. I decided to slow down and drive on economy mode. Now my priority had become to search for a Petrol Pump and to my horror all the pumps were either closed or dint have petrol. We finally decided to abandon our chase after covering around 55 kms one way. We started heading home (Gurgaon) while scouting for etrol pumps, atlast after crossing manesar we found a small BP petrol pump tucked away into the side. I prayed hard that he should be open and have fuel, I guess God must have heard me coz he did have and I breatehd a sigh of relief. Now I started a relaxed drive home. but one thing i realized from that chase that after my car getting stranded that day, it was still in a good condition to run for its money. So Conclusion: Everything in the car is in working and 1st class condition. Amen to that !

[suman]

KD, hats off to your enthusiasm - after all that you actually went on a wild goose chase towards Jaipur!

By the way, sorry for not showing more enthusiasm when you'd called - it was chaos all over the NCR that day, not just in Gurgaon; I'd left my Office at 4.45 hoping to beat the rush but finally made it home after a good 3 hours, at 7.45, just a few minutes before you called. Took me a good 4 pegs to get back to normal

[krazydriver84]

Originally Posted by suman

KD, hats off to your enthusiasm - after all that you actually went on a wild goose chase towards Jaipur!

By the way, sorry for not showing more enthusiasm when you'd called - it was chaos all over the NCR that day, not just in Gurgaon; I'd left my Office at 4.45 hoping to beat the rush but finally made it home after a good 3 hours, at 7.45, just a few minutes before you called. Took me a good 4 pegs to get back to normal

Its ok. Could very well understand the ordeal you must have gone through. I was right in the midst of it so I totally understand it.

Lucky you, you atleast had the chance to go back and get back to normal. It took me 2 days to get back to normal specially staying up half the night and sleeping for 3 hours only. But jo bi bolo, the wild goose chase down NH8 was fun.. man it was looking so beautiful.

[gd1418]

I know KD, what you went through. I was on NH8 and got stuck at the Crowne Plaza exit due to major water logging. All the cars, including SAV/SUVs were gingerly treading on the extreme right side avoiding the half tyre deep water. And was I mad at them; you bet. Whenever I got some chance I waded through water, cursing under my breath and even showed my middle finger to a guy driving the Captiva.

Finally when I made it to hamilton and called you, your car was fixed. But I saw a Merc, 3 Taveras, a couple of Indicas and several small cars stalled in the water in front of the DLF Golf Course. I, with a grin as wide as that of Cheshire cat waded through the water and reached home.

Isn't that for what a SUV is built for?

[krazydriver84]

Originally Posted by gd1418

I know KD, what you went through. I was on NH8 and got stuck at the Crowne Plaza exit due to major water logging. All the cars, including SAV/SUVs were gingerly treading on the extreme right side avoiding the half tyre deep water. And was I mad at them; you bet. Whenever I got some chance I waded through water, cursing under my breath and even showed my middle finger to a guy driving the Captiva.

Finally when I made it to hamilton and called you, your car was fixed. But I saw a Merc, 3 Taveras, a couple of Indicas and several small cars stalled in the water in front of the DLF Golf Course. I, with a grin as wide as that of Cheshire cat waded through the water and reached home.

Isn't that for what a SUV is built for?

Then I guess I for once was lucky, or I wouldn't see the last line of your grin ending seeing me stuck there.

But guruji not fair, I was soo charged up for the drag, you just rained on my spirit. Not done !

[iraghava]

I remember that sometime back the Timing Belt of your car had broken & now the Alternator belt gives way too. How old is this car & do you get it serviced at all?

[krazydriver84]

Originally Posted by iraghava

I remember that sometime back the Timing Belt of your car had broken & now the Alternator belt gives way too. How old is this car & do you get it serviced at all?

The car is pretty old.. its a 2003 model.. had alread run 54K before i bought it. Guess the belts weren't changed or something like that. The hiccups are coming out now.

Servicing is done at regular intervals. Although the last one is kinda overdue because of financial reasons.

[maktags]

14th August was especially bad, I started off from my office in my office cab in NOIDA at 6:45 for my home in Sec-56 Gurgaon and it took me 6 hours to reach home.

By 10:30, I had only crossed Dhaula Kuan and from there it took another half an hour to reach toll plaza. After crossing that Had to drop off a colleague to Palam Vihar, Udyog Vihar - Palam Vihar connecting road almost seemed like Venice with the only option of Transport being boats. Finally dropped off my colleague at 11:30 and reached home at 12:30. Tough ride, the worst traffic jam I faced ever.

The only saving grace was my office cab, tough Indica. It crossed all the potholes and flooding and took us to places where others broke down. Must say Tata might be crude in their engineering, but they make tough cars.

[gd1418]

Must be one of the few lucky Indicas that made it.

Originally Posted by maktags

The only saving grace was my office cab, tough Indica. It crossed all the potholes and flooding and took us to places where others broke down. Must say Tata might be crude in their engineering, but they make tough cars.

[The_Warrior]

My friends Baleno took in water, he said when i tried to Crank it, it didn't budge and when i opened the Air Filter it was filled with Water instead of Air, he had to tow the car to Maruti Service Station and the total damages estimated were Rs. 1.25 Lacs. He brought the car over to his mechanic at Delhi and there his 2 Pistons got replaced and various other things which costed him around Rs. 36,000/- another friend was trying to follow a Jeep on a side road and his front wheels got stuck in a pothole. Total damages Rs. 11,000/- (discs, pads and some other stuff). The mechanics are now making merry on the money eanred due to Rain God...

[gd1418]

The first and the only mistake your friend did was to try to crank when the engine stalled in the water. Luckily he got away cheap.

Originally Posted by The_Warrior

My friends Baleno took in water, he said when i tried to Crank it, it didn't budge and when i opened the Air Filter it was filled with Water instead of Air, he had to tow the car to Maruti Service Station and the total damages estimated were Rs. 1.25 Lacs. He brought the car over to his mechanic at Delhi and there his 2 Pistons got replaced and various other things which costed him around Rs. 36,000/-

[varun.ppl]

Hey Kd!

Amazed that i didn't meet ya. Maybe, i was moving in the opposite direction. I was going back to my house from MDI, for a long weekend break. But guess, the break, was cut short by 6 hrs. The situation was that it took me 4.5 hrs to reach Dhaula Kuan. After that 1 hour to reach Tilak Ngr & rest hour an hour to reach my house. I think it was the biggest jam i had faced in my 21 years of life.!!

Hope to meet ya, but not in a jam!!!

[phamilyman]

that reminds me, aajkal haryana is having FUEL shortage. At shahjahanpur, border with Raj, there were trucks everywhere like moths to the fire, but no fuel in most places. My bike itself didn't get any petrol!! max chaos situation. got some little petrol at one place, and same at manesar - no fuel anywhere. hoping there's some i can get my hands in the morning!! chakkar kya hai?

PS: that day I saw like 15 km + jam on expressway towards airport. ofc, I reached back in under 1 hour despite the airport jam but that's cause I was on bike