CHAURAASTA

We had to go to a temple, well.. yes, that's right. You see my wife does believe in God. So stop giving me those looks.

Now in India, you don't have those wonderful maps and directions that one can get on the internet in US. So making a memory map of the place from what our friends told us, we started sometime in the afternoon (Now this is an old incident but something reminded me of it today and hence).

I like driving and I like it so much that I don't mind "not clarifying" the directions even if I feel I am lost (which reminds me of a wild goose chase incident at 3 a.m. in Connecticut and NY). And it was not as if I had an appointment with someone. So we drove and drove and drove thinking we would hit the temple road somewhere. Now I am a patient of patience but not my wife. She was getting restless and she had expressed that in no uncertain terms. Hell I thought I would need to ask UN to intervene, but knowing the effectiveness, rather the lack of it, I decided to postpone all the SOS calls. We had already travelled 20 miles on the highway and when all that was in front of us was a long, long, very long stretch of road, my wife gave me a long, long, very long stare. So menacing was it that I did a Matrix style car U turn and stopped at the first sight of intelligent life sign. On inquiring, we came to know that we had come many miles away in the perpendicular direction. I tried not to look at my wife. The fear of her, well that's the closest I have come to believing in God and it was a very selfish motive I agree but.....

So finally, we hit the right road after many miles and many minutes of driving. But we still had to take many turns and this time I wanted to confirm the exact turn. So I stopped the car and asked a vendor on the roadside and he asked me to turn left at the next CHAURAASTA(crossroads, chau for 4 and raasta for road). I looked at my wife now hoping to get the pat. Do I sound like the pup? Anyway, we drove again. We went and went and went and the crossroads were nowhere to be seen. This time I was getting restless because I, being a science student, firmly believe in Newton's third law. Anyway, we looked at each other for a moment and I turned the car. Whoever said a picture is worth a thousand words!!! Here silence was saying things Nostredamus could not have predicted and Shakespeare could not have described.
On turning back, again we asked a nice soul for the directions. He told us to look for a CHAURAASTA and take a right turn there. Atleast that was very comforting. Left on the crossroads from one direction equals right on the crossroads from the opposite direction.

Again we kept on going looking for that mirage CHAURAASTA that eluded us the first time. Till we reached the same first vendor. Now, I have no words to describe you my innermost thoughts and feelings. Have you seen those gigantic pistons in the movie "titanic" and heard the sounds they make?

Anyway this time we asked yet another person and he asked us to look for the CHAURAASTA again and left turn it was again. Exasperated, and cursing myself over how could I miss a CHAURAASTA, I continued what I love doing, the drive. Except this one time, I was trying to keep the pressure right on my soul instead of the breaks. Well, again we missed it and again we returned back. Then it struck me. This time while inquiring, I asked the man, "are there three roads that converge at that CHAURAASTA or four?" Now it might sound like a stupid question but it was not. The guy replied "three". I felt like strangling all the previous noble souls. It was a T junction I was supposed to look for, not crossroads.

You see, here in Hyderabad, people speak a variant of Hindi and Urdu mix. And any junction which has more 3 or more roads converging is called a CHAURAASTA, which in North India, and for North Indians, strictly means "crossroads".