Yeah Monday was spent on roads. Here is how. It had been raining the whole night. When I woke up, it was still heavily raining. It was raining so much that we were thinking that how in the world would we ever be able to get to the airport. There is one spot on the way to airport from my home where water always settles after a heavy rain. And the water level is always high so it prevents at least small cars from passing thorough.
Anyways, on my and my mother’s pleas and requests my father agreed that he would give it a try. So we set out around 5:20 am towards the airport. The distance is about 10 minutes drive but since I had to be there an hour before flight time, as instructed, so I was going so early.
First we took the usual path, out of Chaklala Scheme III and round Ammar Chowk towards the airport. We went just a little bit ahead when we saw cars returning from that side. And that too on OUR side of the road (that was the wrong side). My father dipper-ed the first car. Then another car came. This time my father slowed down and asked the driver of that car (which was a taxi and had already slowed down for us) what was going on. He told us that the water under the ‘bridge’ (that spot on the way to the airport I just mentioned above) was too much. He further told us that the water was so much that even trucks were unable to pass so every vehicle was turning back.
We thought of our own next move. We turned back too. The idea was to go through Murree Road and then taking the Rawal Road to reach the airport. Now how to get to Murree Road! One route was the long one. Going all the way up to ‘Kachehri Chowk’ and from there to ‘Mareer Chowk’ and then we would be on Murree Road. The other route was a bit shorter. We could detour from ‘Jhanda’ and reach ‘Mareer Chowk’ and then Murree Road. But then there was fear that what if there was water standing on the Jhanda road as well.
We moved slowly from there and when we saw some other cars taking the initiative to go on the Jhanda road, we followed suit. We even stopped and asked people standing by on that road to confirm if the road was fine and water-pond-less till the end. They assured us that it was safe. So we moved on and reached Murree Road. That road was also fine till the Rawal Road entrance.
Then we turned on to Rawal Road. That was fine too, but not for long. Soon we came to a huge puddle of water, going through which would have literally been suicide. So we turned back, on the same side (wrong side) of the road. Abbu turned on the indicators to let the other cars know that we were heading back and to warn them. Then we tried taking the other side of the double road (wrong side again) to see if we could get through. We covered a certain area safely, but then when again we came to our side of the road, there was another humungous water pond waiting for us.
At that point we all gave up and decided to head home. Abbu had already been driving for more than 30 minutes. And it was going to take the same amount of time to get back home. During the return journey I kept checking the PIA flight inquiry for updates. I kept hearing that the flight was delayed time 9:45 am. I was bit relieved at this as it meant that I would not at least miss the flight. When I got home I checked the flight inquiry once again. This time I go the news that ALL flights to Gilgit on that day had been cancelled.
I said to myself at that point, “Here we go again!” :-) hehehe
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