The race toward a life-bondage

An interesting episode of the couple, overtaking each other in their car, not knowing their identities got married. They come to know it was them who were overtaking each other.

 

It was pleasant early hours and Rajeev was driving the Hyundai Asta car at 90/ 100 km on the national highway. He was accompanied by Sundaram, his best friend. Rajeev started from Chennai at 5 AM and was expected to be at Pondicherry around 7.30 AM.

At Tambaram junction, Rajeev noticed a red Maruti Baleno car overtaking his car a bit rashly. In the next 10 minutes, he spotted the red Baleno at a distance. Rajeev pressed the accelerator at 100KM speed and in no time easily overtook the Baleno. In the next 20 km, the traffic was somewhat chaotic with heavy vehicles rolling on the road and crossing over in the traffic junctions. Sundaram suggested Rajeev maintain 80KM and avoid rash driving. Just then the red Baleno sharply overtook their Hyundai.

Rajeev felt irritated at that and instantly raised the speed to 110 Km and in less than a minute overtook the Baleno again. This tit-for-tat act and hide-and-seek game-like adventure continued till Pondicherry.  Sundaram insisting Rajeev reduce the speed did not yield much result as Rajeev was bent on overtaking the other car. So much absorbed were the two drivers that none of them bothered even to see who was driving the vehicle.

 

To Sundaram’s great relief they reached the marriage function hall at Pondicherry at about 7.15 AM. Both were taken by surprise to find the same Baleno car with registration number TN06EM9880, parked inside the marriage hall. Rajeev was more than surprised and felt uneasy seeing the Baleno that tested his driving prowess on the road. Rajeev thought that it was just a coincidence that those traveling in the other car must be certain friends or relatives of Ranjani ( his fiancee) participating in the marriage.

The exciting aspect was Rajeev was the bride groom at the scheduled marriage at 8 AM that morning. Due to Covid-19 confinement, Rajeev got quarantined in Chennai soon after his arrival from Canada, where he was employed. Rajeev was supposed to leave for Pondicherry one day prior but due to an emergency operation on his uncle, he had decided to defer his visit to Pondicherry by one day. So he was compelled to drive to Pondicherry on the day of his marriage. Fortunately, his parents and sister reached Pondicherry two days in advance. In fact, Rajeev drove Sundaram’s car only to reach Pondicherry to attend his own marriage. The bride’s parents were informed of his changed plan with the assurance that Rajeev would make himself present at the marriage venue on time.

When Rajeev occupied the dais, the bride Ranjani came dressed up in attractive traditional attire and sat beside Rajeev. With a paltry audience of about 40 people, the marriage was conducted in a simple manner. Soon after the marriage, Rajeev was shell-shocked to know from Ranjani that it was she (Ranjani) who drove the red Baleno car with registration number TN06EM9880, from Chennai to Pondicherry and was in a race with Rajeev’s Hyundai car. She took the car from her uncle who accompanied her to Pondicherry.

 

Both Rajeev and Ranjani were racing at each other without an iota of knowledge of who was the other one racing. Ranjani explained that she had to attend to her dearest friend who was diagnosed positive for coronavirus and had no one else to support her. But Ranjani somehow managed to find one of her close friends to attend to the virus-infected friend. She could identify and finalize her reliever only at the last moment. So, she informed her parents not to panic and that she would make it to the marriage venue on the day of marriage. Both the parents of the bride and bride groom were frozen till the marrying partners reached the venue just in time.  

 

Later Rajeev patted Sundaram for sparing his car and bearing with his robotic driving.  Ranjani on her part hugged her uncle for sparing his car and encouraging her whenever she accelerated it beyond 100KM. 

 

The newly married couple decided that in the future, they would not indulge either in rash driving or race driving, neither on the road nor in their personal life. Later, all those who attended the marriage, including the new love birds, relished one of the grand feasts of their life. Interestingly, the couple started eating exactly at the same time and also finished their feast exactly on time, much to the cheers of the onlookers, especially Sundaram.

Author's Note

This is a story happening in the Indian environment. I shall be glad to know from you whether my language is alright or I need to change the style of writing.