Pressure Cooker!!!

Yesterday we went out for Puja darshan in the Pandal's of BBSR in a pressure cooker.

Before u think that I've lost my mind, read on and u will know why ;-)

Well, we started off at around 6.30 from our hostel, 5 of us, in my Merc...(well actually the canary yellow Zen: Yes, it actually is canary yellow and it's not funny so control ur laughter)...so we went to the Nayapalli Pandal where nuthin unusual happened other than Debi introducing Atul to 'Thonga-Puri'. God only knows how he could spot the stall from so far, especially when the stall was in one corner of the field...but then that's our dear Danu...food is never far for a focussed guy :P.

Our next stoppage was the Shahidnagar Pandal...here we had a ride in the Giant Wheel...though for some strange reason, Nauti preferred to feel the ground beneath his feet and chose to keep an eye on us from below. The pandals were all beautifully decorated and after seeing the two biggest Pujas in the city we longed for more. We moved on to Master Canteen, mainly to have the Gol-Gappa's in front of Lalchand...I tell u, they were a treat...though a bit too spicy. We decided to move on and our next visit was to Lingaraj temple...the jalebi shops along lake Bindusagar were not missed by Debi as expected ;-).

From there we decided to go to Cuttack road (biggest mistake probably). The road was congested like hell and driving the car in 2nd gear was bound to have a toll on the poor little gaddi. After driving for around 2 kms, suddenly we saw the bonnet releasing steam, just like a pressure cooker does.

It sure was funny driving a steam engine on a road with heavy traffic. Upon checking out we found that the coolant was boiling hot and a lot of steam had to be released from the radiator of the engine...well, it took us around 20 mins to get things under control and cool the engine to acceptable limits; a few curious onlookers, some self proclaimed car mechanics (passerby's actually) and some sympathizer's were a couple of people we met during this episode.

Nevertheless, it was fun driving a steam engine powered car. Probably I will never want to drive a train again, even if the thought ever enters my mind.

Great Darshan I must say...boy what fun...and we are off to see the Cuttack Pandals in another 30 mins...till then...cheerio!!!

Thursday October 13, 2005 - 02:47pm (IST)