Nothing ever matters...

It started with a plan to visit a temple near Hyderabad. The Chilkur Balaji temple, better known as "Visa" Balaji, courtesy the thousands flocking there in anticipation of a work visa for the Land of milk and honey. For the natives of Andhra Pradesh, an interview at the consulate is only second to prayers at the temple.
"It is some 100 kilometers from here", suggested the e(o)ver confident S. It is actually close to 35 kilometers. This was itself an alarm, good enough, for people who like to plan even the shortest of trips well to ensure a smooth, yet enjoyable one. But, obviously, we had, by far, graduated out of that category and so we set off for the temple. Locating the temple was easy. The easiness was the booster for the next activity in the agenda, which none of us were consciously aware of. We were done with the temple-chores well in time, that was by afternoon 2 o'clock. None of us wanted to get home that early and everyone agreed to the idea of a drive till Nagarjuna Sagar dam which was 100 kms from the spot of the magnanimous decision. 'A' who was driving all through seemed over enthusiastic which was booster no. 2. S was on call with a friend who was guiding us. Whether it were the comprehension abilities of S or our phone friend's (he was referring to maps on the internet) is till a mystery, but we went completely haywire and missed the Nagarjuna Sagar milestone by couple of tens of kilometers. There was not an iota of vexation from any of us. None of us were probably aware of our mental tenacity, (and physical of course!). We planned on extending our drive till Srisailam, a religious place another 160 kilometers from where we were. By this time we had estimated we would have to spend the night at some place in Srisailam. We missed several milestones, drove back undefeated till the missed milestone, started with renewed vigour only to miss the next one, and drove till a point after which there was no scope of going wrong, as it was a drive uphill, with no digressions. We reached Srisailam by 9 in the night, pompous and proud of reaching the town, albeit late by a few hours and all ready to have a good night's sleep at a decent lodge, ofcourse in an air condioned room, after a sumptuous meal. A bath, next day, at a waterfall en route Srisailam was what we had made note of and were looking forward to. The next day was planned well - worship at the temple, drive back to Hyderabad, stopping at the waterfall for some fun. Hail us, the naive lot! It was the peak season for the Jyotirlingam worship and so all the lodges were packed. Realization, that we would have to spend our night in the car, fortunately dawned on us just before the eateries were about to close. The search for a decent-lodge-with-air-conditioned-rooms was terminated. We were too hungry to be finicky and we thoroughly enjoyed the meal at the first available food joint where flies were a one of the few ingredients in the food.
The night was spent in the car playing cards till dawn, followed by a snooze till proper sunlight. All atleast agreed that they had slept and seemed happy about it.
After the early morning chores, each part of it at a different location in the town, we again realized we could not possibly worship at the temple for the unending queue, and by then were in our minds to start for Hyderabad at a time of a day, early enough to reach before dusk. We started off for Hyderabad, the only part to look forward to being the waterfalls. One of us suggested we should ask some passersby about the place, but we would have probably had some luck if we had done the ritual of asking 25 kms earlier.
I still think the waterfall in question was actually on one of the wrong-roads we had ventured. The trip after that was a smooth ride back, stopping only for tea breaks.
All in all, by the time we reached Hyderabad, we felt triumpant that we knew the different places of visit in Srisailam.
The trip which was a succession of missed milestones and odd realizations was simply put, great fun, owing to all of ours (especially A's) enthusiasm and never-to-give-up-spirit. And ofcourse the continuous spurts of hollering laughter.

The only correct estimation we made was that we would have to halt for a night at Srisailam!

P.S "Companionship matters, and not the circumstances" exemplified!