AneStory

There is nothing wrong in letting the time fly when you are in-charge and your subordinates are doing all the hard work, however, when you are not actually in-charge, it can land you in a pretty deep trouble. And while the "organizing" team was busy giving out orders to get things done, sitting in a office like corner, occupying the premium space in canteen. At first the canteen owner was skeptical, but the volume of business that this corner got him, lifted his spirits. And in no time, he had become personal butler of the group.

Luxuries of life! You get a sandwich, various fruit juices; chilled, coffee or tea, food at a call or on a look! All kinds of mixed recipes included! Extra cheese, where there was no cheese in original dish! And no questions asked! They were spending before they made any money! The principle of counting before realization was lost, in other words, they were counting chickens before they hatched, but in their case they were not even having custody of those eggs.

Hera, was having those chilled fruit juices, one after another, when he was already advised to not have cold things, no ice that is, and here it had become his whole days meal. He worked on his gift for Monsoon, and got warm touches from Rushika, now and then. In end Hera had ended up buying a beautiful makeup box, bit he had not been able to choose any wrapping paper for it. And hence, Hera was on all display of his artistic nature and painting one for love of his life.

And Avir had to drop a bomb. 

Avir: Running in, huffing puffing! "Guys! We do not have a route finalized! And we have to submit it tomorrow!"

Hera: Looking up! "Get a map and mark it out!" Simple!

Avir: "No! We can not, we are not sure about map roads really there on ground!"

Shiv: "You mean we have to go now!"

Hera: "No! Its too hot! Plus, what about things over here?"

Avir: "We need to divide things up."

Shiv: "Ok! We need to get the route done today, its 10:00 now, so we need to be on way by atleast 12:00. And be back by today evening to chart it out!"

Hera: "Lets divide the team, and make a move."

It was done, Hera, Avir and Shiv, along with 5 volunteers, all responsibilities were decided, a map was carried to mark out the route, everything was going fine, every safety, every traffic rule was followed, everyone was even wearing a helmet. 

No one could have thought, that the innocent comment of Avir, that there would be a section of road missing on ground, which seems to be complete on map, would be missing. 

Hera: "Its officially stamped, even roads can go missing in India!"

Avir: "How much must have they made by declaring a road ready, when work has not even began on it?"

Hera: "Forget that! What are we supposed to do now?"

Shiv: "Map shows a road right here, may be the unmade part is short one."

Hera: "Lets check it out, if its short, we can have a off road segment too! That can be fun!" 

And it backfired as hell! The off road part was way too long to be included, what would have been mere 25 kilometer track turned into 55 kilometer one! There was no place to stop, no tree to take rest at, and all of the ground was just rubble and in places ploughed field!

By the time, Hera and team made it to pre-decided destination it was already 16:00; and everyone was just exhausted. It was going to be really difficult to make up their own mind to make participants take this route.

Shiv: "Can we use this route?"

Avir: "People finishing would be very few, would make our job of deciding a winner very easy!"

Hera: "Oh! Right! As if there is going to be a route waiting for you after 7 days, that was a farm and farmer has done ploughing, and may be seeding too, and he may start watering, then none would make it here, including us."

Shiv: "That's true, and we can not forget the fact that there are going to be scooters which will not be able to make through up and down, plus girls are also participating, if anything goes wrong! ufff!"

Avir: "We will be skinned alive!"

Hera: "Lets go back, there seems to be another route, on this map, considerably shorter, and it might be viable choice."

And it was viable, but it was only 20 Kilometer! They checked and checked turns on map and finally found a solution to increase it to 23 KM's at max, but not more than that! And when Hera finally could relax a bit, he started feeling some shivers, looking at him Rushika just put a hand on  Hera's back and then she moved forward to check his temperature on forehead.

Rushika: "You have got fever! You should go home and relax." 

Hera: Exhausted. "What! I need to drink something!"

Rushika: "Shiv! Get some water here, for Hera!"

At first Shiv felt offended, but when he saw towards Hera, Hera was lying on ground, a bit unconscious. And promptly got a glass of water which Hera gulped down, and relaxed again.

Rushika: "He has fever! He should better go home, and not come tomorrow!"

Shiv: Was very angry by now, and he took it out on Avir. "Avir, you should have checked the road before we went on a wild goose chase. Look! Hera is now suffering from fever."

Avir: Understanding the situation. "Yes! I should have checked it before, but then we did ask people before going and everyone said there is one such route."

Then Monc came over to meet Hera, and they decided to go home, and call it a day. However; this day brought the crack in the team wide open.