While attending a conference at Washington-DC, Anuj a good friend who lived in Seattle, visited us in State-College, Pennsylvania. This was in January 2001; I was in my first year of MS at The Pennsylvania State University. After an enjoyable weekend with us it was time for Anuj to return to the conference. Not wanting to drive back alone (it took about four hours from State College to DC), he suggested that Atin and I join him. A free ride to the Capital of USA and stay in the luxurious Hilton hotel lured us into the offer. We roped in Vishal our other roommate since we required someone to drive us back to State College. Atin and I had never driven in America until then.
On reaching DC we returned the car Anuj had rented and asked for a one-way rental to State-College. That’s when it began to go wrong. “No one-way rentals”, “Under 25, Sorry”, “No rentals on international-driving-permit,” were the response we got from car rental agencies. In the two hours that we searched, we must have inquired at over 10 rentals. We traveled from one rental to another by bus, metro and at times even requested rental companies to drive us to their competitor. Seeing our plight they obliged. We finally succumbed and gave up our hunt for the night. We decided to rent a car for local sightseeing and leave our worries to the next morning.
After a night ride of the city, we parked the car on the street adjacent to the hotel because we couldn’t afford the hotel parking rate of 20$. Tired and hungry, we sneaked into the hotel room one by one. We thought the hotel would charge us more if they saw four of us together. At about mid-night we called for pizzas to be delivered at the hotel.
The pizza guy arrived at 2:30 a.m.! By then sleep had beat hunger and all except me had gone to sleep. And after returning the pizzas I too went to sleep.
Our plans for the next morning had been already made; we had to move our car from the street by 6 am else it would be towed. We were late by fifteen minutes. “Good morning friends,” a friendly cop greeted us with a 20$ parking ticket in his hand. The adventures for the day had just begun. We bid Anuj good bye and started our tour of the city.
After the city tour we forgot the hardships of the previous night. We found out that we could return to State College by the Greyhound Bus Service. For three people it turned out to be more expensive than a car rental. With no options and the little money we had in our pockets we bought the bus tickets for State College. We needed to get back in time for our teaching assistant-ship assignments the next morning.
We still had to return the local-rental car. As we drove past the busy streets of Washington DC, a huge sign-board greeted us, “Welcome to Virginia”. We had lost our way! We kept searching for an angel who would tell us the way back to DC but never found one. By the time we returned the car and reached the bus station the bus had already left. To our despair, we realized that we were early for the next bus. And that would be there in a little less than 24 hours!
Out of money, gas and sleep we somehow managed to get back to the Hilton for some rest. Sitting in the grand lobby of the Hilton with no hard cash we worried over our options of getting back to State College. We requested a friend from State College to come to DC for pick up. He said he would revert. By then, Anuj returned from the conference and was shocked to see us. He chuckled when we narrated the events of the day to him. He knew the solution to our problem, “I’ll drive you guys back!” he volunteered. He drove us back to State College that night and returned to DC the next morning in time to attend the conference. This time he took the ride back alone.
Eight years have passed but the events of those 24 hours are still etched in my memory. It couldn’t have gone more wrong than it did.
10th May, 2009