On saturday - 23rd of june. Part II

Did you read part 1?
Cool.
Note: The following events happened; exactly as described. No exaggeration.

We started from our house bright and early as planned (at 11am). We boarded a bus to the airport and were on our way; looking forward to renting a nice car. Perfect. One little hitch. Siva forgot his IDP (international drivers permit) without which renting is car is complicated; to say the least. After some debating we concluded that it is most logical for Enterprise rental to give their car to a complete stranger who has a drivers license that's valid in a small state in a country named India.
Anyways we reach the airport. Walk up to this blond standing at the Enterprise counter.
ASIDE: Exactly a month back, 3 of us took a car from the same enterprise outlet and went to niagara. We paid for two additional drivers and a GPS navigation package. The total bill was $65. We got a BRAND NEW Suzuki Forenza. Awesome!!
Back to reality:
The blonde chick punches her calculator for a couple of minutes. I, in the mean time, am busy doing some mental calculation. Will it be $60? Nah. This time we have just 1 additional driver. Should be less.
Chick: It will cost you 140 dollars, sir.
Me: : I am sorry. Was that 40?
Chick: $140 sir.
At this point Siva tactfully reminds her to include ALL possible insurance cover (stressing on the word 'all').
Chick: Yes, I have done that sir.
Me: But clearly there is something wrong. We have rented car from this very office many times. Its never more than 70 dollars.
Chick: For the GPS it costs $8 and for the additional driver it costs an extra $7.
Siva: But CMU covers for our insurance. So you should not be billing us for that.
Now the chick digs up a big document and quotes "CMU will cover only CMU employees who travel for official purpose" and she looks up triampantly.
After some scuffling we manage to bring the rate down to $100. This means that only siva can drive the car. We choose not to add me on as an additional driver. (I love driving and the combination of 100 dollars and not driving has sent me into a state of depression). Also Siva hates to drive.

On the way to the temple from airport, we all agree that the day couldnt have started any worse. At exactly this point, Karthik tells us that the GPS is not working. Shoot me!!!
Interstate 376 is closed for maintenance. This means (a) it is going to take much longer to reach the temple since we have to negotiate thru obscure neighbourhoods. (b) we don't know the route to the temple really well and have to depend on the GPS (which is still not working)!!

Judging by the standards we had set so far, the next two hour was quite event less. We some home reached the temple in one piece. Thank God!!
Oh forgot.... Siva jumped a red signal in a busy intersection. We were honked at. I am thanking my stars for being still alive and Siva chooses this moment to say the most unbelievable sentence I have ever heard in my life....
Siva: : Yes, the signal was red so I went straight. Whats wrong in that??
Me, Karthik and Saketh (in chorus): Exactly, the signal was RED. You cannot go straight.
Siva: : Oh, is it? So far I have been thinking that if it is red we cannot turn right but can go straight.
Me, Saketh and Karthik take turns to look at each other with a sense of disbelief. At this point I realise that I should be driving the car. It does not matter if I dont have insurance. It does not matter that even if I cause so much as a small scrach in the car I have to pay a few thousand dollars. The only thing that matters in that all of us have to be alive. (ok I am over reacting a bit here. But hey, a red signal is a STOP!!)

Finally we reach the temple, have darshan and buy 3 packets of Puliodharai, 3 packets of sambar rice and 2 packets of curd rice (most important!!). We are on our way.... from temple to cinema theatre. The distance is supposed to be abt 30 miles. One hour easy.
Btw, inside the temple a few important decision were taken,
(1) There is no time to go home and change into veshti, lungi. :(
(2) I convince Siva to let me drive the car.
(3) By an act of God, the GPS starts working.

ON ROAD: (4pm):
Target time to reach destination is 5pm: Movie starts at 6pm. Perfect.
We are all very very hungry. So, while I am driving the other 3 decide to feast on the temple food. I can only watch them eat. The puliodharai smell is driving (pun unintended) me nuts. Now that the GPS is working, we key in the theatre address and start following it blindly.

4:20pm :
I somehow beg, plead, coax the others into letting me eat n drive at the same time. Anyway since the interstate is closed we are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in some unknown neighbourhood. So I have plenty of time to eat. In the meant time we have become completely dependent on the GPS. We have no idea where we are going.

4:40pm :
We have just cleared a 20 minute stretch of start-stop driving. The worst traffic is behind us. Man, that was a terrible stretch. GPS tells us that we will reach the destination at 5:15pm. Thats ok. We should still have enough time.

4:50pm :
At the exact same time, me and Karthik get the same sinking feeling in the pit of our stomach. "Didnt we just cross this point sometime back?" We look at each other and let out a "oh-my-god" (a la Chandler's GF in Friends). Karthik quickly grabs the GPS and checks. Our worst fears are true. Somehow the destination had not changed. Instead of going to the theatre, the GPS was still trying to take us to the temple!!!!!

5:10pm :
Now GPS says that we should reach the destination by 6:10pm - correct destination
Me (polamb'ing): Gone, Ballelaka song gone. Superstar entry gone. **** it!!!
Some other friends of ours are supposed to have reached the theatre by now.
Siva does some smart thinking and calls them up. He requests them to put kerchief on 4 seats. Thamizhan thamizhan than!!

6:30pm :
Traffic is terrible. We have still not reached the theatre. The movie must have started by now.
The day cannot get any worse!!!

6:45pm :
We finally reach the theatre. Ah, what a sight. Summa jay-jay nu oru kootum. Americans are staring at the spectacle with their jaws dropped.
A long queue is standing outside the theatre.
All the mamas, mamis, their hot ABCD daughter, F1 junta, H1 junta... all are assembled.
It turns out that even the previous show has not yet finished.

Cool.
Thaaaalllllllaaaaaiiivvvaaaaaa !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS:
The trouble is surely worth it. For the next 3 hours we had great fun.