The adventurous race to Witch Mountain: featuring Sonisphere Rock Festival UK 2010 (the destination), Time (the invincible bastard) and JohnDoe (the master of tragedies)

Chapter 1:
The story began on July the 12th, 2010. I was attending this Computer Vision conference at the University of Oxford. It was the first night of the two day conference, a gathering of the big shots in this field of Research. Our advisor, AZ had invited the attendees for dinner at an Indian Restaurant. I was walking down the streets with my lab-mates towards 4500 miles from Delhi, the restaurant. We were talking about Rock Music and someone mentioned a Youtube video where some guy was playing the Guitar in an unconventional way; at one point, I said it was a technique called sweet picking. The young Egyptian guy Amr looked at me with sparkle in his eyes and a devilish grin. This topic was not pursued further.

Chapter 2:
“You seem to know a lot about sweet picking, how come?”, Amr asked me. “That’s because I’m a Rock lover, and I like to know how stuff is done”, the words escaped my mouth without hesitation. We were sitting in this lavish Indian restaurant with the other researchers, he was on my left. The sparkle returned in his eyes, and he said “Dude, I see that we have more stuff in common besides food. What bands do you listen to?” “Maiden, Metallica, Sabbath, Floyd, Pantera, Rush, Kiss”, I added a few more popular names, “ and Megadeth.” “Megadeth is my favourite band of all times, I’ve seen it live thrice”, he added. I fell to his feet. Moments later we were singing Last Resort.

Chapter 3:
It was the 15th of July,2010. Amr and I had struck quite a chord after the conversation two nights earlier. We had talked about our influences and decided to attend this Rock Festival at the end of the month. It was called Sonisphere Rock Festival, and it had bands like Maiden, Rammstein, Slayer, Anthrax, Fear Factory, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue, Papa Roach, Lacuna Coil, Pendulum, Alice in Chains to name a few. The concert was more attractive than Death by Chocolate, the addictive pancake at Chocolate Room or even Ashley Tisdale with brunette hair. I hadn’t seen Amr in the lab that day. He had told me he’d get a weekend ticket, and I had decided to get a Saturday Ticket, because the Friday line-up was pretty okay, and I had my flight to Hyderabad on Sunday.

Chapter 4:
22nd July, 2010. Amr had been absent the entire week. It was malaria, we believed. I had a meeting with AZ, and after the meeting, I had mustered the courage to speak to him about the concert.
“Andrew, I was wondering if we had any plans for Saturday.”
“No, we don’t. What do you have in mind?”, questioned AZ.
“There’s a rock concert and …”
“Go. Where is it? Who’s playing.”
“It’s in Hertfordshire, the German band Rammstein is headlining.”
“I’m sorry, where’s the concert again?”
“Hertfordshire, there’s a place called Knebworth.”
“Knebworth? How are you going there?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet, but I’ll find my way.”
The conversation ended there, and I didn’t pay much heed to his last question, which came back to haunt me later.

Chapter 5:
It was the 26th of July, 2010. Over the last few days, I had spent a hundred Pounds buying the entry tickets, the train and the bus tickets. God didn’t intend for people to reach Knebworth. People born in Knebworth lived and perished in Knebworth with minimal contact with the outside world. The fact that I was flying to Hyderabad on the 1st of August at 10 am, and the fact that Knebworth fell in the middle of nowhere and there were very few travelling options available to and from that place had caused me to make some bold and unconventional choices. Anyhow, here’s what my travel plan looked like:

July 31
Depart from Oxford, Gloucester Green 0310 hours
Reach London Victoria Terminal 0440 hours

Depart from London Victoria Terminal 0510 hours
Reach London Kings Cross St. Pancreas 0536 hours

Have Traditional English breakfast with my cousin Saurabh at London Kings Cross

Depart from London Kings Cross St. Pancreas 1006 hours
Reach Stevenage 1038 hours

Figure out a way to reach Knebworth from Stevenage before 1200 hours and get to the Knebworth Park in time for the gigs.

Leave Knebworth park and reach Stevenage before 2350 hours

Depart from Stevenage 2352 hours

August 1
Reach London Kings Cross St. Pancreas 0040 hours

Depart London Kings Cross St. Pancreas 0052 hours
Reach London Victoria Terminal 0118 hours

Depart London Victoria Terminal 0205 hours
Reach Oxford, Gloucester Green 0335 hours

Depart Oxford, Gloucester Green 0415 hours
Reach London Gatwick Airport 0630 hours

What you just saw was the single most perfect plan ever made in the history of mankind. It had just one flaw, it was a waterfall model, and if by any chance at any stage things didn’t work out, I’d be doomed.

***
Will JohnDoe be able to pull off the ambitious plan he crafted? Will he meet any strange men in dark alleys around London Kings Cross in the middle of the night who’d offer him money? To find out, read the remaining part of the adventure when it hits the market. Until then, good bye.

Read the next part here.

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