1. I am a perpetual traveler.
2. Every weekend I make sure that I go to some place where I can spend some time in solitude.
3. Normally I prefer going to hilly areas which are at most 100 miles away from my city hence are a convenient destinations for a weekend.
4. Although these destinations are easily accessible by public transport I always travel in my car as it gives me a lot of flexibility in terms of time and planning.
5. Last month as well I had one such trip to Mareena Hills.
6. Generally these trips are very refreshing for me but this particular trip was a forgettable one and the reason was my car which broke down on my way to Mareena Hills.
7. Normally before leaving I check everything and make sure that my car is in perfect condition in terms of fuel, air and battery.
8. But this time I forgot to check for spare tyre, the lack of which caused me a lot of trouble.
9. When I was just 20 miles away from my destination, the front left tyre of my car got punctured.
10. Initially I was not really flustered because I know how to replace a flat tyre but when I opened the boot of my car I was dumbfounded as I could not see the spare tyre.
11. Then it crossed my mind that two days ago I went to drop my brother to the airport for his flight to London and to accommodate his luggage in my car’s boot I took out the spare tyre and kept it in the garage which I later forgot to put back.
12. To make matters worse this incident happened when the night was approaching.
13. And I knew that at that time there would not be many people travelling on that route so I was not really hopeful of any immediate help.
14. First I thought of walking for a mile to check if there was any gas station from where I could get a mechanic to fix the tyre.
15. But I was apprehensive about leaving the car alone at that time so I decided to wait for a while hoping that someone could come and extricate me from this situation.
16. Fortunately about 15 minutes later a car came by which was headed to the same destination.
17. The driver of the car saw me standing alone in the dark in front of my car.
18. He immediately realized that something was wrong and I needed help.
19. He stopped his car there and came out to ask me about what had happened.
20. I told him everything and he said there was no need to worry, there was a car mechanic nearly 500 meters away and he would go and get him to fix my car.
21. After that he left and within 10 minutes he was back with the car mechanic.
22. The mechanic had brought everything needed to fix the puncture which he did.
23. Then I turned to the stranger whose name is Mark and told him that he was a life saver for me.
24. We exchanged our mobile numbers and I told him that if ever he needed any help he could call me without any qualms.
25. After this harrowing experience now I keep a checklist which I always go through before leaving for a journey.