Road trip

Its hard to decide if my decision to drive to Bangalore was a good one or not. Fatigue was competing with joy of the drive. I stared at miles and miles of the sun baked asphalt ahead. Mirages appeared in the distance and disappeared as i drove closer, as if nature was trying to show us flashing images on the dark tarmac, reminding us of itself. I adjusted my borrowed sunglasses on my nose. Can you believe it, i never get in a car without sunglasses and yet i forgot to take it when I left for this long trip. So I had to borrow a pair from my brother in law for the return trip. I looked through the tinted shades and observed that this highway was one of the best roads I've driven on. A glance at the speedo told me that i was doing 130 kph. I looked sideways at my dad and saw that he was reading the newspaper we got at the petrol pump, immersed in the news report about the missing Andhra Pradesh chief minister. So i pushed the pedal till the speedo hit 150. Pretty good for a hatchback car. No vibration at all. Maruti Ritz rocks. A light drizzle started suddenly. I reached for the wiper knob but paused when I realized that the rain drops were rolling up the windshield as soon as it hit the glass. Fascinating....so you don't need wipers at this speed. I suppose more experienced drivers would have known that, but it was a first for me. It was as if someone had hit the rewind button and time was running backwards. 'NH-7', I read on a board on the side. I felt a stab of nostalgia. The deserted stretch where our bus broke down during the final year tour was somewhere on this same highway. Almost an entire day spent on and near the broken down bus- making Megha sing songs in Malayalam and laughing at her heavy Hindi accent, us guys doing push-ups on the divider while the girls shot the video on their cameras, Ajin being abused in Kannada or Tamil (cant tell which) by a bike rider for prancing in front of him on the road as he and I went searching for a shop or somewhere to get a drink of water. I took a sip from the can of red bull I picked up earlier and sighed at the sweet memories. The stereo was playing dard-e-tanhai from Jashnn. Beautiful lyrics, sung with a soft caress...fitting for the mood I was in. Pity I have no idea what it means. But I'm sure the singer isn't singing about morning coffee or something similarly mundane. Someday, I ll learn enough Hindi to understand these kinda songs, I told myself solemnly. The rain stopped just as suddenly as it had started, bringing me back from the trip down memory lane. Ha ha. It literally was like a memory lane on the highway. Memories which made you unsure, about whether you want to laugh or cry. But,the road goes on.....I took a look at the gleaming digital odometer display- which informed me that I still had around 300 km to go to reach home. I took another swig from my can and laughed quietly...Miles to go before I sleep...miles to go before I sleep.