Hitting the highway is a good feeling. Inevitably, familiar music accompanies coffee and the wind in my almost non-existent hair 🙂 Throw in a gorgeous winter morning with blue skies and shiny leaves and I’m weak in the knees. Solo is best but sometimes company is nice. As the city is left behind, there is a steady rhythm that sets in. Often, there is no need to shift gears and there is simply a gentle steering. I only wish cars ran on air.
The last couple of months have seen quite a few long drives and there are a couple more before the month is out so it has been an unexpected delight, an adult version of childhood abandon. As a child, having a cycle meant freedom. We bought our two hours of freedom with two rupees and roamed all over the place, the parents blissfully unaware of our location. Circa 2023, there is too much information available, for parents and kids.
Every time I pass through the city to head out of town, I am glad to live in an area that still has some green and open spaces. Much of the newer parts are grey with glass buildings and unending infrastructure projects. I don’t see mud and easy wild growth. The highways too have been eaten up by swanky high rises and malls. Right now the city is a Potemkin village, spruced up for the G20 delegates. Big pots with exotic plants, murals, token recycled planters, lanterns, lights and the likes. The fake trees in particular are ironic, considering how many real ones have been chopped. I wonder if any place will be spared considering the huge requirements of a burgeoning populace.
But, today the sky is still blue, the trees are shiny and the beginnings of a season of flowering are visible. The glyricidia trees have lost their green and are now blushing pink. The highway has palash in all its fiery glory and the semals blooms are beginning to make an appearance. Just for today, all is right in my world.
pleated stories 