Sunday, April 4, 2010

The wind in my face....

For every small town girl car rides/drives or geris as they are vernacularly called in Punjab are very important. With little to boast of for social gatherings, it is the four wheels that come in handy when meeting friends. From giggling to gossiping to eating to alcohol, everything is possible in cars in small towns, I learnt.

Car drives were an important part of my growing up. Graduating from being driven by a driver in my early teens to lucky friends who had access to cars in late teens to finally cabbing the whole lot around in my own car, geris have a special place in my heart. 

As a colleger goer, I remember our trio of friends going out in S's car from B.R.S. Nagar down to Doraha road. One special memory is a trip we took on a rainy afternoon to find our favorite isolated spot near the river to bury the four things that had kept us company during college. Those cup of teas and dal makhani-naan at the roadside tea stall are still embedded in me. I still hold that no one can enjoy tea as much on a rainy day as we did on our jaunts time and again.

There are two road trips with Mohit that I remember, both of which he would like to forget. The first one was on that special V-Day when I took him down to the Sutlej. The setting was just right, with the ring and the food, but the rain Gods had to come in to spoil the road back home. Seeing him toil for one hour to get the car out of the sloshy mud with the help of two villagers and almost wondering if the car might topple over still comes back in my dreams. Nightmares rather...

The special drive on the country side of the Scottish Highlands was doomed to be a special one, I was sure. Whilst the younger drives were enjoyable with rains, this one with me on the wheels in a strange land was a rather scary one. A tire burst and 4 hours later, we were towed back in a tow truck all the way to Glasgow. But then again, sipping tea in that wonderful weather with the beautiful landscape with Mohit and me, hand in hand in the backseat of that tow truck was kind of romantic too. I would've had nightmares about this one too if our insurance didn't cover the GBP 500 loss I incurred.

Coming back to base camp, there hasn't been much thrill in car drives in Delhi. With the driver in question (Mohit), never keen to drive around meaninglessly on crowded roads with fellow car drivers abusing you endlessly, my dreams of the wind in my face and rain drops on my brow seem to have ended......