AURA OF THE ROADS.

My heart beat raced when the yellow colour radiant two wheeler overshadowed my car, I couldn’t even perceive the man travelling in the bike, I drove my car fast to compete with that stranger I met on this road today, it has been ten years since I started my road trip, every time I meet different personalities in this traverse. When I started this road trip I was twenty three years old, car is always my choice, I can sit inside and watch the anonymous road precariously. I never decide my destination while I travel. This anonymous road in Kerala is going to decide my destination today. I can remember my trip in Mussoorie when I was twenty six.

 Mussoorie is in Uttrakand is one of the beautiful hill stations in India. The hill stations never failed to amaze me, so did Mussorie, winters is Mussoorie is frosty and ruled my snowfall. I decided to travel there in the month of January. Most of the people stayed in their home cosily… I was trembling like a bird in the cruel cold weather, the sun rays were embedded in the cloud and didn’t pierce my parts, I took a jeep to travel there. While I rode the jeep amidst the forest in Mussorie, I saw a grey headed woodpecker staring at me from the broken branch of the deodara, the calm aura of the forest enthralled my spirit. The woodpecker hopped here and there but still…it was staring at me. After a particular distance, I wasn’t able to travel in the rough surface in the forest, I took the another road instead, on my way, I saw two peasants fighting with each other, one was holding another’s shirt collar, the valley across the road remainded me one of the Robert Frost’s famous poems “GOING FOR THE WATER”. The way he describes the valley as Silver blade, it looked as if this valley is a tantamount to Frost’s description. While I was describing the beauty of the valley in the deepest layer of my mind, I saw the hostile peasants talking with each other and laughing out of their wits. I smiled inside and rode my car in the road to visit Nagdevada temple in Mussorie. Unfortunately, I had to walk a long distance from the car parking. 

The roads of reminded me of Ruskin Bond’s “ROADS TO MUSSORIE” novel. The bends of the roads fed my brain with the positive spirit. I saw many tea stalls amidst the roads and enjoyed the warmth of the tea in the shivering cold, I still feel every road I travelled in Mussorie has my memories and my thoughts are embedded in them. I couldn’t forget the essence of the beautiful. It’s not only the rain can smell the essence in the beautiful roads, a traveller can discern the essence more than the rain does, he competes with the rain, the roads absorb the rain drops and the same roads absorb a traveller’s quest and thoughts!

While I was contemplating one of the finest experiences in my road trip, I saw the yellow radiant bike again, but it wasn’t flying like a jet now, the bike was standing near the hut. I was very much tempted to stand there and meet the owner of the vibrant bike. I stopped my car and went there to meet him, I then realised the hut is actually a hotel and an old couple was serving foods to the travellers. There were many travellers sitting in the wooden benches and having their food. The old lady looked at me and asked me what I would like to have, she had many confusing wrinkles like road bends and it looked so fine and beautiful. I wasn’t very much interested to have food there, I didn’t feel hungry, I was eagerly searching for the bike owner, so I order tomato soup in her menu list, she smiled and went back inside the kitchen. I dusted the wooden bench with the brown cloth in my hand and sat there, I was looking like a predator which was very eager to look for its prey when It’s starving, the bike owner is a prey here, it doesn’t mean I wanted to tear him up into pieces and eat, I was inspired by his speed and enthusiasm, for the first time, I wanted to travel in a bike like him, fiercely without caring about anything. I was imagining him like a prey because, I didn’t want to portray him as a superior traveller than me, who enjoys his road trip more than me, I was over confident that I can easily devour his spirit when I travel in a bike. 

The old lady came with a wooden bowl in her hand, smiling at me amicably. I removed my jacket and tied it in my neck. The soup was surprisingly very palatable. I forgot myself in the warmth of it. Suddenly, I saw the yellow bike outside disappeared. I was dismayed and rushed outside, the bike owner with red jacket was travelling like a jet, within few seconds I lost my sight of him.

The lady came outside and asked about my anxiety after noticing me running outside suddenly.

“Nothing serious, I just came to lock my car.” I lied and went inside with a sheepish smirk.

After paying bill for the soup , I came out of the hut and started my car, I looked at my watch, the time was almost five o clock. The sky began to paint itself in grey colour, rain drops pecked my face. I should find a motel to spend my night today, the coconut trees in the two sides of the road were standing like a giants guarding a mysterious garden.

After a long quest, at seven thirty, I found a motel inside a brick road. 

This is my first trip in Kerala, the state in India which had adopted the mother of nature. As a Srilankan I can understand the Indian languages slightly, It wouldn’t look as if I am hearing Latin and Greek, that was one of the reasons I can easily communicate with people with my broken language skills, though I can’t frame the sentences correctly, I can decipher what they’re trying to say.

 The houses in Kerala fascinated me, exceptionally beautiful. Coconut trees everywhere, day before yesterday while I was travelling in the road in Kollam, a beautiful city in Kerala, I saw a board stated that there is a magnificient Jatayu statue in the city. I left my car in the parking and went inside the road to find the place. When I encountered the large statue, I stood in the awe!

It was a statue of eagle, the biggest statue I have ever seen in my life. After the exuberant experience, I came again to the parking and started my trip, I felt relaxed.

 I remember how I started going to road trips.When I was twenty one, I had the most difficult phase in my life! after my graduation in a reputed university in Srilanka, life was so good and I was almost ready to work in a Multinational Company, to celebrate my graduation my father arranged a family trip to India to meet our family lineage, I am the most precious son for my father and mother, after six years of their marriage, I was born as a rain in the dry forest.

Life was like a bed of roses before my trip to india, no one would have known that my life would end up there, and I would lose my parents in a road accident and I would be abandoned alone amidst the unknown land.

For almost two years I was inside the room with agony and depression in my uncle’s home. I couldn’t go to Srilanka,  every nook and corner reminded me of them, their smile, their love, their sacrifices for me…

After a deep depression , my uncle asked me to consult a psychiatrist and took me with him.

 I was quivering while I spoke with him, totally unstable and cried every time when he asked me about the accident, I can only remember the loud noise which defeaned my ears the loud cry of my mom’s voice, I had an apprehension of travelling on the road. He understood my phobia and asked me to take a road trip once, so that the memories haunting me would vanish, I didn’t try it, when I swallowed hard when my uncle took me for a drive, my legs were trembling, heart beat raced and I cried like an infant.

The next morning, it was raining heavily…everyone was sleeping soundly. My heart raced again, I was claustrophobhic …my voice was quivering and I walked swiftly and came outside, I saw my uncle’s car in the front garage. I had no other choice, started the car with trembling hands.

The road haunted me, I went straight to the place where my mom and dad died, came out of the car and inhaled the hair, the rain drops drenched me. I felt relieved and got inside the car.

Whenever I felt depressed I went for a road trip, and relaxed myself, the haunting road became my pal and shared my sorrows.

It has been ten years, the trip never failed to amaze me. I explored almost everywhere in India…the pigeon sitting outside the window nodded to my stories. I extended my hand to touch its feathers, suddenly I noticed the yellow radiant bike outside the window, the stranger who inspired me today was also staying with me in this motel! I was enthralled, there were only six rooms here, he could’ve booked room among the six. Three rooms in the first floor and three rooms in the second floor, while I was calculating and planning to meet the yellow bike’s owner, I saw a figure coming down and going near to the bike, I rushed down to meet him. 

I ran…almost rolled in the stairs…excited to meet the stranger. He removed his helmet when I reached the ground floor, he…sorry he is actually “she”, her hair waved in the air, she turned and looked at me

“So you found me at last!” she winked and smiled at me. I blushed like a loser and smiled back. So this trip is entirely different from the trips I have taken for so long…my heart raced again…but this time out of excitement!