Tuesday, August 9, 2011

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I always find the drive to Gandhinagar soothing. The highway connecting Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar is beautiful and lovely trees and small time village theme restaurants on the way. The concrete building of Gujarat High Court is also on the way, with the Indian flag flying high. I've always been fascinated by the building. Further ahead, you will find corn sellers. Yea, boiled and roasted corn. Amdavadis love the American Corn served hot with spicy and tangy masala. And right before you enter the state capital, the beautiful Narmada Canal welcomes you. They have these boards written there to discourage those who come there to commit suicide. Yea, all these lakes and canals are favourite spots for committing suicides.

I've always found suicide to be the extreme form of action. What if someone suddenly changes his/her mind after taking the plunge. You jump into the river, and you suddenly feel, you want to live because you've had a brilliant idea, what could you do? Especially when you don't know swimming! For someone with a wavering mind like mine, contemplating suicide would be metaphorically committing suicide. (you got the gist, or should I explain more?)

So today, on my way back from work, as radio played main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, I took a right turn towards Gandhinagar instead of the usual left towards home. It was drizzling and occasionally sudden gust of wind would bring down some heavy drops of water. The windshield would get all distorted with the rain and the wiper would clean it up in one swift motion. Had I been a philosopher, I would have said that that's exactly how we should see our life as. No matter how distorted our life seems, one swoosh of wiper and you'll be able to see your life clearly.

I hardly drove for twenty minutes when I saw the green board, "Welcome to Clean and Green Gandhingar". I didn't intend to drive this far. I looked at the phone screen to see what time it was (yea, I don't wear watches on regular basis). It was 10:40 pm. Whoa. I lost track of time, I guess. So I found the nearest exit and took a u-turn back to Ahmedabad.

There are certain songs which trigger off a series of thoughts and you get so absorbed in them that you get drifted in a completely different zone. Yea, getting into such spaces while driving on highways might not be the wisest thing to do. Especially when all the windows have started fogging and the visibility has considerably reduced.

So I was lost in my own thoughts when the car right behind me started flashing on high beam. Bugger, I thought, and decided not to give him side for being such an obnoxious driver. He started honking insanely and the flicking of headlights was blinding me. Alright, who am I teach a lesson to the crazy kids showing off their father's money? I gave the car it's way and the fancy new Audi A6 with the "Applied for Registration" stuck on the name plate zipped past honking itself to glory. Jerks.

Few minutes later I took the turn towards my home and there I saw it. A crowd of 25-30 people had suddenly gathered near what seemed like an accident sight.

A brand new Audi A6. Applied for registration.

Four men, aged between 23 to 26, died on the spot.

They were coming back from a 'ride' in the new car which got delivered today.

2 comments:

Shiv said...

Very well written.

"Main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya...." is one of my favorite songs.

I think blogging is one of the best things to have happened to mankind. A blogger will never try commit suicide. The thought that; "what if I jump in a canal and suddenly an idea for a blog post struck my mind?" will always dissuade him from doing so:-)

3.14-eater said...

As far as that SG High drive is concerned, you said it. That stretch of a road, that beautiful stretch of a road.