“Miles to Go”

……Gulping some water after those cusses, we moved on without any karaoke session towards my destination. This time the journey was so silent… he didn’t sing, stereo was switched off and the noon even bored us both a little.

At evening, he pulled me over a chai wala dukaan for a quick energy boost nearby Annoor. We thought we would spend just 10 min max and then proceed further. But, the chai wala👴 at his fifty’s seemed to be a humble host and he placed himself and his boilers amidst all greeneries one must wish to see and god the gust of wind! I definitely didn’t expect that place to be a paradise. We both were in the task of stretching our limbs and just chilling ourselves with the wind. Our 10 stretched to 30 mins, and realised we have to move on.

While he went to waive off the good chap, he wanted to know about me. He came near me and touched my nose and asked him “Na chinna vayasula oru kalyanathuku ambassador la poirukan, aproma ipo than intha car paakran… ulara ukandhu paakalama? (I have travelled in this car for a marriage trip in my childhood and after that now only I’m seeing this car. Can I sit inside?…)

He asked where do you wanna sit, front or back? The kid inside him blushed front😬. This chap sat on the front seat and kept his hands on the dashboard like a kid. His bright eyes and smile on his face defined that moment. After getting down from me, he praised him for maintaining me till date and told “Seat nalla jammunu sofa mathiri irukupa ”( seat is like a cushion). Finally we bid adieu to the good chap and started to slide onto the road to catch up the time.
We both felt good for spending those 30 mins there. The positive vibes we got from that place cannot be conveyed with the vocabulary we know. One must experience that. With all the josh, we were nearing Mettupalayam which marks the start of western ghats and its sunset. We were gliding on the road with coconut fields and paddy fields on both sides and OMG! This idiot suddenly swerved me to the left shoulder of the road and I was shocked why would he do this all of a sudden?

He silently got down from me came in front of me and started to click the views. His ass was blocking the view for me and seconds later he moved on and gave my view back.

WOW! The high beam of the sunset was puncturing through the clouds and enlightened the “Queen of Hills” lying beneath it.

Not much time to spend there, we entered into mettupalayam and had to crawl through the traffic and after sometime we started to move up the gradient and he rolled down all his windows to feel the air outside. It was almost 6 in the evening when we met the first hair-pin bend ,still 13 more to go… FUN HAD STARTED Yes, we started to race through the ghats, things inside me started to move here and there and all his namkeen packets and water bottles started to fly here and there due to my body roll. Still who cares when we were having fun?

No, the policemen cares.

One policeman stopped us and came towards us. He was looking at me like I was from another world and he asked him where are you from? Where you headed all blah blah and blahblah…Basic stuff and he was actually surprised we both were travelling alone all the way from Chennai and he asked weren’t you bored?. With no time to explain the khaki we just smiled at him and started from that checkpost.

Ek second!

From morning I was just enjoying the ride without knowing where this guy is taking me. I just started to brush up my memory when was the last time he rode me on this road, Coz’ his dad had ridden me on this road ‘n’ times during his days. Yes, got it! We are going to our Chittu Aunt’s in Coonoor. It’s his favourite home to stay and mine too. Our aunt is known for her hospitality and kindness. We were crawling up the gradient besides Sim’s park that’s where she is. Yesssss, there she stands near the gate to welcome us with our cousin. He parked me in a comfy spot and started to unload himself from me and went inside the cottage.

Let me flaunt a little bit! I just got more attention from them than him as usual😜. Gotta sleep after a long drive. See you in the morning.

zzzzzZZZZZ …..