Monday, May 17, 2004

The road show
There is something about long road-trips. NH45 has always been great, this time around we also had a bit of NDA eulogising with Vajpayee�s smooth-as-a-baby�s-bottom four-lane expressways to drive on. If driving in the rains can be fun, at night, it can get pretty scary, especially when you have hypnotic wipers swishing in front of your eyes.
In our family, we are pretty accustomed to long road-trips. It is always been customary for one person, usually a fatigue-free youngster with the ability to keep talking, to sit next to the driver and keep him engaged and awake. This also includes the knack to sense any small somnambular deceleration or acceleration in the driving. This is always followed by a halt at a highway tea-shop (with names like Highway Hilton) and sipping hot cups of tea amidst the din of incredible radio tracks and the clanging of the kotthu parotta (not to be confused with any form of paratha). While caffeine is allowed to work its magic, the drive is resumed; with the elders and the kids comfortably asleep.
This time the �night-watchman�s� job fell in my hands. Even though I had played all day with my cousin�s very-friendly Labrador, even fancied some very exciting tennis-ball cricket on the terrace in the evening, I was foolish enough to say yes. And the swishing wipers were even more hypnotic. We tried music, but the favourite tracks were always soothing melodies. We then played some dappangutthu from the driver�s personal collection. Awesome stuff! After entering the city�s FM zone, I kept channel surfing to get the loudest music on offer. I then started talking about how �that lorry driver is on the verge of sleep� or how �that car is to be henceforth referred to as the kosu marundhu vandi� (fogging machine � referring to its emission problem). After lots of loud singing along with the radio, and countless Gounda Mani and Crazy Mohan jokes, I realised to my horror that I had ended up talking all to myself without even a customary �uhm� coming from the others. Soon it was time for Suryan FM�s R.J. �Yaazh� Sudhakar to come up with some really cheesy romantic poetry accompanying some great 80�s Ilayaraja and Kamal Hassan numbers. Then we quickly came upon Tambaram and then the airport, and soon we were at home. I was now so �beyond� sleep that it took me some serious blog-surfing to get some shut eye that lasted a lot more than 40 winks. Now I have �car-lag�.

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