Midnite Rendezvous

Pic: At my place, Someday
4.28 am by my watch. A bleary dark and cold Sunday morning. Let me finish this before I run out of brain. She would have been after my life if she had been here. But she isn't. And I ran off for the night.

I came back from office. The terror scenario had almost got the better of me. But I managed to survive. The high cost of newsprint has perhaps rocked ship. From when did The Economic Times start reporting about how Bollywood feels after a terrorist attack. But hey, cm'n I am being too short sighted here. People read this sort of stuff! No one is fuckin interested to read what Vijay Mallya ate for breakfast. That guy anyways needs a treadmill and some serious motivation.

She is like the rain on a sad Monday afternoon. She would go pitter patter on the tin roof, making you feel her presence, making you see her through the oh-so-far-away window, yet you would have to get wet if you really wanted to know her. But it didn't rain tonight.

I had three pegs of whisky to myself and a lot of melancholy. Friends were jokes during a crisis - meaningless. I missed talking. I got drunk. Don't know how.

The Haryana border is not too far from here. Tuglaqabad Fort takes 5 mins, then the dark and winding Surajkund Road another 10 mins, and then finally the police checkpost before you reach the booze shop. But tonite no amount of banging on the steel doors could wake up those bastards. I kicked started my motorcycle again and hit the highway with a debit card and 200 bucks.

It felt nice. The uncertainty. The thump from the engine felt warm. But no booze shop and I was running out of petrol.

Finally, I saw the comforting neons of a bunk. I cut the power and the sleeping attendants cut me in half. I took the risk. I was ready to wait out the night. It felt nice doing things that I had stopped doing. And I know that she would disagree.

Trucks whizzed by. I didn't feel scared. I felt close to them. Surprising, since I had become very cautious lately. And then I realized that I was lost.

It feels strange at first when you lose your reference point. Then you lose the panic as well. And a calm settles down. And you don't realise when you start enjoying, chewing your tension for breakfast. For me, it was love at first sight. Meeting an unknown piece of territory was like seeing a foreign land for the first time. Makes you feel excited. Makes you feel lovely. But she would never have understood.

Anyways, my back is aching now. Haven't changed yet. My hands are dirty and I feel like washing my face. I have reached home safely and had also stopped on the way for chai and cream roll. Sorry, couldn't get any for you. And by the way, I had managed to get petrol too. The bugger at the bunk first made me swipe my card to see whether it was working or not! Talk about brand equity.

On the road, it doesn't matter.