ONE MISTY MORNING TO A TWISTY SUNSET DRIVE!

ONE MISTY MORNING TO A TWISTY SUNSET DRIVE!

The speedometer of the red car I was driving oscillated between 20 and 60 kmph as it paced up the road winding helically around the body of the hills to ascend 5000 feet in 3 hours. Simone sat next to me and this narrative is a triple attempt in registering no less number of aces in a queer game!

The feebly contrite look on her face that she put on after realizing that the lens of the still camera was wetted by the ultra-fine rain drops of the faint drizzle, whereas being unable all throughout that time to click even a single un-blurred photograph out of the many dozen that she tried, evoked an understanding smile in me which had no rebuke in it!  This encouraged her to remain ever so playful, unhindered by possible reproach, and she carelessly fiddled with the device dangling it out of the window and testing its endurance in the rainfall. The puerile preoccupation died down in a quarter of an hour and she spent the next quarter viewing time and again the results of her exercise and selectively showing me the supposedly better ones. I must say that she did wonderfully well because the shaky snap shots captured the incessant motion and I conveyed my enacted awe at each one of them by generous smiles and an occasional wink! Her trustful cheerfulness bubbled and the ebullience grew till her giggles turned into cinematic laughter and to match the moods, Colbie’s ‘Bubbly’ was playing in the stereo. That was by a little design!

At certain times, physics helped to bring us closer! The speed and the centrifugal force generated on turning left in an arc connived to do so, and she realized it only on the third occasion that she was falling sideways towards me by anything but chance. It became a jolly game for a few more occasions and the cherubic cheeks gained more colour from a more vigorously pumping heart! The thrill of looking out of the window into the deadly depths that were partly covered with clouds was more exciting. The hills and the valleys looked more beautiful than ever!

I knew what beckoned her all along and not surprisingly before shopping became the order of the day. The compulsive filling of all space within the car with things ‘to wear and tear’ continued for hours. The act was as laborious as that of an ant but it kindled unbound and unmatched joy as always!