Skid Row

It was an interesting day today. I had to get up early to go to a place 20 miles to my south to give my "Driving License" exam.

Back in India, when I gave the exam, around four years ago, the whole exercise involved towing the entire group of student drivers in a mini-van, filling up some papers at the local transportation office and proceeding to meet the chief inspector who had a look at each of the students,confirmed their identity and immediately stamped the approval .Voila...!


It was a muggy cold and rainy Saturday today and the weather wasn't helping the butterflies in my tummy to settle down.Nevertheless, I have had worse experiences with exams in the past and so banking on that fact I steeled myself for the test. It wasn't as smooth as I had hoped it would be but admittedly I was nervous a teeny weeny bit and it cost me some points.
By the end of the exercise as we proceeded to the makeshift office of the driving examiner, I was told that I wasn't a bad driver ( meaning: you definitely ain't a good one) and that I had passed the exam. Coming back home was a breeze and since the day began early I decided to squeeze in a movie before lunch.

I watched "Groundhog day".I must say I was glad I saw this movie.It struck an immediate chord and I have to admit its one of those feel good movies.Excellent acting by Bill Murray and Andie McDowell but the heart of the movie is the story.Imagine what you could do if you got to live the same day over and over and over again.For more than a year.I liked the way the protagonists character changes .From an egotist to a pessimist to an opportunist to an activist and finally realising to live with it and becoming selfless. Touching.

Well I gave in to my roomies demand for a treat and so at around 12:45 or so proceeded to move to an Udipi restaurant closeby.During turning right at a green intersection, I suppose I hit the accelerator hard and then , it happened.
The world moved around, It spun.Or was it me? Spinning around we hit the footpath and I realised I was able to control the car ( however outlandish it may sound) and we moved along to a place and observed the damage.No exterior damage to the car.One tire burst and was possibly the reason for the skid in the first place. The funny thing is I wasn't scared or anything.It could have turned out much more worse but somehow I felt moments like these are supposed to leave you shuddering and thinking about possibly even worse conditions that could have happened.
I did not feel anything except that I was on a ride of some kind. It wasn't even scary.

That was the highlight of the day.Two back to back highs .And then a ride to spin city.Whee...

The importance of being

As I was driving towards a tennis court yesterday in the evening, I was listening to some western classical being played on the FM. The magic of experiencing western classical is that it soothes your sapped mental state of mind.Any music connoisseur would agree to that.Like a cool breeze on a hot summer day, it is a welcome sight that my ears relish to devour.And the best part is that it transforms the sights and experiences of the places you seem to look but never "look".

Take for example this road I was on.At a particular point of time you pass through a neck of the woods.Listening to the music, I was mesmerized and enchanted by the beauty of the place.The enthralling lush greenery of the place, the wind rustling the tree branches, the trees swaying in unison, as if to the music, the clear azure sky with those scattered puffy white clouds like cotton candy and the mild auburn sunlight streaming through the woods.It felt ethereal.I felt enraptured and hypnotized.I almost experienced a different state of mind, a lull in the chaos that is life.

Of being alive .Of being able to experience and appreciate nature.Of being able to connect to ones inner self.And the fact that nothing else matters.All this happened within a span of minutes before I was concentrating on the road and navigating through the traffic. But although it was a respite that lasted mere moments, that particular scene continues to haunt my mind.........

Of course, I made it to the tennis court on time and proceeded to lose all the matches I played.