Roads and me

When I was 16 I loved the road. It gave me a new freedom and a new sense of race. I loved the breeze through my hair when I used to race around improving my driving day after day.

Till pollution hit and so much so that when I was 21 and in the last leg of my engineering, I used to go out like a masked warrior, jacket helmet et al. Else by the time I reached where I had to go I'd usually have 2 mm of soot on my face and I used to hate it.

Cut to the US. Driving became pretty much a routine thing. Something which I did as part of earning a living. It took me from home to work and back. Of course there were long drives etc, but still it had become a routine. Not "fun" anymore.

Back in India I stopped driving completely. I don't believe in unnecessarily stressing myself out. So I cut where I can. And driving I cut. We moved in 2008 March (people BTW, it has been two years since we moved back!!) and only this past week after a full two years I started taking our car out. Because it had to take me to work and back. I am inclined to get a driver but Subhash thinks it is an over kill so it is hanging there for now.

So I am back in the driver's seat. Since I go in the off peak hours it is still sane. But a couple of times I had to wade through traffic and it really made me wonder, why people drive at all ! The clutch-break routine is awfully painful! I always hated it. Period.