Of Solitude, Coelho and Kurkure!!

As the road spirals upwards like a python, devouring hitch-hikers, bikers, cars and the occasional Lorries in its misty murk, we stop to look back at the path so far traveled. This is no travelogue like the ones we used study in school text-books but I tell you this, in an upward journey it always pays to occasionally stop, sit back and stare-back at the past that you have left far behind. We park ourselves on a not-so-risky turn, remove the cobwebs, bushes and low-hanging branches to reach for the edge from where we can look clearly unto the valley we have left far behind. And lo!! Khopoli unfolds itself in a mesmerizing beauty. The blinking of the dim dhaba bulbs within the haze of the chimney smoke, the inherent symmetry of the houses on the slopes, the gullies gleaming with the road lamps, weave themselves into a compelling kaleidoscope of poetic beauty, so enthralling, we feel like having a longer break. Over the Kurkures and Haldiram’s we discuss mountains, sojourns, ambitions, Pirsig, Hesse, Couelho and come to a deeper sense of solace with our souls, which I oh-so missed in Hyderabad in my pub-outings. The serenity was spiritual. As we set off again, a solitary light beckons us on the precarious curves. The headlamp of Panda’s Unicorn. Rest later.