​Driving...

--VISHRUT IYENGAR

Picture Courtesy: Mehak Sabharwal

Have you ever been on a long journey? Its tiring; its fun; its stupid after a point; its dreamy but its an experience. A long journey can be categorized in two experiences; One- of the driver and one- of the non driver. The same route to both are different worlds in themselves.

The driver usually looks at everything with the perspective of a first person. A world from the eyes of everyone in motion whereas the non driver looks at the world with the perspective of a spectator. A passer by. A world that unfolds itself as a play. Both the views are individually not wrong. They both live and breathe from the soul of the person’s thoughts. The blur of speed and time turns words into looks and food into memories. The roads speak of the place around and near. A lot can be learned of the place around from the road it provides. Its like seeing at a person’s hands, except its the city’s, town’s or the village’s.

Then there is that inevitable traffic. The motion of people in the motion of the highway, bringing the landscape to a standstill when the track over it moves with the rubber of alloys. The low hum of the car resonates the low vibration of the body. The petrol, burning and producing heat, to take away heat from the room of chairs. Buttons for various mechanical movements fill the wall of the inside of the car.

The person that see’s this metal animal moving, is amazed at the speed and obedience of it. The animal speaks in a mono tone. Long; Short. High pitch and low pitched. Soft and none. The animal controls the outer metal animal. The landscape lets it glide on smooth tar. The drive; it just started.