He was in a weird mood. He wanted to ride at top speed non-stop. He missed the green signal by a second, which made him stop at the Junction. Poor accelerator, it was continuously raised and lowered by him. He cleverly hid his face inside his helmet, shut his ears with music. Others in the road could jus get a look at his figure and actions.
Waiting at the signal for more than a minute that too in the late hours of the night, if aam aadmi gets frustrated, imagine Shiva who’s already restless! Jet… set… go flashed green and he is already there 20 meters ahead of other vehicles. He rode rashly and his new bike making a rough grunt made everyone in the road turn and give a look.
Totally lost in music and speed, he rode like hell down the bridge. This big truck right behind him had been honking hard to get way. After his descent from the bridge, he noticed the truck pleading for way not because of the honk but from the glare of the headlights flashing bright on his rear view mirror. Shiv genuinely moved out of the truck’s way. The so called cleaner of the truck gave a serious look at Shiv. The look conveyed a message. “Had you delayed some more time in giving way, we would have hit you off our way”, this was the warning. This provoked Shiv to overtake the truck and block its way. Madness started here.
The way Shiv rode his bike, the speed, the body language, the attempts he made to overtake, all these made the Truck driver invite Shiv for a mad race. No words, no flags, no rules, no tracks, no observers, but a race was on. Shiv was focused fully on overtaking the truck. Mid-night had jus crossed, the roads were empty, signals flashing orange; all conditions were suitable for the truck and bike to accelerate blindly. Little did Shiv realize that rash driving will affect the performance of his new bike… His entire mind was in racing the truck. In the process he had some close encounters with barricades in the middle of the road. The slightest bad luck would have cost dear to him, but he never cared as though a Lucky Mascot was always there around saving him.
Shiv had come a long way chasing the truck. Several times he overtook it and the truck too had its chance. He had come a long way out of his usual route in the course of the race. At one point the truck slowed down and stopped aside. Shiv who was ahead of the truck slowed down too and stopped there. The truck had reached its intended destination. But Shiv? Where has he come? He felt like going and dashing somewhere. Why did he do this? No point to prove, nothing to gain, totally purposeless race it was. Just a wild rush of madness. Guilty, ashamed and deeply wounded at heart by his senseless behavior, Shiv switched off the music blasting his ears. All he could hear was his heart beating irregularly fast. Slowly and steadily he traced back his route. He had no replacement for the time he lost, for the efforts wasted, for the resources exhausted. No reason to justify his madness. Still somewhere deep within, his mind had been keeping him up, categorizing his madness somewhere in-between essential and trivial. With this slight relief of not committing a grave mistake, Shiv reached home. Before hitting bed, Shiv made up his mind to analyze and correct himself without fail the next morning.
Next day at office:
Shiv talking to his colleagues… “Kno wat…? Last night I had this race with a truck on my way back home..wat a thrill? Man the chase was mind blowin… I was about to hit this median, aana sadalnu brake pottu ..chance a illa..disc brake na chumma va..”
Ivanaellam Tiruttha mudiyuma ?
