Day 06, Year 45

Here’s to road trips: to leaving home early on a winter morning; to speeding through a world wrapped in a blanket of fog, with the yellow-orange blinking lights of the vehicles ahead serving as your only guide; to joining this community of human fireflies, all headed to a destination of their dreams.

Here’s to purging the term ‘baggage allowance’ from your vocabulary. Stuffing the car with so many odds and ends that the rear windshield is blocked but the idiosyncrasies of each member of the traveling party shine through. A knife and a steel plate for the granny who swears by fresh fruits, but may end up feeding them to cows and monkeys on the way back home? Check. A racket and shuttlecocks for the woman who has just started playing badminton, though unlikely to take them out of the trunk during the trip? Check. Extra lenses for the photography enthusiast, prepared for the early morning walks that may never see the light of the day? Check. And seven toy cars in seven colors of the rainbow for the toddler who loves to paint the town red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet and will actually be playing with them all? Check. When it comes to road trips, we all are the granny and the toddler combined. 

Here’s to the mandatories. To utter a quick prayer to your chosen deity as the ignition turns on. Topping the fuel tank, checking the tire pressure, and confirming for the millionth time the route and hours the journey will take.

Here’s to road trips in all their perfect imperfections. To the questions posed by boredom, backache, and nausea answered by music, back rubs, and candies. Collecting the rain in your palm, catching the wind in your hair, or crunching the gravel under your feet. Playing long-forgotten games, sleeping like babies, or singing without fear of judgment, because everyone else is singing along. And yes, stopping anywhere along the way because you simply can.

Here’s to having the time of your life, arriving at your destination with creaking limbs and a weary mind, and swearing never to travel by road again, only to find yourself planning the next road trip once you’re back home.

-Alok, 30/01/24