A race to beat boredom

Returning back from my native place, kanjirapally, a couple of days back I had this strange encounter.

The roads stretched like a never-ending black serpent, the traffic dotted the tarmac like the spots on a diamond back, the sun beginning it's descent, cast  a spectral glow over the landscape. The setting magnificent and yet the solitude still was ever omnipresent. The speedo read a 100kms an hour and nothing to beat the silence and the hum of the diesel engine than the occasional honk by the insensitive. just another lazy drive on one of the zillion roads stretching across the country. 

The radio was play country music and with no source of other entertainment I decided to play with the other drivers, racing. Not being a professional racer I guess the playing field was equally placed. Now, to find a willing participant is tough as not many want to take you up on it. Finally after 15 minutes I get a willing driver in a much smaller car, a santro.  It zipped, it overtook and kept on moving... Well very soon the whole thing got extremely competitive.  Both of us not willing to compromise and hence the race went on. 

The guttural lyrics of Leonard Cohen was suddenly broken by the wail of an ambulance in the distance. A peek at the rear view mirror showed the ambulance at quite a distance, but being the only vehicle in the country capable of covering vast differences quickly with the co-operation of any and all drivers, it was but moments that the ambulance was right behind me. Being the dutiful citizen and a member of the social strata I move to an empty lane and let the ambulance overtake me. 

The ambulance overtakes and with it a dozen ambulance chasers... These are people with the urge to reach a destination faster using the ambulance as a bulldozer to clear the way.  Along with the dozen cars go the santro I was racing with. 

That's unfair I say to myself and gun my car down the road, eating up kilometers and overtaking other cars with ease and very soon it's the ambulance, the santro and I. Well never one to give Ito cheaters I overtake the santro the ambulance and speed on. Well the roads of Kerala are also littered with cops and speed guns, not wanting to get caught and fined I decide to be an ambulance chaser myself. I did not have to wait long and soon settled into a groove behind the ambulance... The santro behind me. 

Well the pleasure was short lived and the ambulance turned off from the highway to the city and soon it was back to me and the santro jostling for position. I think to myself, god this fellow can be persistent, but the four lane highway soon came to an end and the old single lane started... With the number of car increased the road just wasn't enough and only the most adept have any chance for moving forward...

The santro well although good on the four lane was not as fast on the single lane, showing that it was driven by someone not very familiar to the highways of the old... Well it works to my benefit and well since the driving just got more challenging there was no need to race... I just had to move ahead and reach home before the sun set... Well a distant possibility but hey  no harm in trying and setting goals....