No way

The atmosphere had cooled down, after a heavy downpour rescuing us from the savaging dictatorship of the summer sun. The blue sky, was covered with a quilt of light grayish shades of clouds. The cool breeze was kissing my skin, giving a pleasant sensation of relief from a hectic day of college.

"This a great day to have a cruise on my bike!", I thought. I was missing the long drives, the smooth cruising on national highways, the adrenaline rush of racing, the torques of burning tyres, the smell of burnt fuel. It had been a long, since I went for a long drive on my bike.

I called Shauvik and inquired about his availability, to which he happily replied "yes." I quickly put on my new t-shirt which quoted "Discover the unknown", an apt quote to suit our venture. My black beast - my bike, the Yamaha YZF-R15, which had been under a complete rest for a month, after a racing bout amongst my friends, was resting in my garage.

I picked him up, from his house, and zoomed off for a merry ride. I was eager to hit the highways, for messing with grueling speeds, and the screams of engines.

"Let us not hit the highways. Instead, let's go for some roads not yet taken!", Shauvik said, loud enough to overcome the daily hustle of a busy city life.

"Ummm... Yeah... Okay!", I said, nodding. He was right. Highways are meant for racing and touring, not for any merry rides. Instead, if we hit on some unknown roads, we might discover something new - discover the unknowns.

"Let's take the right turn.", he said, as we reached a divider.

"Do you know the route?", I asked, turning the bike's handle towards his quoted direction.

"Yeah yeah!", he said, confidently.

I was out my maps imprinted on my grey matter. I had hit a new route, a route that I had never taken. I was driving, solely on the directions given by my pillion rider, which changed frequently from right to left, and even to a full U-turn. The cool breeze was kissing my sweats jogging down my neck, evaporating them up. My hairs scrambled up with cool breeze. I chided myself for keeping such long hairs in the summer days.

It has been almost fifteen minutes of nonstop touring on the unknown road, a road meant to be discovered. The smooth bitumen roads, had turned to coarse pebble- rock one, giving my spinal cord a tough job, to manipulate its ups and downs. The road which went through a busy city life had entered a region, where only farmlands were meeting my viewing limit. Some small mud cottages rarely obstructed the view of farmlands and the setting sun.

"Hey where are we?", I asked, as I halted on the side of the canabolic roads. I searched for some creatures like us - humans indeed, to get back to city life. But there wasn't any. Moving objects covered only the dancing leaves of tress, and the swinging movements of lights, caused by the cool wind.

"Ummm... I... I don't know!", Shauvik answered, after sometime.

"F*****g a*****e. How -"

"I have my Google maps!", he said, excited, cutting me down, on my way of cursing him.

He came down the bike, and took out his mobile. But, his excited, glowing face, soon was over gazed by signs of frustration, and agony.

"F**k! I have to signals.", he said, agonized. He juggled his phone, roamed around a metre, with a hope to get back the mobile signals, but what more can we expect from BSNL. It didn't came back.

"What?", I screamed out. It was mainly because of two reasons - one being, he had cut me down halfway while cursing him, and second being his mobile which didn't have hold of any mobile signals.

"Huh! Let me check my Blackberry.", I said, stressing on the last word. I don't know why, but it gave me immense pleasure while mentioning the name of the mobile manufacturing giant.

I took it out. I was praying, for a pinch of signal in my mobile.

"Huh! There it is.", I said, ecstatic, coz my Blackberry had the signals.

"That's why, I respect Airtel.", I said, showing my phone.

"Okay okay. Now, get on with your Blackberry Maps, and let's reach our home, safely.", he said, stressing on the last word. He was probably feeling a sense of fear. Fear because of two reasons - one, we were on a deserted canabolic road, and going by the recent happenings in India, none can guess what can happen next, and second, the sun was on the verge of setting down, with the clock displaying six fifteen.

"Now, no more from the Google of Shauvik! Direct me from here.", I ordered, holding him my phone, which showed the way back to our homes.

"Yeah!", he said, as he got on the bike. His expressions were analogous to the slaves forced to carry out the orders of the dictator. He had understood what a mess he had created with his imaginative directions.

 

Fortunately, there were no more directions, from his own imagination, as we had reached the main city. But out bad luck didn't end there. A police van has halted on its patrolling, to scrutinize the driver licenses, and legal papers of the vehicles. I didn't have any, nor did Shauvik. A helmet, a basic need, was missing on our bike, which meant, they could easily charge us, a healthy amount of money. What more can you expect from a college student to have in his pocket? Not more than hundered bucks!

"Hold on tightly!", I said, crouching myself, on the bike, as I twisted my right wrist, to speed up.

The wheels rotated in a hurry, speeding up my bike. Its engine roared gruelly, as my bike reached near the van. My bike had already caught a speed of 60 kmph, to which, they can easily charge me for over speeding in city.

"Cover the number plate!", I shouted.

"Hey hey -", a policeman shouted, as I dodged him, narrowly escaping from hitting him. It could have been a similar case of hit and run of Salman Khan, the only difference being instead of hitting a toddler, I would have hit a policeman. Another point, I was not drunk, like him.

"F**k you!", Shauvik shouted, as we crossed him, as he waived his middle finger in the air, as we gelled up with the usual hustle of city life.

Luckily, Shauvik has covered the number plate, (going by my orders) made it impossible for anyone to note down my bike registration number, and had prevented any further cases of police hassle.

Reviews

[A. H. Pinley]

Some of your phasing threw me off, but a fun story none the less. In my book I have a section that takes place in New Delhi. Good write!

[Trigorin]

Not bad, and your concept is fairly well thought-out, but your language choice is still a little stilted and odd in places. I have to ask, is English your first language? If it isn't, I get the feeling you'd probably be able to express yourself better in whatever your most familiar language is. It's not that you have bad ideas, but the execution is somewhat lacking.