The Longest Road

My father loves traveling and having stayed with him for longer than most kids, I have travelled quite a lot. There is something to be said about long roads. The exciting times when you are drinking every detail slowly gives way to quiet times when you either sleep, write poetry and think of world’s greatest problems. I am sure global warming and world’s hunger issues were realised during such long roads.

But if you ask me about the longest road I travelled, I would say, “The stairs to the washroom on the day I had diarrhoea.”

I remember my entire life running in front of my eyes as I tried to run-walk to the wash, wondering all the time what I did to deserve it. Since I had to rush through that road 11 times in 11 hours, the entire experience was surreal. (Not sure who invented the idea of building washroom on stairs. But I am sure, they help reduce my sins by punishment trip-by-trip.)

During the rush (hours), I went backwards in my life and revisited every single second over and over. I wondered if my actions were bad enough to warrant the punishment; what I could have, should have, would have done. Was it too much oil? Too much food? Lack of healthy food? Lack of liquids? Bread? Yesterday’s paratha? Mango and chilli sauce? Mangoes? Mango shake? (It’s summers. Mangoes are everywhere.)

I experienced the same soul-searching that people do during trips to isolated places. Well, I was travelling to an isolated solace, so it fits, I guess! The road felt so long that the sufferings of Frodo Baggins felt nothing compared to mine.

The plains and hills and valleys were all crossed over and over with such thoughts as, “Will I be able to make it?” “Do I have the power to control what was coming?”

Unlike Frodo, there was no Sam Gamgee to keep me company, which was probably good. This road was not for the faint-hearted, especially once I entered Mordor.

The best I can say about this trip is that it was only one-day-long and I got the day off work. Thank God for small mercies!