“I” is nothing

I rode from Vijayawada to Chennai for a last time. I was riding like I was possessed by the winds. I made 480 kms in 6 hrs flat!

Due to the heavy cross winds, I could not do more than 110 kmph. The average speed was around 100 kmph. I have never done it this quick. A Volvo does it in 7 hrs, the fastest train in 6.5 hrs. And a Royal Enfield in 6 hrs!

It was going easy, apart from the odd pedestrian who wants to die only in your hands, and the one off buffalo that wants to chew cud in the middle of a tarmac road that is burning hot.

It was a strange sense of achievement for me. What I was feeling cannot be explained in clear terms now. The fact that I could fly was one feeling I can remember always when I ride, an open road, a powerful horse, early mornings, star filled skies, the wind’s roar, frequent villages, rustic eat outs and the odd smoke and the frequent song that the mind hums within itself.

I am my God in those times. I control a machine ruthlessly. I defy fate that could be different if I had taken a train. I create risks for myself and then I beat them to safety. I create a respite for myself, a comfort zone, where I am unreachable to anyone, not liable to answering. I have Escaped, from the ordinary, from the mundane, from man. I am nothing then. “I” is nothing. But that is bliss!