delhi - jaipur super fast

6th April 2007

i board a Volvo from bikaner house for Jaipur. the seat next to me is unoccupied which holds the promise of more elbow room and mental space. for the next 90 minutes i stare at the tall buildings of Delhi and gurgaon. a confusion worms its way into the unused neural corridors i fancy as my mind.its the extent of the urban sprawl.

urban sprawl, also called suburban sprawl refers to the new, uncontrolled expansion previously less developed than the urban core it now surrounds.

i still wasn't any wiser about my whereabouts. pulling the window curtains didn't tell me if i was in NCR or outside.

i looked at the modern man's new best friend for succour. unfortunately my cell was as out of 'ideas' as i was.

some primitive geographical conditioning (class 3 social sciences ,i suspect)warns ("warms") me to expect a desert everytime i take a rajasthan bound bus. despite all belied hopes the stubborn expectancy refuses to go away.maybe one day they will recreate the textbook perfect sand dunes by the road side as an added tourist attraction.

the bus pulls at a mid way stop for 15 minutes . emblems of rajasthan tourism flood my senses.

15 minutes hence..

the bus starts again. miraculously the couple behind me empty their seats and move to the empty rear of the bus.whatever be their intentions,i get to recline my seat to the full 127 degrees. ( 127 degrees is the holy grail of reclining seats as proven in many suspect researches..lol) this one is pretty close..whichever way, its comfortable.

i pulled back my curtain to reveal the full majesty of the landscape passing by the bus. these are largely open spaces dotted by the occasional roadside stalls and hamlets.

its pitch dark outside . a white diffused light gets switched on inside . ( bad luck for relocating couples , but the light isn't my idea..lol)

we paint a colorful contrast . light and dark. i try imagining what it must be looking from the outside, like a capsule of light travelling into the heart of darkness.

i pick up an issue of outlook traveller featuring 'rafting on zanskar' (zanskar is an Indus tributary in leh) the contrast couldn't be more powerful. lost in rafting on lands which haven't seen a river flow by millenias. i drift into dreams!!