While I was riding my decade old Royal Enfield through the woods near my abode, I chanced upon a little cafe buried in the middle of nowhere behind a little Bharat Petroleum station. As always I was in no evident rush that could make me skip it and that really is a happy trait of weekend jolly rides on the wheels of joy. The name of the cafe meant coffee coffee-bean in Amharic and Oromo, which are official languages of the birthplace of coffee ‘Ethiopia’. I didn’t know a local coffee shop would go for such a thoughtful name and it did surprise me. Bistro welcomed me with a melodious jingle of the hanging wind chimes with few hundred threads up above the ceiling almost touching the glass door effortlessly. A smiling face of the barista made my entry grand and making me feel as if they were all waiting for me to arrive for few days. I looked for a corner seat with no one to make eye contact so I can’t continue my selfish business of thinking, reading and writing. But I was forced to...
We had decided to do the daring drive from Kochi to Bangalore on the latest Harrier EV. The beasts had waited enough for this union and were eager to test each others mettle. The beast in Harrier and the other beast driver in me. My friend and husband had planned to pick me by Noon but had to start from their home by 3pm after few detours after running some errands elsewhere. I had already started driving around the monstrous Harrier around Kochi city. I silently enjoyed when the roadside bullies in other cars and motorbikes giving way for the beast to pass. On another day, on a different vehicle these bullies would have not thought twice before showing me their true colour in 8K clarity. Who knew that our beliefs were going to be tested that evening and what night had planned for us. The fact that whole India was under construction was well reminded by the road maintenance work on the highway between Kochi to Bangalore. Roads were getting clogged up as a heart with choleste...