Random Ramblings of a Reluctant Blogger

“Why can’t you just ask for directions,” my wife queried with some exasperation as we were driving to reach a friend’s place. Frankly, Not the first time she had asked the question. “How come,” she continued, ” even in these days of Google maps, you have to rely on your sense of direction,” she added, not even trying in the least to hide her impatience.

This conversation wasn’t the first nor,  I think, would be the last. And given that her sense of direction isn’t something to hone about, the best answer would have been to keep quiet and drive through the narrow congested way, Google or no Google, and shout Eureka when I reach the destination.  But say I did, pointing out  the various mishaps Google maps had led people to. 

I felt she needed to actually fathom how my mind worked, so that these particular conversations don’t happen often. Also, there was this matter of a destination still far off and the need to get the conversation going.

That any road will eventually lead somewhere, was a knowledge I gained very early on in life. Be it the alleys, the narrow paths, the sidetrack, I explored all. The long walks I tread on the various roads, be it in Dilli, Mumbai, Amdavad, Bezwada, Hyderabad, Chennai or in any place I visited, just reaffirmed my faith in the dictum that if there be a road, there will be a way. 

These explorations apart from extracting various routes, have had fascinating spin-offs. Discovering shortcuts was indeed one of them. That is just a part of the bigger picture. My love for architecture certainly blossomed from these walks. Gawking as I did past every house I found interesting. This architectural observation isn’t a digression. They serve as reference points and prove quite helpful, more so when giving directions or navigating. You only have to factor in the speed difference, when you are walking versus when you are driving. The reference points do, however, over time change, but some reference points stay steady in your mind and navigating becomes easy. 

“That’s fine,” my wife, interrupting my breakthrough explanation, said, “how does that help when you are going to a new place?” I could sense a gloat of victory. But far from defeated, I was. “It is all a state of being, an instinct that takes over, ” I clarified. “It is the tuning one has with the universe and that it leads you where you ought to be,” I pontificated, hoping to appease her spiritual mind.

I even explained how during one of these exploratory rides on my moped, I literally drove down a long stretch of stairs, a la chase scene in movies, in the bylanes behind the Birla temple in Hyderabad. 

Her silence meant she was still wondering how come I hadn’t heard of these stories before getting hitched!

The purport behind all that being, asking directions is akin to missing out on the adventure. I may have even got away with all these explanations were it not for my friend, whose house we eventually reached. “Why that route, you could have just driven straight and reached at least half an hour early,” he said!

Something tells me the conversation is far from over and there is one route I have to discover on my own, road or no road.