‘Continue 88 miles on I10 N to Houston’ – instructs a female voice emanating from the tiny black GPS on the dashboard. As if on cue, I recline my backrest, stretch my legs and relax. The view from my window is a fine treat for my ever hungry imagination and soon enough on a puffy cloud of day dreams, I drift away to a land of my own.
**
It is a palette of brilliant hues that I am exposed to. Miles and miles of burgeoning farms stretch along the road causing a million shades to blur into one another. The leafy green of bushes in spring melts into the moss green of fresh carpets of grass. Pools of royal blue, rich pink, pristine white, sunny yellow and the deep red of seasonal wildflowers – shimmer iridescently on the green canvas of nature. The sky hangs low like a blue and white canopy sheltering this exquisite work of art while trees heaving under the weight of flame-like orange blooms add to the symphony of colours. Estates that remind me of Tara-the beautiful manor from Gone with the Wind – circumscribed by white picket fences enticingly roll by. Some boast of beautiful muscular horses galloping like the wind across their vast expanse while others own herds of healthy cattle languidly grazing on stacks of brown hay. If I strain my eyes, I can almost see a young Scarlett O’Hara in a ridiculously extravagant hat riding into the horizon without a care in the world.
**
To the inherent Indian in me, the 163 mile drive from Austin to Houston looks like an aftermath of Holi – the Indian festival of colours. It is as if the world around me is trying hard to make up for all the years that I haven’t been able to smear yellow, green, blue and red gulaal across loved faces. I gladly accept the vibrant offering, all the while agreeing wholeheartedly with Mr. Louis Armstrong. ‘What a Wonderful World’ fills up each crevice in my car and each pore on my skin.
**
Preeti Sharma is an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and dabbles with creative writing. As she stepped into the hectic and mundane routine of corporate life, her writing became her stress buster. Her insatiable wanderlust and need for change prompt her to travel as much as possible.