SLOW BLOW

Life doesn't always happen at the rate we'd like, does it?

- Ruman

BLINDING LIGHTS

An open-top Thar was a fixture in Slush Fests of the early 2010s and, in 2013, I drove one with oversized tyres, which, among other things, sprayed the windscreen from the inside. A few 'yumps' later, the headlights went bust and I drove sandwiched in a convoy from our off-road trail to Lonavala city, at which point Rohin benevolently volunteered to escort me home, leading in an LR Discovery. This arrangement lasted exactly 5 minutes, after which he, rather inconveniently, simply scooted. That left me and a lightless diesel Thar to discover motoring nirvana on a very rainy night, as we dawdled home at 60 kph.

SLOW SHUTTER

Kartik decided to ride his father's 1975 Bullet back to where it was born — the old Royal Enfield factory in Chennai — while I tailgated him all the way in a Honda City. I had Kartik Sadekar, our erstwhile photographer, for company and that got immensely boring about 15 minutes into the journey. We were on the road for days, looking out attentively for signs of trouble on the Bullet (there were many, including the time it tried to self-immolate), simultaneously hoping a miracle would cause it to, at least, hit 80 kph. Didn't happen. Would I rather have skipped it? No. Not for anything in the world. What a story to be a small (and slow) part of!

SCIENCE FRICTION

My ex-colleague Priyadarshan 'PD' Bawikar saw it fit to present me with a copy of