vivek sekar

on a dark night, a small white blob appears then another appears and soon its snowing. we are heading to Venice, on a route that is takes us through the outskirts of the Alps into Italy. slowly as we pick up speed on the highway, the first of the many tunnels appears.

each blob of snow under the head lights of the car, transforms into thick long lines that swish past our car on a beautifully crafted inter weaving highway. creating an effect as if i am pushing the throttles of my inter-glactic x-wing to reach the speed of light, and instantaneous to what i meant, the roads became more engaging and interesting to drive on. the white lines swooshing by and i am busy on the wheel with alternate left and right turns, as we navigate into the alps. i burnt the midnight oil and it is close to 1.30am, not much of traffic to deal with, as the splendor of the alps lewdly visible on a snowy dark night, passes by. the pine trees covered in snow on the slopes, provide the grayish and shady but very familiar mountain scape, reminding me of what i have seen in countless Indian movies (even though the actors take the majority of the screen space). the jagged edges arranged in such a manner, as to guide the eye to the horizon filled with more mountains and in between there are streams and rivers flowing through.

Venice was in our plans because of the idea of driving in the alps, after having seen the Top-gear show about the worlds best driving roads, and an awesome drive it was, i enjoyed every moment of driving through the alps, even though technically we were no where close to the place/route suggested in the show. just as the snow was reducing, we were some 100kms from Venice and i had enough of having heard to my collection of trance music on the car’s audio system. a petrol bunk was the parking slot for my bed for the next 2 hours. the plan was to reach Mestre before it was 8, and then head to Venice for the remainder of the day.

after refreshing ourselves in holiday inn, we headed into Venice. armed with my camera and a thought that i will focus more on the people of Venice just as much as i will on the architecture, the ferry took us to the epicenter of Venice - St Mark’s Square. what followed for the rest of the day was more of a dream, and i was very much awake and clicking photos, but just as my conscience self was wandering along in the streets of Venice. i remember the sights and sounds that i experienced in Venice and yet i still feel like it had happened completely outside of me and as if i was completely unaware of the happenings, watching myself from outside.
Mescaline, It’s the only way to fly ?

 
Venice : a city were all the structures you have build in the air has been built, not with standing the only difference that its on water rather than air. a fairy tale land were opulence is visible in more than one way.

we ended the day a little early, as we were headed to Prague via Munich and wanted to be on th alps before sunset so as to see it under the sun rather than the moon. i was the passenger this time, taking some rest and preparing myself  for the night ahead.

next up - autobahn’s, speed racer and psychedelia