The Roadtrip
Timeless Beauty
Aishwarya Javalgekar We bundle into the car in our traditional outfits. Scattering your ashes is a road trip. I watch the empty city slowly coming back to life. I imagine a longer road trip. The four of us are driving down to Kumta. The village you were born in. The village you always wanted to revisit. A car ride would take 13 hours and 4 minutes with no traffic, a quick Google search tells me. But it will have to be extended for the sake of this movie. Maybe we take a wrong turn and end up in the middle of nowhere, forced to sleep in the car or take refuge in a small hut. Not an abandoned mansion, this is not a horror movie. Maybe we meet someone along the way. Someone who inspires us and helps us see the rut of repetitive patterns we’re stuck in. Preferably not a woman, or at least not a manic pixie dream girl. I won’t allow that in my movie. One of us finally figures out what career they want to pursue. One of us finds love with the non-manic pixie dream girl character. This will be me. I don’t make the rules. One of us makes peace with being alone. One of us decides they are better off in Kumta and quits their 49
Vol VIII | Issue 1
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Vol VIII | Issue 1