I was on this trip to Diveagar this weekend. And along the drive I experienced how someone so very strange, unknown can be so close just for the time-being. Ok, before you start judging and making up your own stories, let’s get to the fact.

On our way back, we took up the Tamhini Ghat road for Pune. We started at 5:30pm, and it being the winter season, it was quite obvious that we would be driving in the night time mostly. The tamhini ghat is as such dangerous, as there are no lights, and no villages on the way across the whole ghat region. So once you start, for the next 2 hrs, forget coming across a place to rest, take a break, fill petrol, get help and so on. Not even a light snack is possible. All along the road, there was hardly any car, and the darkness and the starry sky and the cold breeze were adding to the eeriness.

Cruising along, I came across a Tavera which was going in the same direction as ours, and at this time, I found a good friend in him. I followed it continuously, for want of someone to be leading me in the dark and curvy road, with no road signs to guide. Intrinsically we both were keeping the distance between us such that we don’t lose each other, without having to tell this to one another. After a while, he signaled to me to lead him, and I gladly took up the position to lead kindly light. It felt nice to help and be helped. And it is true that we never will meet each other, never might come across each other. We never did meet each other too that day as well, but for those 2hrs, it felt as if we were the best of friends on our way to a picnic. Sometimes you find people in the most strangest of all places, and they become the sole factor for enduring through that time. Some say this is what life is, I say this is Vasudhaivva Kutumbakamm, the motto of Symbiosis.