Friday, August 04, 2006

Unknown....
















Photo by - Endevourme

Almost two years back....one fine evening we started from pune to hyderabad.Ours was a Qualis, it was 12 hours jeorney, and very soon after dark all others went to sleep. I was on the front seat with the driver, watching outside, thinking about chores of the next day, but soon my eyes too started becoming heavy. The highway pulls straight, alternating between barren lands, jungles and occasional small villages. He was driving steadily at the speed of 80, his eyes fixed on the road. We could clearly make out the road and sideby trees hanging on us.
"Highways are safe now-a-days no?", i said. He looked at me, "Really?", "yes, we hear very less tragedies on roads now", i replied. He smiled cynically, "Then i must show you something". I said,"ha?"."Put on your seatbelts", he said. As I did so, he slowly raised the vehicle to 100, looked in to the rear view mirror,took good judgement of the road ahead and ...
...he switched off the headlights...for almost 4 seconds....

.....it really took me a moment to register what has happened...then what i felt was absolute fear!it was absolutely dark...i could see nothing outside...literally nothing...and a chill of fear ran through my spine. I was instantly straight, cautious and fully awake...... my mind was instantly flushed of thoughts...the thrill brought me to intense present tense...clear to analyse the surroundings...but i could hardly see anything...i could hear rustling sound of leaves outside,sound of our vehicle..wroom...wroom......and its small movements up and down...i could feel fast wind gushing through the window...and..........a vast unfamilier land outside...a jungle....dark...strange......unknown........

...after the lights came, i felt like coming back to life again. Still the brief encounter with truth made me realize the false sense of security we have with our surroundings. We believe in our roads, assuming they are safe.We trust our vehicle, just a machine, after running it for over 1 lakh kilometers. As humans we live in a shell, constantly protected. But when something goes wrong do we have enough mental and physical strength to protect ourself? Nature is beautiful, but it is strange too. And we lack the sixth sense that animals have, a pure natural instinct, an ability to listen to surrounding and make out danger. Instant decision making, which can make a difference of life and death.
but...during that blackout... for a moment, i did feel a pleasure, a thrill, a deep sense of peace, a blankness, a tingling sensation...
After this incident also i travelled this road many times, but kept always in mind the respect and knowing - for the unknown....

24 comments:

Junius said...

this pic i took on pune-bangalore highway, but i dont remember where...
if u click and see the original pic, u can see a faint rainbow in the middle of the pic :-)

ya.. never ever switch off lights on highway...it can be extremely dangerous...

Has to be me said...

As usual lovely pic pal.

Never to switch off lights in the highway ofcourse & also to remember tht speed kills! Nice post.

Junius said...

#has to be me
yes, safety first!
thank yu for liking the pic :-)
it was a rainy day when i took it, atmosphere was so beautiful!

Aditi said...

Wow that would be scary... furthermore the idea of not having control.
Neways I have a question, how do u blur the background in some of the vegetation and flower pictures u have taken..if i may ask?

Aditi said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Junius said...

#aditi
yes it was real scary!
hey u can ask ne-thing u want, always welcome here :-)

hmmm...u got to reduce depth of field to get that blurring, smaller the DOF, more the blur.
usually digital cameras have little flexibility, they have small lenses, so DOF is naturally more.
so digital camera gives pictures which show everything clear...whatever in the pic is clear.
i had same problem. i have a 3x binoculor, i fix it in front of camera to reduce DOF.
its very tricky to keep the camera steady , focusing binoq looking into camera viewfinder...
many fotos come out of focus and all,,,but with experience i manage :-)

guess this comments section is small da...it depends on ur camera also...
if possible drop me a mail,so that i can give some more details :-)

#hiren
hey welcome here :-)

true...but still nature is honest unlike us.

Junius said...

#saroj
ya thank u for liking the pic :-)
i took it thru glass window of our bus, so shades have come bit diferent

Keshi said...

great pics here!

Keshi.

Junius said...

#keshi
hey keshi! thank yu for coming here :-)
and thank yu for liking my pics too...
keep coming...

Rose said...

OMG!

I felt like giving that driver a punch on his nose.. Grrrrrr..!!!

Incredible picture as always..

:)

..Me

Junius said...

#rose
hmmm...i too felt similar...
but i must say he calculated the risk before doing this...
thank yu for liking the pic :-)

Anand said...

very true..we do live in a false sense of security and its only whenn we have blcak-outs in lfie do we see reality!

Junius said...

#anand
thank yu so much for coming here....:-)
btw being down on earth is always good,
but reality can be many times more beautiful than dreams..

teacup said...

hey loved all your pics on this page...specially the greens...always wanted to click a pic of dew on grass...

Junius said...

#yashita
thank yu for coming by :-)
yaa yu too can take pics naa,
digicams are quite cheap now...i too got 2nd hand cam...total 3.9K/- thats all!

Neha said...

scary!! its like anything can happen anytime.. but if u constantly live in the fear of something bad happening then u wont b able to live..

Junius said...

#neha
ya.... thats correct, too much worry is no good,
but on the roads-safety first!

Shankari said...

nice pic! n a message too?

Junius said...

#shakari
thank yu,
yaa message too...drive safe...

#shama
ya thats correct,
but it doesnt mean yu should run into trouble...

Unknown said...

First of all the pic is luvley c the colors!!!!!!!ur really gud at fotography....u shud start writing a book now..ofcourse add the pictures too....its scary to drive on roads and dat too on highways...and nites..dangerous...can imagine how u must hve felt than....when ever i used to travel in a bus....i cudnt slp.....

Junius said...

#nirmala
hey thank yu...
i took this from bus window, still it came good,
otherwise it will shake :-)

Unknown said...

from bus window.....wow.i luv this pic from ur collection..(i like all but ths is my fav)heyhey;-)




0

Unknown said...

and the beach one too is my fav

Junius said...

#nirmala
the glass window was blue, so that bluish shade has come :-)