Goin' Down The Road

Just got back from a few days in Denver. Met up with two of my oldest and closest friends, one of whom had his parents visiting. I hadn't seen these guys for a year and a half. I hadn't seen the parents since 1992. The homemade dosas were as good as ever.

On Friday, the three of us made a day trip out to the Rockies, looping around from the southwestern side of Denver (near the famous Red Rocks venue) up north-west to Boulder, and back. It was brilliant fun.

At one point, the sun was out and the road empty. The views had been magnificent all along. We pulled back the sun-roof and I from the back seat poked first my camera and then my head through. The onrushing wind was cold, sharp, and left me totally breathless and exhilarated. The non-driver followed suit. The music system was blaring Kishore Kumar, Zindagi ek safar hai suhana! It was just right, and the three of us proceeded to first join in the chorus EEE Hee hee hee heeee and then amend the lyrics to our pleasure. I caught the whole thing on film, it was just like a Hindi movie.

And then I sat back down. I clicked the camera onto play mode, to check whether the movie had come out okay or not. The song changed. Some idiot somewhere had thought it was great production values to follow the exuberant effervescent Zindagi ek safar with the dolorous mournful Zindagi ka safar, hai yeh kaisa safar. And in a flash, looking through a two inch screen at the bald spots of people I've known and loved for twenty, close to thirty years, I thought -- Which of us will go first?

The song passed. We put on Moondance. We broke to frolic at a stream. Good photos came. We drove back to Denver in the late afternoon sun, without music. Somehow, that moment brought me back down to earth, put the whole everything in perspective, and made it all even more worthwhile.

Track for the day:
Going Down The Road Feelin' Bad
Railroad Earth with Phil Lesh
San Francisco, 4/16/2005