Driving through Thakkad Junction ...

Driving with Doctor Bagi, I felt calm and safe - I did not have to close my eyes -  he drove as though he was carrying a gang of fragile dowagers -

Our manoeuvres were measured and well executed - there was none of the inspired madness I'd got so used to - 

But driving through Thakkad Junction, my heart lurched within my chest - the road was a furious pulsing torrent of auto rickshaws, gaudy lorries, Royal Enfields and Hercules bicycles - 

Skinny men with glossy jet black beards hitched up their dhoties outside tiny shops - girls with blue saris waited for the Thrissur bus - a cow grazed within a field next to a mobile phone tower - 

Dr Bagi steered us through the feverish traffic with the skill of a veteran cosmonaut - 

I have driven all over India - outside Kerala, it is just road road road - across the desert - a few houses in the sand - trucks - that is all you can see -