On the way to Bangalore, we stopped at Ramana Ashram for one final visit before leaving Tiruvannamalai.
The driver drove very skillfully. His steady and expert driving helped me relax and even get some sleep in the car.
After reaching Bangalore, I dropped the driver at an interstate bus terminal in Shantinagar, from where he could get a bus back to Tiruvannamalai, and drove to the homestay, which was about three kilometres from there.
After checking in, I switched on the AC and slept like a log till evening.
I had got a lot of rest that day: in the car and at the homestay. Consequently, I felt like going out for a stroll in the evening.
This homestay was near one of the entrances to Lalbagh, which is a massive garden in Bangalore. I thought it would be a good idea to spend some time amidst nature in Lallbagh.
Not wanting to sit in a crowded place, I parked myself on a good seat in a secluded part of the garden. The only people who passed through that path were joggers and evening walkers who went about their exercise quietly. Two hours of sitting quietly under a tree in nature made me feel a lot better. I felt that I could leave Bangalore the next day itself instead of staying back for an additional day.
That night, I paid my dues to the homestay host and told him that I might leave the next morning if I felt good enough.
When the alarm rang in the morning, I woke up feeling very refreshed and decided to leave for Belagavi right away. The drive from Bangalore to Belagavi was quiet and uneventful. I stayed once again at Abhi’s homestay in Belagavi for a day and left for Pune the next morning.
On the way to Pune, just after crossing Kolhapur, I was stopped by a group of four traffic cops. They had put up one of those barricades that force you to slow down and drive zig-zag. It seemed they were doing routine checking.
One of them walked up to me and asked for my license and car papers. I gave him my license and the pouch containing the car papers. He examined everything carefully with a taciturn expression. The license was good, the car registration was good, the insurance papers were good. His expression did not change until he held the PUC certificate in his hands. That’s when I noticed a faint glimmer of joy which immediately transformed into the original taciturn look.
“The PUC certificate has expired,” he told me.
I checked the card. He was right. It expired three days back.
I tried to explain to him that it had just expired a couple of days back and promised to get it renewed in Pune. I also showed him the stack of all past PUC certificates as a proof that I always had my papers in order. However, my explanations did not help much. He insisted that I pay the fine. I had neither the energy nor the inclination to argue, so I paid the fine, and moved on towards Pune.
On the way, at a particularly empty stretch of road, I reminisced about the one and half month stay in Tiruvannamalai.
Three desires had converged to make this trip possible. Ever since my grad student days in USA, I had a strong desire to do an adventurous long-distance solo drive. The second desire was to spend at least a month in a place like Tiruvannamalai or Rishikesh, where I could stay away from city life in relative solitude. And finally, I harboured the desire for a spiritual experience.
I got the adventure and the solo drive. I also had an opportunity to stay in reasonable solitude, away from city life. However, the spiritual experience that I had hoped for did not happen. Instead, I found peace while looking at Arunachala and the stars from my terrace. I found peace in the ashram during the evening aarti and in my visit to Virupaksha cave, where Ramana Maharishi had stayed for several years. But most importantly, I experienced kindness from both my Airbnb hosts and other strangers who helped me deal with various challenges that came up from time to time.
It felt like Ramana Maharishi was winking at me, saying: “Relax buddy, I gave you what was best for you!”
As I drove on towards Pune, nature once again showed up in all glory. There were mountains, open fields, the sky above me, and the road moving rapidly below. My mind took a flight and started planning the next solo trip—this time, from Pune to Pondicherry.
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