In Which RCW Almost Admires the lone star state

It's been a while since I've found time to continue chronicling the eventful life of RCW (yes, in my life two days away from my blog is a while. You have an opinion on that?). And I would totally understand if my honorable reader(s) has(ve) totally lost track of where we were at. In the event of this (rather unthinkable, I admit) happening having happened, one asks h.r to respectfully scroll down (because blogs get slighted easily and then it takes a devil of a lot of work to charm them out of their sulks, that is they way) and read the previous post. It's just down the hall and dead center. You cannot miss it. Really.

So, to continue where we left off, RCW crept down the driveway and out of the gate (skilfully avoiding the watchful eyes of the alert young chowkidaar - ok, I lie, the rather agewise advanced chowkidaar was fast asleep and snoring in his charpoy in the little watchman shack and nothing short of a thousand stampeding elephants mounted by a thousand screaming Chengiz Khan descendants thundering directly at his bed would have woken him up. But it seemed appropriate to add some skill to RCW's woeful repertoire), slinging her knapsack over one shoulder (hers). I can truthfully report that she stopped only once, in considerable regret. To remove a pebble from her chappals (don't you hate when that happens?). She wanted to make good speed out of the immediate surroundings of her charming village in the Blogosphere because she had a pretty shrewd idea of the sort of hullabaloo that would ensue in the morning when she was found missing.

Feeling rather full of beans (in spite of the late hour and though she really hadn't had coffee ever because her father frowned upon the beverage) and reckless with that gay feeling of adventure (adventure is totally gay, isn't it? It looks enticingly delicious, makes you feel totally cool when you're attempting to do it and then lets you down on your backside with a thump when you realize you can never really get your hands on it the way you want to) she jauntily covered almost two miles over some fields in the general direction of the freeway. Though she had never been allowed to go this far away from home, she had heard talk that there was a freeway in the north boundary of her village which was inhabited by fast vehicles that could whisk you away to a totally different world. She was very keen on trying one of those.

After the first couple of miles though, she began to feel tired. The going was tough. It was bush country and so, populated with bushes. Most of them thorny. All of them annoying. Impeding her path, throwing hurdles in the way of her progress, making her take ridiculous detours instead of letting her tread the straight and narrow. She was exhausted by the time she had crossed halfway through the second field. As all heroines are wont to do, she decided to sit for a while under one of the bushes and wait for the first signs of dawn before continuing. It couldn't be too far away now.

So she took out her bright red silk dupatta from her knapsack, spread it out on the grass and sat down on it, with her back to a bush. She looked up at the night sky. It was a largely cloudy night, with the moon a glimpsed halo attempting blusteringly to evade the clingy vapor. As she stared at the sky she saw a single star, tiny, twinkling courageously, somehow having escaped the mists of the clouds. Just far enough away from the moon to get its personal lionizing glory. It made her feel hopeful somehow, made her empathize with it. That something so tiny could have escaped the clutches of all its enemies to shine steadily (okay, a little unsteadily but still) and silently, all alone, on its own two feet made her want to smile. Wasn't that what she herself wanted to do, after all? But it's not really that tiny. You're microscopically microscopic in comparison, her brain piped up. Yes, but still such a brave thing, no? No, not really. Why do humans feel this need to first anthropomorphize every object they see, and then invest those objects with attributes that they think are attractive? Tsk, she thought, a little irritated with her brain. I suppose now you'll say that shining against all odds isn't an attractive attribute. I don't see anything attractive in it, really. Besides all the rest are shining too. You can't see them is all. If anything the star highlights human imperfections. Gah! Fine! Whatever! She sniffed, turned her back on her brain and fell fast asleep. She was tired.

In the next episode, Baron JAP Wakes Up and Runs around like a Headless Chicken (but Gracefully, always Gracefully). Then, Baron JAP Realizes his Daughter (the Apple of his Eye) is Missing, he Plans a Rescue Attempt and Enlists an Unlikely Rescuer. Also RCW Proceeds with her Journey. Really, how can any of you not stay tuned? I'm not even going to say it!