'Till The Next Crossing

It wasn't a sudden impulse at all. Everything was neatly unplanned. I have been conjuring this “unplan” for a whole semester. Only the few minor details were left out, one of them being the destination! All I knew was, I have to go somewhere, as far as possible, by hitch hiking! Then I mapped it out! Chitradurga, a nice little hilly town with a good old castle, in interior Karnataka, 250 miles from my College Hostel.
I was standing on the NH17 at midnight for half an hour, tirelessly hanging my left hand in the air with an erect thumb.
A bunch of late-night-party-goers came to the rescue! Driving a crowded car, these kids were going to Manipal, a heaven for night clubbers! Loud music, a few bottles on the floor and a few pair of red eyes greeted me! I had no choice but to find a seat! They took me up to Udupi, some 42 km from where I started. I thanked them, and off they went to party, leaving me in a deserted Bus Station.
It was so silent, that I could hear my wrist watch ticking! I was pondering for other options when a sainlty looking man drove up in his Unicorn! Fortunately, he was going in my direction and agreed to drop me till Tirthahalli, a place I've never heard of before!
The unicorn was fabulous! It left the NH17 and took us through the dark jungles and the meandering roads of the Western Ghat! It was a cold , starry night, out in the middle of no where, with fearsome screams from the jungly neighborhood! A copybook adventure!
My bizarre journey in the antiquated vehicle continued for another hour or so, and not a word did we speak in the meantime! He let me go at the ghostly town.
The night time traffic consisted only of large-bellied trucks. I managed to stop a massive one. The Marathi trucker was pretty happy to have a company!
I didn't realize when I fell asleep. When I woke up, the sky in the East horizon was starting to fade. We had stopped at a level-crossing. I had an urge to pee.
As I emptied myself, up popped the sun from the corn field, and the horizon cleared at once. The great old fort was visible from a distance on the top of a giant stony hill. Chitradurga beckons. We waited, while a freight train with an eternity of fatigue on its wheels passed by into the unknown. Who knows when it started? Who knows how far it has to go? Who knows how many lands it had seen? I wished to be on a journey like the train. Without a hurry to finish, without a worry to take care of... Wherever I'll stop, will be my destination.