E-Highway To Heaven

Where skybuses, bullet trains, e-highways, seaplanes, underwater metros, driverless cars, tireless scooters, two-wheeled tricycles, will be crisscrossing each other at high speeds

For the last couple of weeks, there’s just been one word in my head. Travel. Travel. Travel. And how close our ancient culture is to the way people commuted in the Star Trek, Star Wars and Maya Bazaar of my youth. And these vivid fantasies about the near future have been spurred by the slew of glorious reports from our transport ministry.

(I have to confess here that I am an unabashed fan of our transport minister, and wrote a moving piece elaborating on his proposal of using Indian musical instruments to improve the sound of our vehicular horns.)

These, fellow travel buffs, are just some of the fantastic developments in store for us in the coming days.

While addressing a recent event, Gadkariji said, “I want to start skybuses from Dhaula Kuan to Manesar and later extend it to Sohna to reduce traffic and pollution.”

What is a skybus, you ask? Don’t be daft. It’s a bus, okay? And it goes in the sky, dammit. That’s all I need to know.

At another venue, the transport minister said “With full faith I want to say that petrol will vanish from the country after five years.” That, to me, is brilliant news. Instead of our money vanishing at the speed of light, it is that dastardly petrol that will vanish. Take that, petrol! I can’t think of a single thing that would make me happier, other than news of Ambujam aunty’s upcoming arangetram being cancelled.

Then came news that travelling from Chennai and Bengaluru will soon take only two hours when the new green expressway between the two cities is completed. You know what that means, right? When I host my next grand party in Adyar, Chennai, guests from Yelahanka, Bengaluru, will arrive before those from Thiruvanmiyur.