The Lamborghini

By Siddharth Gorey

In my childhood, I used to play with toy cars. They amazed me, how could a sportscar such as a Ferrari, be embodied into a small model with all its intricate details. I was amazed. There used to be one car model that I particularly associated with, a Lamborghini. I could never identify what model of Lamborghini it was because of the smallness of the name written behind the model, but I knew it was a Lamborghini because of the make of the car. It appeared different from other cars, it appeared to catch my eye.

One day, I looked up the name on the internet. It immediately caught my eye. With different models of Lamborghini being offered, the heaviness of the model and it being a supercar as well as being one of the fastest cars on the planet, I dreamed of owning the car someday. I dreamed of a me being an adult, married, two kids and sitting outside our mansion in front of the pool, admiring my beautiful hard-earned Lambo, enjoying the sunset in front of a beach. 

That was in class 6. Some dreams can be meaningless or symbolic, if you know what I mean. I am a 26 years-old adult now. I don't own a mansion yet, no wife, no kids, not rich and well Lamborghini sounds like a long shot from where I found myself right now. I am a Salesperson with 3 years of experience and I own a motorcycle as they used to say, because of its second-hand nature and the old make and model, not a sports bike. I have tried my hand at teaching, programming and sales. 

It has been a long time since I dreamt of the future, I don't know why. It seems like there is always something buried in the past that has to be taken care of, rather than looking ahead at the future with hope, truth be told. For example, just yesterday, I met a beautiful lady in the metro, she was standing on my right-hand side as I hung from one of the handles hanging above my head. Suddenly, she came up and stood in front of me, I could see her beautiful eyes, as she looked right at mine. 

I do remember you, she said. "What?", I asked. I remember you from our 10th grade. You are the person who scored the highest marks, right? I was astonished, I asked her name, she told me, I recognized her as being of a healthy physical characteristic from those days. "You don't remember me, do you?", she asked abruptly as I wondered where I had seen that face before. "No", I replied. 

That was yesterday, I still could not believe how she had turned out, I looked down at my belly which had grown so big that I could not recognize myself in the mirror as compared to my younger self. I wondered how she could recognize me in this shape. 

I was headed towards Hauz Khas for a sales pitch today, when it happened. I was headed on my motorcycle towards the south of Delhi, it was a foggy day due to which I decided that I would ride the bike at a moderate pace only. The Ring Road was moderately crowded, there were very few cars which were over speeding, one of them almost hit me as I descended on the underpass near IFFCO Chowk. I was feeling scared because of the sheer speed of the cars hurtling down the road even in the midst of the smog-filled afternoon. 

Until, something at the corner of my eye, caught my attention, I was at one corner of the road, for a brief moment, I noticed, a yellow shine reflected from its glass, it was unclear for about a minute, until out of the grey fog, appeared a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo. However, much to my dismay, it was headed in the opposite direction. I stopped my bike to get a glance at the amazement that it was, it was the first time I had seen it in my life.

I half-turned my head backwards as I stopped my bike and stared at that amazement that it was. 

It stopped. The car stopped on the corner of the opposite side of the road, there was a flyover over the car, shadowing its shiny colour. I kept staring, The owner got out of the vehicle, I saw, as he switched his seat with the passenger. 

I started my bike again, I peeked ahead with excitement, I wanted to see more of it, I noticed a U-turn up ahead at the Chowk. I took it and decided to follow the Lambo for some time. As I reached the place where the Lambo was supposed to have stopped, alas! it was gone. Okay, I said, no problem, how far would it have gone, I decided to follow the road until the tunnel at Rajouri Garden. 

I was driving at a moderate pace again and the fog was getting thicker and thicker. until i reached the tunnel at Rajouri Garden. I was about to enter the tunnel when suddenly, the Lambo appeared from behind my right-hand side, i could notice it was the same Lamborghini. However, there were 3 trucks in front of us which blocked the route and slowed down our speed, but the Lambo continued speeding until it was about to collide with one of the trucks. Suddenly, i heard a loud blast and i saw two Lambo instead od one. one was on the right-hand side and the other on the left and both of them sped until collision was about to happen with the trucks and disappeared like thin air when they reached close to the trucks. I was aghast with fear. 

I stopped my bike immediately at the left side of the road. I peered into a distance to look for any hints of the yellow macabre. Maybe the pollution had affected my thinking in some way, but I don't think hallucination could be a symptom.

That was a point of inflection in my life. I realized what a wasteful life i had been living. I started wanting to get closer to my family, wanting to have better relationships and taking care while driving. Maybe one day, I will finally achieve my dream of owning a Lamborghini, one day...

By Siddharth Gorey