The Lost Art Of Hitch-Hiking

Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road. Jack Kerouac

Essay in Litro 

Most memorable

The sandstone palace of Amber was impressive with its labyrinth of gardens, courtyards, temples and wonderful colonnaded audience hall with elephants trampling the columns. An army of extras with elephants and camels decorated in technicolour extravagance were heaving below the ramparts. Filming finished late in the afternoon and the multi-coloured menagerie started trailing back to Jaipur. As a laugh, I held out my thumb and a mahout smiled, stopped and lowered his elephant. We climbed aboard the beautifully decorated animal, the gift of colour painting its ears and rich cloths cloaked across its back. We joined the parade, our driver astride the animal’s neck left sunset to us, a magical ride passing temples and palaces rising out of the waters of the sacred lotus gilded by the blade of the sun.