Regrets at Refresh

So this is being written at nearly 9pm, on a little portable keyboard, over a bowl of truly hot and sour soup, at a tastefully-lit establishment by name "Refresh" on the Baroda-Ahmedabad highway, with Meri bheegi bheegi si sounding from a TV screen behind me where there's no picture but a list of songs. (It's the front end of a jukebox, obviously). The soup is from the "Crimson Orchid" counter inside Refresh, and I could have chosen from "Bombay Bakery" and "Good Life" and "Kurry King" (a celebration of Indian fare) and even "Qwik Mart". Just next door is a tubelit Reliance gas station, and an enormous billboard saying:

Music Mania! A heady mix of dance, music, fun and fabulous cuisine, 28 January 2006. Live performance by Angela Almeida with a terrific comedian and a prolific DJ.

Missed it, too bad. But I do wonder who, while barreling down the Ahmedabad expressway, might say to him/herself: "Hmm, a heady mix of dance and music and fun and fabulous cuisine sounds terrific just about now, and wouldn't it be great if a live performance and a terrific comedian and a prolific DJ were thrown in too?"

Except, a small problem. The bill board also says, under an asterisk: "Entry by invitation only."

Who might have been invited to come to a show at a highway rest stop? Who might have come?

A splendid expressway, nevertheless. Rivals anything I've travelled on in the West. In one respect it's better: there are regular huge luminous boards saying: "Expressway to prosperity" and "National Expressway 1, One Big Joyride."

And now we are heading for sunrise at Jaisalmer. All night drive, but looks like we're up for it. And when I get there, my only regret will remain that I missed Music Mania at Refresh on the highway.