Dorothy returns to Oz

                                                Dorothy had never seen so many cars. And these were all strange cars, totally unfamiliar to  Dorothy . She couldn’t make out whether the cars were old or new, for although they seemed to have this rich shiny coat of paint,  at the same time they made this squeaky creaking noise. It seemed to Dorothy that these were rookie machines continuously pretending to be wise and experienced by squeaking. Come to think of it as Dorothy strained her ears it seemed that all the cars were making the same squeak. So much so that the entire highway as far as she could see was ringing with the same synchronized hymn. Presently a most grumpy looking policeman came up to Dorothy , most of the cars on seeing the  patrol car seemed to shrink , while a few tried to wish the policeman  a “good morning”. The policeman took no notice of this and promptly pulled up in front of Dorothy. “But you are not a car ”, he said gruffly. To this Dorothy had no answer and she said simply, “I am Dorothy sir”.The policeman stood for a while staring at Dorothy before much to her astonishment he whistled sharply. And out of the blue a yellow taxi pulled up in front of them. The policeman shouted something in a brisk music-like language and disappeared. The yellow cab blinked blankly at Dorothy before asking her “Where do u want to go?” .  Dorothy replied , “To Kansas if you please”. The car scratched its hood with its left front wheel and said  “ I could take u to Emerald city .Maybe someone there knows about Kansas”. Dorothy decided anywhere would be better than the middle of this strange highway and hopped on. The taxi was much older than the smooth shiny cars around them and rustily trudged along. “ Where is this place ”, inquired Dorothy . “ Why don’t u know this is Education Highway ” ,came the prompt reply. Seeing that this didn’t seem to impress Dorothy the wheezy taxi added , “ Well all the finest and most elegant young cars of the land come to this place and are  trained  to be fine machines of transport by em officers here. For four months they travel up this long and testing highway so that they can get their competence certificate at the end”.To Dorothy this seemed such a waste of all the enormous activity and energy around her. “ But if all they do is move forward when are these cars taught ?”. The old taxi shrugged and said ,“ I am an old hand . Things have changed around here , there are too many cars these days to be taught . Once the great  makers would send their best and most ingeniously designed machines . Today hand – made custom cars are hard to find .Most here are un-innovative trivial machines mass – produced in some village up west ”. “ Are you a student too??”. “Well I got my competence certificate from a much humbler highway than this. I came here to get further training . But training on this crowded highway is very rare. So they made me into a taxi.” Dorothy felt sorry for this dear old car and said , “You are a most nice car I find” .The taxi blushed  .

                                                  Presently the car reached the top of a hill and a most breathtaking scene awaited them. Below in the valley there stretched miles and miles of untamed  soft green paddy fields pierced only by the snakelike outline of Education Highway with a multitude of colored cars plying on her. The paddy plants seemed so jovial and carefree to Dorothy in sharp contrast to the machine-like single minded ambition of the cars around her. Dorothy  poked her head out of the cab’s window to smell the green fields and feel their freedom . Realizing this the cab accelerated a bit  to allow Dorothy to enjoy the playful breeze in her long hair. For the first time since she had landed in Oz  Dorothy stopped worrying about getting back home and smiled like a sweet young girl of her age should. No one but the taxi seemed to notice Dorothy’s joy. The other cars were unobvious to the frolic of the wind or the dance of the paddy .All they seemed to care about was the dull thud of their rolling wheels on the cold grey asphalt. Another queer   thing that struck Dorothy was that all these cars had  this  odd box in front of their gear-boxes. Dorothy inquired about this. “ Oh those are radios old girl. Our Education Highway provides the best spread of frequencies in the whole of the land. Everyone’s always tuned in”.. “Why are u not  tuned in then??” , asked Dorothy . “Oh I am an old cabby . I don’t get so much culture”. This whole radio business fascinated Dorothy. Anyway the car moved on through the beautiful country-side. Dorothy enjoyed the ride as the taxi struggled up every new hill she felt an excitement about what lay  beyond it. The other cars didn’t appear to have any trace of this curiosity or inquisitiveness; they were too engrossed with their little radios. In fact Dorothy had the distinct impression that they were not even listening to the broadcast, just flickering through the great array of channels available to them.

                                              Dorothy was having too much fun to worry about   this much . She basked in the last glow of the late afternoon sun as the day slowly gave away to a starry night. It was a few hours since the sun had set . The taxi pulled into a multi –storied car park just off the high-way. At one time this had been a most romantic little building looking out over the vast plains like a solemn guardian. But over the years many ill-designed floors had been hastily added to it to meet demands .So Dorothy found herself looking at a sad, forlorn and grim building. A couple of the "other cars " came out all sleek and shiny sneering at Dorothy’s cab. “What are u doing here?” , they said “ This is our car-park .Clear off”. Dorothy rolled down the window and screamed at them, “What a beastly thing to say , You are very rude!!”. The cars looked at Dorothy with interest. “Why are u riding that piece of crap. Come ride with us”. Before Dorothy could retort the taxi briskly turned away , they drove for a couple of miles before pulling up beside the high-way.  “Don’t worry ”, assured the cab “ It wont rain tonight we can stay here. Those car parks are very stuffy anyway. You can switch to one of those cars tomorrow if  you like .They have ac’s and leather seats. All girls round here prefer them” . Dorothy snorted “Those arrogant beasts!! Wow girls round here must  be really ugly to have to go about  in glamorous cars just for image”. With that she rested her head on the seat, they might not be leather but they were cozy. What more could a girl want?