A road trip that evokes Clint Eastwood and Doris Day

In 1986, when I discovered and read the Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, Sexus, Plexus and Nexus over a hazy Calcuttan fortnight, at one go, I never imagined that one day I would get an opportunity to visit the rugged California hills alongside the Pacific coastline, and relive in my mind the roller-coaster ride that Henry Miller and his bohemian merry band underwent which inspired the Beat Generation. Many will recall his 1957 memoir, ‘Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch,’ reflecting his search for a personal paradise, inspired by the fruits in Bosch’s ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights.’

It was Anais Nin, one of his intimate friends, who perceptively commented that “we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are” . A snippet here, a vignette there, a memory of a film clip here, a song from yesteryear, all this and much more. As the trip unfolded, I had this wonderful opportunity to see the earthly delights that sunny California had to offer. We started out from the Bay Area, and followed the Route 1 across Southern California, past Mountain View, Cupertino, Salinas, the destination being Carmel-by-the Sea.

As we passed by Salinas, the persona of the great writer, John Steinbeck, loomed large like a bracing cloud, and his works appeared as cloud titles: ‘The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men,’ and ‘Cannery Row.’ Who can forget the sombre epic description and travails of the Joad family? I recalled that the 49ers was the term given to the 60,000 to 70,000 fortune seekers who rushed to California in search of gold, following the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California.

Steinbeck's advice on a mantelpiece at Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Now AI is the new gold, and those who came in search of the Internet Gold are here to stay. Mountain View, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Pebble Beach and Monterey boast of some of the priciest land rates on Planet Earth. The sunshine in California and the indolent navigable highways are a treat to the road farers, and there was a silent hum of the Teslas and the myriad cars as they moved along in a procession of reverence.

A special mention about the quaint, European styled Carmel-by-the-Sea, the picture postcard of the Monterey county. Yes, yes, the very same Carmel where Clint Eastwood was mayor during 1986-1988. Urban legend mentions among other things, achievements such as the Dirty Harry Burger, offered by Hog’s Breath Inn, a local restaurant, and the overturning of an inexplicable ban on ice cream consumption in public. Eastwood once owned Hog’s Breath Inn, which remains a key spot.

Eastwood also bought a 150-year-old property, Mission Ranch Inn, saving it from becoming condominiums, and transformed it into a popular hotel and restaurant.

Cypress Inn at Carmel was once owned by Doris Day, who sang the immemorial ‘Que Sera Sera.’

“If Carmel’s founders should return, they could not afford to live there, but it wouldn’t go that far. They would be instantly picked up as suspicious and deported over the City line.” It is not a recent quote, but one stated by John Steinbeck in ‘Travels with Charley’ in 1962.

As they say, some things never change.