The Soul of Indian Roads

Driving on Indian roads and especially its highways demands a particular kind of resilience and grit. 

It is, unambiguously, not for the faint-hearted. Around every turn, the road conspires to surprise you in stealth mode a sudden pothole swallowing your wheel, a speed breaker erected overnight at someone's whim, a wandering herd materializing out of nowhere, a hairpin bend cloaked in mountain mist, pedestrians crossing with sovereign indifference, two and four wheelers hurtling towards you from the opposite direction with the complete nonchalance of people who have long made their peace and have come to terms with whatever fate awaits them. 

Yet if this passion is to be indulged, one must accept and make their work around with all of what awaits them during the course of their road journey. At its core, it is a question of attitude, curiosity and perhaps, of love. I have also constantly been improving my style of defensive anticipatory driving during my trips very similar to seeking anticipatory bail. This has ensured safety for both me and my wife. 

We both share this passion as we share everything else: doing it together. Journeys by road is in both of our DNA's and we are fortunate to be able to delve into and pursue the same without apologies. Last year, we drove close to 7,000 kilometers from Mumbai through the verdant hills of Sikkim and the spiritual serenity of Bhutan, and back a journey that tested machine and man in equal measure. This year, we have already covered 2,000 kilometers on a drive from Mumbai to the other worldly salt flats of Rann of Kutch in Gujarat and back. And for four consecutive years from 2021 through 2024 we have participated in the Himalayan Drives organized by Team Firefox of Chennai, traversing between 3,000 and 4,000 kilometers each time. We have driven across some of the most breathtaking terrain on earth, comprising of snaking through challenging mountain roads, driving through national forests experiencing complete solitude, on river beds and even where there were no roads but were part of our itinerary.

Driving abroad has its pleasures smooth, well-engineered roads, predictable signage, the quiet confidence of infrastructure that works. But monotony sets in early. There is little to surprise you, and nothing to move you in the absence of people on the way. Here in India, the roads may humble and exasperate, but they are never indifferent to your presence. And the people you meet along the way that is where the journey truly lives and one gets indoctrinated with an experience of a different kind. Roadside garages manned by street smart self-taught mechanics have taken improvisation to a new level and deserve true admiration.

The connections forged with strangers from every conceivable walk of life carry a warmth that no highway in the world can manufacture. A chai vendor at a remote mountain pass offering his humble hospitality as though you were a long-expected guest. A farmer pausing his work to raise a hand from his field. Village children urging you on with bright, unselfish-conscious enthusiasm, as though your mission were somehow theirs too. These moments are manna from heaven, unexpected, unearned, and utterly unforgettable. They have made us not just better drivers and road travelers, but more grateful human beings. Our journeys expose us and allow us to practice a religion of acceptance and humility totally imbibed on the fly and on the way. 

Indian roads, in the end, give back far more than they take.✍🏽