Before moving on to the more interesting part, let me first give an introduction to how it all started…
History
As a child, all I did was to collect Leo trucks, I could spend hours playing with my trucks, I would make bridges and mountain roads and all possible difficult terrains to “imagine” the challenge of driving my truck there - from my 7th birthday or so, every year my parents would get me one Leo truck (I still remember my first yellow truck with red front and black chassis). This went on for years – every birthday meant a truck, to the extent that my parents would say “score 90% in the next exam and you will have your truck!” My lack of success at school exams meant lesser trucks than I could have had, but I kept getting my birthday trucks year after year till the time I had a fleet.
This went on till early teens – when I started to realize that my friends were having a laugh about my favourite birthday present. Peer pressure as they call it, I decided against buying any further trucks, but there was no way I would let anyone else take away my existing fleet of trucks. When I went to hostel for under-grad, I locked up my trucks and told my mom – “this shelf of my cupboard has to stay this way – no compromises!”
Getting to the steering wheel…
I actually didn’t drive till I was 18 – went exactly by the books. My parents had a simple rule for me – “Do anything till the car doesn’t move!” So while I patiently waited for my 18th birthday, I did everything possible within that set boundary limit – ranging from changing the tyre of a heavy Ambassador car when I was like 8 years old, to opening the carburetor, fuel filter and spark plugs of the Maruti when I was probably 11 years old, etc, etc…
However, my road experience started at the age of 16. Time pressure for attending a million classes for school and IIT-coaching meant that, I needed a “vandi” so that I could be on my own. I got a Bajaj Sunny – the only 2-wheeler that I could legally drive at the age of 16 and when it comes to driving, I follow all possible rules. I drove it all in city, from home to school to classes and in two years it clocked 13,000 kms! Though most teenagers would prefer bikes, I was somehow never mentally inclined towards bikes and so having my Sunny was good, but not terrific.
Finally, it was the time to get behind the steering wheel – just after turning 18, I got my license – again without paying a single extra rupee at RTO, wanted to get it on merit!
The starting of a career…
Having lived in hostel all the way, my only opportunity to drive was when I came back home. Till date, it has all been a self-learning process – all from observation than training. When I started driving, I was quick to learn the basics of driving and was what I call as “in control” on city roads rather quickly. Even today, I continue to be a defensive driver in city - slow to pick-up, I like to keep the engine at low rpm in city – experience the smoothness instead of power.
My first real highway drive was in 1999 December, from Chennai – Bangalore. It was probably my biggest learning experience as well. It took me half an hour to overtake the first truck – a combination of heavy oncoming traffic and a wrong gauge of “when to change the gear”. I was in 5th at 40kmph, of-course the damn thing will have no pick-up at such low rpm!
Anyways, I sorted that out and made it to Bangalore – felt good to have ~350 kms on my CV – now it seems nothing, but it was a big confidence booster then. Way back from Bangalore was a lot easy, I had gotten used to gear changes by then, and moved on to experiment with something known as “engine braking” to slow down the car – not many people do this, but to keep car in control while braking at high speeds, apart from brakes, getting the car to lower gears helps in keeping control.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 360 kms
Max Speed : 120 kmph
My next drive was to Chennai – Kodaikanal – Munnar – Chennai, sometime in May 2000. I was so exited about the trip that I didn’t sleep the night before we were to start for the trip! We started at about 4am in the morning from Chennai to Kodaikanal - a distance of 760 kms, including 60 kms of hill drive – I probably drove for 12-13 hours that day. That was starting of a dream, when I realized, that long distance driving is not impossible. The next day was even more challenging. I drove from Kodaikanal to Munnar – the road was under construction, it was raining heavily, there was a bit of land slide on the way and it was all hilly terrain. Till today, that remains the most challenging driving experience – not in terms of distance though (might have been 300 at max). All in all, that trip was close to 1800kms and I enjoyed every bit of it.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 760 kms
Max Speed : 125 kmph
Next 2-3 years saw a few more trips to Bangalore and to other places near-by. However, there was no real long drive for a long time. (I define a long drive as >600 kms in a day or more than 12 hours of drive in a day).
Joining the big league…
My driving CV was heading nowhere. I had not added anything significant to my driving achievements for more than 3 years. The ice had to be broken – 300 kms a day was by far not exciting anymore - a quantum jump was required to get my driving career on track. I finally got a chance in April 2005, when soon after convocation, a few of us decided to experience the leap jump that India had started making in infrastructure – “Golden Quadrangle”, highways connecting the four major cities had just been made then. We initially thought of going for an all-India trip, but time and budget constrains made us cut it down to a South and Central India trip. The route that we took was Chennai-Bangalore-Goa-Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Vijaywada-Chennai. This trip was spread over 9 days, the odometer clocked 3500 kms and I probably drove for about 2500 kms. Full details of the trip are on a separate blog that I created then:
http://wimwi-road-trip.blogspot.com/
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : ~800 kms
Max Speed : 130 kmph
This was the “inflection point” that I needed to believe that a world tour is not out of reach! This year in June, I did it again, this time a Chennai-Mumbai-Chennai – drove for over 3300 kms (I did allow my dad to drive 55 kms!). The road trip in 2005 had been with friends with everyone pitching in to drive, now was the time to do it all by myself.
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : ~800 kms
Max Speed : 160 kmph
Recent achievements…
Well, till recently, every meter of my driving experience had been in India. However, I moved to CapeTown for a short stint here sometime back and found 2 very encouraging things – 1) Right hand drive (same as India) is the norm here and 2) Indian License is okay to drive here!
I have had a chance to do 2 trips here till now. The first one was a symbolic one – first long drive outside India, but I would remember it more for scenery along the drive from Cape Town to Cape Point.
The 2nd one was an achievement. I broke the 1000 kms in a day barrier! This was a drive from Cape Town to Knysna and back. The roads here are very good and there is hardly any traffic beyond the extended city. I went with a friend here for the drive – started at around 8:45 am and we were back in CapeTown by 9pm. The entire trip was all driving, plus a 2 hour stop over for lunch and a few clicks!
I was driving a Toyota Corolla Automatic – didn’t enjoy the automatic part much, on a highway I would much rather decide when to change gears myself than be in a situation where the decision is forced on by a computer chip that tries to optimize the gear changes! Anyways, the car was really good, very aerodynamic and it felt in complete control at high speeds. I did 1000kms in less than 10 hours of driving, an idea of road conditions and the car quality perhaps.
Interestingly enough, when I came back to CapeTown, the odometer read 990kms. Didn't want this to be a "so close, yet so far", so I drove for 10kms in the city before heading back home - all just to meet the milestone. Looking back, it does sound funny :-)
At the end of the trip, my record stood at:
Max distance in a day : 1001 kms
Max Speed : 177 kmph
The road ahead…
A world tour has been at the back of my mind for a real long time now. The good thing is that the idea has started to make sense now, though I know it is still a long way to go. Around the world in quickest time would be a bit too tough to get to, but might not be impossible. These plans might involve 25-30,000 kms of driving, does sound a bit too far-fetched, but it is still possible in my books. To get there, there are a few more requirements that I need to work towards:
- Testing myself for long distances a few more times and building up the stamina to take it for 40-50 days on a trot
- A co-driver with high passion and energy for driving. Maharaj might just join me for the trip, given he has very similar ambitions
- Logistics – would be a long process to take care of visas, permission, license rules, modifying the car to sustain for so long, etc, etc
- And equally importantly, a sponsor to pay for the fuel bills and other expenses! :-)
So, does sound like a bit too far off, but hopefully in the next 4-8 years, I will give it a try. Till then, I will continue improving my driving skills, and more importantly, get an understanding of what it would take to do this. The real inspiring thing is that an Indian couple held the world record for fastest around the globe for sometime – they did the entire trip in a Hindustan Motors Contessa 1.8L. Now, I believe, the record has been broken and is currently held by some British passionate drivers!
