WHEN SARIS STEER SUVS

An all-women group drove two SUVs on a 12,300-kilometre-long spiritual circuit of India last year. And they did it in style. FLORINA SOREN caught up with the motorheads in Delhi, where the women savoured delicious chaats and kulfi s in the historic lanes of Chandni Chowk.

- FLORINA SOREN

AS THE PANDEMIC’S deadly second wave receded last year, travel started inching back into our lives. In September 2021, I got an invitation from the Ministry of Tourism to rendezvous with an all-women group that was making a weekend pit stop in Delhi on their 12,300-kilometre-long road journey across the country. The group was scheduled to do a food tour of Chandni Chowk.

On a sunny Sunday morning, we assembled outside Jama Masjid’s Gate no. 5 to welcome the convoy. They were en route to Ayodhya, from where they would visit Varanasi, Deoghar, Balasore, and Puri, before heading further south. They had started over a week ago from the Zero Mile Stone in Nagpur, which is considered the geographical centre of India.