Journey Du Jour

Rishad Saam Mehta Takes The Classic Road From Mumbai To Delhi, But Does It A Little Differently

It is 4.54am, and Ahmedabad seems to be a city of ghosts—ones that flit across the road on their sputtering motorcycles. Milkmen, along with the others who render essential morning services, are shrouded in heavy shawls against the cold, the wispy morning fog adding to their ethereal appearance. Our journey has just begun: we are headed towards Nalsarovar, about 70 kilometres to the southwest of Ahmedabad. The instrument cluster inside the BMW 520d registers 9°C.

Yesterday, this car had made short work of the 550km between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, via Udwada. I remember a childhood drive to Gujarat in the early 1980s, when the road was nothing but a narrow strip of tar through dense forest beyond the outskirts of Bombay; the only smattering of urbanity had been at Surat and Baroda. Yesterday, however, it had been a continuous metropolitan sprawl.

While the roads are definitely wider, smoother and quicker, you may not find the quintessential romance of the long drive here. The road to Nalsarovar, though, is a different story.

I drive past a few tea stalls while blitzing through Ahmedabad, hoping to stop for tea a little further away, but the road is densely forested, and its little hamlets still deep in slumber. However, the gleam of a furtive eyeball by the roadside tells me something lurks in wait.

On backing the car up, we see two magnificent nilgai (blue bulls) partially hidden in the foliage. We’re soon at the crossroads near the Nalsarovar ticket booth, but my morning cup of tea remains elusive. Villagers crouched around a fire say the tea shop will open shortly, but the ticket window beats them to it.

The car park in Nalsarovar is a kilometre from the magnificent lake; one can board boats to explore this shallow waterbody spread over 120 square kilometres, and its 36 varying islands. Sailesh, our boatman, asks us to hop onto his motorcycle, forsaking the usual Maruti Suzuki Eeco vans used to transport visitors.