A road trip and a chicken Kolhapuri break

I write this column with great difficulty.

- SAMAR HALARNKAR

I have, you see, just come back from our annual Christmas lunch with my friend Naresh Fernandes' family in Bandra, Mumbai, after devouring Goa sausages, sorpotel, roast chicken, chicken curry, cutlets, neer dosas, sannas and you get the picture. His brother and sister-in-law, Prakash and Joanna, and their parents have given us honorary family status and for that, we are most grateful and substantially satiated, hence the said difficulty.

We have come to realise over the year that good food, friends and family are invaluable and irreplaceable. As the year comes to an end, we reflected on our good fortune in having all three in abundance and the effort needed to keep it that way, which is why when we found round-trip air ticket prices between Bengaluru and Mumbai for the three of us seemingly unaffordable, we turned to our car.

For a family that had spent its happiest days with the wind in our hair and the road stretching ahead and behind, we had done precious little travel these last few years. Put it down to the dearth of school holidays, work, and lethargy.

This time, the normally reluctant child was keen, if she was allowed to jam blankets on both rear-seat windows, create a small bedroom for herself, and go to sleep. So, we set out with blankets flapping in the wind and the child asleep on the backseat-turned-bedroom. It took us two days and 16 hours to cover 1,000km. The first day was easy enough, as we made good time on Karnataka's smooth highways.