BEYOND BORDERS AUG 17

COIMBATORE TO LONDON
THE BEGINNING
MEENAKSHI SAI
Looking back I see myself sitting on the floor cross legged with a
massive world map in front of me ,trying to find a route that I fancied
from Coimbatore to London. One can get to London from India by
road in just 15 countries maybe , but I was itching to do more .
Eastern Europe always intrigued me. Would I travel to Serbia and
Macedonia, otherwise, if I don’t do it on this road trip. Minsk
(Belarus) was also somewhere I wanted to go. Countries got added
and taken off ! Finally after almost a month I had a route that I liked.
24 seemed like a nice number. And 70 days as well. 2470 had a nice
ring to it . Next came the stops that I would make ,appropriate cities
,doable distances ,etc etc . The China route will be taken care of by
the agent .No worries there. The capital cities of most countries was
the target and I worked towards getting the route together.
Who is going to go with me was the next big question. Family was
like are you mad? Why would you do something like this when there
are professional travel companies organizing such road trips . If you
fancy doing a road trip, why don’t you do it with them . Friends were
shocked and amused. No one took me seriously .I shared the route
and tentative budget with some friends who are avid travelers but
got very half hearted languid responses . Not their kinda travel, too
long , too expensive ,how do you sit in a car for 70 days, I would like
to go but I cant drive ,,blah blah.. None of my friends signed up.
I decided I needed women co travelers even if I didn’t know them.
500 Facebook and Whatsapp messages went out furiously in a day ,
over numerous cups of coffee and a rainy day in late July last
year.The response was tepid. I was thinking I ll have multitudinous
responses pouring in but hmmmm no….I started trolling people on
facebook ,travel blogs and other road trip fb pages. Priya Rajpal was
the first to show a keen interest .Eagerly I jumped into the next flight
to Mumbai the very next day to meet with her .Speaking on the
phone she seemed like this big person with a booming voice and I
was quite surprised when this small person with an effervescent
personality walked into my hotel room . Another old friend from
college who was wanting to go in this road trip was also there
,unfortunately she didn’t make it as well. Over drinks and dinner at
this very pleasant quaint place in Kala Ghoda ,it seemed like the
team was complete. Back home I threw myself into finding sponsors
,paper work and in a weeks time 2 of the team members dropped
out and I was again at 2.I was torn between finding a car and team
members all over again .No car and no team .The search was on
again. A common friend tagged Mookambika Rathinam on my Fb
post .Coming from a small town near my home town Coimbatore,
Pollachi and a quick talk with her lifted my spirits.Although she has
never traveled out of India before,she didn’t seem intimidated or
daunted.She only said she s in, inspite of the very little information I
had given her. She was in.
Having heard of the Hexa launch slated for early 2017,I again trolled
a friend who is closely associated with TATA Motors . An Indian
vehicle is what I wanted , although I got grave warnings and dour
scenarios painted to me about the reliability and soundness which
was imperative here. I was fixated on the Hexa . Infinite calls and a
great deal of cajoling I got a nod from Tata finally. Xpd 2470 began
taking shape and but the endeavor wasn’t easy .