Authentic Maharastrian khana

on Thursday, June 24, 2010

After our landmark events in Solhapur, we went to the residence of Shobiz's local vendor. He treated us with authentic maharastian lunch, that included chapatis, aam ras (mango extract), chutneys and other side dishes.

From TataNanoSuperdrive
For the first time in the trip we all sat down comfortably on the floor and ate something. (Except for our event manager, Shiva, who couldn't sit down due to an injury.
From TataNanoSuperdrive

Above: Nitu, Ravi Mehta and Shiva of Shobiz.

The food was great and homely and was quite a break from our regular hotel food

A biker slips off...

As we left Kolhapur and headed to Solhapur, it started raining.

We were driving on a 2 lane road and suddenly became witness to an incident... A bike rider skidded off the road and fell down. Bike fell upon him and he was struggling to get out.

From TataNanoSuperdrive
Thankfully there were no other bigger vehicles heading in the same direction. A fellow biker and others rushed to the rescue and the bike was lifted. The man escaped without any serious injuries...

This was the first incident we witnessed during our trip.

From TataNanoSuperdrive
Tip of the day... Car is relatively safe.. Upgrade to a Nano...

India ka public loves Nano...

on Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A proud dad clicked a photo of his son, with Nano, near Kamat Upachar, Tumkur

From TataNanoSuperdrive

How's it inside? A curious person peeks inside the Nano... At Surat
From TataNanoSuperdrive

Saar, idu diesel nalli barutta? (Sir, is this available in diesel?) an Autodrive in Bengaluru asks us
From TataNanoSuperdrive

Standby for more such photos...

What my schedule is like, on a Travel day

Those who are not aware of my road trip, often ask me how was my weekend... For past 21 days, there's been no weekday or weekend for me. All my days are classified into either of the two categoris... Travel day and City Events day.

If it is a travel day, it means most of the day will be spent in the car, driving from one city to another. We'll have a flag off from the city dealer in the morning and then the journey starts. Depending on the distance the start time varies. If it is shorter distance (<300kms) then we start by 10am kind or if its long, say 400-500kms, then we start early- 5-6am.

At times we'll have test drive winners and media people accompanying us. Tata Motors officials who join us for the route would also enjoy driving.

With a few stops for fuel, lunch or visiting any Tata Dealers enroute, we would reach the destination city by evening. We keep track of expenses, kms done, fuel economy and so on. There was only one exceptional case where we couldn't reach the destination by evening and had to make an unscheduled halt at Calicut.

Once we reach the destination city, cars will be handed over to respective Tata Motors dealer there, our event Manager Shiva would brief the officials there on the journey so far, plan for next two days and what's expected from their end. Dealers would provide two Nano cars, one each to be displayed at the Mall and the customer meet venue hotel. Other than that they'd provide assistance in terms of routes etc.

Then I'll be dropped off at my hotel... I open the laptop and check how good is the internet connection. My work starts then, uploading photos, blog posts, checking mails, sending high res photos by email to a few people and so on... Usually internet speeds will be just manageable to poor in most of the cities, particularly inside the room. Of late I have started getting out of the room and sitting in the open, hoping for better connectivity.

I scan the menu, order something for dinner and call it a day.

2 More cities for Green Route: Solhapur and Nasik

on Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Sadly we've only 2 more cities to cover under green route...

We'll be heading towards Solhapur today and you can catch the Nanos at Dutta mandir chowk, City park and Saat rasta chowk tomorrow.

Our last city will be Nasik, which we'll cover on 25th of June.

Residents of Nasik can catch us at Panchavati, Dadasaheb phalke memorial and Muktihdam temple.

All 3 routes will divert to Mumbai on 28th where Mr Ratan Tata is expected to flag in the convoys