After reaching Bangalore, we spent a day in the city. The new Mini was showcased to some select customers at the Mini dealership, one of four in the country, and we also got a look around the city. The day after, we set out for Hyderabad, the next stop on Leg 2 of the epic drive.
The roads leading out of the city were untarnished and broad, and from what we’d heard, a sign of things to come. We weren’t disappointed. We took the NH7 out and the highway continued to be unbroken and a delight to drive on, well, after we’d left city limits. The landscape was hilly and it was a scenic stretch. The sky had never looked this vast to us city folk, used to the big blue hemmed in by concrete skylines.
It was nearly a 600km drive from one city to the other, but owing to the great conditions, we made very good time. While the scenery continued to be interesting, we also came across fascinating bits like a wind farm near Haripuram in Andhra Pradesh. Hydroelectricity being harnessed at dams is a common sight at many places across India, but wind harnessing for energy is something that’s still exclusive here. It was quite the sight, massive and towering windmills dotting the landscape next to the highway.
As we neared Hyderabad, we noticed the number plates changing as well. As many as there were Andhra Pradesh plates, there were Telengana ones. It is a fledgling state, but the number of new cars (registrations) seemed to be a great many.
The entry into Hyderabad was smooth and quite uninterrupted, thanks to the ring road. It takes you across the cityscape, avoiding all the chaos of city traffic and ushering you straight into the heart of the city. It was definitely one of the easier and hassle-free experiences for us. And here we were in another dealership city, where we would spend a day before moving on.
Hormazd Sorabjee
Rishaad Mody
Saumil Shah
Shapur Kotwal
