GRAND I10 TO GOKARNA

Welcoming the monsoons with the nippy little hatchback

NOTE TO SELF: THERE’S NO such thing as an easy day at the job. I’m not in the special forces, nor do I save lives for a living but since I’ve joined evo India, it feels like the drama doesn’t want to let me be. I’ve been shot at in the North East, escaped a cloud burst in the North, and was kicked back to mainland when I tried to visit a border post in Rajasthan. So this time, I drove south, to the beaches of Gokarna, with the hope that I could put on my flip-flops, grab a beer and stare into the ocean. A drive to the beach over a weekend, what could possibly go wrong?

Not much as you can see, the pictures look pleasant, the countryside is a fluorescent green, the beach is pristine and the lack of people around is a welcome change of scene from the busy city life, so all did go to plan. The Grand i10 we drove to Gokarna in seems to have had a good time too. Well, then this is how it started…

We drove out of Pune before daylight to escape the truck traffic. With about 10 hours of driving ahead of us, it seemed like a positive start to the day as we were out of the city in no time. The Grand i10 gets a 1.1-litre 3-cylinder CRDi engine, which may be small on capacity but holds its own on a highway. It’s comfortable at high speeds and when you get to a city, the nippy hatchback can weave through very smoothly. We were on NH 52 in no time, expecting to make light work of the long stretches of highway all the way to Hubli, before turning right to get closer to the coast and Gokarna.