2 weeks ago
108
(This is the 16th in a series of insightful reports from the ground, titled The Race From India to Bharat. The author travels all across India as 960 million voters get ready to celebrate the largest festival of democracy in the world: the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. What do ordinary Indians think and feel about the past, present, and future of India? Are they convinced that the old fault lines are healing?)
(Read part one here, part two here, part three here, part four here, part five here, part six here, part seven here, part eight here, part nine here, part 10 here, part 11 here, part 12 here, part 13 here, part 14 here, and part 15 here.)
At a tea stall on the road towards Nogaon in Assam, a group of men discuss how it was "torture" to travel from Guwahati towards Nogaon because of terrible roads. Today, it is a smooth expressway where our taxi glides effortlessly.
Early morning in Coimbatore, the taxi driver Murugan smiles when I ask him how long it will take to reach Kanyakumari – roughly 560 km away. In the event, it takes us a shade more than six and a half hours.
Tired after relentless travelling, writing and eating in dhabas, I crave home-cooked food. I call up the house help and request her to make lunch. I estimated it would take about eight hours to reach home from Lucknow. Thanks to two expressways, the journey is completed in just about six hours.
