We, at autoX, are a very close-knit and friendly team. It’s like a family, really, and I’m not joking either. We really do care about each other, and often it’s the entire team that’s involved in whatever we do – review, travel, feature, or whatever it may be. But this time, it was a bit different.

You must understand, as much as we ‘adore’ each other, we’re also mad chaps – stupidly in love with all things motoring. Alright, leave Dhruv and Prithvi out from the motorcycling scene, but cars get everyone’s pulse racing. And the fact that we had a car that you’ll be reading about through this travel experience for only a couple of days, everyone was secretly hoping that the feature landed in his kitty of things-to-do in the edit plan. Sorry guys!

So, we – Jared, Prithvi and I – hurried through our respective jobs, got home late, and packed up for an early morning drive.

I love the winter season. I love it for the amazingly crisp mornings, the freshness it exudes, and the dew laced flora beaming under the soft rays of the Sun. I also love it for the laziness it induces in you when you’re wrapped in the quilt, and are forced to make up random excuses just to stretch the time spent under the covers – so you can enjoy the warm and cosy feeling of being enveloped for that little bit longer.

I have an irritating tone set as my alarm at the loudest volume level in the mobile phone so that I’m woken up by sheer shock – the idea is that my eyes should pop out, and I should jump out of bed to shut the damn thing. I’ve ‘silenced’ two phones already in the process. My ‘gentlemanly’ criminal friends would understand what ‘silenced’ here refers to. It was the same process that morning – the phone started buzzing with a rowdy noise, breaking my doze, and got the torture it deserved. I hit the bed once again, and was soon engulfed in sleep. And then the phone buzzed again. It was Prithvi – how I wish that phone would’ve been his throat. I’d have clinched my fingers and choked it.



Prithvi: Hellllllooooooo (in his characteristic singing tone)! Ashish: Yes man, tell me.

Prithvi: What’re you doing? Sleeping?

Ashish: No, I’m paratrooping, and readying to invade an enemy state. You just caught me mid-way on the rope, descending from the chopper. Come on man, what do you think I’ll be doing at five in the morning?

Prithvi: Oh ho, sorry (singing tone again)! Just wanted to wake you up.

Ashish: Job well done.

Prithvi: We need to leave for Pushkar remember. It’s quite some way off. I spoke to…(he said something that I just gave a casual ear to, I was too sleepy). So, what I was thinking was… (he went on and on, and after an entire century passed by, cracked the crucial question…) when are you picking me up then?

Ashish: I’ll be there in 40 minutes.

Now, Jared on the other hand is basically a mix of three things. He’s our resident male model, an overgrown, oversized restless infant, and a white-skinned 110 kg, 6.3 feet tall orangutan, all rolled into one. And this unique, er, creature was getting cranky because of the delay in hitting the road. And after his last phone call, I feared for my life, and drove like crazy to his place – after picking up Prithvi on the way. 30 kilos and 3 inches more than you – whatever it might be – is always a danger to life and limb, I’ve discovered wisely.

After stuffing our luggage, which actually fit quite easily in the capacious boot, and ensuring that Jared was comfortable enough in the rear seat to continue his slumber (again, easy to do despite his girth), we were on our way out of Delhi. McDonald’s has done a great service to foodies like us, by offering a lip-smacking breakfast menu at select outlets – and one such location is in Manesar, just past Gurgaon. And guess what, it falls en-route to Pushkar. So, we just had to stop. Hot cakes, McMuffins, hash browns, coffee, swollen bellies, and burping mouths later we hit the road again. The drive to Jaipur is fairly straightforward – with nothing of much interest coming your way. This once-barren piece of blacktop is now traffic infested, and almost uninspiring to drive on – despite of a couple of stretches where you can really give it stick, and unknowingly drift into high, very high, triple-digit speeds. That’s 335bhp, and simply colossal, not to mention hardly believable, 760Nm of torque for you!

So, not much to talk about on the Delhi-Jaipur route then. In fact, it was so boring that I found out something really interesting. The Audi Q7 that we were driving (4.2 litre, V8 no less) has a cracking Bang & Olufsen sound system that comes with tweeters at the two ends of the dashboard that rise up from within the dash – taking the cool quotient of the car to a different level altogether. It’s like Audi did that on purpose to flaunt it that little bit more than its compatriots.

Past Jaipur, the roads are nice – with little traffic, and curved at places. The countryside offers great sights of grass blades swaying to the soft breeze, and domesticated cattle walking around and grazing leisurely, as if there’s nothing to bother them at all. It’s just perfectly serene – inspiring even. In our fast-paced lives, we’re driven to sheer frenzy at even the slightest hint of something not going exactly to plan. We need to learn to take things in our stride – perhaps from the cows and buffalos roaming our roads. And we should learn to incorporate some romance into our lives from the zephyr, and the clouds, and shrubs. Yes, now I am beginning to sound mental, but isn’t it true as well?

Sorry about that – perhaps I was overcome by the car I was driving. Plus, it isn’t entirely the fault of the car either – it’s Kamal Nath who should be blamed. And transport ministers preceding him. The roads are smooth and well surfaced, but they’re arrow-straight, and that does lull you into a state of semi consciousness at times. Actually, they’re only smooth in parts. In most cases, they have craters larger than the ones on the moon. But, whatever the road condition, the Q7 took such a liking to it that it almost appeared to enjoy the torture – and I mean that in a good way. The adaptive air suspension works brilliantly. I never once felt air underneath the tyres – not even at speed on the rising and dipping sections of our sorry state highways and small village roads. The electronically controlled air suspension works overtime, in conjunction with the continuously adaptive damping system for all four wheels. This helps in regulating ride height, and damping automatically. The ride quality is a bit firm though, and you do feel the tyres tolerating that heavyweight of a structure above them. Oops, I’m not supposed to be getting so technical in a travelogue!

Alright, so we finally reached Pushkar – after muscling through the massive rabble of humans and mammals alike. I’d heard about the population of this sleepy town swelling to the tune of almost 200,000 during the Mela time – and I always thought it to be an unrealistic and exaggerated figure. How much of interest would some animals, mainly camels, bring to a town as small as Pushkar, which is home to just 14,000 people otherwise? Not much, I always thought. And to prove it, I decided to go and see for myself. As you might expect, I was terribly wrong – again. After chatting with a few locals, it was evident that 50,000 camels and 200,000 people was indeed a true figure.

We drove up to an extravagant piece of real estate called Pushkar Resorts, which is just a few dunes away from the Mela site. That would be our place of abode for the night. I’ve been to a lot of great hotels in the nicest places – but the sheer magnificence of this resort left me spellbound. Not because of its grandeur, but chiefly because setting up something this fantastic on a 15-acre plot that was previously covered by sand dunes is quite unimaginable. The moment you enter, you’re embraced by blooming flowers and joyful leaves. The softness of nature caresses your feet as you walk barefoot on those massive lawns. The open, star-lit sky invites you to become a part of it. You feel compelled to lie down, arms outstretched, resting your head on them, and just immerse yourself in the sheer greatness that you’re enveloped in.



And then you get up, decide to get lost in this trance, and order your favourite drink. That’s what I did. I ordered my drink, appreciated the finer things in life, and took a walk with my colleagues in the small dunes that remain testimony to the barren nature of the land it used to be.

So, essentially, what you have in such a setting is a drunk singer, a drunk orangutan, and me (how can I be self depreciating, come on!), talking about who knows what – we simply didn’t remember the next day to be frank. But, inevitably, we were picking on each other throughout, and that’s bound to go wrong. And it did, to such an extent that I can’t include it in this piece. A lot of laughs, and explicit adjectives later, we walked back to the resort, feasted on the delicious food, and decided to call it a night.

The next morning was beautiful. We took a look around the Mela, and played with kids of locals who’d populated the Mela site. Sadly, we had to rush back for Delhi the same day. To ensure the smooth flow of traffic to-and-from the Mela, the local authorities had closed the outflow of vehicles from the route we used to drive in. That meant we had to take a road that we had no idea about, and one that was not even there on the map. Why it wasn’t on the map is probably because we were lost. And we were lost by a good margin – 2 hours no less! Finally, after taking the off-roading option, and managing some really narrow streets – kudos to the Q7 – we came to an intersection that connected us to NH8. Delhi straight ahead brought a sigh of relief to all three occupants!

The journey back was as eventful as Britney Spears being chased by the paparazzi. There were some lunatics in their Innovas and Altos (carrying registration plates of Delhi, I must say, with much sorrow) who wanted to prove a point to us, as we were travelling in the Q7 at speeds that no one would imagine this elephant of an SUV could manage. I mean its physics being defied right in front
of everyone on the road. With an aerodynamic handicap of a small house, and a weight handicap of an obesity-department patient, this thing still moves as if its pants are on fire. After dropping my two hugely fun colleagues back, and driving up to my house, I couldn’t help but smile in disgust at the fact that another day in this materialistic life that we live in, beckons. And I have no other choice but to accept the reality as is. Thank goodness that my job is something that saves me from the daily torture that a lot of other people go through.



After hitting the bed, and indulging in some introspection, I realized that I stand corrected in regards to Pushkar, and that there’s much to see still in that sleepy little town. I only witnessed the Camel Fair, but there’s so much more to explore. The Pushkar Lake is considered to have been formed when the Earth itself was taking shape – must also visit Bramha, Rangji, Chamunda, Pap Mochini, Panchkund Shiva and Savitri temples.

I also realized that the Audi Q7 is like a seafaring vessel – a luxury yacht perhaps. It’s got its share of body roll, but it still dances on the road. It could do with a bit more feel from the brake pedal, but it is an exceptional piece of engineering. It’s quick, very quick, and it’s hugely comfortable.

I’ve always been an off-roading bloke, so it is important for me to see off-road capabilities in my SUVs. And, though I would still take the Range Rover for hardcore off-roading fun, I’d still want this one tailing me – teasing me all the time – as if she’s letting you know that she’s trying just that little bit harder, but she is trying. And I’m convinced that she’ll get though anything in her path, and stick to the Range even on the most challenging terrain. And off-road praise doesn’t get bigger than that!

Engine: 4,134cc / V8 / 32 Valves / Common Rail Direct Injection / Tubrocharged Fuel: Diesel Transmission: 6-Speed Tiptronic, All-Wheel Drive Power: 335bhp @ 4000rpm Torque: 760Nm @ 1750-3000rpm Price: Rs 66.5 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi)