A Road Trip to Remember: 40 days, 10 States/ UTs and 7,500 Kilometres across India

7,500 Kilometres: A Road Trip to Remember  

What started as a dream, became an undulating line - forty days and 7,500 kilometres later mapped behind the wheels. With a company sabbatical in hand, I left Delhi with no fixed itinerary except a broad idea of driving down south either via east or west coast and come back from an alternate route. Everything else would take shape along the way. When you travel like this, you learn to let go of schedules, indeed there was no schedule. The road decided the pace. Some days stretched on, full of narrow highways, unexpected traffic, and stretches of open countryside that seemed to go on forever. Other days felt compact— a single sunrise, a temple visit, a quiet dinner before falling asleep, ready to do it again.

This trip wasn’t only about covering distance. It was about seeing India change gradually, kilometre by kilometre, rather than skipping over it by train or flight. From the crowded lanes around Delhi to the wide highways, from the fields of Madhya Pradesh to the coastline in Tamil Nadu, every region had its own rhythm.

And along the way, stories were made, shared, laughed at together and strangers crossing the path from unknown to known: From taxi operator to an (young) elderly guide, from the double-shift working cook at a farm stay to a travel loving hotel receptionist – many stories were told and linger-on long after the trip is over.These moments made the trip feel less like a checklist and more like a long conversation with the country itself.

The journey wasn’t about finding something, however, I still came back with a collection of stories and a sense of what travel can be when you allow it to unfold on its own terms. Driving meant I could stop wherever I felt like stopping. It meant having the freedom to watch a sunrise atop Table Land inPanchgani, or to spend a full day among birds in Bharatpur without worrying about the next destination. It also meant dealing with the unexpected— the roads, the people, the terrain, hotels and connection without speaking a language. Still, every challenge ended up adding to the life’s experience.

This is the story of those forty days: a journey that began as dream, and turned into a reality, one day at a time. A Delhi-Kanyakumari-Delhi road trip – a trip to remember in my trusted Renault Duster AMT.