Day 40: Udaipur to Delhi

Setting Out

Had breakfast and checked out of the hotel.

The morning did not start as smoothly as expected. There was an issue during checkout that took close to an hour to resolve. Not ideal for the final day, but part of the journey nonetheless.

Finally got on the road.

Through Udaipur

As the hotel was at the western end of the city, meandered through it for a while first.

Udaipur rewards that. The old city, the lake, the architecture that makes this one of the more beautiful cities on the entire route. The delay of checkout not withstanding, the slow drive through the city was good. Not enough to do it justice, but enough to leave with a proper impression rather than none at all.

Hit the road outside the city, and the drive home began.

The Unknown Roads

The plan was to take the new Jaipur-Delhi Expressway. However, it seemed Google Maps had its own interpretation of how to get there.

Having been to Udaipur before, the city's exits were not entirely unfamiliar. But the route the app chose was. It threaded through unlnown roads, towns, then through villages and stretches that felt entirely removed from the main road network.

The Flying Squad

On one of the roads, in an unknown village road, a vehicle flagged the car down.

An election flying squad. The Indian general elections had been announced and the squads were deployed across the country to check for cash and materials that might be used to influence voters. Standard procedure during election season.

They videotaped the stop and asked to see what was in the boot.

Filled with bags and only bags, they asked me to opened the first one -Clothes.

They asked for the second -Clothes again.

They looked at the bags, then at me. It was blank to start and then turned into astonishment.

That's when I said: been on the road for forty days, and that is all there is to see. Clothes and cameras.

The officer smiled and asked whether there was cash above the fifty-thousand rupee limit permitted during the election period.

Pointed to the Delhi number plate. Said what needed to be said: it is the age of cards and online payments, not cash.

He laughed. Then laughed again. We laughed together.

He wished a good journey ahead and waved the car on.

Finally the Expressway

The journey continued with a short break. Asked the dhaba guy for the route and per his directions and help from Google maps, the expressway appeared eventually, late in the evening, after a sequence of turnings that made the journey longer and tiring than it should have been and more interesting than it had any right to be. Forty days in, Google Maps was still finding ways to introduce unexpected, unknwon roads.

Some things do not change.

However, with the home approaching, this kind of adventure brought tiredness instead of sense of some thrill attached to it.

Delhi

The last stretch into Delhi was familiar.

And yet, it felt different.

Traffic built up as the city approached. The same chaos, the same movement, but seen now from the other side of a long journey.

Reached home around 1 AM.

Reflection

Forty days. Roughly 7,500 kilometres. Ten states. Delhi to Kanyakumari and back.

The car stopped.

The journey didn’t.

Somewhere along the way, it had changed shape - from a route on the map to something that would stay far longer.

And just like that, it was over.