Guwahati: To travel across all 28 states of India and neighbouring Bhutan in a Tata Nano car covering around 25,000 km is not easy.
Yet this is being attempted by 62-year-old Kochi-based car enthusiast Thomas Chacko, who so far covered 5,400 km in the small car and reached Guwahati on Saturday.
Starting from Mumbai on May 3, Chacko travelled through Indore, Bhopal, Khajuraho, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Murshidabad, Malda, Jalpaiguri, Gangtok and Darjeeling before entering Bhutan.
From Thimphu, he drove down to Assam border and then went directly to Shillong, before retracing his steps back to Guwahati.
“It is not a joyride but an expedition to explore the country and know the people,” Thomas said here on Sunday.
He will depart from Guwahati tomorrow and then travel through other North Eastern states, before leaving for Kolkata from where he will head to south India by the east coast, before going to other parts of the country. Thomas, a company secretary by qualification who also has authored two books, including a historical novel, plans to write another based on his experience during the tour.
“I have thought of a title for the book ‘Mano on Nano: India to its Farthest Corner’,” said Thomas, who is also an avid blogger. Asked how it all started, he said: “About two years ago, a friend of mine Suresh Jacob undertook a trip across India in a Swift. I helped him turn his blogs about the journey into a book and that is when the idea came that I should also go on a similar expedition and that also in a Nano.” Thomas’s trip is being sponsored by Tata Motors. “The car they provided is just a simple ordinary Nano, which had travelled 3,000 km before this trip, and without any modifications except for a new stereo system,” he said. Thomas, who spent his student days in Kolkata and was a local bike racing champion during the 1970s, said the trip has so far “been fun.” (PTI)
