Day 14: Horrendous roads spoils the rhythm of the Renault Kwid

West Bengal

Yesterday was literally the first moment that I felt that something untoward would befall upon us. As I awaited in my car, sandwiched between two lorries on a narrow nearly dilapidated bridge, I couldn’t help but feel scared for my life. Why? The bridge panels were oscillating extremely, the engine vibes of the trucks amplifying the vibes. I just couldn’t wait to get out that mess and stop by the side of the road to calm the nerves down. Why did West Bengal have to be so harsh?

Progress hampered due to bad roads

We never had high hopes from the roads, one would be foolish to think that the wide open highway that was in abundance in Uttar Pradesh or even in most parts of Bihar. But this was next level of torture. More than physical, it was mentally draining. The start patch of 100km from Siliguri was the best road of the day where we were met with heavy rainfall. The Ceats were unwavering in inclement weather even though we were maintaing triple digit speeds.

There was a major gaffe in our planning process

We were supposed to do a food drive with the Robin Hood Army in Abhor, West Bengal. It was a slight excursion off the route. But as we reached this dingy little town, we knew there was something wrong. A typo in the centre name was real root cause of this mess as the real centre was in Abohar, Punjab!

We got the highway again but there was very little of it

The only place where the road was well developed was ten kilometres preceding and succeeding the toll booths. I mean seriously, why collect money for such roadworks that spark roadblocks and indirectly negativity. Google maps was also not on our side yesterday, kept rerouting us through town roads as it was apparently the faster route.

There was some relief when we merged on to the Grand Trunk road. Durgapur was just 15km away from there. The hotel was comfortable enough to unwind for the night. After crossing no states for a couple of days, day 15 will have two states to chalk off – Jharkhand and Orissa. Hoping for a better drive than last night.

Click here to read the previous blogs on the 29 States 29 Days challenge.