It wasn't till we reached Dharamshala, or the Norbulingka Institute to be precise, that I realised I hadn't travelled in over three years to say the least. Sure, I had visited Jaipur because my father decided Delhi was too much for him, but that was mostly to sort out some pressing issue and usually involved coming back to Delhi within 24 hours.
Coming back to business; we had just put down our bags and were taking in the view, when I turned to Vikas and said, "I think I am finally starting to feel the excitement of having become an aunt." We smiled. My elder brother and his wife had become parents to a baby girl only two days before we landed in Dharamshala and I hadn't exactly had the time to feel how big a deal this was for me. Vikas, on the other hand, was rather quiet, with a content smile across his face; we settled down in a corner and continued to explore.
We both agreed this place was more of a town, even if a very small one, instead of an 'institute'. We looked it up online and turns out, 'institute' was just their way of saying it is a place dedicated to the cause of preserving Tibetan culture and values. Anyway, the visual wandering was soon followed by lunch and before we knew it, Vikas was behind the Terrano's wheel and we went exploring the quaint city of Dharamshala. With 'Dil se' playing in the background and the excitement building up with every curve of the road, we high-fived and grinned for a moment before we went back to doing what we were doing.
Five kilometres in to the journey, we came across a fork that felt like it would lead to a visually capturing landscape, but it was perhaps a private property and the gate was locked. The two of us found ourselves wishing we had more time to explore the city, but we had to leave for Amritsar soon.
The 250 km-long drive to the Holy City was straight and rather uneventful for most part. I say most part, because every now and then we encountered a speeding truck with its head-lamps not working, driving in the wrong lane, coming in the wrong direction! That means it was coming straight at us in the same lane as ours! When you are subjected to such a situation, everything seems to blur and the truck appears like Godzilla barrelling down at you at light-speed - it's not a very comforting feeling.
The other constant on the Pathankot - Amritsar toll road, in addition to the profane disregard for road safety rules, were the many many 'thekas' (liquour shops). No wonder our roads are amongst one of the most unsafest roads in the world.
We traversed the distance in about 4.5 hours and reached Hyatt Amritsar around 9:30 PM (IST). About an hour later, we gathered in the lounge, but that didn't last long. With my lazy disposition and sleep-worshipping tendencies acting up, I retired for the night soon after dinner, while Vikas took off to get a taste of the local cuisine and visit the Golden temple.
The lucky bloke that he is, he visited the Golden Temple after midnight and says he felt much peace there despite the fact that he is an atheist.
As far as the local cuisine was concerned, he was far more excited about dessert - Kulfa - than the meal itself. He explained that it wasn't the Kulfa's ingredients (kulfi, rabdi, phirni and falooda) that made it special, but primarily the fact that half of its ingredients come from Pakistan, while the other half are sourced from Punjab.
So beyond the boundaries and hatred among these two countries, desserts like 'Kulfa' are the signs of the sweetness that can, still, be alive among the two nations. Unfortunately, the store was closed by the time we reached, so they ate at a local restaurant famous for its spicy chicken and mutton dishes.
The next morning, Nissan decided to take us to a farm resort - Punjabiyat - near Amritsar for breakfast. The place was about an hour's drive from the hotel, and though I had my doubts at first, because it meant leaving at 6 AM, it turned out to be pleasant.
The 'farm resort' was set amidst a vast expanse of thriving fields inter-weaved with canals and small cottages. For the lack of better words, I am going to use the adjective 'enthralling' to describe what we saw and experienced. We were welcomed with a tumbler of sugar cane juice and were told that break'feast' would be served soon. Vikas and I decided to sift through every nook and cranny we possibly could till then.
Driving the Terrano on those narrow not-exactly-roads was quite the experience; smile-forming stuff, to be honest! As much as we would have loved to spend the entire day there, we had the hunger monster to appease and then a flight to catch. Since the idea of the place was to allow folks to experience things that the world identifies with Punjab or being Punjabi, we were served a lavish breakfast - no surprises there. The thing about such a rustic and peaceful setting is that it makes you dread your impending return to city life. Nevertheless, we said our goodbyes and were on our way back soon enough. Good times!
Though these 36 hours were rather hectic, I must say the Nissan Terrano did a good job of being our ride through the trip. The model we got was a mid-diesel variant, 85PS (84bhp) with a 5-speed manual gearbox, that for several reasons is Vikas's preferred choice over the 110PS model.
Though it's underpowered as compared to the 110PS version, the car doesn't suffer the lack at least when driving around the city and narrow mountainous roads. In fact, turbo lag n the 85PS model is very negligible. It pulls effortlessly from as low as 1,200rpm, whereas the fun starts post 2000rpm in the case 110PS model. He was impressed by the fact that he didn't have to frequently downshift in either hilly or areas inflicted with traffic; you can drive the car at as low as 10Km/h in the second gear without any trouble or take it uphill in the 5th gear. That said, it doesn't sprint as well as the 110PS on highways and yet feels peppier than many of its competitors, including the Scorpio.
However, all isn't hunky dory with the Terrano. First, the gearbox of the 85PS model isn't as smooth as that of the 110PS model. Second, it tends to get a little noisy at higher RPMs since the engine runs out of breath. That said, the cabin remains silent till 130Km/h, and you don't feel like you are driving a typical diesel car.
