Dahanu is a quaint old city famous for its beaches, its people, its forts, and its chikoo farms. Our first stop was Bordi beach, which was interesting because I have never seen a beach with more uniquely coloured waters, it was as if two distinct layers existed in the same water body. The majority of the sea was swathed in a shade of brown, but as soon as the wave approached the beach and crashed, it changed into a shade of pale blue. The scientist in me got really intrigued at this, but then he was reminded of his report cards from back in school, and shut up pretty quickly. We even drove the Santa Fe into the forest adjacent to the main beach area before moving on.
We checked out Dahanu beach too, where we met a bunch of kids hanging around a fishing boat, who were quiteintrigued by the Santa Fe. A few of them even whipped out their mobile phones and took selfies with the car, and the sheer joy on their faces was a sight to behold. After chatting with them for a bit, we had to take our leave; the call of the open roads was just too strong.
We did, however, poke around a marketplace on the way out as well, where the fusion of Marathi from the locals and the Parsi style Gujarati dialect from the town’s strong Zoroastrian population melded together into an odd yet pleasing cacophony. We also managed to spot a few of those famed chikoo farms, thought it was too early in the morning for us to go disturbing the peace of whoever owned the wadis, as they are called. The road leading out of Dahanu and towards Vadodara, which was our next stop, was quite bad until we hit NH 8, after which it was an absolute dream to drive on. As is always the case when we have a wide, empty stretch of tarmac opening out before us, it was pedal to the metal time! By now, I’ve got what happens next down like the lyrics of my favourite song. It is like a catapult being loaded and primed, a small delay while the arm is pulled back taut and completely tense, then whoosh! The massive car goes hurtling down the road, all the 197 PS of power and 436 Nm of torque resplendent in their glory.
