48 hours, 3 states And Myles to go before you sleep

Picture the scene: early morning on the Hyderabad-Bangalore road. The sun is already burning the morning mist from the lush thorn scrub forest, all of which gallantly proclaim its sense of belonging to the Deccan plateau.

Five of us are packed inside a Ford EcoSport. The compartment is spacious and the car ticks all the right boxes, the Titanium DCI variant. There is everything we will need inside the car including a fire extinguisher.

The road was as clear as the achingly blue sky, the windshields of the fresh Ford made way for illumine interiors, sunglasses were on, and a smooth soundtrack from the engine.

The phone was connected to the Sync app, and if a problem arise the nearest Ford Service Station or Hospital will receive an SOS message. But above all, we weren’t driving a car owned by us; it was one of those rare occasions when we were in a rented car.

Now there are two really good players in the self drive rented car segment, Zoom Cars and Myles by Carzonrent. We took the latter for our own reasons, one being the fact that Myles scores over Zoom, especially when you are taking an ultra long trip.

We reach Bangalore by noon after making a pitstop at Kurnool. Now, the scenario inside Bangalore was quite different, we were in one of the most bustling cities of the country. We no longer had the luxury of a straight tarmac where we could vroom clocking 150kmph, carefree for Myles had got our back.

Inside Bangalore the traffic moved slower than the granny who took the stairs, blocking your way while you were in a hurry to reach the ground floor. After traversing around 600kms at a stretch driving at an average speed of 100kmph, we were standing still and tall at 10kmph. But, the vehicle was in our stride and we had no trouble getting out, though the traffic had taken a toll of our time.

The thing was, we were at the birth place of Zoom Cars, a startup that had taken off quite well. We had anticipated passing by other cars owned by them, but what we came across while taking to the Mysore road was another Myles car. There was a sense of similar taste between both of us, and as a token of respect we beamed at the fellow driver, he beamed back.

By evening we reach the cleanest city of the country, Mysore. Travelling through the medieval walled town is an experience, one must never miss. And the greatest thing about the place was the roads. You will not be lost if you are in Mysore.

A planned city, where the best destinations are on the next lane, from churches to palace and the hill stations. The objective was to perform the whole task which includes sightseeing and travelling to and fro in the stipulated 48 hours.

And so, we start our return from Mysore on the next day evening cherishing all those sights we had passed by once again, making it a trip to remember, covering three states, driving for 48 hours at a stretch.

All through our experience with the car and Myles we had found a fine feeling of satisfaction in terms of their services provided and more so their transparency in the package delivered.

There were no ifs and buts and no unanswered questions that would bother us through our ride. There was just one thing that went inside my mind, something what Robert Frost penned down, Miles to go before I sleep, and ‘Myles’ to go before I sleep.

By Augustin Kurian