Being a Puneri, right from my early days in school, I have been independent of public transport for my conveyance needs. The city public transport system has helped me in sticking to me being independent with my own vehicle - initially it being a second-hand bicycle, then my Java mobike after which I graduated to owning an Opel- Rekord 7, a 200D Mercedez and then a host of other popular vehicles resting with a Getz Prime 1.3 GLS that I presently have. Some of the great travels that we have done together are : 1. Our Christmas Holiday in 1979 while in Germany, when we drove down with our 8-month old daughter from Erlangen to Marseilles to Madrid spending 3 days in Marseilles and 6 days in Madrid. The return journey was, particularly, exciting having driven through, non-stop from Madrid to Karlsruhe in Germany - a journey of around 1,800 kms (of which more than 500 kms was thro' lovely snowfall and snow-drenched autobahns) in a span of 19 hours, stopping only to have food and use the toilets. 2. The other great travel we did together was in India. It was prompted by the decision to take part in my IIT batch's 35th year college reunion at Allepey in Kerala - the thought occurred to both of us that we should make this visit a value-for-money affair. Not having gone on a long trip for quite some time, we decided to take a south India trip covering some unvisited places of interest and visitng friends and relatives whom we owed a visit from our side. A detailed preparation was made to chalk out the route and places and we set off on 14th Jan 05 from Pune covering Pune, Belgaum, Chickmagalur, Belur, Halebidu, Shravan Belgola, Mysore, Bandipur and Mudumalai forests, Ooty, Coimbatore, Palakkadu, Trishur, Guruvaayur, Ernakulam, Munnar, Tekkadi, Kumarakkom, Vaikom, Allepey, Kottaraikara, Kollam, Kovalam, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and reaching Mumbai on 12th Feb 05 - a distance of 5000 kms covered in 28 days. Simple rule followed - No driving after 7 PM and no lengthy halts for lunch. Breakfast and dinner was leisurely. 3. When I was posted in Erlangen on an assignment with Siemens AG, I had made a pact with my boss that whatever official visits I make while in Germany would be only by car so that we have an opportunity to various parts of Germany and Europe and it we do not have to spend extra from our pocket as official tours are paid for by the Company. Also having the vehicle there was no botheration of ticket bookings, packing, and sticking to strict timings, and best of all no hotel bookings required as we halted always away from the city (in villages) where paying guest accomodations were available aplenty and cheap. In this way we managed driving n-number of times from Erlangen to Berlin and back, to Dusseldorf and back, to Amsterdam and back, to Stressa, Milan, Rome and back. 4. Our first major or long drive in India was the Mumbai - Bangalore and back trip in 1982 when my younger brother got married. That was with my Mercedes that I had in Germany which I had brought along under the TRS. I was really skeptical about making the trip as I had never known Indian roads to be that safe and also because the car was a left-hand-drive one which everyone said is dangerous on highways. However, we underrtook it as a special offering for my parents who got driven in style from Pune to Bangalore and back. In retrospect, I think it was a good decision for that gave me the confidence that Indian roads are not, after all, that bad and a left-hand-drive vehicle is manageable on Indian roads as long as one is a little cautious in driving. 5. Both of us love to go, off and on, to Chennai - she because of having her parents and brothers there and I because of having a lot of friends. We have done this stretch at least once with each of our cars. I must make mention of the first Mumbai-Chennai trip that we made. This was in 1993. My father-in-law in Chennai was very ill and my wife wanted everyone at home to visit him. With all having to go our Bobo (the dog) posed a huge problem. And then Prabha's Mumbai sister and her 2 children also wanted to visit. It was Diwali time and train tickets to Chennai was impossible. I decided that we go driving - the whole palthan (gang) with the dog and, Prabha readily agreed. So a brand new Trax - Town & Country was purchased, the trial run was made to Lonavala and back and we set off with the first halt at Pune for the night. Next day morning, as we were saying bye-bye to Prabha's Pune sister, she could not express her envy that we were going on a nice trip to see the father. I casually remarked "Do not envy, Why don't you join us?" and, surprise of surprise, she agreed and with a 30 minutes' delay, she also boarded the vehicle. So 4 adults, 4 children and the dog set off for Chennai with night halts at Belgaum and Bangalore.