Reached Dhule late in the night very very tired, we found a quaint place off the highway. I think I should look up the meaning of quaint again in the dictionary ...I digress. Driving in, we were greeted by no one and even found the furniture covered in sheets. Our minds wandered into thoughts of motel No 6 but being egged on by my partner, (after all what is the purpose of a travel buddy but to infuse a false sense of security!) I entered to find a manager waiting at the reception. Quietly slipping on my dark glasses to prevent the glare from the bright pink walls from distracting me I proceeded to find out about available rooms.
“We have deluxe A/C and super deluxe A/C rooms’ available sir”
“So what is the difference between the two?” I replied.
“It’s the same room sir but the super deluxe has been renovated” he said without missing a heartbeat.

With those ominous words I proceeded upstairs with an uninterested bellboy in tow. First the deluxe A/C was clean by most budget hotel standards I have found, as I tried to avoid stepping on the cockroaches that were busy taking part in a 100 meter dash as we entered. Rather reluctantly, I decided to inspect the “super deluxe A/C”, lead by the unfazed bellboy I entered to find a very similar room but devoid of cockroaches, I speculated that no one had informed them about the to-let sign outside the door after the renovation. Their loss was my gain. After all the real estate market is a cut throat business.
I shall not get into the details of how I pacified Radhika. Suffice to say that I have now signed a pact with the devil.
We left the next morning, rearranged our luggage and set off towards Yawal Sanctuary. Any veteran traveler will tell you about the value of local knowledge, so in the indomitable spirit of travelers we proceeded with local knowledge, which involved stopping, asking, crowd gathering, Goutham (our video man) continuing to shoot me speaking in my broken Hindi (while Radhika continued to smirk and not help me out). Try explaining to a crowd of eager onlookers what we’re attempting to achieve, while each word uttered is consumed with an eagerness of a T20 match.
False enthusiasm to provide travelers from a far-off land with information complicates an otherwise confused plan. We head towards the elusive Yawal to find that Yawal is so elusive that even the animals have a tough time locating it. 
Prompt and feverish discussions between Radhika and me about how not to appear lost in front of the camera crew, we put on our all-knowing faces as we turn towards the crew and sound confident as we update them on the change in route. Jalgoan to Biswada, then onto Khandwa and to Indore all while driving through Yawal. I haven’t even heard of these places. After criss-crossing many a tiny village in Maharashtra we now see our camera crew looking at us as though they’ve just made the biggest mistake of their lives. I hate to tell them they’re right! Did someone forget to mention to them that traveling with us involves impromptu detours to photograph a hundred cows on dusty village roads? Hmm..They must have forgotten to read the tweet. Wait a minute ….What tweet!?!

As we proceed further into the heartland we notice that we had even managed to confuse our GPS. As she tried to cajole us back on to the straight and narrow road, we persevered with a stubbornness that would have brought a smile on the lips of the stubbornest donkey in Khandwa.
A proud moment for us as we entered Madhya Pradesh!

Exit Maharashtra. Stage right!