Golden Quadrilateral

Ah finally I could tick off one more item from my ever-growing bucket list! I'm delighted to inform you that #GQRideWithBenu got concluded on a thrilling note. My actual Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) motorcycling itinerary comprised 13 days, among which two were strictly no-ride days. Those two lazy days were well utilised in pampering my aching upper body muscles while capturing essence of two cities- Mumbai and Udaipur. In case you're not yet familiar with Golden Quadrilateral, it is the largest highway network in India which connects four major metro cities- Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, spanning over an estimated length of 5,846 kilometres. Interestingly, GQ is the fifth longest highway network in the world, traversing through thirteen Indian states, and connecting a whole bunch of large Indian cities besides those four metros- Bhubaneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Bangalore, Pune, Surat, Vadodara, Jaipur, Ajmer, Gurgaon, Agra, Kanpur, Varanasi, Dhanbad etc. to mention a few.

Magnificent Taj Mahal failed to preserve its snow-white skin tone. Forget Taj, even the enigmatic moon fell prey to her dark craters. So, how can you expect GQ to be perfectly unblemished? In the entire 6,261 kilometres I rode, there were several patches which had either too many undulations, potholes, diversions, cattle grazing, two-way traffic, or shitty combinations of some of them. There were multiple occasions in those 13 days when I had literally cursed myself for presuming a butter-smooth highway cruise. But, as soon as my #GQRideWithBenu got concluded and I reflected over the journey as a whole, all I could remember were wide inviting roads, persistently changing landscapes and few beautiful human interactions. In this page, all articles related to my Golden Quadrilateral trip published so far have been compiled chronologically for your easy reference:

Golden Quadrilateral Map, prepared by Information Technology and Planning Division of NHAI.

* The Announcement

* The Conception

* The Planning

* The Itinerary

* The Story (Be careful, this article is quite lengthy!)

* Gopalpur on Sea - Picturesque but not Pristine

* Marina of Madras - Sunrise over an urban Beach

More blog posts on #GQRideWithBenu shall be added soon...