Exhibitor Magazine, a Rochester, MN based media house that focuses on trade shows and corporate event marketing has featured my ‘Tata Nano Superdrive’ photos as part of their article ‘Nano’s Big Adventure’.
I was a part of this road show that was conducted last summer and have some very fond memories as I travelled through the heart of India across 26 days. Thank you Tata Motors and Shobiz for taking me on this great journey!! This road trip also helped me find great friends in Debarpita Mohapatra and Shrinidhi Hande, fellow photographers and travel bloggers.
This feature also ensured that all of us 3 travel bloggers got paid for our featured photos. It sure does feel good when your work gets published and you also get paid for it. Now, I am waiting to see my photographs in print. I guess I will have to wait for the package to arrive from the United States.
As most of you would know…Starting June 2, 2010 and for the next 26 days, I travelled on this road show as a travel blogger and photographer, providing live coverage of this pan-India event on the Superdrive Blog.
The Tata Nano Superdrive was a road trip that aimed to take the Nano car to the common masses of India. Over 26 days, 9 cars left on 3 different routes. 3 cars on each route. I was on the ‘White Route’.
On the White Route, we covered 6,200 kms across 9 states and 17 cities during our 26 day journey. Geographically, this route spanned West – Central – East India.
The route map for the ‘White Route’ looked something like this:
This road trip was really special for me as this was the first time I consistently travelled in high summer temperatures. More or less, during the entire trip, the temperatures stayed well above 40 degree Celsius. The highest was at Nagpur when the maximum temperature touched 49 degree Celsius.
(The above video is the copyright of Tata Motors Limited)
The White Route was the longest amongst the three different routes and hence the entire squadron and me included spent the most time on the road. The bad to worse road conditions of the central India states didn’t help our cause and we fell further behind in our time management.
This was also the first major road show I was a part of. Tata Motors and Shobiz, the event management company executed the entire road show very well. They were ably supported by local media partners, radio partners, folks from the press and other local event management partners.
While the Shobiz team and the other partners managed the road show, I simply enjoyed my journey. Photography and Blogging is so much an integral part of my normal life that I found no trouble in playing the role of a ‘Travel Blogger and Photographer’ on this road trip.
Connectivity at some stretches were patchy, but Reliance Netconnect sure has an amazing reach and does a commendable job while travelling through the interior parts of the country. I used a Reliance Netconnect Broadband +.
Here is how my typical day in the city looked liked…
Breakfast –> Flag off Ceremony from local Tata Motors Dealership with media presence –> Advertising, Press, Media and Photography sessions at three pre-decided prominent landmarks within the city –> Locals can use the landmark sessions to check the cars out and also test drive, if possible –> Radio Partners take their lucky listeners on a test drive and then share their experience on air. Even I went on air once, I guess at Nagpur…Radio City or Mirchi. –> In parallel, events are executed in a mall within the city.
Once the pre-lunch session was over, I used to be given one car for close to two hours to go explore the city. This was a great idea and gave me freedom and flexibility to travel outside of the trip itinerary and plan.
In the evening, there used to be a dinner party in some large hotel in the city where all Nano customers were invited. This open gathering drew in significant crowds. Most of the time, I used to miss these dinner parties as I either used to be dead tired from all the travel or was held up with photograph processing and blogging work.
Most of the days, I was pressed for time. I got a tummy upset once. The lack of sleep hurt. The hot weather used to get to me consistently. But, the sheer love for travel and exploration used to make up for the tough times.
Plus, I used to meet so many interesting people and personalities. At each city, I would meet a new Tata Motors Territory Manager and a Customer Service Manager. Then, different people from the press, media and from the common mass. All these different people made for some interesting company and great memories.
In overall, this was a great road trip that gave me this brilliant opportunity to be a part of such a large scale road show and allowed me to explore more of India. I would like to thank TATA MOTORS for having selected me for this fantastic journey.
The entire photo album from this Superdrive journey can be viewed in the slideshow below.
Note: Tata Nano and Tata Nano Superdrive are registered trademarks of Tata Motors. The Tata Nano Superdrive video is the copyright of Tata Motors Limited.
The time has come for me to be on the road again!!
I have been selected as one of the 3 official bloggers to cover the Tata Nano Superdrive road trip. The Nano Superdrive is a trans-India road trip across 3 different routes. Each road trip starts and ends at the Nano plant in Sanand and it lasts a total of 26 days. More details about the Nano Superdrive can be found out at the Tata Nano Facebook page.
Of the 3 different routes, I have been allotted the ‘White Route’ or geographically the West to East route. This route is the longest route out of the 3 routes and covers a whopping 5,888 Kilometres. The road trip starts on June 2 and ends on June 28.
This role brings in two major responsibilities for me. One, to be a Tata Nano Superdrive Blogger and the second to be a Tata Nano Brand Ambassador. As a part of both these roles, I would be responsible for covering the entire “White Route” road trip. This would include documenting the entire road trip, preparing journey diaries, covering the city events, sharing photos and videos and promoting the content within the social media.
On a weekly or bi-weekly basis, I will keep posting a journey summary on this blog, which is my primary travel blog. If you like the Superdrive blogs, do put in a word of appreciation and share it with your social media contacts.
I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the other two official Nano Superdrive bloggers, Shrinidhi Hande and Deparpita Mohapatra who will be covering the green and the saffron routes respectively. Look forward to meeting you both at Sanand and hope all of us have a great road trip!!
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