In the 70th year of India’s Independence, Meenakshi Arvind, Mookambika Rathinam and Priya Rajpal drove for 70 days, from Coimbatore to London, spanning 24 countries and 26,800 km (including a 1000-km detour). Well, 72, if you take into account the halt in Paris. “We reached on a weekend and had to wait until Monday to get the requisite clearances,” says Arvind. They usually started driving by 8.00 am every day and stopped when they reached their destination for the day. The worst stretch of road, they say, was through Nagaland. The longest they drove at a stretch was 893 km from Budapest to Bucharest, which is approximately six hours. “We drove at about 120 kmph and were well within speed limits throughout. We did not pay any fines anywhere! In parts of China, the speed limit is 130 kmph,” explains Arvind. They used ₹1,83,700 worth of fuel, and the vehicle gave them 12 to 15 km per litre. As for loo breaks, “We used them in petrol stations as and when required. Only our night stays were planned before.”The three women got together when Arvind put it out on Facebook saying she was looking for other women to join her on her voyage. Rathinam and Rajpal responded, and off they went. Before they set off, Tata organised a two-day familiarisation workshop, where mechanics and engineers briefed them. They drove off from the factory in Pune to Shirdi and then to Kochi along the West Coast. It was then that the car was christened Dhanno.
On their trip across the country, they met other women achievers: industrialist Rajshree Pathy who flagged them off in Coimbatore; Kiran Bedi in Puducherry, Nina Reddy in Chennai, Usha Uthup in Kolkata and Dr Najma Heptulla (governor) and Mary Kom in Manipur, besides several women collectors and police personnel. They had breakfast on the border with the Assam Rifles in Manipur; the members of the small Tamil community in Moreh, on the border of Burma, took them to the Angala Parameswari Temple and bid them farewell with an elai sapadu. “It was the last south Indian meal we had,” says Meenakshi.