12 Sep 06
Red faces back to merely pink in the 35-degree heat, we make our jerky progress down the coast on an excellent new road with little traffic. Second and third gears need holding in place or you're back into the neutral that's otherwise so hard to find, but fourth is mercifully fault-free.
The daily road book prepared by the organisers is suggesting detours to a couple of colonial forts, the first Dutch, the second French (Tamil Nadu's old fort count is second only to its ancient temple tally). A typical road book entry gives the precise co-ordinates for those with GPS, then advises asking locals for directions for those without (that's us). We avoid missing the turning to the second fort when roughly 45 smiling people standing at the junction point us the way the rest of the crazy holidaying rickshawists have gone. The Alambarai fort is awesome, its vast red brick walls partly collapsing into the sea. A sign outside tells us it was gifted to the French by the Mughals in 1750, and ends: 'The Fort was ruined by the Britishers'.
Playing the tourist with us are Team Radiance, a family of five from Udaipur, scene of James Bond's rickshaw chase in Octopussy. The team is Sunil Ladha, an architect, his wife Priti, eight-year-old son Srimalaya and daughter Srivanda, aged four and a half. Also in the rickshaw is Sunil's brother Siddharth (Sid), a furniture designer. I ask where they usually holiday. 'I haven't had a holiday in eight years,' says Sunil, grinning. How on Earth did he persuade his wife to agree to this as their inaugural family getaway? 'I bought the flights before I told her, then she couldn't change my mind. She thought I was joking.' Priti looks at him with a mix of affection and exasperation. Where do they all sit? I'm told Srivanda goes to sleep on the parcel shelf behind the rear seat.
