http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/india-discovered-worlds-cheapest-car-tatas-nano/story?id=11170150&page=1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010302721.html
http://www.budgettravel.com/feature/sacred-india-photos-from-an-epic-road-trip,3823/ (slideshow)
印度的Tata Nano小车，是号称全世界最便宜的小车，作者在2010年决定骑着它展开一个一万公里的印度路途，查明为什么印度这么多充满愤怒的驾驶人，以及为什么路况这么令人发狂！
作者Vanessa只有她的Tata Nano以及无限的耐心，跑偏印度各地，去了卫星导航找不到讯号的地方。她见识到的路况会让读者无法想象：有些地方，你车子的大小决定了你在路上的地位；有些地方，阉牛车跟大型旅行车相争车道；有些地方，来自于神的祝福比小心开车还要保险。
本书充满幽默以及娱乐性，是一个独创的历险故事。作者分享她在路上学到的一切，包括“速度很刺激，但是会失去人命。”本书是一本新时代的公路小说。
关于作者：
Vanessa Able1977年出生于英吉利海峡。她在伦敦考到美术硕士学位，之后在伊斯坦堡担任《TIME OUT》杂志的总编辑。她2008年搬到墨西哥城，为《纽约时报》、《Esquire》以及《National Geographic Traveler》担任自由工作记者。她在2010年买了一台Tata Nano，展开了一万公里的印度车程。这是她的第一本书。
http://www.thenanologues.com/
http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/books/features/road-trip
Road trip
Time Out talks to Vanessa Able about her great Indian adventure in a tiny yellow Nano
Just 50 km into her journey, along the dark road from Mumbai to the seaside town of Nagaon, Vanessa Able and her new Nano almost became a filling for a truck sandwich. For as they struggled up a sharp incline amidst blinding headlights, thunderous horns and daredevil double overtakes, the English writer was convinced that her adventure was heading straight for a squishy and ignominious ending.
It’s almost miraculous then that Able lived to complete her solitary journey — across India in a Nano that she named Abhilasha — and to tell the madcap tale. The Nanologues: 10,000 km across India in the World’s Cheapest Car is a sometimes affectionate, sometimes snippy account of the three-month-long road trip on smooth highways, rutted rural roads and traffic-clogged cities in 2010.
Along the way, Able got snotted upon by an opportunistic elephant, quizzed about the Nano’s fuel consumption by a zillion curious strangers, nibbled by bugs in cheap hotel rooms, harassed by repetitive strain injuries, and started hallucinating about speed-breakers and potholes. To make scary matters worse, her mobile and GPS routinely swooned on deserted roads where the signs were all in “phoren”.
Clearly, there were moments during the trip when Able wished she had heeded Indian acquaintances who warned her that, not only was the Nano unfit for highway driving, but that a “single, beautiful girl like you travelling alone will be worrisome”. “I had just come out of a long relationship and wanted to do something to shake myself up a little,” said Able, who had been fascinated by reports about the cheapest car in the world and thought that a journey in the Nano would be perfect fodder for a blog. “My friends and family thought it was a vaguely interesting little trip to do. My Indian friends, who knew better, flat out thought I was bonkers and had no qualms in telling me so.”
Nevertheless the former editor of Time Out Istanbul ignored these words of wisdom — as well as the disapproval of detractors who felt her trip would only end up contributing to pollution. After all, Able had already zipped across the length of New Zealand in a Vauxhall Viva and the American West in a Chevrolet. “I like the sense of control that comes of having my own transport,” she explained in an email interview. “I like the freedom and the relative peace inside the car.” But certainly, no one desiring peace would tangle with truck drivers in Bihar? Or sign up for lessons with the Super Star Driving School in Pondicherry? Or race along a half-completed highway in Karnataka that ends in a sheer precipice?
None of this occurred to Able when she was sitting in her parents’ home in the wintry grey Parish of Grouville in the English Channel. Instead, she recalled the “electric, unpredictable hum of India” — and dreamt of a little car “the colour of sunshine and with the price tag of two iPhones”. “I’d been to India before so I knew how challenging driving in the traffic there can be, but somehow the reality of actually negotiating the roads didn’t kick in until I was there,” she said, admitting to some whydid- I-get-into-this-mess moments. “I berated myself the most under duress and tiredness. After long periods behind the wheel, on arriving in a new town of village late at night when I hadn’t figured out where I was going to stay.” Disregarding the discomfort and startled reactions — “visceral shock and sometimes even fear to delight and encouragement”— though, she and Abhilasha drove on. From Mumbai to Kanyakumari and on to Kolkata, and then through the hills to McLeodganj before closing the circle in Mumbai.
Able was focused on completing 10,000 km — and often she “couldn’t be arsed” to play tourist or chat with friendly gawpers. So after three months in the company of a thermos flask, fickle GPS and mouldering biscuit crumbs, she expected to feel both teary and relieved when she buckled her seat belt for the last stretch from Gujarat to Mumbai. What she didn’t expect, though, was a meltdown. “I had something close to a panic attack on the very last leg of the trip due to the combined forces of a hangover, coffee, sugar and 14 hours of driving,” she says, describing her lowest point. “I was two hours outside of Mumbai, so incredibly close to my target, and I literally felt like I could not go another inch. It took calling my mum and receiving a maternal pep talk to shake me out of my exhaustion and get me back on the road for the final push.” And so Able drove into sleepy Mumbai at 3am — just a day before she was due to board her flight.
The Nanologues, Hachette India, Rs399.
http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/H2KG48eHjloDUAJmpTXXfJ/Vanessa-Able--Freewheeling-around-India.html
Vanessa Able | Freewheeling around India
Vanessa Able travelled around India in a Tata Nano in 2010 and wrote her book ‘The Nanologues’Pallavi Singh
First Published: Sat, Jun 29 2013. 12 38 AM IST
British writer Vanessa Able was editing Time Out Istanbul before she headed to India and bought a Tata Nano, the car that promised to fulfil middle-class India’s dream of owning a car. The Nanologues, Able’s first book, published in May, is a witty account of riding the Nano over 10,000km across India, braving dust and grime, risking accidents and flouting driving rules. Able spoke to us about the Nano’s symbolic potential, and why India is her favourite country to travel to. Edited excerpts:
You have backpacked around India before. What was it like coming here for the first time?
Before I travelled to India, I thought it was the scariest place in the world. It seemed like a mad, chaotic, anarchic mess of a place filled with light and colour and people who were both wise and mad. I was terrified to go out the first time, which made me all the more determined. I went backpacking in India three times when I was a student: I travelled in Rajasthan, in the Himalayas all the way up to Leh, Varanasi, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad...
What was the most challenging part of your trip in the Nano? Which experiences count as your favourites?
The most challenging part of the trip was the psychological element of being on the northern plains in the summer heat. It really began to shake my resolve after a while. My favourite parts of the trip were the small moments of surprise. I loved exploring Orissa and Kolkata for the first time and despite the heat, I loved Kolkata.
I’d done it before, but I think the early morning boat trip on the Ganges in Varanasi is something everyone should experience once in their lives. Further up the river, I loved seeing the big Ganga aarticeremony in Rishikesh.
Which is your favourite place in the world to travel to?
India. For me, it’s singularly the most fascinating country in the world, so very rich and varied. And frequently quite bonkers. A close second is Japan, for similar reasons. I also love the Middle East. Travelling in Syria and Iran were among the best experiences I have ever had in terms of the scenery, history, culture, architecture, and incredible warmth of the people.
Your book hinged heavily on a brand. Were you worried about marketing it as an honest travelogue?
Yes, I was worried. But Tata Motors and I have kept a very polite distance from one another throughout the whole project. I didn’t want to be under any pressure and I knew it was important to be objective about a car that’s stirred up a lot of controversy in India.
You have written that driving on Indian roads qualified you as bona-fide Indian driver. Who’s that?
Someone who shoots from the gut. I think that Indian drivers are very instinctive in the way they operate. They can often be quite impatient too, which gives rise to some of the crazy manoeuvres and overtaking that I witnessed.