THE ROCKET ROUTE (PART 1)

A pair of rockets — the VW Taigun and Virtus — go chasing rockets in an unprecedented drive across southern India!

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For centuries, the human race has been obsessed with rockets. Those fast, fiery arrows piercing through the sky have always been a thing of tremendous fascination. So much that they've brought us here, to the fireworks capital of India. Sivakasi, in Tamil Nadu, is the home of rockets that take to our skies everytime we want to celebrate something — and, of course, we've brought our own rockets along, the VW Virtus GT Plus 1.5 TSI and Taigun GT 1.5 TSI.

Where are we headed, though? Let's just say, you'll find out eventually. If it helps, not everyone on this trip knows either. Before we go anywhere, though, we have a bit of exploring to do in Sivakasi itself.

A CRACKER OF A TIME

On the face of it, it's a town as nondescript as they come in this part of the world — cramped, unruly and with particularly wayward traffic. That we have to be gentle with driving the Taigun and Virtus through its narrow lanes goes without saying. What we're here for, of course, are the fireworks. Within the first hour of being here, we've already driven across the town in all directions and, in half that time, we've managed to lose count of the number of shops selling fireworks. They're everywhere.

What we were really interested in, however, was seeing how these ever-fascinating rockets were made. It's why we'd chosen to get here in what are easily the rocket-equivalents of mainstream cars. When we asked around for leads, most were understandably wary of our presence but soon, there was a breakthrough. A few phone calls later, we were belting down a beautiful road, marked as much by its impeccable surface as its absolute lack of traffic (oh, the joy!), with the tacho needles clearly reflecting our excitement.