TRUE FRIENDSHIP

Living through a change of address and lifestyle, and how Ashok Leyland’s Bada Dost helps in carrying it through

- Parameswaran

TAKE ME HOME John Denver had the right kind of thoughts when he sang about country roads taking him home, in 1971. Fifty years later it somewhat became our family anthem as we made the conscious move from a city life to a rural one, a few weeks ago. The major difference, of course, is that this story isn’t set in West Virginia, but the equally lovely East Coast Road, in Tamil Nadu.

It was a task that was daunting. A manoeuvre that friends and family, having initially offered their assistance, were suddenly unable to find time for — moving household furniture and worldly miscellany, accumulated through decades of choice and ancestral provenance, from two homes and a godown in the city, to our new home nestled between the Palar river on the one side and paddy fields all around. It was also a task that could be achieved with only limited success by a professional moving crew and needed additional attention of the DIY kind, with the satisfaction of a job well done.

Enter what undoubtedly became our best friend for a whole week and about 500 km of loaded driving through a combination of inclement, rainy weather and beautiful, country roads — Ashok Leyland’s all-new Bada Dost light commercial vehicle.