Photographs by Shashank MB
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.
Fireworks factories are intriguing places, quite unlike whatever you’d imagine in that they aren’t factories at all – just an assortment of sheds, separated by a few metres (as stipulated by the safety regulations). The workers, an equal split between genders, go about their business in silence, seemingly acclimatised to the heat and humidity.
It’s a fascinating universe. To think this form of spectacular aerial magic is put together in such an analogue, elementary manner makes rockets all the more interesting. The idea, the imagination behind the principle of how a rocket performs – what a reflection of things the human mind can achieve! As if to sweeten it all, we had our own GT-badged rockets to look forward to for several more days on southern India’s fast highways.
ON THE ROAD TO NOWHERE
The next morning, we hit NH38. Our rockets were at ease, having gotten off to a spectacular start (or, should we say, lift-off?), singing down the highway, keeping us relaxed and entertained, all at once. The Virtus GT Plus, to which we’d assigned the lead in this leg, came across as instantly exciting. In a time where cars have become so uninspiring, the Virtus really is exceptional. Thanks to its 1.5 TSI engine, it feels immediately engaging, just so responsive and, more than anything else, it just puts you in a state of mind to have fun. That fantastic 7-speed DSG unit is, of course, the benchmark for cars around the world and, while we didn’t need to use the paddles to shift, seeing as we were at a steady cruise, it made ultra light work of overtaking. Not that it applied to us, but in the rare instance of the monotony of the highway getting to you, all you need to do is hit ‘Sport’ mode. Then, the Virtus sharpens up and gives you an even more entertaining drive experience – even as you go by the rulebook.\
What our pair of VW’s GT-badged rockets deliver on comfortably is the entire package of speed. Not just speed in numbers, mind you, but speed with all of its sensations. It’s our need for speed, after all, that has brought us to where we are, be it in the world of cars, the Internet and, of course, with rockets. Speed has eternally been the answer to man’s hunger for advancement and, for us, highway-bound in our own personal rockets, it was the build-up of speed, the energetic acceleration, that put us in just the frame of mind we needed to be in.
Here’s another thing about the Virtus and, in fact, even the Taigun. These cars are the result of decades of engineering finesse, something VW has quite the reputation for. You know some of us like driving fast, some, a bit slowly, but every one of you will enjoy driving a VW. There’s something spirited about this new generation of German-engineered cars with that badge. And while the Virtus is spirited, it’s also a perfectly rational, insightfully designed sedan. With its enormous boot, brilliant ground clearance and, of course, a 5-star GNCAP safety rating, it’s incredible how much the Virtus gets right!
While we were past the halfway mark, all too quickly, not everyone was pleased about being kept in suspense. There were questions and they needed to be answered. Whatever happened to ‘it’s about the journey and not the destination,’ right?
A PAUSE FOR EFFECT
We’d been on the road for 300 km now and, fortunately, another 100 km would see us arrive in quaint Puducherry – a popular coastal holiday destination that, surely, was going to soothe everyone’s senses. Of course, Puducherry wasn’t our final halt down the ‘rocket route’ – it was only a punctuation in our hunt for rockets – but nobody needed to know that just yet.
As we entered Puducherry, our cars had kept us free of fatigue despite the long day on the road. The muted vibrance of Puducherry, as expected, did cast a sense of calm over the crew and, rather than retiring to our home for the day, we spent a considerable amount of time wandering around its quiet bylanes, absorbing the French influences that form the signature of Puducherry’s aesthetic.
Over a fantastic dinner, the question cropped up again – where are we really going? No doubt, you’re curious too, eh? Of course, you would remember where we started from – Sivakasi, the rocket capital of India. Tomorrow, however, would see us drive to the home of India’s other kind of rocket. Can’t make it any simpler now, can we?
