Eventually, they diagnosed metal formation and earthing issues with the ECM, which they rectified.
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Prelude
Got married in Nov 2023, and since then we have been travelling to weddings (Friends), pilgrimage, leisure, and group tour lead for a group of college students (Just kept an eye on them, so they do anything stupid and put in me a soup), but missed a road trip with my lovely wife. After contemplating time, distance and mullah. We pinned it to Pondicherry, next comes the dates. Since I am into academics, I got my winter break and my wife happened to get a small window before she joined a new office. Dates decided, plan chocked out, we packed our bags and set our sails.
Day-1, 1.1.2025, Hyderabad- ChennaiW
oke up at 5:00 and started from home at 5:45, drove till 8:00 am and reached Hydlapuram on the Miryalaguda Bypass Road. Opened up our tiffin box and got filter coffee from a kiosk. Used the restroom and started moving towards Ongole, en route, we encountered fog at Wadapally and Piduguralla. Lovely sight !!!
Stop II: BPCL Ongole COCO outlet filled the car, took a short break and hit the highway again towards Chennai. A little after crossing Ongole, I put the car on Cruise control and drove it on CC for the next 200 kilometres, its fun but I feel, one has to be more alert if it is on CC.
Stop III: Stopped the car near the Naidupeta Bypass, felt we were clocking KMS and ahead of our ETA. Had a quick lunch and this is when things go for a toss. The car refuses to start and the instrument cluster lights up like a Christmas tree after a few more tries, it starts showing FAULT on the instrument cluster, I try disconnecting and connecting the battery but, the car still refuses to start. Took the user manual and called up the TATA RSA, but the call got connected to the C.V. RSA, seriously TATA !!
Used our go-to friend Google and contacted the RSA, since the car was out of warranty, they at first said, they couldn’t help but later thanks to an RSA addon billed/added during the last service they took details and connected me to the nearest agent, who arrived within an hour and jump-started the car. And we were moving again, the road to Chennai ORR was great, a little bit of construction happening here and there, stepped onto the ORR and the experience was not as great as the Hyderabad ORR. Chennai ORR has cattle, bikes and cycles plying on it, which can be dangerous.
Next stop: ORR Tollbooth, a Traffic police flagged us to stop and was stopping all non-TN cars. Takes a look at the car, requests to show all the documents wishes Happy New Year. Such cops do exist !!
By 7:00 PM we reached IBIS Sipcot, and got a sweet deal, thanks to my students. Had dinner and called it a day.
Day-2, 2.1.2025, Chennai-Mahabalipuram-Aurovilla-Pondicherry
An early start 8:45 am, 9:15 am we are at Mahabalipuram, its empty and the tourists are entering the city, parking the car near the shore temple, visited the temple and then the beach, the beach was just pathetic, wrappers. bottles, slippers, clothes, diapers all lying around. It was very disheartening to see the beach in this condition.
The Shore temple.
Later walked towards Krishna’s Butterball and other places in the vicinity, spent around 2 hours exploring Mamallapuram, Had some coconut water and started towards Auroville. 
The highway between Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry is under expansion, hence it’s a two-lane road with diversions and oncoming traffic and very few overtake zones., a very interesting place. Last time I visited Auroville, I was only able to reach the parking and had to leave as there was too much of crowd, this time it was nearly empty, walked till the Matrimandir Viewing Point, clicked some photos there and took the bus back to the visitors centre, just love the stores there and the fragrances on sale. Such a peaceful place !!!
On our way Pondicherry
On the way to Mantrimandir
On the way to Mantrimandir
Mantrimandir, view point
The Banyan Tree, with its peculiar aerial roots, is spread across at a diameter of 50 meters (164 feet).
On the way back, visited Auroville Bakery & café, they have a decent size car parking and a huge menu, takes time to absorb the content on the blackboard and place the order. Once the order is placed, sit back and enjoy the nature, your order will be called out, you will have to pick it up, enjoy the meal and you can kill some time.
Next Stop: Pondicherry
Checked in to Ginger, a small property with ample parking, but the rooms are too small, its smaller than other ginger hotels, forget about rooms what competitors offer. Settled in the room, and started towards Promenade beach, car parking can be challenging here.
Promenade Beach
At the beach, we were not allowed to go near the beach, not sure what was the reason. Sat near the beach and absorbed the vibes around, then visited the famous Sri Sai Ram Coffee Bar, amazing filter coffee, almost visited the place twice everyday for the next two days. After coffee, walked back to the beach and brought some fridge magnets. And moved towards the marina beach and the light house, same situation there as well.
The area near the beach was barricaded and we had no access to the beach, soaked in some fresh air and filled petrol it was ₹ 94, what a pleasant surprise, in Hyderabad it is ₹107, BPCL speed was ₹103 filled the tank to the brim and moved towards Kamatchi, White Town, was unable to find parking.
Drove towards the Municipality office and one banner said there’s a paid parking near by, we found one behind the building. Parked the car, walked towards Kamatchi, had dinner, it’s a small restaurant but the foot fall is high, awesome taste but the portion sizes and the prices do go well here, that’s how the day ended.
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