An edited version of this article was published in Travel + Leisure December’14 issue. As I started the car and hit the NH4 (National Highway) towards Bangalore, I noticed Pune was still fast asleep. Any sane person would be, considering it was still four in the morning. Night hadn’t lifted its veil and it was pitch-dark. We sped through the well laid four lane roads with minimal traffic. I and my husband took turns driving and by eight we had reached the outskirts of the city of Kolhapur…