Parks , speed bumps and chaos theory

Who does not like smooth rides ? But its not easy have one in Hyderabad. These are multiple reasons for that , as you know , from bad roads, to bad traffic. My focus is on bad roads , no , I am not going bash about bad quality roads and express my cynicism over contractor - politician - bureaucracy nexus and conclude that we have to raise our voice against  corruption.

A decade ago , my colony did not have proper roads, so we faced all problems , from frequent tyre punctures  to fearing to ride in rain. Now the roads are relatively eons better, but still we are not fortunate have a smooth ride , because of speed bumps ( As you might have guessed from the title ).

In the past we didn't get roads with demands, but now municipality is working so well that , it's going beyond whats requires and laying bumps wherever citizens request. But , why would any person want a speed bump near his house ?
In most of the cases its to allow his kids to play on the road and provide safety from speeding vehicles. Seems fair to me. Nothing wrong in the concern of a parent who is too busy to take his kids to the near by park. I know this , because , kids from my neighboring house play  cricket on road , and follow the ball to my home.

There should be parks for kids to play, right ? There are. There is ground in my street , but these little ones play on road, because it will be hard for their parents to monitor otherwise.

This is only one reason for unofficial speed bumps. The other one is Jugaad. We are damn innovative. We use speed breakers as a permanent solution to stop sewage and rain water from clogging at our door steps.  Because , our municipality could not consider slope of the terrain before constructing roads and sewage system.

How could my spinal card, which gives a loud cry due to speed bumps , should understand that , is is sacrificing for the safety of future citizens of India because parents are lazy/busy and our municipal authorities could not think.
PS : Through RTI, I found out that there are no guidelines or rules to lay speed bumps and according to replies, Malkajgiri and Rajendra nagar zones don't have any speed breakers. If you experience any bump in the ride, feel proud for your sacrifice or check shock absorbers of your vehicle.

Anantapur Trip

I am not sure why I picked Anantapur, instead of Srikakulam for field trip.

It’s been more than one year.. I cannot be specific to details and I have no wish to bore you with the mundane office work.

After sending a friend off at airport, started my journey to Anantapur at around 10 AM.  Anantapur is 350KM from Hyderabad.  As I have traveled on NH7 so many times,  I got bored , so I am not going to spend much time writing about it.  I would like to mention few things though!

1.       Not many food joints or tea stalls between Judcherala and Kurnool.   If you are hungry, eat at Kurnool.  Very limited food joints and petrol bunks between Kurnool and Anantapur.

ISKON Temple at Anantapur

NH7 is kind of highway, you can enjoy if you are with friends and travelling by car. The highway is bland. The March Sun is not helping either. 

Reached Anantapur in the evening.  Checked in at Annapurna Hotel.  Rs. 300 per day.  Its cheap and relatively neat.

As part of my job, first I have to take the blessings and permission of District collector. Election time is bad time for any kind of survey project. On top of it, my project is on Right to Information Act. The single most law, all the govt employees collectively hate.  

On day one I visited museum . It’s a small one with sculptures without noses and all. It has the board displaying the evolution of Telugu Script.

Roamed around Anantapur for a while in the Evening.  I wish to write few things about Anantapur city and then will jump to tourist places I visited there.

Food

Cafes are good.  They are not like Hyderabad cafes , refreshing in terms of place, not so impressive in terms of chai.  Café usually, is an open area with lots of plastic stools and a Bamboo tent for shade. 

Uggani is the staple food in Karnataka and Rayalaseema.  Its ubiquitous.  Its cheap , its easy to eat.  Raagi Mudda is something everyone must try when they visit the place and Kushka (kind of pulao) , though my taste buds didn’t approve of it .

“Nannari” is the beverage you don’t want to miss there. Its counterpart of Rooh afza in Hyderabad.  And of course you will forced take lot of butter milk to put up with the heat.

Geography

 Let me give you a Geography lesson on Anantapur.  

Did you notice the stone-slab on which Dosa is made at Hotels?  Anantapur is that one big stone-slab. Rock, only rock and nothing but rock.  And you can practically see, how lack of greenery will increase the temperature.  

If you go from Hyderabad to Bangalore, on bike, the area where you are scared, sweat oozing like sprite from a shaken bottle, where you are depressed and start cursing yourself for not taking public transport, where you cross a dried up river, with no taddy trees, that’s Anantapur . No need to check Name boards.

People

People are generally cool and good at being hosts.   Even at Govt offices one thing you cant miss is the Rayalaseema Hospitality.  Top officials don’t shy to be good hosts and wont allow you take leave without lunch. 

Having said that,  I have to mention this thing so to give you an unbiased view. I have noticed, every Road divider on road were destroyed, when I enquired, they told me they have destroyed them, because they did not like the idea of  Andhra Pradesh state is getting divided. 

Tourist places 

These are the places I visited.

1.       Penukonda Fort (  I wrote about it in the previous blog post )

Timmama Marrimanu

2.       Kadari temple ( Didn’t go in there): I passed by it on the way to Timmamma Marrimanu. 

3.       Timmamma Marrimanu : It’s an old banyan tree, occupying vast area. It got a gunnies book record too. Negative is, one cant have a walk under the tree. A fenced path is laid. And there is tiny fort near it, not a must visit, but if you visit it, your idea of forts will change.

 If you enjoy the lonely road, that takes you to Timmamma Marrimanu. 

Idol of Yogi vemana

      Vemana Temple : Yogi vemana is one of the greatest Telugu poets of all the time.  He didn’t write to please gods or kings but shared his wisdom to common folk through poetry.  His famous poems were embedded into the walls of the temple. Except for architecture , it’s a normal Hindu temple, with a priest , Prasadam and all. In the nearby village you can locate his grave, in total contrast to the tiny village. 

After 22 days , I could not  sustain Anantapur anymore.  I had to drink two liters of buttermilk , one large bottle of Mirinda daily to avoid dehydration. Last two days, I stayed at Tadipatri, which is hell on earth.  The temperature flirts with 50 degrees centigrade mark.  

Tadipatri is a rocky area. Most of the polished stones which are used for flooring come from here.  You must of heard of Bethamcherla stones if you were a Telugu guy.  Residents got adopted to the frying temperature, and enjoy their hot snacks in the evening. They so used to the heat, they stopped building houses with normal bricks but use the spoiled polished stones.  

Thanks to Tadipari region MRO who let me get out of the furnace without delaying.  Selected the route map to Hyderabad via Kurnool, and I was good to go next day morning.

Woke up before dawn , woke the Hotel Manager and checked out.  Jumped on the bike to reach Home, but it refused to start. I had to kick it to make the engine roar. All electricals are down. No turn lights, no horn. 

No mechanic available at that hour. I thought of waiting for mechanic to open but piled up frustration due to sweat and heat all these days kicked me in the shin.  Decided to get it repaired at Kurnool. I have to be away from Anantapur even by walk. 

Two routes to reach Hyderabad.  One via Gooty , another via Betamcherla . I chose the second one to cover few tourist spots on the way home.

Got up early to start my journey before sunrise.    Bike wont start.  It want to spoil my plan. One kick  on its shin and engine roared with pain.  All the electrical of bike are down.  I thought fuse is the culprit.  I have theoretical knowledge on changing the fuse. I don’t have much time to waste with experiments. I thought of getting it repaired at Bethamcherla or Kurnool.  No indicators , no horn , no light. I have to go but I have to go slow.

Due to elections, all road works were come to a halt. Worse are the roads which are half laid. Traffic is confined to one half of the road leaving the other half for dogs to walk and rest.  Its becoming too hard without a horn.

A traveling for an hour or so,  i approached a cement factory.  The dry mountains , the early morning mist gave it an eerie look, like the eye-tower in Lord of the rings. Trucks are struggling on the half road to cross.  Reflex made me honk in the traffic and the extra horn shouted its lungs out on the bullies.

Yes, my bike has self-healing capacity. 

First halt is at Belum caves.  Its not on my list but I thought why not? Belum caves open at 10 AM, 3 hours to go. Had a tea and left to Yaganti. 

Taking a picture of Yaganti bull is the first thing on to-do list.

Belum caves to Yaganti route is single way with a bit of traffic. One should watch out for Tractors. 

On the way to Yaganti, these are the places I visited

1.       Veerabrahmendara swamy caves ( These are the caves in which he wrote kalagnyananm)

Hotel at Orwakal

2.       Arundhati palace ( The palace shown in Arundhati movie. Locals says , in the past , the local king built this palace to take after when he comes out for evening walk ) . 

3.       Yaganti . It will take time to explore the temple, but my point of interest is only Yaganti rock bull which grows with years. There is a board by archeology departments confirming so. 

4.       Orwakal rock hotel . Orwakal is a rocky area, APTDC constructed a hotel there.  Don’t expect much from this hotel.

It was evening by the time I reached Kurnool.  Bought cova-buns from Pulla Reddy sweets for Dixit.  He been asking for then since I landed in Anantapur. 

After one year, I don’t remember  inane details about the trip, but I reached home safely by  10 PM or so.

Trip to Mysore

This is part of my field trip to Anantapur, in last March.

I was lucky enough to get a job ,which involves field trips. I joined a project on Study on implementation of Right to Information Act in Andhra Pradesh.

As it happened last year, i cant recall  specific details. Duration of the trip is about 20 days. My daily routine involves visiting Govt offices and interviewing officers. I have had some bitter, some funny, some delightful experiences.

I don’t expect the reader of the blog will be interested in my trip to each MRO and MPDO office in 10 Mandals of Anantapur. So, I am going to limit this  post to tourist places.

After sending Vamsi off at airport, I started my journey to Anantapur on Sunday. The distance is  350KM and I have whole day . Reached destination before night took over.

After one week of work, on a weekend I decided to take a break and go to Bangalore. Started at around 7PM. Bangalore is 200KM from Anantapur.

WARNING:  There are no ATMs on the highway from Anantapur to Bangalore.

It was a mistake to have over confidence on the availability of ATMs on the highway. I had RS 100, which should be enough for dinner and couple of tea breaks. I am terribly worried about fuel. Found a petrol bunk which accepts cards and where the swiping machine is working. Now, I can go till Bangalore, only if bike don’t develop any issue like flat Tyre.

One guy tells me that, there was no ATM till Penukonda, which is 50 KM away.  The old NH7 passes through Penukonda, but the new one bypassed the town. I was told, I have to get deviated from the highway for 7 KM to find an ATM. I opted to travel without cash instead.

Once Manohar, told me that the route from Anantapur to Bangalore is beautiful. I could not comprehend the beauty to that extent as it is dark, but, bright moonlight allowed me to anticipate how beautiful the surroundings will be in daytime.

At a distance, to my right, I noticed a big white thing shining. At first i thought it’s a waterfall, it looked beautiful from distance, I cursed all the people who travelled on the road and not informing about the waterfalls. The  thing is a big rock which cut into half. The rock, draped in moonlight, impersonated waterfalls, and fooled me.

Raju is a frequent traveller from Bangalore to Hyderabad, he assured me that ATMs will be available at Chikballapur. Chikballapur is dining spot for passenger of buses. I tried my luck there. More than Telugu, Hindi and English, sign language worked out there, and I was able to eat.

There is nothing much to tell, till I reach outskirts of Bangalore. Straight black road, moon light and cool weather.

I asked the traffic police for directions, he can’t speak any other language except Kannada, but he has the will to help me out. Centuries ago, when global trade began, thats how the explorers must of have survived, more than verbal language, its body language and sign language which are primary languages. We humans, possess one body language across the borders and oceans, not English, this is the universal language.

Though, Bangalorians are friendly and offered me directions, Hebbal junction is too complicated.  And thats the place, i found chai.  Finally, chai. My first chai in Bangalore. It was just OK.

Raju came with his friend to pick me up. I asked him, how ask “How much i owe” in kannada to the Tea guy, he asked me go ahead in Telugu, i was adamant to use Kannada. Finally, Raju asked him in Telugu, and paid.


BANGALORE TO SRAVANABELOGALA
We were standing before a mountain. I was contemplating, if i will survive if i fall half way to the top.When we were having a coffee break, Raju asked me if i have seen the weblinks he sent me last night. Negative. He said, the statue of Gomateswara is on a mountain, and one need to scale it. Everybody thinks I hate trekking. That is undeniably true. Now he says we have mountain to climb, sipping coffee.  I have no other choice, except to move forward.


Like always, i underestimated the mountain. I thought i could manage it, but its huge. Neck strains even to look at the top. Added to that, it should be scaled without footwear as it is a religious place.



INFO : There is no proper parking there. We parked the bike on the curb of the hotel we had lunch.

They sell socks and hats there. Raju bought them. Climbing is easy if i concentrate just on the next step, instead of having the full view of mountain.

 There are many structures like it across Karnataka. However, this particular place is special. This is where, King Chandragupta Mourya, disciple of Chanakya, did Sallekhana , a ritual in Jainism which promises Nirvana if one fasts unto death. Yes, the great Mauryan King who established a great empire in north India, choose to die like that in south India. He travelled all the way from North India to here, just to fast till he is dead.  And I came all the way from Hyderabad, to climb till I die.

NOTE: . Tie your hats properly at the neck, or they will be blown away.

We have to observe few things here. One, Chandra Gupta Maurya is raised by a Brahmin to the power.  In the later age, he chose Jainism, which defies Hinduism. And his grandson Samrat Ashoka chose Buddism and spread it. Most importantly, about 1000 yrs back, Hindu kings of Karnataka tolerated construction of huge nude statue of a different god on top of a hill. Seems that religious tolerance got evaporated due to global warming.

I have this admiration for man-made, larger than life things over Nature (Except oceans and deserts).  It is one of the topics of arguments with my nature loving friends. I  prefer to admire the dream, strategy, endurance and unshakable determination of the men who made it, than a thing formed out of the randomness. 
One thing i could not understand about the statue, what is the point of creepers when they don’t conceal penis of the Gomateswara, unlike in western art, where flowers, fruits, hands etc etc are used to hide the gentiles.  

We are looking at a giant size statue of 58ft. I might have appreciated if the figure is looking down, but sculpture thought otherwise. The statue is gazing horizontally, towards the land, covered with coconut trees. From the hilltop , if you gaze at the horizon , for a long time in summer, like me, you might see the round edges of the Planet earth.

We have no plans for the day, so we remained there, checking out the place. Had coconut water once we got down. We heard the word Sri Rangapatnam, or we read it on a board, i don’t exactly remember, we decided to go there as it is just 60 KM from Shravanabelagola.

View from the Hilltop 

We studied about Sri Rangapatnam, but we forgot, we only remember that we studied about it in the school, so we headed there.

My phone is not in a mood to get GPS signal. Raju managed to find out the way in Kannada. One thing i have to tell about to all Kannadigas. They are helping creatures. From police to Boy in Petrol Bunk, when asked for directions, they start in Kannada, if your face goes blank, they convey the message in pidgin.
I was reminded of the East Godavari and West Godavari trips on the way to Sri Ranga patnam. Only difference is, in Karnataka the greenery is because of coconut trees only, nothing else. They seem to enjoy the simple village life still. They still construct the old tiled roof houses. One more thing, there are no political party banners or flags or flag posts. When General elections are in couple of months, this is not how an Indian villages should look. There is a possibility that, political banners were obscured by Birthday wishes banners and Death Anniversary ones.

By 4PM we reached Sri Ranga Patnam. It is the capital of Tippu Sultan. That is why we must have read it in
the school. A temple and a fort are tourist attractions. Tippu sultan is resting in the fort.

Then to Ranganatha swamy temple. There we committed the sin of not giving it much time to explore. You, my dear reader, don’t do that.  It needs 2 hours of the time at the least.

INFO: Dont buy wooden items at the temple. You will get them cheap at chennapatnam , on the way to Bangalore.

Grave of Tipu Sultan

Entry to the fort

Temple at Sri Rangapatnam

Mysore 

WARNING: Check Mysore palace visiting hours before getting excited and go there.

Mysore is about 20KM away. Cross a stream of Kaveri and one will reach Mysore. This is the 4^th river I crossed. Krishna at Mahaboobnagar,

Tungabadhra at Kurnool, Penna at Ananatapur and now Kaveri.
We reached Mysore just before dark.  It took some time to reach the palace. Front yard of the palace is crowded .  The palace is lit and shining like a spiritual thing in movies. Visiting hours for place are till 5PM. After that, the tourist have to get content with the well lit view of palace from the front yard.   

We spent couple of hours there.  We went to a Bakery for Chai. Yes, they sell Tea in Bakeries in Karnataka. Shocker alert for Tea lovers.

City of Toys

Kannadigas have this habit of naming places for what they are well known for. Mysore has a name, Sri Rangapatnam has a name (  I forgot both ).  We passed through a town called Chennapatna. It specializes in wooden crafts, mainly toys. And the town is called “City of Toys”. There will be shops on the highway for them. Me and Raju bought lot of them, for souvenirs at 11PM.

City of Toys is one of the five “city of something” towns we crossed. Last night I had a bad impression of Karnataka, as it become hard to get tea. Today, it faded away.

But , Bangalore , the-city-of-no-tea at night lived up to the standards.  I really hope, the parts of the city i have been to are like that, not the entire city. Its hard to believe, a city , famous for pub culture, does not serve tea at night.

However, i would not hesitate to call it, graveyard at night.  Unlike Hyderabad, people disappear at night. Not even a single soul to ask directions on the road. Finally, two police souls rescued us. What is wrong with that city? And how it can be called a metro?

I don’t know based on what criteria Govt declares a city a metro, but , a metro should have basic qualities. Firstly, middle class should be in majority. Secondly, the city should never sleep, one should be able to tea and food at any given point of time. Thirdly, there should be street food.  If i had to compare with Hyderabad, dedicated stalls for tea should be omnipresent. Bangalore really disappointed me.
That day we travelled about 440 KM. And most of it is without planning. But, i have checked in places which are not in my list.

Though Raju is my school buddy, i never knew he enjoys travelling. He comes from a village few kilometres from Nagarjuna Sagar, and never went there. Naturally , i thought , he does not like travelling. But, i was wrong, either he didn’t indulge in travelling or he didn’t talk about it.

Raju is kind of a person, who does not talk because he cannot tolerate silence. That is one quality a pillion rider should possess, or for anyone in general. Car is a different ball game. After sometime,  the music will be on, and no more talking, and at least, i can lost in thoughts  while talk to each other. Bikes lack that facility.
Woke up late, bid adieu to Raju and left to Lepakshi. With last days accomplishments , i got greedy, or the tourist in me woken up. I started planning , without calculations or knowledge.  Before going to sleep, i thought of going to Nandi Hills. They are at the out skirts of Bangalore. Bangalorians come there because clouds touch the Hills. I just want to feel, how it be standing above the clouds. If only i was able wake up early that day.

That day is Holi. Bangalorians, drove to outskirts in their SUVs, and added colours to the road. 
The highway has small hills, mostly round at the tops, on both sides. Its like, I am riding among giant eggs.
When the village names stopped ending with “Halli”, and where “palli” suffix starts, and when hot air from the dry land surrounding you starts burning your fingers and face. You know that you are back in Anantapur.
After having lunch at a local Mess, near tollgate, I headed towards Lepakshi.  Not Temple  but Lepakshi Nandi is in my list. Been watching that bull on my notebooks since kindergarten.

Lepakshi

The way from NH7 to Lepakshi is single road, passes through villages and is not well maintained. After 25KM , reached Lepakshi.

Underestimated!!  That is my first reaction when i entered temple. If I am good at vocabulary, I could use a better word than “Magnificent” to describe it. If I don’t have laziness I would have searched for a better superlative, so, forgive me.

I started liking the sculptures and art in general. As per  my understanding, art, either books, paintings, movies etc etc teaches more about humanity and individuals, than all the sociological and psychology books in the world can offer.

I was just walking in the lobby, admiring the art; a group of tourists came with a guide. I joined the troop and learned a great deal about the temple. If I start writing all that, you might be get bored.

However, this is the short list of must-watch items,

1.      The hanging pillar, the pillar does not have base, this bulky rocky pillar hangs from the roof.

2.      The wedding scene of Lord Shiva Parvati

3.      Blood stains on a wall. According to legend, the builder of the temple plucked his own eyes out and throw them on the wall.

4.      Murals on the roof.

Murals on the Roof 

I asked them for the Lepakshi Nandi. They said, its on the road, and asked me how could I miss it.

The rock bull is sitting beside the road.  How could I have missed it?  Took snaps of it and resumed the journey. 

Stopped for Tea at Chilamatur, a couple of kilometres from High way. Its a small village, filled with excitement as some drama company is going perform a play at late night. If its any earlier, i would have stayed. 

 Its already evening. I thought of visiting Puttaparthy and started in that direction. After travelling about 10KM or so, i changed my mind and hit the highway to reach Anantapur. 

Penukonda

I noticed a statue of  Sri Krishna Deva Raya on the left.  Got off the bike to take a clear pic of it, and

there is this middle aged guy who introduced himself as a guide appointed by Archaeology department on Contract. I put the bag on the tank, with little difficulty started riding with him on the back seat.

He showed me a lake, two temples and war- elephant quarters. Sun didn’t allow me to explore further. Of course, i could not believe much of what he said , because, at elephant quarters , he said that Penukonda is the capital of

Vijayangara Empire. Anyway, whatever i have seen , i am happy with that. Paid him some money , waited for the train to pass at arailway crossing and reached Anantapur.

Only after checked into a hotel at Anantapur, I realized. I forgot to visit the Kumbhakarnuni Hotel at Penukonda. Its a hotel, shaped like Rakshasa Kumbhakarna. Thats why i don’t like journeys without proper planning. 

As this travelog already become lengthy, I will stop here and shall write another one for rest of the getaways at Ananatapur.