7 members, 4 bikes , 4 days , 1400 KM , 2 perennial rivers and ocean. That is our trip in a nutshell. Now to the details.
DAY 1.
9th January 2014. As usual, we started late. My hopes on trip were
not really great. All that pushed me is the mild urge to have a
multiple day trip on road.We very diversified , not all of us are close friends, we dont belong to one age group, not profession, not all of us are riders, not all of us are smokers, not all of us are boozers. With four guys who are new to long drives, i was skeptical how long we go together, or how long we can travel without anybody getting ill.
Cutting through the mist, heading towards east.
After taking pics, we started and stopped after 30 KM for breakfast-1. It was my proposal to have breakfast at Organic Hotel. The advertisements were welcoming us to eat there for the last 15 KM. The place is great, with a fake bullock-cart. Prices are a bit costly, so we decided not satisfy our tummies there and have our second breakfast at Suryapet, about 70KM from there.
When we are about to leave, Uday put iPad on my face and asked me to read the passage on it. Its a passage by Jiddu Krishnamurthy, a philosopher. We had little chat over it.
Of course we stopped twice for tea once and for cigarettes before reaching Suryapet. We devoured there. Santosh is driving my bike. I was enjoying my lost but found songs collection from 2006. I thought i have to recollect the songs when my hard drive broke , but luckily my friend had them. I could not stop smiling and singing. That old collection reminded me of the past "me".
I was a teenager when i started collecting them. So most of them are hero-introduction songs, related to personality development , telling the listeners how to deal with hardships of life and romantic songs. In romantic songs, except for few duets , there are mostly sung by a guy who had feelings for a girl and yet to propose her, or break-up songs.
We attach feelings to objects. We need that object to remember those feelings. I attach freedom to drives. That makes me happy, not just because, i am away from home, but it kind of gives me a feeling of Gypsy, a Normad. So, when i am on a drive, i try to enact the modus vivend of a gypsy. A rugged, not-so-
sophisticated , no-problem-with-mingling-with-all kind of Gypsy, who sings along , and who is not rich.
While i was singing out loud and drumming on Santosh's back, rest
were waiting for us at road side lake. It must be an open land, which
gets immersed with heavy rains. The trees, in the middle of the lake,
gave it a magnificiant look. Had a short cigarette break there and we
drove away, promising the lake to visit it again.
At outskirts of Vijayawada we discussed in which way we should reach Eluru. There are two ways to reach it. Through Vijayawada and circumventing-vijayawada. Finally, we decided to ride through the city. Sridhar and Uday knew the city well. Despite my request to lead through the city, they have zoomed away and rest of us were lost. Thanks to Google Maps, we crossed the city without wasting much time, its the people and police there who tried their best to confuse us.
Couple of hours of driving and we reached Eluru, headquarters of
WestGodavari district. Our plan is to visit Kolleru lake , night halt
at some lodge. The college kids we met there told us its futile to go
there when sun is setting. So decided to go to Bhimavaram, visit
Kolleru on the way back to Hyderabad.
The night, bad road , cattle and bugs,
a bad combination to drive. The lady at a Tea stall gave us
suggestions and gave phone number of his son in law, who would help
us to get lodge at a temple nearby, which we didnt paln for. For
curtosy sake, i took the number and assured her that we will call her
if we are lost.
We reached Bhimavaram. I was expecting
it be a small town, but a big shopping mall welcomed me. After
fuelling bikes, we started to veeravasaram, where Grandparents of
Uday live. This time, we had tea near a Fish packing factory, where
workers are more friendly towards strangers and invited us to bet in
the cock fights which will happen in next two days.
After driving in the night, long enough
for my mood to get dampened, we reached the destination.
Scope of this blog wont allow me
describe the great party and hospitality we received there. I might
write it sometime in regular blog.
DAY 2
Thanks to last
night's party we all woke up late and we all are suffering
dizziness. It was around 2 PM we started the bikes. Had to take a
long break for Disprin and let it show the results.
Today, our target
is to reach Antarvedi beach. This is where Godavari meets Bay of
Bengal. And another to-do thing is to cross the river on a ferry.
Borded the ferry
at Narsapur, parked bikes at ferry and stood by them as we cross the
river, as if there
were horses terrified of river.
When the boat hit
the river sand on the other side, i exhaled with relief. However, its
fun. BTW, the ferry is called “Panti” in that area. Now we are
at Sakinetipalli. Funny name.
With coconut trees
standing like soldiers on either side of road, we got the black
carpet welcome. I am going to skip how beautiful the way is , because
all the routes we travelled in this particular trip are exceptionally
beautiful. Unless i say otherwise , assume that, the road is
beautiful, with coconut trees, canals and green fileds on either side
of the road. This way, i dont have search for new words and
expressions to make repetitions less boring.
Few kilometers
from Antarvedi, we come across prossession of dummies to ward off
evil. Enjoyed the show and went ahead.
Antarvedi Beach
If you are looking
for a lonely beach, where ocean makes less noise and beach is
relatively neat and where you wont be distrubed by the streethawkers.
Then its Antarvedi Beach. Whenever, i go to beach, i make sure to
have some lonely time, to let the waves beat my thoughts so hard
that i can find peace.
I was about to get
into the beach-calm, sridhar came with his bike, followed by dixit on
his bullet and lot of noice. Then came santosh and uday with my
jacket and shoes. Nageswar and Prahlad follwed then. I was determined
not to to let them distrub me, so i encouraged them to enjoy the
ocean and promised that i shall guard their belonging. Santosh was
first to throw his mobile and wallet and ran. Then Sridhar, Prahlad
and Dixit disappeared from my sight. Nageswar took time then moved ,
he needed some push. Finally, Uday walked away with iPad. Aloneness
again !!!
Anything which
breaks our chain of thoughts and make us stop thinking about anyother
, we say it has “wow” factor or “awe” factor. Things like an
engineering marvel , ocean, beauty of girl, great art work, force of
nature, a deadbody , forest, waterfalls etc etc. However, its very
rare for a thing to have both wow factor and awe factor. Ocean is one
such thing. The shore is like rap music, it has a beat and mood
lifting nature, but the horizon is silent , terrifying seems
observant . Its like the lazy lion watching its cubs playing in the
distance.
There are tons of
poetry on waves. Not much on ocean. Probably, the sheer size of ocean
scared the wits of poets too.
Been looking at
the ocean long enough to wonder if the ocean is trying to encroch
remaining earth or its just retreting ? Then i realized its running
away from me. Its been more than36hrs since i took a bath.
We found 2 dead
turtles on the beach which come ashore. After few days i read in the
newspaper that there were more.
I was hoping that
today we dont have to ride in the dark, but , Uday decided otherwise.
He returned to the bikes after sunset. After he started talking, the
fact that i didnt go to the place where Godavari meets the sea hit
me. I blame the beach.
Wrong Mukkamala
Its
decided. We are going stay at Mukkamala, where cousins of Uday
reside. We headed back from the beach, and this time we trusted
Google Maps and it costed us time. We reached the beach through bunch
of villages with loud temples. Now, we were riding on a lonely road ,
through the woods. There was not man on the to confirm the Google is
right.
We ate Rotis at a
hotel.. Mukkamala is not so far, that made us to take more halts for
tea. Ocean filled energy in everybody, especially, in Nageswar and
Prahlad who seen it for the first time.
We reached
Mukkamala at around 11PM. As bikes stopped polluting the air and we
took up the job, Uday talked over phone with his cousin and ended
the call with a peculier expression on his. He took slow steps ,
changed the voice modulation and told us “ Guys, we are in wrong
Mukkamala, our Mukkamala is in West Godavari district and now we are
in East ”.
When everybody
froze with that and cold weather outside, Sridhar jumped on the road
and started shouting “ I like this twist, I like this twist” with
hands thrown in the air.
Uday is a doctor
by profession, Santosh is a mechanical engineer, me and Prahlad
studied electrical
There are two
villages named “Mukkamala” in each Godavari districts. Sadly,
only one Mukkamala is recognized by Google which is not our
destination.
Patil, cousin of
Uday, came to pick us at Ravulapalem as he started doubting our
navigation skills. He took us the correct Mukkamala village and
hoasted a party in paddy fileds. This party too just went like the
old one, with camp fire and all. However, this time the host is with
us and he is one good conversationalist.
We went to sleep
at 3AM.
DAY 3
Woke up early than
yesterday. After breakfast, took leave from Patil and started off our
journey.
Sun showed us what
darkness hid from us last night. Its greenary! Spreading across acres
of land, like an ocean which is standstill. Except sridhar everyone
become speechless. It brought out creative photographer in everybody.
Uday, become the cinematographer with his iPad , asking us to drive
in a row. I enjoyed it for sometime. When they started showing each
others work , wasting precious day light, i was irritated.
Nageswar had no
choice except to accept my ultimatum to get on the bike. The road is
highly elevated , giving the obstruction free view of beauty around
me. I decided to enjoy it , with music. Music serves another purpose
too, i can escape participating in conversation.
We have only two
things to do that day. Travel from Bobbarlanka, where river Godavari
splits , to highway. The way looked beautiful in Google Maps. The two
tributaries and the highway formed a triangle. The choosen way is
from apex of the triangle to the mid point of the base.
Highway was
conjusted as there was a lorry-bus accident. I drove till Kadiyam.
Kadiyam is famous for nursaries and Nageswar wanted to see it for a
long time, and that was the seed to this drive. I anticipated that
he would take much time there, however, he was bored after first
nursary we bumped into.
Part of me wanted
to have tea and part of me wanted to see Bobbarlanka. Former is
strong but later one got lucky. We halted at a hotel, which doesnot
serve tea. Continued the ride in disappointment. Once we saw a bigger
than life size statue of SV RangaRao, a gem from Tollywood,at
Dhavaleswaram Dam, i become alright.
I passed through
Dhavaleswaram bridge before, we walked on the sands in the previous
trip. I anticipated that the road to Ravulapalem from Bobbarlanka
would have the similar traces. I was wrong.
I bid Nageswar to
call someone and tell them the location, and where to take the turn.
Its about 2PM then.
We are headed
towards a village called Ryali. To visit a temple there, where the
sculptor is of both Vishnu and Jaganmohini. Just like previous day,
the way is filled with greenary, and as a bonus, there is canal to
either side of the road.
Blood is for
Vampires, and tea for me. Its hard to resist our thirst for those
liquids. We stopped at a place, had tea, had Jilabi and gave chance
to rest of the guys to catch us up. They came, after having tea i
requested them to get started. Everybody is talking on their
photographic skills. I though Que sera sera and gave ultimatum to
Nageswar again.
Bumped
into series of shops which are selling “Pootharekulu”, a sweet
which looks like a thin wrapper. We bought some and went to Ryali.
Spent some time in
that temple, as we are returning, rest of the bikes approached us. I
asked them to visit the temple as it is unique , while i ride slow
towards Ravulapalem. They didnt show much interest in the temple and
started off to Ravulapalem with Uday cursing me from behind.
Obviously, i was pissing them off.
For the last one
hr or so, i felt weirdness riding my bike. I thought, the problem is
with with shockobsorbers again, however, Prahlad pointed out that its
a flat tyre.
Its almost 4PM,
and we are yet to have lunch, i asked rest them to go ahead with
lunch to get my fixed. I was afraid that the tube must be replaced,
fortunately that was not the case. When i called them to ask in which
hotel they are lunching , they said they are still searching for the
hotel. Apparently, sridhar wanted to eat rice-items so all bikes went
for hunting. Its sad, we are searching for rice in the rice-bowl of
Andhra Pradesh.
We had a long ,
unsatisfactory and costly lunch at a Dhaba. It was so long that we
had hit the highway with headlights on.
To Learn or not to Learn
Just observe yourself, how you are listening, and you will see that this is what is taking place. Either you are listening with a conclusion, with knowledge, with certain memories, experiences, or you want an answer, and you are impatient. You want to know what it is all about, what life is all about, the extraordinary complexity of life. You are not actually listening at all.
You can only listen when the mind is quiet, when the mind doesn't react immediately, when there is an interval between your reaction and what is being said. Then, in that interval there is a quietness, there is a silence in which alone there is a comprehension which is not intellectual understanding.
If there is a gap between what is said and your own reaction to what is said, in that interval, whether you prolong it indefinitely, for a long period or for a few seconds - in that interval, if you observe, there comes clarity. It is the interval that is the new brain. The immediate reaction is the old brain, and the old brain functions in its own traditional, accepted, reactionary, animalistic sense.
When there is an abeyance of that, when the reaction is suspended, when there is an interval, then you will find that the new brain acts, and it is only the new brain that can understand, not the old brain”
This
was the passage, Uday made me read at dawn of first day. I was
thinking about it and found it half wise and half ridiculous. Jiddu
Krishnamurti was proposing to abondon the experience we had and to
grasp things as they are without judging them based on knowledge
acquired in the past.
Probably
the passage was taken out of context, or its the whole thing he
wanted to make. I agree with the philosopher, we tend to ignore new
things which keeps us away from getting fresh perspective of things,
however, if we dont learn lessons from the past, and treat every
repetitive incident as anew , we wont go ahead. If we dont learn and
pass that knowledge to the next generation, then every generation
would be inventing the wheel.
According
to me, humans are supreme not because we have an opposible thumb or
we are created by god. Its our ability to learn from experience,
using it at next occurance of the same event and passing that
knowledge to the next generation.
Probably,
he does not want us to generalize things based knowledge we already
have. We learn a lot with bad experience, and make an improptu
conclusion based on it, they might help us survive but not make us
happy on content. If every person , concludes that love is false
after the first break up, we are all doomed. If every person
concludes that his life is a waste after first failure, we are all
dead. I dont mean to say, sit and talk to a tiger which came your way
, hoping that it will become your pet. Tigers kill, thats all.
Though
passing knowledge from one genration to other made us improvise the
things, it is the same reason some of us are struck with dogmas.
While
these thoughts are chewing my brain, we finished eating “Pootha
rekulu” .
100
KM drive and we reached Eluru again. Tomorrow our aim is to tour
Kolleru, let Sridhar take pics of Birds there and go home.
Day 4
We
continued the ritual of partying till late night and starts the
bikes late. Of course, this day we started at 9AM, which is way too
early for us.
We had
Appalu, kind of Idlies till our neck. It took us some time to reach
outskirts of Eluru, not because its a big city, but the traffic is as
bad as Hyderabad.
Cheated by Google Maps, Again !!
According
to Google Maps, Kolleru lake is a point on land and its not a
waterbody at all. Some how , satallites used by Google, missed a
fresh water lake of 300 SqKM. Thats then, i decided not to trust
Maps.
However,
part of blame goes to us too. We didnt bother to Google it and read
any available blogs or see videos of Kolleru on Youtube. We expected
the lake would be somthing of Hussain Sagar Size.
The
lake turned out to be too huge even for our imagination. Its not like
any other lake i have seen so far. The lake has small islands on it,
some of which are connected and some are habituated by both birds and
humans.
The
fish-farmers use small boats made out of trunk of taddy trees. They
can carry a diesl powered motor to pump water from one sector of farm
to another.
I
noticed that sridhar went missing. When i asked, Uday said, he drove
back few kilometers to take snaps of birds. As we were waiting for
him, we stopped a motor cyclist for directions. He gave us orange
fruits along with directions.
The
road is so bumpy that whatever we had for breakfast is digested and
we were hungry again. We
stopped at a temple, “Peddintalamma gudi”,
a local diety. We decided have lunch over there, or we had to eat
there because Uday started eating. We ate till the hotel owner said
there is no rice.
Apparently,
there is an a bird sanctuary, 5KM from Kaikaluru. To reach that,
travellers have to cross a Bamboo-bridge which is built by village
panchayat. They charged Rs 2 for each bike as toll . The money might
be sufficient to maintain the bridge, however, the experience we had
and laugh i had is priceless. A local says that without that bridge,
they have to circumvent 60 KM. At this point, Sridhar zoomed to the
bird sanctuary so that he could take few snaps before sun set.
After
another long bumpy ride which made our skeletons to vibrate, we
reached “Aatapaaku bird sanctuary”. Mostly pelicans and cranes
are visible at the bird sanctuary. Sridhar gathered the information
that the administrative unit of the zilla made sure that humans and
birds dont disturb each other. Hunting the birds and their food i.e
fish in the lake is an offence. The policies worked, the fish in the
lake grew exponentionally , which made the pelicans to make the bird
sanctuary their breeding center.
After
discussing how pelicans might taste and how much they weigh , we
decided to go back to hyderabad. It was almost 5 PM.After
talking a guy at tea stall, we decided reach Hyderabad, via, Gudivada
and Vijayawada.
While
we stopped , for tea, Sridhar went to saloon to get a shave. Rest of
us found it weird and Dixit was shocked. The shock is visible in his
face. We left Sridhar and went ahead, as a Ghost Rider, no matter how
late he starts he can catch us in no time.
Dixit's
Enfiled ran out of fuel enroute to Gudivada. Fortunately, we found
petrol at a retail shop. With that experience i checked the fuel knob
to make sure that its ON. The way from Kaikaluru to Gudivada is
scenic as usual, and we have a canal to the left, all through the
way. I was looking for “ Ballakattu”, a floating thing which
Andhra people use to cross canals. I guess, its the construction of
bridges over canal made Ballakattu obsolete.
We
passing through famous places which have made their way into
Tollywood lyrics. Kaikaleru, Mudunepalli and Gudivada. I should start
a theam-drive to cover places which were mentioned in the movies.
Chose the road less traveled and it scared us.
After
Sridhar joined us in Gudivada, we picked a way suggested by Uday who
travelled in that region before. The traffic constable suggested an
alternative route which has traffic. We headed that way, then couple
of police suggested us to go the way Uday suggested. We came to route
number one, the traffic halted due to railway gate, so decided go in
the other way, and that has costed us peace of journy.
Gudivada to Hyderabad road has all the bad qualities a road can have. Single way, Potholes, bugs , cattle and traffic ( Maintly SUVs). Each one of us had experienced a near-accident experience then. Fortnately, nothing unwanted had happened, except two bikes went missing by the time we reached Kankipadu. Dixit , Prahlad and Sridhar took a detour as Sridhar had to pick up few things from his relatives.
I have
reached Vijayawada first and waiting at Auto Nagar for the rest. My
phone battery is drained and Nageswars battery is about to. We waited
till Uday came to rescue us with a charged phone. It took another
hour for us to communicate and coordinate for us to meet. Sridhar was
still at his relatives home.
We
have wasted some more time discussing wheather we should checkout the
tunnel route in vijayawada or hit the Hyderabad highway as if we
have chocices to make when sun went to bed and moon is challenging us
to travel at night.
We
have decided to go to Hyderabad and Santosh made us to halt to buy a
monkey cap. We drove 20 KM to stop for dinner. Informed Sridhar about
the location, and he joined us.
Sleep
Riding
After
having stomach full of rotis, we made our plan. Its simple. Tea break
at every major town on the way to Hyderabad. Little i know that we
will have a sleeping-break too.
I was
skeptical about our journey to hyderabad. Previous trips taught me
that not every one can drive through out the night. And i am not one
of them. Night driving, though on National Highway scares me.
Invisibility , highbeams put more pressure on the brain which wants
to take rest.
We
stopped at every town for tea and coffee. I expected that Uday would
push the idea to check in a hotel and sleep, but it was Dixit who
did that. Four days of driving took the toll of each one. But, budget
made us
Dixit
entered half-sleep mode, so santosh took Enfield. We continued our
journey with me and Dixit arguing over politics till he becomes sober
and expressed his will to drive Enfield.
In one
of the many tea-breaks, Uday stood up with a firm expression on his
face accused us of riding slow, so he would take Nageswar and reach
Hyderabad, because Nageswar cant ride and he doesnot nead a back-up
rider. We let them go, as Uday had to come to Bhimavaram the next
day with his family.
10 min
after we all started, i saw Dixits Enfield stopped on the left side.
Prahlad didnt put his feet down and Dixit leening on petrol tank,
looked as if he checking the fuel in the bike. I thought , the bike
ran out of fuel and went there to enquire. Dixit was sleeping with
his head on the petrol tank and Prahlad is checking his Mobile.
With a
push, he woke up with red eyes. Santosh took Enfield again. Dixit
started nagging to take a hotel. He made up stories like, he is
seeing houses travelling along with us due to lack of sleep etc etc.
After
couple of hours of riding, we stopped at Narketpally for Tea. Now the
time is 3AM. One after one, everyone went to sleep. Me and Santosh
were chatting till Uday and Nageswar joined us. Apparently, both of
them slept at a town for more than hour and came here to sleep again.
My
plan is to wake them up after one hour, but could not do so. They
scattered all over that small hotel and slept with heads on the
tables. The old guy who preparing breakfasts didnt bother us.
Me and
Santosh palnned to wake them up at sun rice. The dense fog allowed
them to sleep for some more time. It was almost 8:30 AM when the
visability increased and we are confident enough to drive.
At
Chowtappal, Uday and Sridhar slept again. Santosh who didnt sleep at
all, was exhausted. He was so exhausted that he thought spelling of 2
is “to”.
In
couple of hours , we reached our cafe, had tea and samosas and went
home.
Its
one trip which made realize that, one only needs to have endurance
for a long drive not experience.
