A Road Trip to Nowhere

"Dude if we spend the next weekend like this we are losers", I said to God Surd.

"If we don't get out of Hyderabad it would be bad man. Anywhere but here", he replied

These words were spoken last Sunday after watching "Quick Gun Murugun" by two employees of Hyderabad's burgeoning IT industry. It gives us a lot..money, job, security, work to keep us occupied, but it takes away our individuality. In a way that is what we reclaimed this first weekend of October, if only for 3 days.



As with all things unplanned, this trip had a beginning and an end with just sheer awesomeness in between! We decided to go to Hampi in Karnataka, a distance of about 400 kms from Hyd. To and Fro shud be around 800 kms. We did nearly 1200 kms!! :-))

1. The Ride

We set off in a Maruti Swift vxi Diesel. Mileage of 20 kpl on the trip [guessing] and a top speed of 170 kmph [not guessing]!!. Needless to say that is a killer combo and not once did I feel I was in a diesel car. The more dust and grime that piled on to the car, the cooler it looked. The proud owner of this machine and its lover Krazy Kumar, had the honor of being the lead driver and driving us through an Overflowing Krishna river [true story, more on it later]. Yours truly, was the designated backup driver who managed to get behind the wheel of this beauty one dark Friday night, if u know what I mean.

2. The Terrain

All the places and districts affected by the current flood situation! Our road trip took us through some places we had planned and a lot many more places, simply coz we got lost. Thanks to a road map, Google Maps and wanderlust, we ensured we were on track to our final destination - Hampi.

We had traveled through Mahbubnagar, Devakadra, Marikal and Makhtal. After Makhtal we encountered a huge traffic jam at about 4 pm. On further probing, we saw that the Krishna river had overflown the bridge we were supposed to cross. The first truck guy at the bridge told us that he had been stuck there since 3 in the morning. We decided to take a detour and run around the Krishna river. We drove up to to Utkur, Narayanpet and got lost in Shahpur. STATUTORY WARNING: There is a road there not shown in Google Maps. We got lost there. We managed to hit Shorapur and then again reached a surging Krishna river, a little past Tintani. This time we were told that the water would recede. After watching quite a few cars get stuck in the middle of the bridge and their occupants push the car out of 3ft deep water, we decided to make our move. First gear at full throttle, some clever clutch play, shrewd calculation and a lil' bit of crazy, is what it took Krazy Kumar to get us over the river. On retrospect, we were sure it was also the darkness that helped. If we had seen the entire river in daylight, we wouldn't have had the guts to cross the river.

By this time we were beginning to get tired of the drive. Night driving, in the monsoons with bad roads and onward traffic of trucks is not easy. I switched with Kumar for a while. I couldn't see it then, but I knew we were driving through some beautiful terrain. Could just make it out with the way road was curving beautifully and the rise and fall of the slopes. On the way back, we realised it was an awesome sight indeed. We wanted to reach Hospet, the closest town to Hampi. But, the night was just never ending and the road increasingly treacherous. I remember saying we rather sleep in the car, when I saw a signboard saying 95 kms to Hospet. Just then, we saw a motel. At that moment, we would have taken anything! The place was Ikkal. God Surd was already asleep in the backseat!

The onward journey next day to Hampi was horrible. It took us 3 hours to traverse 95 kms. The roads were in pathetic condition. The roads did not have any potholes though...they were ravines. And our poor little Swift surrounded by huge trucks, put up a spirited performance. He was like a puppy amongst lions! But as Krazy Kumar would say, "Sab Maaf Hai" for that was the awesomeness of the view of the Tungabadra Dam. It was in full flight, with all the sluice gates open, even the emergency gates. What a sight!! So amazing was the sight that it got God Surd to have a full go at capturing those visual moments, with KK's SLR.

3. Hampi, at last

Our trip in Hampi itself was good, but on a different level from the road trip. Hampi, itself was a city of about 47 sq.km. which was flattened by Adil Shah after the defeat of the Vijayanagar Empire's army to the Deccan Sultanates. Its quite an irony that we have intact constructions from the Mughal era which just followed the Vijayanagar empire. One can rant about the destruction of our cultural heritage but thats too old a skeleton to dig out. It was quite fascinating to go around this city on a beautiful monsoon evening and wonder how splendid it must have been when this city was at the peak of its glory on such an evening.

The constructions, or whatever of it which is left, gives an indicator of the life of the Hindu empire of the time. Its astonishing that they would have 2000 temples in that small a city. Come to think of it same holds true for mosques and muslim empires. No wonder, people say, religion is deeply woven into the fabric of Indian society - a precious inheritance and a curse. The architecture in some of the places did make us ponder on what life would have been like in those days. The sculptures make us question the folks who worship at these temples, yet spew venom in the name of Indian culture and ban women wearing jeans to college. "Please look at what you are worshiping!" Beyond the erotic architecture, one also give it to the artisans for their creativity, of being able to carve out 5 designs out of a single carving. The things one has to do to amuse the king!

There was a lot of Muslim influence in the architecture in some of the buildings with domes and arches. Apparently, that seemed to extend even into the way of life. The King apparently had a zenana [harem] which was guarded by a contingent of Eunuchs. I've also seen photos of Abyssinian women who were on the retainership of the Nizam of Hyderabad to guard his zenana.

4. Israeli Tourists and Tourism

Apparently, Hampi is another place in India which is flooded by Israelis tourists that restaurants also have an Israeli section in their menu. This is the second place I've seen such a concentration of ISraelis after Dharamkot near McLeodGanj. The food in and around Hampi is nothing to write home about. But the place in one, which you can get over with in 3 hours, like us or spend 3 full days also. There are motorcyles and cycles that you can hire for to enjoy a more relaxed but energy sapping day of looking around this dead city. Would highly recommend this trip during the monsoons. The place is just divine. You need open space to really watch the beauty of sheets of rain come down on the country side - the green hills, the multi-hued boulders and the brown earth. Just takes back to a whole different time.

5. Psychology, Relativity and Knock Out Beer

We decided to head back to our lodge in Ikkal for the night. We knew the road was bad, in fact the worst stretch we had encountered on the trip. But we wanted to do in anyways. These guys told about their experiences in a grueling experiential training camp and how they were wanting to taste that high again. Perhaps this was a way to do that.. I don't know. I was game though! And amazingly enough,none of our apprehensions materialized. The road was not as bad as we thought it would be. During night driving, you are able to see and focus only on the road ahead of you and not on the craters around you. It is a psychological thing. During the day, we were looking at the huge traffic jams and all the obstacles that everyone on the road was facing. It amplified our own difficulties on the road. But at night, the focus was only on our problems and our road ahead.

Or as the God Surd said, maybe the road was bad on the other side!

Having got to our hotel back on time, we hit the nearest dhabha to celebrate our trip and have a night snack. That turned into dinner and drinks. Drinks for the day was KNOCK OUT beer. Beer has always been an acquired taste for me, a labored one at that. But this was the first time, I genuinely enjoyed beer. It was a fab revelation! Like the icing on top of the cake, that was a great trip! More about Knock Out in the Beer Chronicles!

6. The Road Back

Usually the return journey in a road trip, is the low point of the trip. But in this one, we were just stretching awesome to its limit! In school I used to read about how big armies got slaughtered in retreat by their enemies, because they lost their way, and used to think how stupid they must be. Well, I can tell you one thing, the roads in the light of day and in the dark of the night can look totally different. Well, we got lost again!! :-) But such was our luck, that we stumbled onto a detour a really smooth detour and reached Mudgal quicker than expected. At Mudgal, we were surprised to see the Mudgal fort. We had no inkling such a structure could exist in a place like this when we passed it in the night. But lo and behold here was a fort, with a proper moat!! We went on further ahead, getting lost again at Gurumatkal. But the road and the view was so awesome that we ditched our plans to join NH7 at Mahbubnagar and pressed ahead, fueled by beer and mirchi bhajjis with double mirchi,

By this time, the beer had hit home, our destination much closer than what we had anticipated and our fun quotient unbelievable! By the time we hit NH7, Krazy Kumar decided to end this on a high and stretched the car to touch 175 kmph. That is something on a Swift. But it sums up the trip - fun, eccentric, on the edge but ultimately memorable! :-) Here's to many more! Cheers!!