Once again, I am on the Gooooooooooooooo!
We left Hyderabad for Bhadrachalam on Saturday morning. Biga had given his car for servicing the previous day and just as we were about to begin our journey (by then it was 9.30 in the morning) he noticed that the stereo player was missing. And retrieving that from the car workshop meant one more hour of city driving through rush hour traffic. By the time we were out of the city (finally) it was past 11.
We drove for about 2 hours and again had to stop, this time by a group of students who were sitting on the road and shouting “Jai Telangana!” They told us that we could go only after we too shouted the same with them. Now this was not agreeable to the cars in front of us ( seems all were hardcoe Andraites) and they had got into a verbal duel with the agitators. Realizing that things were turning troublesome, Biga called one of the agitators and told him that we had no problems conceding to his demand. He asked all of us to say “ Jai Telangana” which we chorused immediately and after that we were free to leave. After that, I kept shouting “Jai Telangana” at frequent intervals, till Biga sternly told me to stop.
We reached Bhadrachalam well after evening and checked into the previously booked AP Tourism guest house. After the Panchmarhi fiasco, Ma always makes sure to books hotels at least for the first day, so that we ( especially Biga) don’t have to spend hours going round and round hunting for a roof over our heads like we had to in Panchmarhi.
The next day we woke up early and drove to Pochavaram from where the launch would take us to Papi hills with a night stay in bamboo cottages on Kolluru island. Cruising along the clean emerald green waters of the Godavari flowing between thickly forested hills was just lovely. We had breakfast on the deck while lunch was arranged at an island. The launch dropped us around 2 pm at Kolluru telling us that it would pick us up at the same time the next day .
At Pochavaram- Before getting onto the launch
The ride to Papi hillsA view of Kolluru Island and the Bamboo Huts
Inside our hutStaying at Kolluru was an experience of a lifetime. The place has no electricity while mobile connection was absent after we left Pochavaram. The bamboo huts were we stayed had mattresses laid on sand and in the night when after dinner it became very cold, Ma made me wear a sweater and jacket before covering me up with two blankets. It was like sleeping out in the open under the stars. Dinner was a buffet style barbeque on the sand. There was also a campfire and I had great fun dancing there on Biga’s shoulders. After a short while, when Biga got tired and was about to put me down, another uncle volunteered to take me on his shoulders and this trend continued. Needless to say, I had a whale of a time, riding on uncles’ shoulders.
The next morning we bathed in this stream and went for long walks in the hills.
AT Koluru, I had a little friend , Lahari ( she was just 2 years, less than half my age) and both of us would sit on the swing and talk in languages only we understood.
Soon it was noon and time to return. The sight of the approaching launch signaled the end of our island holiday and at the sight of Pochavaram, my spirits dropped considerably as I realized that the ride on water was over and the journey back home was about to start now.
That night we stayed at the Rekhapalli Forest Guest House ( about half an hour’s drive from Pochavaram). There that night Biga shaved his head after dinner in preparation of the puja he would be offering at Bhadrachalam next day. The next day was Republic day and Biga donning a completely new look participated in the Flag Hoisting Ceremony at the forest rest house after which we started for Bhadrachalam and went straight to the temple.
The journey back to Hyderabad too turned out to be quite interesting with Biga (equipped with his GPS enabled iphone) trying American style driving on Indian roads. The results?- We landed up on roads which could not be located on the map, whereas the people around us failed to throw any light about routes marked on the map. And whenever and wherever we stopped, I along with Maa got down and took a walk in the surrounding fields. Watch me plucking cotton right from its roots!
We finally reached home at 8 in the night after 10 hours of driving and armed with packed biriyani for dinner.
