Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Travelogue - Srisailam
After a long 1.5yrs stint at Hyd, at last got a chance to go to Srisailam this weekend, thanks to my family. Srisailam is a holy hillock in Kurnool Dist, round about 230KM from Hyd. Srisailam is conspicuous for its Shiva Temple where Lord Shiva is named as Mallika Arjun. This is one of the rare shrines in India with Jyothirlingam of Lord Shiva. Its about 2830ft above MSL. The precincts of the temple are jostled with Forest conserved under Project Tiger. Yes Srisailam-Nagarjuna Sagar is a Tiger Reserve in India.
We were all set to start by 7AM from home by cab booked at Safari Cabs.
7AM all packed and ready and waiting!
7:15AM Still waiting
7:30AM Restless
7:45AM Pissed off
8:00AM Enter a gaunt man with an freakish smile!
It was a bad start for the day when the driver rode in late by one hour, so the wheels started rolling only by 8AM. To add to the delayed start was a slouch driver. At the onset itself we smelled trouble and we felt that driver had boozed and come. But ironically he was swearing he hadn't and we took a chance and rode forward.
15km up! - Enter Highway. The true colors started coming out from the man behind the wheels. Car was hovering intermittently between 90km/hr and 10km/hr. Apparently we sensed he had no control of the wheels. Car was moving more like a Snake from one to other end of road, on and off the road. The worst nightmare was showing its face in front of us.
Another 5km we had opined a further delay in jumping out of that would be fatal. In the mean time his temerarious drive lead him to near kisses with a speeding lorry from opposite side, a near knock down of couple of bikes driving in front. The man seemed to be out of clue and was proving to be a pillage for the well planned trip.
30km up! - Out of chaos of city, arid lands on both sides with no traces of any settlement. A sense of claustrophobia was settling in my mind after being cooped up for .5 hrs in the death ride and I had made up my mind, its time to give safety a thought. There was no sense is carrying on this spooky adventure. We jumped out of the car and bid adieu to the bogey of this 30KM ride between life and death!
Ok there comes our good old APSRTC. The bus seemed to be like a jalopy but was still rolling on thanks to the coruscating abilities of the russet man behind the wheels.
It took us to a near by village called Amangal about 50KM from Hyd. Amangal had a couple of shops and a dilapidated bus station. There were no taxis or other conveyance means available. The only go was to wait for another APSRTC to arrive from Hyd to Srisailam.
Meanwhile I just took a walk through the dusty road of Amangal and spotted a private Ambassador parked in one corner of the road. Just took a chance and set on with a deal with driver. Finally the owner agreed to take us to Srisailam and drop us back to Hyd for a wholesome 2000/- bucks. And the journey began leaving behind us the ordeals of first 30KMs.
The new chap behind the wheels was sensible and drove with a panache. And atlast SriSailam by around 1.40pm. Luckily temple was open and had a heartful glimpse of the Jyothirlingam as the crowd was mean at that point of time. After the nice darshan and sumptuous lunch we set towards the Shikaram which is the highest point in the Srisailam hills. Got some good view of scenaries around. Folklore says that Lord Rama had come to this point and seen the Temple down below, so who ever comes to this place and prays is liberated from the chores of life and death. So me too got that moksha ;-)!!
Moved on to Srisailam dam built on Krishna river. The dam site had some awesome views of the river Krishna in her whole might and picturesques mountains adoring Krishna. Clicked the camera around envisaging for capturing those wonderful moods of nature on a 4'x6' piece of paper.
And finally by 4.30PM the wheels moved down to Hyd. Reached Hyd by 9PM. What started as a nightmare ended up as a memorable trip and thorough fun!!
Till now haven't heard from the Safari Cab guys asking for payments for 30KM I drove with drunkard. Hyderabadis - you need to grow notches above in stature for defining what Customer Service is? Time is ripe now for all these Service Providers to relegate their unprofessionalism and elate their customers, when Hyd is vying for HiTech status along with Bang and Chennai.
As an end note - I am smitten by the thought that two of the major Tiger Reserves in India have places of worship in the heart of their core zones taking a toll on the conservation efforts. One is this and the other one is Sabarimala Ayappa temple which fall in the percincts of Periyar Tiger Reserve. May be the gods weren't prescient about the plight of tigers and forest in the 21st Century propelled by man's gluttonous blight. Sometimes "Gods are Crazy"!!
We were all set to start by 7AM from home by cab booked at Safari Cabs.
7AM all packed and ready and waiting!
7:15AM Still waiting
7:30AM Restless
7:45AM Pissed off
8:00AM Enter a gaunt man with an freakish smile!
It was a bad start for the day when the driver rode in late by one hour, so the wheels started rolling only by 8AM. To add to the delayed start was a slouch driver. At the onset itself we smelled trouble and we felt that driver had boozed and come. But ironically he was swearing he hadn't and we took a chance and rode forward.
15km up! - Enter Highway. The true colors started coming out from the man behind the wheels. Car was hovering intermittently between 90km/hr and 10km/hr. Apparently we sensed he had no control of the wheels. Car was moving more like a Snake from one to other end of road, on and off the road. The worst nightmare was showing its face in front of us.
Another 5km we had opined a further delay in jumping out of that would be fatal. In the mean time his temerarious drive lead him to near kisses with a speeding lorry from opposite side, a near knock down of couple of bikes driving in front. The man seemed to be out of clue and was proving to be a pillage for the well planned trip.
30km up! - Out of chaos of city, arid lands on both sides with no traces of any settlement. A sense of claustrophobia was settling in my mind after being cooped up for .5 hrs in the death ride and I had made up my mind, its time to give safety a thought. There was no sense is carrying on this spooky adventure. We jumped out of the car and bid adieu to the bogey of this 30KM ride between life and death!
Ok there comes our good old APSRTC. The bus seemed to be like a jalopy but was still rolling on thanks to the coruscating abilities of the russet man behind the wheels.
It took us to a near by village called Amangal about 50KM from Hyd. Amangal had a couple of shops and a dilapidated bus station. There were no taxis or other conveyance means available. The only go was to wait for another APSRTC to arrive from Hyd to Srisailam.
Meanwhile I just took a walk through the dusty road of Amangal and spotted a private Ambassador parked in one corner of the road. Just took a chance and set on with a deal with driver. Finally the owner agreed to take us to Srisailam and drop us back to Hyd for a wholesome 2000/- bucks. And the journey began leaving behind us the ordeals of first 30KMs.
The new chap behind the wheels was sensible and drove with a panache. And atlast SriSailam by around 1.40pm. Luckily temple was open and had a heartful glimpse of the Jyothirlingam as the crowd was mean at that point of time. After the nice darshan and sumptuous lunch we set towards the Shikaram which is the highest point in the Srisailam hills. Got some good view of scenaries around. Folklore says that Lord Rama had come to this point and seen the Temple down below, so who ever comes to this place and prays is liberated from the chores of life and death. So me too got that moksha ;-)!!
Moved on to Srisailam dam built on Krishna river. The dam site had some awesome views of the river Krishna in her whole might and picturesques mountains adoring Krishna. Clicked the camera around envisaging for capturing those wonderful moods of nature on a 4'x6' piece of paper.
And finally by 4.30PM the wheels moved down to Hyd. Reached Hyd by 9PM. What started as a nightmare ended up as a memorable trip and thorough fun!!
Till now haven't heard from the Safari Cab guys asking for payments for 30KM I drove with drunkard. Hyderabadis - you need to grow notches above in stature for defining what Customer Service is? Time is ripe now for all these Service Providers to relegate their unprofessionalism and elate their customers, when Hyd is vying for HiTech status along with Bang and Chennai.
As an end note - I am smitten by the thought that two of the major Tiger Reserves in India have places of worship in the heart of their core zones taking a toll on the conservation efforts. One is this and the other one is Sabarimala Ayappa temple which fall in the percincts of Periyar Tiger Reserve. May be the gods weren't prescient about the plight of tigers and forest in the 21st Century propelled by man's gluttonous blight. Sometimes "Gods are Crazy"!!
# posted by arunsark : 11:18 AM
