[debopam]

This is first post at Team-bhp. Hope everybody likes it.

Date of Travel: 20-Nov-2011
Total distance traveled: 300 kms

It’s been a long time since we have gone out, actually last April. There had been several reasons, lack of time, budget constraints, and my car not getting registered in Andhra Pradesh. Whatever the reasons are, finally I was fed up. At last, I decided to hit the highways, alone if required. Luckily, Last Saturday, when I called my friend Pukin, he said that they are going to Jahangir Peer Dargah on Sunday. I was ecstatic at the news. Let me put it in perspective. Pukin is at his Masters in Fine Arts at the Hyderabad Central University. He still uses a manual SLR camera, loves to be the navigator and is crazy enough himself to cope with all my tantrums on a long drive. So, the situation was Pukin’s batch mate Moinul needed to shoot a documentary on the Dargah, Pukin needed some subjects for his paintings and I needed to drive long and get some photos, all our objectives perfectly aligned.
So, I hit the roads last Sunday (20th November) at 8 AM from Kompally. The plan was to pick up Pukin and Moinul from the HCU Campus and straightaway head towards the Dargah.
Google Maps
I reached the HCU Campus by 9AM. There, we had some breakfast and started by 9:45AM. The total distance to cover was 58 km and the target was to reach there by 11.15 AM. Most of the road was the Outer Ring Road and a bit of NH7 and local roads.
As we started from there, we could hit the Outer Ring Road in 5 minutes. And as soon as we did that, we were cruising at 120 kmph with my Alto. It was fun. I tried to check how could the car bear and could pull it through to 130kmph. That’s a pretty good performance by Alto. In about half an hour, we got off the Outer Ring Road and touched a bypass to NH7. The road was good but one side was blocked by the local farmers for drying grains.


It was surprising but did not harm us as there were barely any cars on the bypass. We were constantly doing 80-90 kmph. Finally, we went off the NH7 and took the local road for around 8 km. It was single lane 2-way road with farm fields on both sides. The condition of the road is not bad and thus was very pleasant to drive on. Here we were going at around 70kmph.

We reached the place on time. Then the irritation started. As you get in all the religious places in the country, there were loads of shops around the Dargah and each shopkeeper kept blocking our way to have our car parked there. They would straightaway stand in front of our car. I came to know the utility of a power steering and small turning radius on that day. I dodged all of them and managed to park in the open. Here, most of the shops have sheds built and they would let you park your cars free of cost if you buy flower and the cloths from them. Some of these sheds are big enough to house buses as well. People come here in large groups to spend the entire day and even cook and eat in these sheds or outside.

Moinul wanted to shoot the hustle-bustle and the crowd at the dargah. We actually reached there before the crowd and could take a peaceful tour of the Dargah before it was crowded. So we did our tour, and then Moinul started his work. He started interviewing people and Pukin and I were roaming in the fields behind the actual burial. Here we could see a lot of shops who skin the goats that are brought as offerings to the Dargah.These people here also prepare and cut the heads of the goats to proper pieces.


There are ladies sitting at the back of the Dargah to shave the heads of the new borns. When we talked to them, they told us that they charge only Rs. 11 for that. However, they also get higher amounts from the rich people.
We came across a group of 3 old ladies in authentic rajasthani local dresses grinding spices on the ground. There are people who come here with the whole spices and get them grinded by these ladies. They do not even remember when they migrated from Rajasthan.
By the time we did all these, the Dargah was flooding with people and Moinul continued with his interviews. There is also an area with local jewelry shops in the Dargah campus which we took a tour of. It was fascinating.


A big surprise awaited us when came out of the Dargah. As we came out, we could see a small fair with different rides set up. We understood that every Sunday when there are crowds, that is one of the crowd-pulling attractions. It is a complete mini-fair with shops for almost everything.

It was almost 5:30PM, by then and we contemplated return. When we came back to the car, another surprise was in store for us. I already mentioned earlier that we parked in front of farm lands. The fading light of the Sun on the yellow crop was a sight to cherish.

It has been a nice day in terms of enjoyment and we were pretty happy about it. However, as we hit the roads again, we realized that we were dying in hunger. So, we headed straight to Mehdipatnam and had some great food. Finally, I dropped Pukin and Moinul back to the HCU Hostel and came back home after having driven for over 300 km. This was my highest on Indian roads and I felt very good about it. Also, I was very very happy with my car’s performance. It was days like these that I was looking forward to very eagerly when I got her.

I am attaching few of the pictures here. Let me know if anybody wants to see all the pictures.

[PGNarain]

Nice travelogue Debo. I always like reading/visiting places that are off the regular tourist map. Nice photos too, especially like the one of the rice fields at Sunset.

Happy Motoring!!

[debopam]

Thanks a lot, PG. I have a couple of more travelogues ready in my system. would post them once this one is approved.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Forum. Thanks for sharing!