Journey is the Reward

Adi’s thunderbird rolled in to pick me up to proceed for a pre-planned trip to Nagarjuna Sagar. It had been a long time I traveled in a group to fulfill the exotic desires of my nomadic chromosomes’. All of us killed the Saturday morning sleep at its infancy, and as we stepped in to our cars the sleep turned phoenix was ready to overpower the enthusiasm. Well I got the Alto’s back seat and leaned much comfortably to escape the razzmatazz of the daily work schedule. The harshness of the landscape was gradually gentled with green and this is what makes me nostalgic about the plush flora and fauna of Tripura and Bangladesh. Unlike the very familiar bare rocky hills of Hyderabad scarred and pitted; the hills here are lustily enjoying the green trees and bushes spread across. Couple of hours of drive and we realized we might not be in the right direction, we decided to have the breakfast. After a little Googling we drove across an internal road which stretches to the highway to Nagarjuna Sagar. Small pockets of inhabitations by the side of the jungle and the barren lands compel me to say the whole India is so similar. Though 16% of the world populace resides in India nevertheless there are such scantily populated places. While it was the time that the school children were flocking around in groups and running behind your cars, the ambience spelt out that people of different communities lived here happily. I was very much engrossed in thought when a jolt got me back to the highway and we found that we had made a full circle as I could find the wine shop I spotted sometime back and realized that we have to take the same route carefully and find out the point where we missed the diversion. This time we were smart enough to guide the other cars too. We rushed across the landscape and got the highway. Soothed by the air conditioner and bored by the monotonous landscape I fell asleep before I was awaken by Vignesh; to my utter surprise I could see an ocean and discovered that this is the Krishna river. We stopped to get a splash and swirled back after one of us found a crocodile floating; obviously after the board read “beware of crocodiles”. And we knew we have arrived and having all the fun possible at the spot we started back. Oh how could I miss the lunch; had some fresh water fish fry and was really excited. While I was bare feet, I decided not to get the furnace heat of the stones torture my feet and all others sloped down to the river. Then we were in the cool, green ambience of Nagarjuna Sagar and the waterfalls lashing out the dragon’s breath. On the way back to Hyderabad, we took the same route and the same internal route was strikingly an alien land for us. The only thing we could see other than the headlight was the Moon. We wouldn’t have been surprised if a tiger howled or some naxalites fluted their instruments. During the journey the weather changed, the beauty of nature changed and time began its insidious creep before we finally came to a halt. The protagonist being Change , we enjoyed a lot and started yearning for the next venture soon. Quitting mother natures lap we leaped back to our bed at night and the next morning it was the tiredness which helped the phoenix to keep me shackled till noon.