Trip No. 13- To Kurnool

It was anything but cool at Kurnool the two days I was there sometime last week. I was there on another of my seemingly never-ending official trips that are taking me almost all over the state. I was reluctant to go as there was a major family event on one of those days but I had no choice. I hoped we’d be back early on Tuesday but it was not to be so. I was tagged on to an officer known to be uncompromising so rather than whine to be let off I went along. On Monday morning he called me up at half past four in the morning to ask if I was ready since we were supposed to catch a five am bus to Kurnool.

He was already waiting for me inside a bus at the bus complex, holding a place for me. I dozed off all the way to Kurnool where we arrived, hot and hungry, at half past nine. We were put up at the sprawling state guest house in a room that could accommodate a large family. Luckily, it was an AC room that we got. After a quick breakfast we started off on our mission which, basically, was to brief the officers of the district about a departmental scheme for two whole days. I knew it would be boring and that I would have nothing to do so I took along a book. I had Elmore Leonard’s ‘Be Cool’ that I planned to read for the two days I would be at Kurnool.

On the first day we (sixty officers) sat in a meeting hall so small and stuffy that we all started sweating even though there were three AC units that weren’t working. It was uncomfortable all day, wiping one’s sweat and trying to appear attentive. I sat to a side, pretending to take notes. I couldn’t get to read the book. The boss who came with me was at the mike all day. Lunch was an ordinary affair. Every one was restless as it was terribly hot inside the stuffy meeting hall and the proceedings were terribly boring. The only interesting finding was seeing an officer dressed like a farmer, in dhoti and shirt among those present in the meeting.


I was wondering if we’d get time to go around Kurnool town in the evening. But my boss did not have any such ideas so he went on until late in the evening. We got back to the guest house in time for dinner. Someone had said that next to Tirupati, Kurnool district has the maximum number of temples- Mahanandi, Srisailam, Matralayam and so on but they were all far away and there was no way we could go to see any of them.

Before going to bed I opened ‘Be Cool’ to read. It is a sequel to Elmore Leonard’s classic ‘Get Shorty’ and is as good a read as the first book. I was hooked to the story and sat reading it for a couple of hours. I finished half the book and went to sleep.

The next day the meeting was at another hall which was large and airy. I sat on the dais, behind the row of senior officers, placed myself strategically so no one could see what I was doing. I sat reading ‘Be Cool’ in snatches while appearing to be listening to the drone of the speakers. Were it not for ‘Be Cool’ I would have died of boredom. I had thought my boss would conclude the meeting early on the second day for we had to leave for Hyderabad. By the time we were ready to leave it was seven in the evening. There had been a sharp shower in the evening so it was pretty cool when we left Kurnool. I got home sometime after midnight after a five hour journey with a break for dinner at Pebbair. It was a dull, uninteresting trip to Kurnool.