Trips to Nowhere

The Trips to Nowhere

In my dreams I travel to places like Tuscany, Provence and the Azores, whereas in reality I am traveling to places with names like Iskilla, Kakkireni and Jiblakpally. This was sometime last month and two days ago I had been to a place called Ogod. I guess it is an example of where you can expect to go if you work for the government. It cannot get any worse than this for someone who dreams of being a travel writer. Not that it isn’t adventurous enough but somehow official trips take on a different hue that very few enjoy reading about.

In the last week of December or so while on a two-day whirlwind official tour that I made on my bike I traveled to the three places I mentioned above. In those two days I covered something like four hundred kilometers traversing interior back roads, deep in palm tree territory where one comes across toddy tappers pouring freshly collected toddy into cupped palms of those who like to have it straight from the pot. It was another time when I wished I had my camera.

Though the trip was a backbreaking one I was glad I did it. I went alone and it felt great riding on roads where one doesn’t come across a soul for mile together. It is hard to believe it is a place not very far from the city, barely fifty kilometers out of the city. Not many know that thirty kilometers out of Hyderabad the villages begin. I traveled through countless villages in those two days stopping only at four places to meet people from my department. Many an official jaw dropped when they saw me on a bike. Maybe they did not expect me to come on a bike or maybe they did not expect me to come at all because there was a bandh and rasta roko on those two days.

The day before yesterday I went to a place called Ogod. I had an ‘Oh God’ moment there when I reached a medium sized irrigation dam that was filled to the brim. The sight of the endless stretch water disappearing into the horizon was balm to the eyes. It was a pleasant surprise coming after days of travel to nondescript villages. It was also one moment when I again wished I had a camera that worked.