On The Road Again

Once again I broke my promise. I promised myself that I would stay in Hyderabad, save money, and lead a peaceful life. Instead, no sooner had I uttered the promise, did a need and necessity to go tearing across the country come up again.

Well, this one is a genuine case. One of our managers was getting married, and he’d very sweetly invited, and insisted that we attend. Well, it took us about 3 seconds to decide to go.

Ajith, Zareer, Gowri and me, all from team Rock (teams at Google Hyderabad are named after Genres of Music), and all of us, more specifically, are part of the Maps team, and were going together.

And so to Jalna we went. It was nice going to Maharashtra, though sad that we couldn’t go all the way to dear Bombay. The wedding was very sweet. The food was sweeter. And it was a nice break. We followed the groom on his horse, and were amused by the ‘Balaji’s Brass Band’ that led the procession with much aplomb. Even the flies joined in the festivities. Nasty things.

The day after the wedding, (and the part we were looking more forward to) we left for Aurangabad. And then to Ellora caves.

The weather was perfect. Cloudy, overcast, and yet just about not raining. The soft diffused light was great for photography (both Zareer and Ajith had cameras.) And it really was gorgeous.

I’ve been to Ellora before, during a school trip, and it was nice to revisit. I was happy to see that I remembered the major part of the caves. We wandered about and took loads of pics and then headed to Daulatabad fort.

It was a fabulous climb to the top, with each level of the fort getting more fascinating, and each with a different reason. There was no doubt that this fort was designed by a great mastermind, and very masterly indeed. It is one of the oldest forts in Maharastra, and one with a great history. Also known to be one of the most difficult to capture. It was easy to see why that was true.

There were a few canons at various point, and really amazing canons… So large, long and awesome. We took more photos. I really missed my camera, but I frequently took Zareer’s to make a photo or two.

The climb was long, strenuous, and enjoyable. Especially because it was not hot. Although, there was this one horrid point, where we nearly gave up. It was this dingy entry to the next level... a sort of dip underground, and then a narrow, pitch dark winding staircase going upwards. We walked in, and then immediately were hit by the most horrid stench. Bats. We all instantly ran backwards and nearly threw up. It was horrible. None of us could bear the idea of going back in. And we decided to call it quits and stop at where we were. But a few minutes later, after seeing other people go through (and finally when we saw 2 old foreign tourist go in) we decided to give it another chance. This time, we prepared ourselves. Stuffed tissue into our nostrils, held our breaths, had our torch out, and plunged into the horrors.

This time around, surprisingly, it wasn’t half as bad. I guess because we were expecting it, and ready to battle the stench. And we made our way out at the top. But the mustiness of the bat stench followed us.

When we made it to the top, we were glad to be there. It was worth it... all the way. The glorious sight of thousands of miles around us, it was easy to imagine a time long ago, when horses, and bows and arrows, and fire torches, and wars, and conquering, and swords, and cannons were more than just figments of our imagination. Well, only the books and movies tell us the stories now.

I relished the feeling of fatigue of the long walk. Overhead the clouds grew close and black. Very dark. It was lovely. We were a bit worried about how we’d get down if it rained, the slippery stone wouldn’t be too friendly. But it rained a bit and stopped soon. The clouds were dark and big, but the wind pushed the clouds away from our sky.

We stopped at a dhaba, and ate a large meal and then made our way to Aurangabad to catch the train. We were looking out for Maps. Hadn’t found any at Jalna the previous day, and we were a bit disappointed. But we managed to find a nice map of Aurangabad at the railway station. We obviously can’t return from anywhere without buying maps. I think I always will. Wherever I go, and whenever I do.

We boarded our train, and were sad that the weekend was over. I was gazing at the railway track in the opposite direction of where we were heading. The tracks that led to Bombay.

At around 1:00 am, the train stopped at a railway station. For quite sometime. We also heard some loud and not friendly voices. Infact, some rather alarming voices. After about half an hour, the train slowly started sliding, in the opposite direction. For a minute I thought it was just the train moving backwards a couple of feet, but then… it started gaining speed. It was astonishing. Both Zareer and me were surprised and shocked. I was actually secretly happy… coz worse came to worse, we’d land up in Bombay.. and what can be better than that! But after a few minutes when it finally sunk in that we were definitely moving in the exact same direction as we had come from, I decided I wanted to talk to someone. It was easy for us to imagine that we were

I found a couple of cops easily enough. They were lounging by the window in the next boogie. They didn’t seem perturbed. I asked them in urgency, why are we going in the wrong direction? They looked amused, and explained that this train always halts at that station and then heads back a few kilometers to get another engine and then comes back to the correct route. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, or see any sense in it, but I was relieved to have an explanation.

Am back to the grind now. Hyderabad is gorgeous right now, and am hoping to have a nice peaceful weekend this time. Though, weekend after next, have to rush off again, this time to Bangalore, to see Split, LIVE!