Travel Diary #7 : Road trip to Medak and Warangal

It has been a while since I wrote about my adventures. Between Rajasthan and this, there has been an enthralling drive to Srisailam, unwinding Horsley Hills and exquisite Coorg. My mundane commitments didn’t allow me to describe those thrills. But here I am; back J.

Atishay got a car of his own, Mohit was in Hyderabad, extended weekend and above all it was Christmas; all stars were aligned. So, we decided to go to Medak Church. It is 80 km away from Hyderabad. It is the largest church in Telangana. We started somewhere at around 4 PM. I christened the trip “Smitten by wanderlust”, which invited the obvious leg-pulling and eye-watering jokes. We took the state highway route and it had its fair share of bumps and traffic. But any ride becomes awesome when you have idiosyncratic giggles of Mohit, wisecracks of Subodh, envious energy of Anshu and then to normalize all the madness you have reticent Atishay.

There was huge crowd at the church. It was a different experience for me when I saw prayers happening in Telugu, instead of English, in the church. It was logical, but something I could never have imagined. Making our way through the sea of people, we got inside the church and paid our tribute to the god. We took selfies and immediately stormed out. Yeah we are shameless creatures J.

There was a small fair organized near the church. Going there was a trip down the memory lane when I used to visit Pustak mela and Fun n Fair adventure parks in my home town. It was the same small scale, cheap fair with lots of people and chaos. One could easily spot the enormous giant wheel at the center of the sprawling ground with people screaming their lungs out. These screams were given stiff competition by people on other joy rides like Columbus, torpedo and break dance. People could be heard clapping on the stunts performed by troops in the wall of death. Vendors selling sweet jalebis, savory pani-puri and spicy chaats thronged by people of all age, children romping with candy flosses and balloons in their hands, women all dressed up flaunting the shopping they had done for this day and men shredding their mantle of age and blending with their younger ones. The entire place was lively and, of course, noisy.

Subodh immediately rushed to take 4 tickets of the giant wheel and Anshu did the same for torpedo. I am faint-hearted and my timid stomach cannot bear the squeamishness caused by gravity. So, I kept myself distanced from these joy rides and enjoyed watching my fantastic four. Once they were done, these guys were interested in Columbus and implored me to join them. Initially I was reluctant, but then agreed and joined the guys. My feet were trembling when I was entering the ride. Anshu and Atishay cleverly sandwiched me between Subodh and Mohit so that I don’t get cold feet and run away. The moment Columbus started moving, my fear started getting better of me and I begged Anshu to let go of me. Despite my consistent begging and foul-mouthing, he didn’t pay any heed. Yeah, he is a real scum J. And henceforth it started. Columbus screeched the pulley beneath it and commenced it’s to and fro. My screaming started and continued throughout the ride and these slimy creatures were making my video and taking snaps of me. Finally the ordeal ended. But I felt confident and happy after that; I had managed to overcome my fear.

After spending around 2 hours there, we were hungry. We found a Punjabi dhaba on map which was on NH7, but it required a detour of 50 km. We had enough time to kill and everyone willingly agreed. Eating in a Punjabi dhaba on a road trip is a must. It successfully completes a road trip in my head. By around 11PM, we finished our sumptuous dinner and were ready to get back. But no one wanted to go back to Hyderabad. After much discussion, we agreed upon Warangal. Almost 200km from there via NH7 and NH 163, Warangal was a good choice considering Mohit had to head back to Bangalore next night. With Warangal zeroed in the GPS, Anshu put his foot on the gas and sped towards Warangal.

We reached Warangal at around 3 AM. Unfortunately, all the OYO rooms were booked and no good hotels had rooms available because of extended weekend. I finally managed to find a lodge which had rooms available. It was “Hotel Decent” of the movie Jab We Met. Nestled in one of the gloomy lanes near Warangal railway station, the lodge had its aura of mysteriousness. Musty rooms, claustrophobic bathrooms, rickety furniture. The only good thing about the rooms were beds, which we were in dire need of.

We didn’t have any luggage; it was an impromptu decision to head for Warangal. There was no chance of expecting toiletries from our “Hotel Decent”. So in the morning next day, I went to market and bought tooth paste, soap, face wash and a few other things. We freshened up and left the hotel at 10AM in the morning.

We headed for Warangal fort which is around 20 minutes’ drive from the railway station. Warangal fort’s construction began under the auspices of great Kakatiya ruler, Ganapati Deva and was completed by Rudrama Devi who was his daughter and successor. Most of the fort is in ruins save the four majestic gates and a pillared mandapa with Nandi. The fort didn’t instill much interest and we quickly left the fort and headed for Thousand pillars temple. This temple used to have a thousand pillars, but no pillar obstructed the view of god in other another temple. But this temple also lies in ruins due to several attacks by Sultans of Delhi as is the Warangal fort.

We decided to head back as there was nothing interesting in Warangal and Mohit had to travel back to Bangalore the same night. But we were starving. So, we once again located a Punjabi dhaba on map and had our lunch. After lunch we started our journey back to Hyderabad.

It was a good, spontaneous road trip by a bunch of footloose, fun-loving boys which had its share of thrills and nostalgia.