Nagarjunasagar Dam Visit

The end of Term 2 break proved to be much smaller than we thought originally. Most of the 5 day break had to be sacrificed to complete the Compstrat assignment. However yesterday we finally broke free from our shackles and escaped the prison of ISB - destination Nagarjunasagar Dam which is around 200 km from Hyderabad.

The gang that got together for the trip was very nice and with the exception of about three or four of us everyone else was with family and kids. The bus ride of about 4 hours was great fun with chit chats, light humour and pranks. It was a long time since I had an opportunity to watch India up close. I feel that if you have to experience true India you need to travel by road. Although a lot has changed, yet the farther we got from Hyderabad, the large houses and supermarkets gave way to smaller houses to thatched ones. And there were roadside dhabas and nondescript teastalls doing brisk business. We stopped at one of them for breakfast. To my amazement, even the foreigners in our group did not need second invite for the hot puris and some yucky daal. And the best part of it they are all alive and kicking today, a day after this. Talk of health consciousness.

Anyways we reached Nagarjunasagar around 11 AM and the dam was pretty nice. Although the gates were closed, we could imagine the imposing scene when the gates might be open and million cusecs of water gushing down the slope of the dam wall into the riverbed below. An hours boatride took us to an island in the middle of the huge reservoir upstream called Nagarjuna Konda. There is a nice museum where the local archaeological artifacts dating from paleothilic age to buddhist times were on display. We also had lunch in a local restaurant and after a long time had some nice fish fry.

Ettipotala falls was not as pretty as it might look after the rainy season. Yet the vista point, the adjoining park and the cafeteria provided a nice place to hangout. After ages, I rode the swing and the see-saw and felt like kids. I wish I could go back to that age - an age where there were no worries apart from homework after class.

Amidst all this fun and frolic, I felt strange...well somewhat empty. How I wished that the person I love so much was with me. Ahh wishes....Anyways after a nice evening coffe, we headed back for campus, feeling wonderfully refreshed but a bit down as the enjoyable day had come to a close. I stared out of the window of the bus and see the scenery rushing past and I felt that it is the same with me.

Just for the memory, following are a few of the pictures from the trip.