0 Gandi and Devunikadapa

Some time 1992 to 1994.

During one of the many trips to Chilamkur Cement Works, I got an opportunity to visit Gandi an important pilgrim place in Kadapa region of Andhrapradesh. Mr.Pulla Rao, one of the company employees with whom we worked closely wanted to visit Gandi on particular day which was supposed to be auspicious. Our visit coincided and dad offered to take our van ...which meant I had go. I was expecting one family 2 adults + 2 kids. Next morning ...the van was packed, 7 adults and 2 kids.

I think we left by 8AM ...it was pretty warm by then. Roads in Kadapa region were terrible as it is. After an hour's journey, we had to leave the main road and took smaller roads. The roads got worse, I remember a kilometer or two stretch of road under repair had cricket ball sized stones spread out. I had no choice but to drive over them. SUVs are the right vehicles for these roads. Anyway we ploughed way deep into the country. The van's battery terminal was loose, I had to fiddle with the cable to close the circuit ...and because of bad roads the terminal would get loose more often. What a a journey- driving in hot weather on terrible roads with a loose connection which killed the engine when it felt like.

I was getting impatient. The terrain was changing, we could see hills now. Also the traffic was increasing ...people visiting Gandi. We were close to the first destination of the day- Gandi. Interior Andhra roads barely have bridges across major streams and even some minor rivers. Roads actually pass over just a few feet above the stream/river beds. One storm these streams flow rapidly. There's a saying in Kannada- nadi nambabohudu aadare halla nambabaradu -which roughly translates to "rivers are predictable but streams are unpredictable." It's true. Gandi is on a stream bank and road passing through the stream bed was under repairs. It was loose soil and I had a tough time driving this short stretch.


Wikimapia screenshot

pic by cvsharibabu

At last were reached. I'm not the type to go into crowded temples, while my passengers went to the temple, I hung around near the van looking at the hill rising above the temple. Monkey population was considerable. Pilgrims kept them busy by feeding them coconuts and banana. I could see people walk across the dry stream bed to another hill. It seems there was another temple. I liked this place, it would be fun to visit during rainy season. Mr. Pulla Rao et al were done with their pooja & prayers and ready to leave. While we had pooja prasada Mr.Pulla Rao told me that monkeys here turn taps to let out water, drink water and turn it back. Some humans need to learn from monkeys here.

Our second destination for the day was the Devunikadapa Venkateswara temple on the outskirts of Kadapa town. Mr.Pulla Rao told me this temple is considered as the gateway to Tirumala temple and pilgrims visit this temple before going to Tirumala. The word 'Kadapa' is supposed to have been derived from Gadapa- threshold in Telugu. This temple was peaceful with just few people. I remember seeing a man totally sloshed and rolling on the floor ...combined effect of alcohol and sun is something else. We had lunch, typical Andhra dishes- rice, dal, pickles and chatnis. We rested for a while and headed back towards Chilamkur. Back at ICL staff colony my passengers thanked me for the safe journey.

Research shows that there are many places of historical importance around Kadapa such as Gandi Fort, Ameen Peer Durgah, Masjid e Azam, Khajpeta, Bagwan Mahaveer Museum, Chand Peera Gumbadh, Sri Lanka Malleswara Wild Life Sanctury and many more.

Even though we have passed through Kadiri several times never once did we visit the ancient temple. Some where between Kadiri and Chilamkur I remember seeing an ancient well with steps leading into it. These must have been made to make journeys comfortable for travelers of those days. The view from top of Kadiri hills is lovely ...not much greener around but it has it's own beauty. During one of our night journeys we had stopped at the top. It was silent, clear sky full of stars sans moon, fresh cool air ...we just stood there taking in the wonderful feeling.

I want to tour Andhrapradesh once ...starting with Belum Caves.

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Detail: Gandi and Devunikadapa

0 Chilamkur to Kurnool

Our maiden visit to Chilamkur Cement Works one of the many cement plants of India Cements Limited. It is located in Andhra's Kadapa district, a dry and hot place. Dad, Praveen, Anish and I in our van. We reached ICL around 1-30AM. The factory and the staff colony are near-by. Mr. Sastry of Instrumentation Department looked pretty patient even though we disturbed his sleep. He arranged for us to be put up at the guest house. We were at the guest house annexe, a sparsely furnished two bedroom house with big lizards crawling on it's cracked walls.

Later in the morning we visited the factory; instrumentation department and the plant weigh bridge were our destination. We got an opportunity to see the control room of a cement plant ...it looked pretty sophisticated. The weigh bridge was not in working condition and we were supposed to give a quote to rectify it ...make it work. It seems the system had hardly worked since the day it was installed. We studied the weigh bridge and suggested change of load cells ...overall we would be simplifying the entire mechanism. The platform was a cement cast deck and it looked real solid. If I'm not mistaken the 9m x 3m platform weighed close to 10 tonnes. The meeting was over and our next destination was Kurnool.

We left Chilamkur after breakfast and our route as suggested by local people-

• Chilamkur
• Proddatur
• Jammalmadugu
• Gollapalle
• Kolimigundla
• Owk
• Banaganapalli
• Betamcharla
• Orvakal
• Kurnool

We heard about Owk reservoir and decided to visit it. I remember it was Sunday but cannot recall the name of the place we bought warm beer bottles. I was the only teetotaler of the group. I wondered how these people would be drinking in hot and sunny weather. On the way to th dam we stopped at a stream to freshen ourselves. Dad put the bottles in the stream bed and let them cool. About the dam we were heading to; it was a minor river hence the dam was not a big one. The dam was open to public and we could see people all over the place ...no restrictions, no security, nothing. As we drove up the dam to get a better view of the whole place, we were shocked to see dead fish floating in water, silvery and white, lots of them ... in hundreds. We drove our van right up to the crest gates... point where cement structure meets the steel structure of the crest gates mechanism. Several steel plates were missing exposing huge gaps in the floor. One careless move here could send the person down into the reservoir. We spent some time looking around. The wall was narrow and we tried reversing the van but we could not so we went back in reverse all the way back. We picked up Dad and resumed our journey.

We stopped for lunch at a khanavali (family managed joint which serves home made food). On the menu was rice meals, chicken dishes and mutton dishes ... all in typical Andhra style. While Dad, Praveen and Anish ordered some chicken dish I settled for a veg meal. Andhra meals are spicy by default with options for extra spice. 3 types of chutneys were served, made of green, red and white chillies. Going by the colors, red was hot, green was hotter and white was guaranteed to make a turn your mouth into a blast furnace. I did not want to try out any of them ...the after effects can be ... what do is say ... mouth is not the only part that would on fire, even the stomach would be on fire. By the end of the meal Dad, Praveen and Anish were gasping for air and gulping down water.

We resumed our journey towards Kurnool. Small hills are scattered over this region with roads running through them. The journey was quite interesting ... a short stretch of road was carved over a rocky hill ... effects of light and shadow was something to be photographed but unfortunately those days we never used to carry cameras with us. We placed through many villages and small towns. One of the towns name was Owk ...I liked the name. Towns and villages between Owk and Betamcharla are full of stone cutting mills ...mostly Cuddapah stone slabs. We reached NH18... Kurnool was another 40 kilometers or so.

Years later, I realized Andhra was close to my heart ...it's people and culture are close to Karnataka's.

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Detail: Chilamkur to Kurnool