My Life My Way

I am chronicling my road trip adventure for CEAT Tyres in association with Blog Adda.

The moment had finally arrived and we were on our way to weekend getaway. We took off in my cousin’s Honda City to Maredumilli, away from the humdrum of the city. The weather was just right for a drive. Listening to old classics of Ilayaraja, on a cold winter morning, is certainly one of the small pleasures of life. We drove for about 4 hours before we halted for lunch at one of the roadside restaurants along the Bhadrachalam bridge. As we passed, through the bridge, I noticed the river was far from its prime. For a brief moment, I thought of the times I stayed at one of the towns on its bank. For most of part of the journey, we cut through many small towns and villages, it certainly didn’t feel like the road trip we were looking forward to. Post lunch as we resumed our drive like it does in a session right after lunch during a Test match, there was a sudden shift in momentum, suddenly, the roads got less and less busy and we were surrounded by more trees than people and vehicles. A sense of serenity encompassed us. We were lost amongst the beauty of nature, the hill-tops. The sun tried his best to outsmart us with his game of hide and seek as the rays tried to cut through the dense and tall trees on the hill. It was in those moments that we enjoyed the golden hours of the dusk the most.

At this point I would like to mention an interesting experience, as we were lost in the surreal beauty of nature, we have come to one of the steepest hairpin bends on the ghat road and there was a truck carrying a load of gravel stones right in front of us. It was overloaded and the driver was so reckless that a lot those stones fell off from the truck on the road. It caused us a lot of problems, but my cousin being a skillful driver that he is, he managed to climb up the slope with some dexterity. It reminded of one of those commercials from CEAT tyres on TV, that the road is full of idiots, it is our responsibility to stay safe. That indeed felt very true. Oh, yeah, please ensure you fasten your seat belts. It really proves very helpful and for our own safety J

It was very dark and the temperature seems to have dropped by many degrees by the time we reached our stay the destination. Well before I move on, I would like to make a point on the etiquette of highway driving during the nights, every time you see a vehicle approaching you in the opposite direction, please ensure you lower your high beam, else it might block other person’s vision and may lead to accidents.  As soon as we reached the place of stay, we were served with warm and sumptuous dinner. The next day morning, we headed to a hike in the nearby forest at Rampachodavaram. We did enjoy a lot of guavas freshly plucked from the trees in the forest and trust me, they were the tastiest ones I have ever eaten. We visited a temple under one of the caves in the forest. Later in the evening, we have been to a sanctuary close by and we spotted a few of wild deer. It felt lovely to spent an entire day in the valley of nature cut away from all the chatter of the city. In the night, we had some interesting conversations with the people in the villages close by about their way of living and how life goes by for them. Those conversations felt really insightful and it reinforced my belief that we do have something to learn from everyone we meet.

Next day we set off back to Hyderabad and on the way back, we made a slight detour to visit the waterfalls near Rampa and it was breathtakingly beautiful. We could hear the gushing sounds of water from almost a couple of miles away. We spent more than a few hours without realising how time passed by. We found it hard to leave the place, but we had to as we have a life of sorts awaiting back home ;). It has been close to a year since I visited that place last, but every time, I feel like getting recharged, the mere of thought the place makes me feel so refreshed. Maybe you all should try visiting that place sometime soon. Trust me you would thank me for suggesting it for you.

I enjoyed reading  Arvind Adiga's debut novel  "The White Tiger". It is dark, gritty tale of a man  from  the vast hinterlands of  India, we all know little about. It was the story of this man's journey who rose from  the position of a cab driver to  an entrepreneur. Arvind takes us by sheer  surprise  with the way he warrants  that there is an inherent grey side in everyone of us which presents itself  at  the  most opportune moment and turns us in to  animals from the wild even before we realize it. He deals with the underlying theme  of  "Everyone is only as good as the situations allow them to be",very effectively.

So the moment I knew   his second book was out, I wanted to read it. Finally I ended up reading his latest work "Last man in  tower", a few months ago. The story is about  a set of families  who live in  a very old society apartment,  which is located at the far end of Mumbai amidst  stinking slums.  The real estate boom has started to take off in this  part of the city and in his quest to exhibit his  numero-uno status in the  construction  business, one of the major real estate developers in the city proposes a  seemingly unrealistic offer  to the residents of the  housing society with a deadline, after which the it would be withdrawn.  Things start to get heated up when  an old teacher, a widower, one of the residents in the tower refuses to accept the offer. With every passing minute, it is like a time bomb ready to explode, that is how bad the situation builds up to be. In the due course, we are presented with the reasons for his refusal, his strained relationship with his son  and the fond memories he has with his daughter in his apartment. That is as much as I intend to divulge about the plot.

Just like in his first book, Arvind tries to explore the dark facets of human beings and how seemingly ordinary people can turn in to vicious savages in the face of luring money and  persuasive greed. Despite  an interesting  premise, the book seems to flounder because  it is unsure  of the course it is about to take, if it is trying  to  be sardonic or be a grim tale  about the harsh realities of life. If the  content was intended to be satirical, the writing is just not sharp enough and  for a serious story, the approach doesn't feel right with half etched characters. A little more depth to the back stories of other characters apart from the old school teacher would have made the proceedings  little more interesting. The long musings of the school teacher  though adds  to the better understanding  of his mindset and  his reason behind the refusal, it fails to evoke the necessary sympathy with his situation and  slows down the pace considerably. The other characters also looked  convenient and clichéd ,but maybe that is the writers way of saying it subtly, hey that is how life is," clichéd".

For all its intended purposes the book didn't quite work that well for me. However maybe you might disagree, you might like it. Give it a try, it is worth one.