A rollercoaster 2020

 While 2020 has been an eventful year for almost every person on this globe, and I am thankful for me and my family to be alive,  unscarred by Covid at the end of the year, this year has been a roller coaster ride.

😔 In Jan, travelled to parents' place at hometown unplanned a day before my daughter's eighth birthday, the first she would celebrate there after her first one. In the evening, my 90+ grandfather had a head injury and I spent the night at hospital.

😔 In Feb, on the day of Sivarathri (Shivratri), I woke up with the phone call bringing the news of expiry of my grandmother - attended her funeral at hometown.

😐 In the March weekend of Janata Curfew and the lockdown, I was supposed to travel to my hometown for my grandma's rituals, only held up due to WFH preparations and chaos on Friday night at my office. Thanks to that, I was not locked down at hometown, now in a different state thanks to bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, away from my family in Hyderabad. Three of my father's brothers didn't have that luck - stuck for 3 months at my hometown.

😀 In the middle of Covid chaos, thanks to the unexpected time and rest gifted, I decided to make a career move and attended a series of interviews over a month for a small company - my first trail to shift organization after 16 years of honeymoon with my first company!

😐 Not sure how many would have braved to shift from a 250,000 big ship to a 700 boat in the current pandemic situation! 

😀 Only time will tell whether choosing the new company is a wise decision, at least, leaving the previous employer is a non-regrettable one on seeing my first full month salary credited to my bank account today.

😔 Woke up on my birthday this December with the call from my wife about the demise of my mother-in-law, took the car to highway only to realize it's the day of National Strike of farmers, evaded rallies at three junctions by requesting, only to be stuck at the fourth road-blockade on a bridge for 1.5 hours - Stuck alone in car in a roadblock (Rasta roko) on a National Highway without breakfast and lunch - the most unforgettable birthday. The worst part was not able to catch the funeral at right time.

😔 In September, for the first time in Covid, ventured with family out of town to visit a close family member's home. A person there caught the virus few days after we returned, causing tension for few days about his well-being, but finally relieved when he recovered safely. 

😐 In total, attended 3 weddings and 1 funeral, visited beach, a famous temple, with young kids post-Covid. Missed another wedding and a funeral of a close one during peak Covid times.

 😐Considering I would enter into 40s this December, I aimed at a weight loss of 6 kilos at the start of this year. Covid break again helped me in trying out yoga, all kinds of diets (tried GM, intermittent fasting, even Mantena's all raw vegetables diet) - reached the target of -6 at one point, but as of today, the delta is -1.5kg. I would take this, as not gaining weight while  staying at home for 9 months itself is an achievement. Check the graph.

😀 Thanks to WFH for 9 months (~180-200 working days), no need of driving ~140KM per day to/fro office means I saved a minimum 1600L of fuel and related emissions to the Earth; 27,000KM mileage and depreciation for my car - also conserving my time and my body as well.

😀 Started writing extensively in Telugu on a social media forum - posted 100+ answers for 100+ K views.

Thanks for reading till the end. Wish you all a happy new year 2021.

Bhuvanagiri adventure

Those were the boring routine weekends in 2009. One day, roomie Venkat and I decided to go on bike trip to nearby. While searching for any such place not more than 100km far from Hyderabad, Bhuvanagiri (Bhongir) fort came into my mind. I see this fort whenever I go by train to native from Hyderabad (Can be seen on the left after crossing Bibinagar junction on Hyderabad-Guntur line).

Bhuvanagiri is on Hyderabad-Warangal NH202 highway and Secunderabad-Kazipet railway line. It is around 35km from Uppal and 65km from Gachibowli.

We started from Gachibowli on a Saturday  morning, 6.30 AM. I have the route map print-out from maps.google.com and so crossed Mehdipatnam, Liberty and Narayanaguda without any problem. Then, we lost the way after Barkatpura. Somehow, we found the directions from localites and reached Uppal ring road around 8. We had our breakfast there and started again.

Since, those were the days before Infosys phase-II and extension works (the highway is being extended to 4 lanes), the traffic was less and we rallied smoothly. The weather was pleasant, with rain on the previous day, cool breeze, no show from sun and so it was the perfect day for a bike ride.

After reaching Bhuvanagiri by 8.45 AM, nobody could give the right direction to the hill base, though it was a small town. Somehow, we reached the hill-base and were surprised to see a locked gate at the base. We checked with a shop-keeper there and he informed that the gate should be opened at 9. Luckily, the watchman had come by 9. There was no trace of other tourists. He gave us a wry smile and issued us tickets. That added more doubts about the place.

After crossing the gate, we came across a statue named Sardar Sarvai Papanna at the base of a slope. We could see something like a small fort at the top of slope. We were disappointed to know that we came all the way to see such a small hillock and fort. It was a surprise too as the fort appeared to be on the top of a big hill while viewing from the train.

***Click on the picture to see full size***

Walking on the steep slop reminded me an old Telugu movie.

After hiking that steep, we could not find a way. Hiking was easy, but found it hard to come down.

Then, we found some steps on the left. After climbing the steps, we realized that what we had seen from the base was just a tower (guard point) and need to climb up to reach the fort.

Bhuvanagiri bus-station from the tower base -

There were no steps from this point onwards, it was just a hilly path.

Trekked this rocky path and seen some cannons there. Then, we were looking for a way to reach the fort at the top. It was like a huge rock without any proper stairs. There were some carvings like steps with railings to support here and there. We were in a dilemma whether to proceed or not. 

What if we fall from there? Who would be there to inform about us?

Suddenly, we saw a person going up with an ease. That gave us some courage. Also, two tourists joined us - we exchanged pleasantries and came to know that they too were like us, biking from Hyderabad. They followed us on this adventurous part of the trekking.

That trekking was the best part of the trip and the thrill made us forget the effort we put in. However, the scene on the top was disappointing. There were just broken walls representing the fort. Actually it was so small that I would not call it a fort. Though, we could not refrain from appreciating the efforts of the coolies who brought up so many stones atop that steep hill.

There was a BSNL telephone tower too on the hill-top and the person who trekked before us was an employee, who looks after that. He told us that he would trek everyday to attend his office duties. And, I grumble about my software job in AC room and had to drag myself to the office everyday.

Though, the fort was a disappointment, the nature scenes from the top were breathtaking.

Slowly, the place got filled up with tourists. We could see around 20 of them. So, it was not such a neglected place. We started to trek down and reached the base by 11.30.

I heard that there is a trekking path from the back of the hill, which is frequently visited by trekking and adventure clubs from Hyderabad. 

Though it was an unplanned trip, the whole experience of bike trip, trekking and scenes were awesome. We vouched to do such trips regularly, though soon broken by sudden break journey to onsite.