A visit to Pochampally village

Pochampally is the land of exotic  Ikkat weaves and the historic Bhudaan movement.  This was an unplanned long drive with family on a Sunday. My Alto must have felt good to cross the city limits and feel the freshness of nature as we touched the highways. Pochampally is 50 kms from Hyderabad; driving on the busy Vijayawada highway was quite a thrill! The village is surrounded by scenic hills lending it a picturesque look.

As we entered the village, I felt excited about  meeting some weavers and spending some time with them. I drove past the narrow lanes of their colonies and found that almost all the houses were locked.  Then we got to know that they had come to the city since it was a Sunday. So we couldn’t meet any of them. Then we headed towards the APTDC guest house and found that the staff was ill-equipped with information about the place. In fact, the entire guest house and museum complex was deserted. However, we caught a glimpse of the lake while driving; the lake didn’t seem to have been maintained properly.

Later, we wanted to try our luck with the Handloom park. Even the park was closed. The security person told us that the best time to visit Pochampally is on a week-day! Added to these disappointments, we could not find any good eatery on the main road. So we ended up buying some stuff from a ‘mithai bhandar’ for the return to the city.

The trip would not have been so bad if the government's initiatives were well-thought out to promote eco-tourism on weekends too! Pochampally has tremendous potential for eco-tourism, hope it is optimized well for creating awareness about our weavers.

Taramati Baradari

Few notes on visiting Taramati Baradari with my office team:
Legend has it that Abdullah Qutub Shah (1614-1676), the grandson of Mohd. Quli Qutub Shah, the founder of Hyderabad was a great lover of music, poetry and dance. An admirer of Taramati, the courtesan, he built the Baradari (pavilion with 12 doorways) for her, close to the Golconda fort. He could hear her sing at the Baradari from the fort. Sounds amazing but not incredible! Remember your visit to Golconda and the awesome acoustics of the fort, and how we marvel at the way it was integrated for entertainment and safety during reign of Qutub Shahi rulers.

Cut to 2008 - there you are, in the midst of smog, noise and the din of a booming metropolis, the new Hyderabad rising to prominence with liberalized economy, globalisation and a preferred destination for job outsourcing. This was my third visit to Taramati Baradari in the last two years and I was stunned at the pace at which the surroundings are getting encroached with high rise buildings and other concrete structures. Very soon, this historic monument may lose its identity as a serene spot tucked away from the humdrum of the city. Taramati Baradari, along with Golconda fort, Qutub Shahi tombs and other heritage monuments are literally getting smothered by the uncompromising array of modern constructions. If these were not located on hillocks, probably one would have missed these landmarks of a city -that tell a thousand tales about its rich culture and heritage.

We were lucky to view the sunset, though not so spectacular as earlier when there were fewer building around this place. However, viewing the moonrise with the Golconda fort as the fainting backdrop presented a maginificent sight to behold.



















As the monument gleamed in the dynamic lights of myriad hues, a strange quietness filled the air, occasionally disturbed by the vehicular movement on the road.
We attended the Kuchipudi dance performance by Raja Reddy and Radha Reddy in the auditorium (sad, it was not in the open air theatre, perhaps it was too big for this event, as the turn out of people was quite poor). This was organized by APTDC as a part of the Taramati festival. Dinner at Haritha restaurant was just a random pick of rice and curries, since the restaurant was more focused on serving the special invitees for the dance program and the tourists.

Haritha - 7 Kms

Typical Hyderabadi weekend when cyclone hits the coastal AP, especially in early winter - cloudy skies, light drizzle, chill breeze - perfect weather for snugging up in the cozy corner of one's home, snacking on some hot tea and muffins, perhaps catching up with some reading as well. This time I wanted to do something different since I badly needed a break from daily chores, especially that inevitable visit to Ratnadeep for vegetables and other stuff.

None of us wanted to remain indoors, just felt like unwinding, may be go for a refreshing long drive that would take us away from the din of the city, at least for some hours. We started and drove towards NH7. Sandip was keen on some bird-watching, armed with his camera and binoculars. We could not see many birds though, mainly due to the inclement weather. We crossed Medchal and were about to reach Toopran, I badly wanted to have some tea, so thought we would stop at Reliance Plaza, unfortunately it was closed. We were unable to see any tea vendors around, then Sandip spotted a signboard on the right pointing to Haritha (the APTDC restaurant). I took a turn and entered into a road that showed Haritha 7 kms. To our surprise it turned out to be a lush green driveway that connected to Gajwel about 25kms away.

Serendipity - was my word of the day for this splendid Sunday!!!

This lovely road had some green and golden paddy, potatoes and other vegetables farms lined up on both sides of the road, neatly interspered with sugarcane and some mango orchards. There were some ponds too, that make it look even more picturesque. We stopped for a while, since we found some rare birds near the waterbodies. The panoramic view was simply exhilarating. However, we could not find Haritha anywhere on this road. Half way through there was a temple, wondered if it was a famous pilgrim spot, and concluded that the restaurant would be in the temple complex. We were not sure about it, coz the temple did not seem big enough to be promoted by APTDC. Nevertheless, we did not slow down near the temple, the place was too crowded with people since it was an auspicious day for vanabhojanam. We reached Gajwel and took a right turn to state highway that connected to Shamirpet. It said Hyderabad 60 kms. Towards our right we spotted a big Haritha restaurant, but we weren't prepared to turn back. Was this the restaurant that the signboard pointed to, we speculated ? It was exactly 27 kms from that point? May be the '2' before '7' got erased from the signboard? Were there two restaurants by the same name within such a short distance? We were just wondering trying to solve the Harita puzzle, but thanks to the Haritha signboard we got to drive through some pleasantly serene avenues, full of rustic charm, that made us hard to believe that we were just 60-70 kms away from Hyderabad.