In Ramagundam, Telangana, we had a discussion about how memory functions. Nikita asked my father if he recalled the place from his earlier stay there, about 37 years ago. He said it’s unwise to return somewhere searching for how you left it. Something similar to “You can’t cross the same river twice.” Ramagundam had transformed since his time as a trainee, just as he had changed.

Subsequently, he asked Nikita whether she remembered her mother or a caretaker from one of the previous hotels on this trip more vividly. The point being, that the more time spent with something/someone, the stronger the memory.

Psychologists explain ‘forgetting’ with Decay, and Interference Theories. Initial information (mainly sound and sight) forms short-term memory. Time and inattention cause this memory to be forgotten. Long-term memory is, however, semantically formed. Recalling a long-term memory is often prone to error as it involves reconstructing it. The more the decay (time), the more the error.

Anyway, knowing this now, I wanted to test what I store and recall from the trip as of 7th January 2024. Our 26-day-long trip concluded yesterday, so I’ll try to identify the things I paid more attention to.

Food, of course!

I had the chance to try several regional cuisines and delicacies. We mostly stuck to thalis initially and enjoyed their gradual change. My favorite ones were at Baripada (forgot the restaurant’s name) and the Spicy Venue Restaurant, Vishakhapatnam. Vishal recommended the latter for its Nellore Chapala Pulusu (a fish curry). I loved both the thali and the Chapala Pulusu!

In Telangana and Andhra, we had lots of Biryanis. A similar dish is Mandi which 2-4 people share from the same plate. The best mandi was in Kurnool, and the best Biryani was a tie between a place in Hampi and one in Guntur, not Cafe Bahar in Hyderabad that my friend, Atul recommended (sorry 😟).

In Kotumsar, Jagdalpur, we tried a local tribal lunch served on leaf bowls. It was simple yet delicious! We also enjoyed some mouthwatering local fried snacks with chutney there.

Another interesting food experience was in Khet, Jagdalpur, where we cooked our own meals in an open kitchen at the farmhouse.

Also noteworthy is a box of mixed cookies from Nimrah in Hyderabad that we snacked on for the rest of the trip.

Roads

Most of my attention went to the roads. Had to. I was the driver. While the passengers got to enjoy the changing greens, blues, and browns, my eyes were always glued to the shades of grey.

We traveled through eight states. Unexpectedly, we found world-class roads in most, specifically, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra, and West Bengal. There were some bad patches in Karnataka, and the ~50km stretch in Maharashtra was dreadful. We walked into Jharkhand, so no reviews.

The best driving experiences were in Orissa and Chhattisgarh, views and roads combined. My father had been terrorizing Kovid before and during the trip about the risks of passing through Naxal-affected areas of Orissa and Chhattisgarh. A few others we met echoed the sentiments for those areas and said they had never heard of any tourists documenting these areas or taking these roads. Despite the concerns, my best driving experience was in these places. No traffic, flawless roads, and picture-perfect forests.

Vegetation

My father and I share a deep interest in flora and fauna. The forests in Orissa resembled Bardhaman’s forests (where we have our farm) to some extent with the ubiquitous Sal trees.

In Chhattisgarh, a stretch had large plantations of a spread-out mid-sized tree that we couldn’t identify. After persistently asking 7-8 locals, none of whom spoke Hindi, we found out they were cashew plantations. I’ll remember this bit for the effort.

In Hampi, our auto driver, Ajay, as I recall, advised us to cultivate bananas. He explained how profitable the crop was. The majority of landowners in Hampi seemed to agree with Ajay, while the others had coconut plantations. In fact, we also met with Shamim, who sold banana-fibre-made products through a self-help group. We bought a couple of bags.

Kurnool and Guntur, and everything in between, were the lands of red chilies. I saw acres of cultivation and heaps of them on both sides of the road. And yes, the food was spicy there. There were also some absolutely arid areas here. Then we moved towards the coast and had sight of coconut trees.

Special mentions

Here are some other highlights that I remember:

• I cannot emphasize enough how much potential Hampi has. We concurred that Hampi was similar to but better than Angkor Vat, Cambodia which we visited last year. The passes for Angkor Vat range between $37 (~Rs 3080) and $72 (~Rs 5990), and our government allows most of Hampi to be explored for FREE! Strange.
• Indian Coffee House is legendary. They have tie-ups with NTPC and we stayed at a couple of NTPC guest houses during the trip. Great service and food!
• We mostly stayed at budget accommodations with nothing exceptional except Khet in Jagdalpur and a few Airbnbs.
• I got to visit Vijayawada again on New Year’s Day. We went to Undavalli caves. The trip brought back so many memories from 2020 of my teaching stint at Forbes Business School.

• Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad is a masterpiece. I’m still surprised at how rich the Nizams were. One needs a full day to truly marvel at the collections.
• Ramoji Film City!
• South India is a treasure trove of incredible temples.

• I’ll remember the close proximity and the sea view from our hotel room in Gopalpur.
• Mentions in my earlier posts: Kotumsar caves and a few waterfalls.
• A couple of occasions when we could assist policemen (and family).

Chilka will be forgotten.

Some things simply didn’t etch. Although Chilka Lake had a lot of hype before we went there, but apart from the seagulls, we didn’t find anything memorable. Flocks of seagulls kept approaching the boats during the entire ride. Vendors sold something to feed them before the ride and although kind of a forced encounter, it was a nice sight.

Kakinada could have been skipped as well. We did see a couple of temples and the beach, but nothing extraordinary.

Similarly, some of us may have already forgotten that we spent a night in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh.

Lastly, I’d certainly like to forget the sights of endless plastic bottles, for instance in the different ponds in Golconda Fort. Hopefully, we’ll solve the clean drinking water problem soon.

I’m glad we did the trip and how it turned out. Also, I am pleased that I wrote a few posts after a long time.

Thank you for reading and I wish you create the best memories in 2024! See ya.

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This article is part of a four-part blog series. Here’s the complete list:

• ROAD TRIP (PART 1): FROM KOLKATA…
• ROAD TRIP (PART 2): I EXPERIENCED TOTAL BLINDNESS FOR 2 MINUTES
• ROAD TRIP (PART 3): HAMPI: A TALE OF TWO VISITS
• ROAD TRIP (CONCLUSION): HIGHLIGHTS AND ENDURING MEMORIES

Check out the Instagram page of this trip where Kovid shared the daily highlights.