Once I bought my bike, it was a sort of celebration in our house in Hyderabad. Now all three roommates have our own bikes – Me with my Unicorn, Sushil with his Pulsar and Karthik with his ‘Yama’ha… Ramoji Film City was a sort of jinxed tourist spot for us as we had tried twice to reach it earlier but never reached there like I have explained below.
SCENE 1
We were planning to go to Ramoji Film City for a very long time on our bikes but time was always short. One weekend we decided it is time to take action and started our bikes and left our home. I knew the route because I had gone to Ramoji just a month back with my uncle and aunt who visited our home. At that time, I didn’t have my bike and was traveling on Sushil’s Pulsar and Karthik was following us. After nearly 20 kms – after crossing Tarnaka and Uppal, suddenly Karthik went missing. We waited for nearly 20 minutes near a junction but he never came. We were worried and started our return journey looking for this guy. We found him going back home. On enquiring, he said that he had lost his way and couldn’t locate us and with his cell phone battery dead couldn’t call us. So he was returning home. We were sort of pissed off and we all went home that day.
CUT – SCENE 2.
After I bought my bike that weekend, we decided to hit the road towards Ramoji Film City again. Like earlier, I was the pilot of our group and my roommates followed me without any questions. Again after crossing Tarnaka and Uppal we were going on for nearly 30 kms and there were no signs of any board about the tourist spot. I had a small doubt and after traveling 35 kms, I pulled over and asked a passer-by whether that road led to Ramoji. He gave a strange look and told me that road will lead us to Warrangal. We had taken the wrong turn and we were on NH-202 – to Warrangal. My roommates were at the verge of trashing me. We returned back home a disappointed lot. But this time, we found the exact route to the film city. This happened on August 15th, our 60th Independence Day. What a way to celebrate it… huh.
CUT – SCENE 3.
On August 19, Sunday, we made the brave decision to try our luck to Ramoji again. This time we were joined by our friends Thiyagu and Gagandeep. We watched a movie and then decided to continue from there to Ramoji. So here we go again – Tarnaka – Uppal and then…. Yippy….. it is Ramoji Film City. It was 7 PM by the time we reached there. We went inside near the main entrance and took some photographs using Sushil’s mobile camera. I had forgotten to take my Digital Camera. 🙂
So here are some snaps from our exploration to Ramoji Film City.
Some takeaway points from this wonderful experience:
- Always make sure that your mobile battery is fully charged when going on a long ride. You never know when it will be required.
- Even if you are familiar with the route to any long distance place, make sure to confirm with any of your local friends.
- If you want to go for a long ride, do take the Warrangal Highway. The road is very neat, good and surrounded by greenery. Even though we took the wrong route twice, we enjoyed our rides.