Gandikota, the ‘Indian’ Grand Canyon – Thy beauty is pristine and virgin!
Gandikota’s beauty is to be seen to be believed. This was my first time to this place near Jammalamadugu in YSR Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh State, India. I had been longing to go to this place since a long time now. But I hadn’t even heard about this when I first saw the Grand Canyon in the USA from nearly 36,000 feet above the ground while moving across it in an airplane!
Now, that was one spectacular view. Luckily, I was sitting by the window seat. Talking of window seats, I always had the fortune of having them in nearly all my flight (yep, my professor paid for them through his grants) trips during my PhD days. Once, an American told me he wanted the window seat. I denied him. How could I explain to him that I never intended to come back to the US after my Phd?
I came back from the US in December 2007. Honestly, I don’t remember exactly when I came to know about the Indian Grand Canyon. But finally, I went there along with my family on the 10th of this month, i.e., October 2026.
The initial preparations before the trip
As usual, before leaving for the trip, I called my relatives if they wanted to come along with us. My second brother-in-law (b-i-l), who lives in Kadapa, was reluctant to come as he has to look after his aged parents (my in-laws).
We asked at least to send his elder son (who has been close to us since he was a small kid) to come along with us, but he had a fever after a ‘big’ classmate of his had accidentally fallen on one of his upper limbs while taking a catch during a cricket match in their school!
So, it was just our family, excluding my old mother. My daughter asked her to come along with us. However, she said no. Even though Google Maps was there, I contacted a friend who had gone to Gandikota before.
My b-i-l didn’t know the route properly, as he had never gone there before. I suddenly remembered a tailor (who does only alteration of clothes and doesn’t stitch new clothes at all!), a friend of mine who had been to Gandikota a few months back.
Google Maps showed two routes — one via Proddatur and the other via Kondapuram, Yerraguntla, and Jammalamadugu. The former route had a toll of ₹50/-.
My tailor friend said he had been to Gandikota via the Yerraguntla route. He said if I went to the town center there and ask for directions, I could go to Gandikota via Jammalamadugu. When I stayed in Anantapur from December 2020 to April 2024, I had observed several times, while driving, a signboard saying the distance to Gandikota was 22 km.
Actually, I had been wanting to visit it for a long time. The trigger, however, this time for visiting was my daughter. There is a saying in Hindi, “Dekhi dekhi, chulha phooki” meaning she saw her neighbor blowing the cooking hearth (stove) and she too did it!
My friend/s do, I too do!
My daughter has three close friends from her tenth-standard days. One is the only girl for her parents among a bunch of four of them, three of them being boys. The two other friends are twins who were born after their brother to her parents.
Whatever her friends do, my daughter too has to do it. Recently, these friends had visited a dam, Adinimmayapalli, along with their family. Our family too initially planned going there, but there were a deluge of Instagram videos stating that the water level in the dam was severely low!
The Journey Begins
So, we suddenly decided to instead go to Gandikota, and we started to go to Gandikota on a Saturday (it was the second in the month). By the time we got up, got ready and moved, it was nearly 9 am. There is a Hindustan Petroleum (HP) petrol bunk near my house, the Theja bunk. As I started moving towards it to fill up my car’s tank with petrol, I saw there was quite a long queue of vehicles waiting to fill their tanks up.
And as usual, the Theja petrol bunk guys denied us the privilege of free Nitrogen gas checking and filling up for my car tires! I don’t know why these people mention free air, free this, free that in their bunks. Probably, just to attract publicity, I guess!
We decided to get out of the city and fill up our car’s tank outside of the city. And finally filled it up at Bhutto petrol bunk, outside of Kadapa. I had seen the Bhutto surname on a few vehicles few times in Kadapa. Bhuttos are Sindhi Rajputs originally. MashaAllah, the diversity in India is amazing!
We started moving fast as the sun was heating up. Even though it was October, it was showing no sign of lowering its heat! We reached Yerraguntla’s town center and began enquiring about the route to Gandikota. An auto-driver suggested us to go to Muddanur and go from there to Gandikota. He said the road was very good.
After going forward a bit more, we stopped again and enquired. This time, the new guy gave us even more precise directions. He said there was a HP petrol bunk just outside Muddanur and exactly opposite to that bunk was the route to Gandikota.
The Road to Gandikota
We went forward as suggested. And once we reached our preferred required road, we saw that it was brand new! The road was straight and beautiful. I drove on, admiring the scenic beauty in the countryside.
As we reached the end of the road, I once again (I had been asking my daughter to check Google Maps occasionally) asked my daughter to check Google Maps. And imagine my surprise when I encountered the dreaded blunder Google Maps sometimes commits myself for the first time in my life!
To be continued……