Uma Garimella is a Ph.D in computer science, taught at the University of Hyderabad, has worked in the IT sector, helmed training sessions and projects, and then began teaching at IIIT SriCity. But there’s more to 58-year-old professor Uma.
During her bachelor of engineer days, she and her friends had nurtured the idea of road trips. Each of them got caught up with their respective work schedules. The thought of road journeys were put on the backburner.
However, Uma didn’t want it to be a forgotten dream. She took a sabbatical from teaching for a semester and decided to drive, covering the Golden Quadrilateral. From January 10 to February 1, 2019, she and her cousin Uday, 52, explored cities they hadn’t been to earlier. “This time I felt I had to do it,” she says.
- The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) is a highway network that passes through 13 states, connects the four metro cities (Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata) and its length is 5,846km. However, Uday and Uma covered a distance of 8300km during their travel.
Winter months were ideal to hit the roads. Her friends suggested staggered trips, or getting a sponsor if the road trip can tick the prerequisites of a cause. But Uma preferred a “less complicated” independent journey. Her son Raman and daughter Deepa helped her with the prep work. “Raman prepared a checklist — things that I should take with me, like an anti-sweat powder and other necessities since I would be sitting in the car for long hours, for days. He felt I should know to change tyres in an emergency situation,” she recalls. Others wondered what if she fell sick on the way, or what if things went wrong.
She adhered to the checklist and decided to not let the ‘what ifs’ take over. An optimist, she looked at the bright side of the trip. “If not now, when will I do it?” she asks. Uday was the co-pilot while she did the driving. They spent the days on road and rested at nights. A few hotel bookings were done ahead of time while the others were done during the trip, to allow room for flexibility. If they wanted to halt longer at a city and explore its architecture, history and culture, they would do it. They spent more time in Gujarat and Rajasthan since she hasn’t explored those states enough.
“On some days we’d cover 200km within a short time. On other days it took us five to six hours to cover that distance, given the condition of roads. The route from Bhavnagar to Somnath wasn’t easy, I had to drive at 40kms per hour,” she remembers. She liked visiting the Statue of Unity, the Jaisalmer fort, Mehranghar fort in Jodhpur and Amer fort in Jaipur. She feels the expansive Amer fort requires a day to be fully appreciated.
Majestic pachyderms at the entrance of Amer Fort, Jaipur
Driving a geared hatchback didn’t seem like a tough task when she was on the trip. On hindsight, she feels a better car would have made the driving easier. Uma recounts that she and Uday were lucky to halt and eat anywhere and not fall sick. “It was a blessed trip,” she says with a hearty laugh. She remembers being fatigued enroute Bodhgaya to Durgapur: “I had to pull up towards the side of the road and take a nap.”
The duo would go on walks to ensure enough muscle movement.
Happy with the experience, her appetite for road journeys has been whetted. Uma is yet to discover the Konkan region and is also toying with the idea of a Kashmir-Kanyakumari drive. It may not be too long before she hits the road, again. Here’s wishing her luck.
