memories of Ramagundam visit

This was sometime in 2003.

Praveen and I had come to Ramagundam to try an experiment on Volvo tippers operating in one of the coal mines of Sengareni Colleries. We got a chance to ride in one of the tippers.

We rode an unladen tipper when we went into the open-pit mine, had it loaded with dirt, and returned to the surface. While we waited for the tipper to be loaded, I looked up at the walls of the pit, 100m high, it was scary when a couple of pebbles rolled down. The tipper was loaded in a couple of minutes- quick job by a Volvo backhoe loader. The return ride was slower for obvious reasons... a loaded truck climbing steep gradients. With both side-screens raised shut, the cabin was silent, engine sound was a deep hum.

In the below image, the black stripes are coal deposits.

The objective of our visit was to weigh the tipper and find a way to prevent overloading. The solution we were trying was rather complex and unsuccessful.

We went up a man made hill created by dumping the OB (over burden). The tipper has to reverse very carefully, stop at the edge and lift the bucket... a very risky job.

During the three day stay, we took off few hours to see Godavari. The water, as you see was less flowingly sparsely creating tiny sandy islands. We waded through the thigh deep waters and reached one of the islands. To my surprise I saw a Shiva Linga made of sand. The night before it was Maha Shivaratri, some local person had made a sand Shivalinga in a river dune. Having seen our legendary heroes worship sand Shivalinga in Amar Chitra Katha books, it was my childhood dream of making one. However, I was happy one. A Shiva Linga made of sand is called Valukeshwar.

It was a great feeling to be walking halfway through a mighty river like Godavari. Of course it was a season when the river was timid enough. On the left is my maternal uncle Praveen and on the right is Manikantan, a colleague from Volvo India.

I picked small white pebbles unique to this river... smooth surface, white and light. I noticed my shadow under water... it had a ghostly aura. If you observe it, you can see part of me, my reflection and my shadow.

Though our experiment was unsuccessful, the trip was not a waste since our ties with Volvo got stronger.

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