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| The Zero Mile Marker |
I had a chance to visit this city of oranges last month.I had applied for a PG course and the chose the centre of exam as Nagpur.It is 500km from Hyderabad and I started two days before the exam date so that I would have plenty of time to wander and check out the city.I went in AP express and started at 7am in the morning from Secunderabad and reached Nagpur at around 4 in the evening.I had a good idea about the places around the railway station and also the route to the hotel where I was going to stay as I spent a lot of time with google maps before starting.so i had no difficulty in reaching my hotel on foot.It was a distance of around 1km and I was carrying very little luggage so it didn’t prove to be a problem.Also walking is the best form of exploring that you can do in any city.My first walk in Nagpur gave me some idea about what to expect.Everything was quiet and there wasn’t much traffic here.This city reminded me of Vishakapatam in Andhra Pradesh.
Anyway I reached my hotel,located in an area known as Mominpura,which was famous in Nagpur as the place to get tasty biryanis.It was quite funny,me coming from the city of biryanis and staying in a place famous for biryani.I spent the first evening of my stay in Nagpur by wandering around the hotel and just exploring the surrounding places and streets.I was tempted to try the lip smacking non veg fare offered by the hotels of Mominpuira but the thought of the exam kept me grounded.
I ate a simple thali meals in a nice little hotel near the main road,Central Avenue and slept early.
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| Distance from Other cities |
I woke up early the next day and walked around 2.5km to reach the Geographical center of India(Zero Mile Marker),marked by the British in the 19th century.There was not much here except a marker and a sculpture of four horses.It was a bit disappointing to see that such an important landmark was tucked in a corner not getting the attention it deserved.I took a pic here and
proceeded to my next and the last item on the list,the City Museum.I had reached there 1 hour earlier than the opening time and I had to spend the time roaming the streets outside. It opened at 10am and I went inside and looked through the many galleries.There was the usual stuff,some finds from excavations in nearby places,stuffed animals,damaged ancient sculptures,paintings,coins,manuscripts,ancient clothing etc, two unique things which I saw here were both, types of guns.One was the depression era American made machine gun.It looked similar to the one used by Johnny Depp in Public Enemies.And the other curious thing I saw was the walking stick gun.It was a gun which looked like a walking stick but had a tiny trigger concealed near the handle.That was all,everything else I saw in other museums.
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| The City Museum |
There are some other minor places of interest in Nagpur like some gardens and lakes but i wasn’t interestd in those and moreover I had an exam to write.I already received some stern warning not to go sight seeing in Nagpur from my family but as usual I ignored them.I wrapped up my visit by 12pm and was back in the hotel by 1 30pm.From there on wards,the rest of my time was spent in studying in my hotel toom.The next day I wrote my exam and returned to my hotel,checked out and went directly to the bus stand.I caught the 5pm express APSRTC bus to Adilabad and reached there at 8 30pm.I had the best meals of the whole journey in a hotel nearby from the bus stand and caught the 10 30pm non stop super luxury to Hyderabad.I slept as soon as the bus started and woke up only when I was in hyderabad.And thus ended my first self visit outside of Andhra Pradesh.