Reversing the rivers..

Over the past 10-12 months, I have traveled to some good places. All the trips are memorable. I wanted to write posts on each of them.. but really, never got enough time - so bad of me.

The most recent memorable trip is to Bhadrachalam. What started as a desire to travel from Rajahmundry to Bhadrachalam by the famous 'launch trip via Papi Kondalu' ended up as a piligrimage to Bhadrachalam. Of course, we had a trip in launch over Godavari - from Kunavaram to Papi Kondalu and back - and it was really excellent. I sincerely felt that the Godavari basin in Khammam and East & West Godavari districts is the pride of Andhra Pradesh. Very lovely surroundings.

The mighty Godavari, the majestic hills on either side, the resplendent greenery around.. it was real paradise.

It is a very sad news that the Polavaram project across Godavari is soon going to make these wonderful trips history.

I remember reading a report some time back that world over (or at least in India), having mega projects including Bhakra Nangal, Nagarjuna Sagar or not having them would not have made a net difference to the economy. The costs involved (including physical infrastructure, movement of people, land lost for reservoir, emotional issues etc.) are usually not recovered in even 100 years. Of course, they are useful for electric power generation - hydro electricity.

One should, however, remember that across Kavery, around Trichy there are two famous 'dams' - Kallanai and Melanai (rock-dam and upper-dam, respectively.) Kallanai was constructed by Karikala Chola of the yore (AD 2.). Melanai is more recent. It seems they served the irrigation needs of the area for all these ages..
(I am not very sure if Melanai is the same as Mukkombu, where the river Kollidam branches off from Kaveri.) From Mukkombu, the Srirangam island starts. Here, the anicut is constructed by Sir Arthur Cotton. A statue revering him can be seen on the land mass (a beautiful park) between Kaveri and Kollidam.
Cotton also constructed the famous Dhavaleswaram anicut across Godavari, which transformed famine-struck East and West Godavari districts into grannaries of Andhra Pradesh.
Then there is Prakasam barrage near Vijayawada, irrigating many areas in Krishna and Guntur districts.

One visible difference separating these good projects from the allegedly-useless mega projects is their size. They don't really obstruct the rivers to create huge reservoirs. They only divert the flow of the river into canals.

While Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar over the Krishna are good for hydro electric, their irrigation utility is questionable (vide point on the 'costs' above.) I have similar doubts on Sri Ram Sagar over Godavari.

Well, whatever is the past, many like me believe that projects like Polavarm on Godavari and Pulichintala on Krishna, which are on cards, are surely going to be of use to politicians and contractors than the farmers (and travel and enviro-enthusiasts like me.)

Lets see..

Tired

I am really too tired
1. Of staying away from blogs for more than 7 months..
2. Of telling myself that I will finish the drafts of blogs I wanted to publish..
3. Of not finishing them and publishing..
4. Of not blogging the many experiences and stuff I have been going through these 7 months..
5. Of...
and more..

So, I will take rest and then start afresh.

Catch you later...

Not available from vizag

Every wave brings with it a lifetime of beauty



Vizag is the most beautiful place on Earth (which in turn is the most beautiful place in the whole universe). Ask me as many times as you please, I will tell the same. If you come up with any other place and try to "prove" it is more beuatiful, I would simply not listen. To me, there is no other place on earth which comes close to Vizag, and you now know that I am talking on a universal scale.

Now, a question like "why is Vizag so beautiful?" or "why do you like the place so much" would elicit a volume from me, so lets not go deep into that right now. Watch out for more posts on that. For the time-being, a few quick answers: Andhra University, AU Engineering College, Araku, Bhimili, Beach Road, Rushikonda, MVP Colony, Waltair, AVN College, Andhra Medical College, Kailasagiri, Mudasarlova, RK Beach, Panduranga Temple, Vuda Park (anybody remembers the name Sun and Sea?), Oliver Ridley turtles, Dolphin Hill, Gangavaram, Appikonda (the place with a GREAT significance to me)... unending list.

Please see some Telugu movies especially those made in Vizag before 1995 to get a little understanding of what I am saying. Different directors have captured the beauty of Vizag in their own unique ways. The finest of them is Balachander. Balachander shows the essence of Vizag's beauty in many of his films including many in Tamil. If he doesn't need to show any particular location, he simply shot those scenes in Madras.

For some memorable movies by K Viswanath, Jandhyala, Vamsy and others including EVV old and new Vizag formed a pleasant backdrop. To date, however, Balachander's black and white movies stand out as the best (at least to my eyes).

In old movies, beach road has the lovely blue sea on one side and the University lands, the 'Collector Office Down', the erstwhile AU Ladies hostels, some old English and Dutch buildings and some green spaces stretch over a few kilometers on the other side. Only once in a long while could a car, a scooter or a bus be seen crawling on the road. Close to the Collector Office Down, used to be a beautiful statue of Krishna and Radha in a small park in the beach front. It is in this park that Gandhi - Chiranjivi - gets his first "investment" of 10 paise and goes on to make Rs. 50 lakh in 5 years in the movie "Challenge" - another master piece made in the City of Destiny.

One end of the beach road is near the Vizag 'Outer Harbor', the other 'end' is near a light house on the tip of a sand dune projecting into the sea with some rocks against which waves bang to produce lovely fountains. Unfortunately in my last trip to Vizag, I didn't see the light-house working. The Vizag Beach Road actually extends all the way up to Bhimili.




The colors of evening near RK Beach. Enlarge the photo and in the right-side end you can see the light-house in VUDA Park as a small vertical projection on the land's tip

Beyond the light house there is a fishing village which is not seen from most parts, even the many "up-lands" of the city. In fact, many Vizagites don't know its existence. From the up-lands (including Kailasagiri and some classrooms in the main building of AU Engineering College), in the morning one can see boats venturing into the sea and in the evening boats returning.. what are actually visible are not boats, but the sails.. On clear days, tiny white sails - hundreds of them - on the blue sea presents a stunningly beautiful spectacle. I remember many classes I sat through in the main building, watching this! Now, this little description itself took so long, and I feel I have told too little, what if I go on elucidating all the reasons why Vizag is so beautiful..!!?

In 1986, the place between the light-house and the fishing village has been made into what is now "VUDA Park", officially "Tarakarama Sagarateera Aramam". The 'Tarakarama' is none other than NT Rama Rao, then chief minister of AP.

Well, all that has undergone some changes and starting from 1990s, the lovely Beach Road also underwent many changes. No more is the road occassionally visited by a rare vehicle.. I am hearing that these days, even in midnight the beach road is not free from traffic!


Beach road now

When I was in (AU Engg) college till 1998, it was still not so bad. I got closest of my friends and fondest of memories in Vizag. I and my wife (not yet, then) used to meet on the sands of Vizag beach. The mention of Vizag fills me with nostalgia and I want more and more of it like a drunkard wants his wine.

Now, just a few minutes ago I got a curt SMS, "Not available from Vizag". I was puzzled as to what was not available in (or from as per the SMS) Vizag for some time till I recollected sending an SMS to this man-with-a-soul-of-brevity in the morning. This curt SMS without punctuations punctured my dreams and deeply disappointed me.

Earlier in the day, I saw an ad for sale of a beach facing apartment around Maharanipet and I immediately tried calling the mobile number given. As usually BSNL Bangalore would not get me through: "dayavittu swalpa samayadanantara kare madi" (please call after some time). I sent an SMS enquiring if the flat is still available and had built a thousand hopes till this reply came.

Other avagations

Indians (especially those of us from Andhra Pradesh), have many different avagations and we keep pursuing and talking about them often. "My son is not concentrating on studies, he is developing other avagations" is a common complaint in India; the said chap might be developing interest in cricket or art.

I know of parents (and even some teachers) gospelling to their wards that "studies are most important than any other avagations" - now, that is their grammar, read on to know why my grammar is better. One great teacher once advised me to cultivate "reading" as a habit if I 'needed' any avagations "other than studying". The same teacher averred that 'reading dictionary' is a 'good avagation'. I followed his advise and in fact in that year and later, I was acclaimed to be "very good at english" - vocabulary, they meant - "because of" the aforementioned teacher.

I had good command on grammar "because of" another teacher, who led us by example - the great BJRK of Kennedy English Medium School, Tenali. More on this school and the great BJRK in a later post.

But the dictionary on web - www.m-w.com - that I frequently use has no avagations! None!!

It in fact chided me to correct my spellings and offered to give meanings of a generous list of words ranging from "avocation" to "evacuation" and more.

I then turned to dictionary.com and it came closer to what I was looking for. It offered to help me with "evagation" instead of my avagation and I obliged. The meaning suggested is close to what my avagation is.

It read,
"Evagation
\Ev`a*ga"tion\, n. [L. evagatio, fr. evagari to wander forth: cf. F. ['e]vagation. See Vagary.] A wandering about; excursion; a roving. [R.] --Ray"

So, I am wondering if hereafter I should put an abrupt end to all my avagations and instead cultivate some other evagations..

Why specific dates???

I was in deep sleep when in the middle of the night 2006 popped up to the present and pushed 2005 into the past. Somehow I was tired and slept much early, the night of December 31, 2005. I have not even received phone call - I didn't even hear the ring - from my wife. I wished to be with my wife and daughter that night, or at least hear them over phone - but I simply slept and didn't even dream about them.

I realized late in the evening of Jan 1, 2006 that I have not listed down my new-year resolutions. One of them was time-management. Others include honoring appointments, talking to friends more frequently, wishing them for birthdays etc. I quickly decided to forget that and noted down "new year resolutions" in the "to-do" list for Jan 2. On Jan 1, I didn't want to spend time regretting.. I have this belief that if I regret on the new-year's day, I will be regretting the whole year. On the one hand logic says that this is not true - for example, New Year's day is Jan 1, will the whole year be Jan 1?? On the other, well, belief is belief.. no, belief is sentiment!

As usually, the to-do-list is still in my pocket. New activities are adding to the list, while some on the list are getting 'ticked' after being 'done'!! "New year resolutions" has not been ticked.

The ensuing weekend, in an interview to Times of India, which attracted some strong reaction from Govt of India and Income Tax Dept for other reasons, Amitabh Bachhan told, "If you want to do something, do it. Why have a specific date for it?" about New Year resolutions. Good one from a great one!!