last….one…longed….one…

Hey really the last post really longed one more asap from me…..let me do that today…..

Writing from i have left earlier…i will update my journey to Rajahmundry and the trip – let me continue…..

Let me describe my journey on the boat…

We have started from Rajahmundry early in the morning, too a cab to the polavaram – the best time to take the trip as told by the localites would be from September – December i.e. right now, pack your bags and start the journey right now – what are you waiting for? ; sadly we were taking that trip in the February – mind you it was scorching the day before we thought we would be fried on the boat we are going to take the next day – but we were lucky indeed the day we took our cruise was really cool in all literal sense.

Coming back , the the journey from Rajahmundry to Polavaram took about 1.5 hours, as the journey was along all the beauties of the Coast – the fresh air, the chirping sounds of the early birds and the sound of the villagers gathering on a free-from-work holiday at work; really i feel jealous of them when they have only 8 hours of work every day and have a good sleep and a healthy environment around to add to my already jealous eyes! really we people who are working in the metros(fyi – Hyderabad is one of them now i guess….) i feel that we tend to care for money and crave for the things it brings along with it(miseries most of the times) a lot compared to the happy going merry loving and simple living villagers – India has many of those and the politics mainly bank on these people – till now i havent seen intelligent people as them as they really utilise their franchise and the do it very intelligently, as you can see many governments have fallen and risen mainly due to the change done at root level – but sadly very little is done as a reward for their honest citizenship and the hard work they put in in their acts of improving the country’s economy.

I was actually a bit wayward as Ajit Agarkar is nowadays in the Cricket – mind you as any Indian any topic ends in a discussion around Cricket or atleast a mention of that. Yeah, the trip went on – the hunger began to strike its first bell, we had a pit stop to have some fresh(not so fresh) idlies(very much south indian food), and satiated a bit – to my horror i have found that i have placed one of the four rechargeable batteries in the hotel room which i am never going back to again atleast on the journey i took that time, what next i was totally nuts and was simply cursing me and one of the guys who was along with me and seen the battery pop out of my pocket but kept mum thinking it to be an empty one, so simple mistakes make a complex personality of me and myself.. ha ha ha…..it was good and made me a little bit more careful from the next time what else can we do? – so back at the cab and a group of 6 restarted from the temporary halt for break fast at 8 (this is not a CNN program mind you ) the journey continued along the coast and around 8:30 AM we were at the polavaram – the place where the launch/boat/electric steamer were to start for the journey of a life time atleast for myself – i was really waiting for this to happen.

It was a good 3/4th kilometer the journey from the place where we parked our rented cab to the launch – where there was sufficient water to park the launch, so we started by the time we were anywhere nearer to the launch we were like people who were returning from a good steam bath – I had expected that the humidity would be high but never seen such thing in my life till now, luckily my knapsack consisted – a pair of clothes, a towel, a napkin, a digital camera, a pair and half of rechargeable batteries, a disc man, some music CDs and the recent one being – Sivaji the boss(telugu), a water bottle and some eateries, by the time we reached the launch my over enthusiasm made me land into a different boat i was pulled back by my group of friends and well i was in the correct boat – CORRECT DESTINATION reached yippee…..so was good, in fact not having any reservations till now, when i pondered about the state of the affairs at the first boat and the second one – i was in awe as i could see around 100 people can be seated easily on the second one and it was easily the best among the two i have seen.

So, the boats were waiting for some call to be delivered by the captain- cum – driver cum- owner of the boat( having around 25 years of experience on water – my professional career really cannot see a person that old as the career i chose never had such people still working – either they will be retired or they would be the honorary managing directors of their companies) . Let me describe the ambience on the boat top, it is something like a party on your house top – a kitty party on the boat top, the chairs are placed in rows and soon they was the hustle as the people came pouring in they have formed the circles of rows funny statement right…yeah there were indeed forming groups as they were more families being it a Sunday it invited many outsiders from the rare locals who rarely take the journey once in 2 years – one of the local commented it that way, we were surprised and in a sense feeling wonderful for them as they had the privelege and the luck to have the frequent visits.

Well, finally all the people settled and many were feeling restless as the boat was not starting – it was 0945 hrs and it took a good half hour to let all the people settle, the captain was waiting for the one of the bus to arrive; we were told we would have a wonderful and sumptous lunch on the boat itself sometime during afternoon – it was definitely on the list i was maintaining to have on the trip – I was told by my parents who have been here earlier to have a good lunch on the boat itself – you have no other go if you are actually planning to avoid this lunch – it has a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian meal and the people who were having it really savored the taste upto what they have expressed, myself am a strictly vegetarian guy till now and i have been practicing it because i dont like to eat the non-vegetarian food.

minutes and the captain gave the horn and signalled his staff to remove the anchors and boy…we were sailing it was a great experience and i took the first row and was really clicking all sorts of things on my digicam….my mobile too had the privelege of letting me click whatever i could, Forgot to say the first thing i did when i actually caught my right boat – any guesses? here are your options – look for a tiffin, look for a bottle of water, look for a chewing gum, look for a chair, none.

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.Caught guessing wrong???…i thought a little bit of involvement of brain would be great apart from the boring lines 1299 words of English till now … really you saw it right…it was 1299 words until last ‘now’ .. ha ha a fun fact indeed…..The first i searched for was for a plug point to charge my rechargeable batteries and i was thrilled to find one and the guy who was having a small shop in that boat was really kind to let me in charging my batteries and in a way recharged me for the disappointment i had when i found that i have lost one of the four earlier i am left with only 1 set of working as the third one is almost a dud…though it had charge it is ‘SINGLE’….pun unintended……so moving ahead….the boat started moving bidding a temporary adieu to the shores where it had taken a nap till now for the fiercely and at the same time enchanting waters of the river godavari and i am sure that it had re-couped all its vigours and charm to start a wonderful journey once again and as it moves nonchalantly trying to take all its passengers on a safe and a momentous journey maybe once in a life time journey in most cases.

The journey starts slowly as the waters near the shore are shallow, but as soon as the shallows are over the sail takes it speed i am told by the captain that it reaches 50 kilo meters per hour for the max speed which is considerably very much less on the suburban roads of Hyderabad of which i have lot of acquaintance, hmm….sounded very much slow but it was definetely much greater than i anticipated it was way too much and the boat would move up and down at that speed, since it was the case of the second state of matter – the waters; really the boat takes one hour to cross twenty kilometers once it reaches the shallow waters but on an average it clocks 30-40 kmph during its normal sail. The guide was busy explaining the places where film-shoots happen, and i was told that the directors like KVishwanath, Vamsi, Raghavendra rao the senior professionals in that filed love directing their films on this nature given canvas – indeed they got credited because of these natural beauties which can be seen along the coast of the river.

Unfortunately, the good things are not lasting forever in this materialistic world, we should be responsible for all the damages done on this environment on the ecological front mainly – this heaven on earth is soon going to disappear as its going to be submerged by the project soon to be developed at this juncture which is going to definitely submerge the Papi hills, as it is the place at which the reservoir is going to be built.

But still, the moments of joy it has given till now cannot be forgotten and as the moments are yet to be savored -as the project has not commenced yet, i sincerely recommend that you have this in your kitty and make you one more happy traveller who feels – a good day – a good place – a good hangout – mission accomplished much alike me ha ha ha…..

I could see the initial damage being done -the markings of the Dam that is going to be built and the initial work of the catchment area being done to build the project, the power supplies being setup all are not definetely a good sign – they indeed give an alarming signal of the happenings. The power transmission towers are at a good height above ground of around 20-25 feet which are completely visible from base(I mean from where i see them – really convinced that it was starting from the basement) and i was told that the during the monsoons the waters reach half of the tower – i was shocked to calculate the amount of water – huge number of gallons and all that goes into the Sea unused – the main reason to build the dam being this one quite funny ….we the end-users with a little bit of conservation and a little more of care would have eliminated such catastrophic killing of nature’s utmost beauties not only here but around the world.

The sail started and the anecdotes were ranging from funny to interesting to crazy and sometimes even dangerous, funny such as the place where a popular telugu film shooting comedy scenes were involved – remembering those scenes tickled the funny bone, and the historic front we can see a police station which is in a dilapidated condition as we see it now – it was one of the Britisher’s office being captured by an extremist of this state’s origin who contributed his part to the freedom struggle of this great country – he was indeed a brave one and he is none other than ‘Alluri Seetha Rama Raju‘. Moving ahead, we see some crazy stories being told – one of them, I was actually shocked to see the guide’s casual behavior when we see smoke coming out of one hillock – when i enquired one of the workers on board i got the strangest of the answers – Read my conversation

me: ‘Yemaindhi babu’(What happened sir?)

he: ‘Yemee ledhu sir, kattalu erukune vaadu, chutta veliginchukuni aggi pulla padesi vuntaadu – adhi a konda meedha vunna chetlanni kaalchi vuntundhi’..(nothing sir, it was just a case of irresponsible act of a wood cutter, after collecting his firewood – he let his match stick eat the forest with his cigar)

me: totally nuts !@#!@$!@%!@@#$%$&%^*)!!!!!

really didnt anticipate such answer – i liked the creativity of the quick answer, and the nonchalance with which he gave the reply – from then it was one of the funny incidents i used to convey to my friends – the enormity of the fact that it is by no means a thing to be ignored but the casual manner in which he tried to pacify me or he tried to inform me was the point which triggered a sense of humour out of a disaster in me. hmmm….quite a crazy one…..

The dangerous one is not yet divulged – its not dangerous or horrifying but a thing of little strangely attributed story it comes with, it goes like this – not so long ago a woman and her son were crossing the river on a boat and the mother annoyed with her son’s pranks said that she would throw off her son in the river – surprisingly the boat would not move an inch and ultimately would move only when the words uttered by the unfortunate woman were made true – she had to let her son be thrown away by the on-boards attributing it to pacify the River’s ire over a wish not fulfilled -but its certainly spooky and an attempt to malign the sanctified nature of the rive, the content of the story was being told from generations and people are advised not to say anything of that sort to invite the ire of the River and welcome the misfortune – the moral would be calm and think of good things only on a peaceful journey on the river Godavari – indeed this is what you can aspire to be atleast when in a good company on a good trip.

Apart from these creepy and crazy stuff, the river has much more to offer – the first stop comes at a place where we have a toll gate – some licensing authority which validates the flow of vehicles on the river, it is a government agency and allows only authorised vehicles and at this stop no one is allowed to stand or even to move from one end to another, as the waters are too shallow and the captain requests all the on board people to move to the end of the boat to balance the weight, as it would have it – one of the person on the board was actually a retired Indian Navy officer – who explained how it was done in the Cargo/Crew/War ships and it was really adding it to the knowledge – involving common science, basically it involves sucking water from the areas with good amount of water and moving it to the areas in the ship which requires it for balancing the weight of the ship, he has explained it how the machines do that and it’s not actually recollect every technical term and let it out here – my sincere apologies for that.

The sail continued and the electric transmission towers were not visible by now and as we marched ahead we could see a distinct change in the colour of water – from Green to crystal clear white – purest form you can ever see…here the boat was racing with the waves now….and i took the front seat ahead of the driver, just to enjoy the fresh breeze and presto….the journey started along the hills and hillocks now…completely it was a wonderful sight, the first sight of a dreadful end almost which i thought only to be proved wrong later, the hillocks seem to be closing in on at a place and to my surprise found that they had a good 400-500 meters in between them, as they are one after the other and the beauty amplifies when there are 10-12 such diversions on the journey, the upward journey always is interesting as you find new things and you hear new stories and discuss about that and savor those kind of moments and mark my words i can say that ‘the downward journey is equally good if you have the eye to enjoy the beauty as it comes completely different perspective, the next stop was to embark the food items as lunch was fast approaching – it was 1100 hrs and at a place freshly cooked mouthwatering south indian meal was entering the boat and many food lovers were planning their meal by then – then started the hungama on the boat, some local people have formed a cultural troop and started their normal communal games started with the normal intros – people were giving them and an occasional mischievious guy would play the spoilsport by doing some sort of mischief annoying most of the family audiences – but all were taken in a lighter vein.

My camera was clicking at the rate of 40 clicks per hour (30 to be saved and 10 to be removed) on an average, and the batteries were being charged meanwhile i was trying to have a view through my mobile camera. , so the journey continued with some dance programmes being held by the troop and occasionally by some of the children from the families. The songs were obviously with a strong inclination towards the fastbeat number, but no issues as long as they were entertaining the people we can have them – i was not at all in a mood to have a good look at the ambience.

The story about the hills and the hillocks was to be aeons ago there was a sage by name ‘Papi’ who did a long penance to allow the river godavari to suffice the thirst of the villages lying behind the hills. The penance was answered the lord appeared and has given a boon to allow the river to flow but on one condition – only through a small opening, for which there was acceptance all over and the river was allowed to flow – the hill was none other than the sheet hills commonly referred as ‘Papi hills’ or papi kondalu in the local dialect.

It seems strange to observe that this was done according to the will of human and hence a man desired marvel ofcourse with the help of the god too…during the journey you have a break for lunch, my batteries were recharging and myself rejuvenating with the lunch and it was quite a heavy one and i had my stomach’s full – it was recharging me. So, the journey after lunch break(still on the river) continued, and we had a halt at a place where there was a temple on a hill – which had all the tribals selling their wares mostly made of bamboo or palm tree leaves but always hand made. They were looking extraordinarily beautiful and i have collected them as souvenirs from the journey. The temple had a different kind of custom – people are not allowed to speak at that ashram built beside a ‘Lord Shiva’ temple. It was strange and actually we could meet many people who are like sailing on the same kind of boat with us…they were many of our co-eval passengers who were taking this trip. The journey commenced again with a little bit photo session as the climate was a little bit on the hotter side the people started taking shelter under the roof of the boat. Minutes later, we are on the other side of the Sheet of hills, and it was quite a view crossing them. We had another temple and after the darshan we were told by the crew members that the boat is returning to Polavaram – our alighting point, this place was around 50 miles from Bhadrachalam the place of piligrimage where lord Rama has once lived during his exile and the place from which King Raavana abducted his wife people say, myths apart the story continues…the tradition of the people inhabiting this part of the world involves performing marriages with the necessary paraphernalia being bought from all the places during the journey right from Rajahmundry to the sacred Bhadrachalam, but the current scenario involves people using different modes of transport, as this is a time taking thing for the so called faster generation people.

The world has changed a lot, but not much of the difference you can observe here, the people over here havent heard of the mobile phone, a computer or some places even electricity – most of the places have tribals who are illiterate, the government policies and the benefits do not reach the grass roots of the country – part of it can be attributed to the people – the officials – the bureaucrats and the government, and part of it can be attributed to the inhabitants itself as they are not welcoming the changes fearing that it would create problems and brings in all the evils and pollutes them as it has done to us. Each of the village along the journey is popular for producing items involving your daily activities – this makes it a microcosm of this world, they are happy with what they have and they dont fear about the calamities which they hope might occur -this is what living life KING size, indeed empathising for them makes you feel happier and with this feeling of goodness crossing my mind i have started my journey back to Rajahmundry around 3PM and the journey was exhilirating the upward journey i have enjoyed viewing and the return one i have enjoyed plugging my Walkman 700I mobile filled in with AR Rahmaan’s tunes, it was an extraordinary experience listening to the songs and having a sail back from one of my destinations to another. The journey went well with intermediate halts at some temples beside and ultimately by sunset we were at the alighting point – hearts filled with myriad of memories and wonderful moments to savor for the lifetime, each moment beckons a second coming and really titillates you for one too!! Take my words and have a trip which will only prove me right and make you write such kind of experience to tempt another fun/travel loving guy….Hope you are my alter ego and enjoyed reading my experience….Happy journey for your Godavari trip – Signing off /Chandrasekhar