Reminiscence-Episode-1

Reminiscence

Earlier, I had published two articles. One on Doddamallur Ambegalu Krishna Temple, and the other on Perur Patteeswarar Temple. In both cases, apart from the magnificence of the deities, I have shared the beauty of the temple, its history, and the rich architecture. Before I go into the next article on another temple, I would like to make a temporary departure. Here, I would like to share interesting incidences occurred during my various tours, which I used to share with my friends and relatives. Among them, a professor, a writer and a poet used to insist, that my narration is interesting and I should pen them down. So here I go…..

During my career spanning four decades, barring the first seven years, rest of the years involved extensive travelling. Since I like travelling, irrespective of a few shortcomings, I enjoyed my career, as it gave me a chance to travel through the length and breadth of our country, and overseas. After doing justice to my work, I used every opportunity, to visit interesting places, observe the behavior of the people and understand their culture. These sojourns taught me patience, perseverance, tolerance and most of all, humility.

There were different incidences. Adventurous, Enlightening, Educative, Entertaining and a few were Touching. Each will be a journey through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and the millennium. Lot of time had gone past. Whichever I could recollect, I am going to narrate as an Episode (Of course not a mega serial!!!)

Episode-1 Water-a- wash

 It was one those rough monsoon time. I was in Hospet (Karnataka) following a client all the way from Bangalore. As he was expected the next day, I decided to spend the afternoon, visiting Tungabhadra Dam, to have a long stroll and to enjoy the scenery. It was a wonderful sight. Here, I would like to say a few words about this great river and the Dam.

Tungabhadra, is actually a combination of two rivers, Tunga and Bhadra. A dam was constructed across this river in Hosapete (now known as Hospet). Thirumalai Iyengar, an Engineer from Madras was the chief architect for this project. There is a general purpose hall in Hospet, named after him. Though proposed in the year 1860, the work began just before independence, in the year 1945. Bulk of the work was carried out between 1950-1953. It became fully operational in 1958. The dam measures 2441 meters long and 43.38 M high. It had an initial capacity of 135 Tmcft. There are 33 flood-gates, which are opened when the dam overflows. One end of the dam is in Hospet and the other end in Munirabad. Both ends have wonderful gardens.

I started walking from the Hospet end, continued along the dam, till I reached the centre. The dam was filled up to the brim and on every wave, water flowed over the floodgate onto the spill-way. The water level was so high, that I felt, that I could touch it with the tip of my umbrella. Then I continued and reached the Munirabad end. On this side also there is a nice garden. I rested for about 15 minutes. As it started raining, I returned to my hotel.

It was raining incessantly throughout the night. In the morning the rain stopped and the sky cleared.Around 7.00 am, I got up, rang for the room-boy (in those days, immaterial of the age, the person providing room service used to be called room-boy), ordered a cup of coffee and switched on the piped music system. (Those days, room-service by phone, CCTV were not known. Piped music itself was a luxury. Usually there will be two channels. One channel connected to the audio system operated by the manager/receptionist/telephone operator, and the other channel connected to the local radio station). Only the radio station was on, broadcasting devotional songs in the local language. By that time my coffee arrived. Sipping the coffee, I asked the room-boy, if he could get me a news paper. He said only Kannada paper is available, and I dismissed him. By that time news broadcast had started. As this was also in Kannada, which in anyway, I couldn’t understand. I switched it off, and started to get ready.

After a good breakfast in the restaurant in the ground floor, I went into the town to look for my customer, hopefully that he might have arrived. When I reached his place, I was informed that he did arrive the previous night, but left in the early morning to Gangavati. Gangavati is another small town about thirty k.m from Hospet, beyond Humpi. After collecting his address at Gangavati, I decided to go there.

As I didn’t want to rely on the local transport in the peak monsoon, I hired a car from Hospet and left for Gangavati. It was around 10.15 in the morning. The road was good, but there was negligible traffic. After travelling some distance, just before Anegondi, we came across a cause-way. It was fairly long, could be about 800 meters. About ankle deep water was flowing in the cause-way. As the current was strong, Raju, my driver drove slowly. When we were mid-way, we heard the roar of water, and before I could guess what is happening, I could see on my left side, a huge expanse of water rushing towards the end of the cause-way, which we just crossed, and spreading across. I shouted at Raju to step on it. By the time, we have crossed 75%; water started entering into the car and we could feel the car being pushed along the flow. From the extreme left end of the cause-way, we were already pushed beyond the center. Raju pushed hard and moved forward. With hardly about 30 meters left, we were closer to the right end of the cause-way. I shouted at Raju to shift to first gear, and push the throttle to the floor. At first Raju didn’t understand, but when I bent down to reach the gear shift lever, he got me and responded. The car, an old faithful Ambassador, responded too and literally leapt out of water on to the dry road. Raju drove another 100 meters and stopped the car. Both of us got down, and, when we looked back, we started shivering. The entire cause-way was submerged and water was flowing at break-neck speed.

Now that we cannot go back, we sat in the car for a few minutes to steady our nerves. After about ten minutes, I told Raju to drive towards Gangavati. Since, it will take another forty five minutes to reach Gangavati, let me explain what really had happened.

The previous day, when I was on the top of the dam, I had noticed that the water level was up to the brim and each wave was pushing the water over the flood-gate. In view of the heavy inflow, the authorities have decided to open the flood gates. This was published in the paper and was also announced in the radio. One the one hand, I could not get an English news paper and on the other my lack of knowledge of Kannada, prevented me from getting the warning from the radio news broadcast. To add to my woes, the driver, though had a local newspaper, kept it on the dash board, to read later. So, I was totally un-aware, what was in store, which resulted in the near mis-adventure.

After about forty five minutes drive, I reached the entrance to Gangavati town, only to be met by another cause-way. This of course was smaller. About a foot deep of water was flowing. People have gathered on both the sides of the causeway. A truck and a few cars were crawling ahead. We also joined and inched our way forward. After crossing three fourths of the distance, the left front wheel got into a pot-hole, and was struck. I got down from the car and tried to push it, but to no avail.

That was the moment I understood the purpose of the crowd of people on either side of the cause-way. They were not mere on-lookers, but were on a help-and-rescue mission. About a dozen youngsters rushed towards us with hooks, thick manila ropes, crow-bars etc. Together they practically lifted the car from the pot-hole. Then they attached hooks and ropes to the car and dragged it ashore. They refused to accept cash, which I offered. Thanking them profusively, I left in search of my customer’s house.

As he happened to be a senior level politician, it was not difficult to locate his house. In the house, I was met by his secretary, who bade me to sit, and offered a cup of hot coffee. After my ordeal, the hot coffee really helped. Then he broke the news that my customer had left an hour ago, but refused to tell me where he went. After explaining to him, that I had travelled all the way from Madras (Chennai)to meet him, and will not return without seeing him. Then, reluctantly he informed, that his master had proceeded to his farm-house for a couple of days’ rest, and not to be disturbed. But, after undergoing such a chilling, thrilling experience, which I just underwent, at the cost of my life, I decided to disturb him.

The secretary had no option, but to give the location of the farm-house. It was in a village, about fifteen kilometers away, called Boodhaguppe. By around 3.00 pm I reached the farm-house. On my knock, a servant opened the door. I gave my card and told him to announce me to his master. After a few minutes my customer came out. His face expressed surprise, irritation and anger like a psychedelic show. He looked at my card again and his face softened. The first question he asked me is, how did I locate him. When I explained, he was astonished. Though he was upset at being disturbed, he appreciated my efforts in meeting him, to the extent of risking my life.

He invited me to another chamber and offered some snacks and coffee, and started discussing the purpose of my visit. It was around 4.00 p.m. I got up to take my leave. He suggested that I may travel upto Gangavati, and take the road to Kampli, and at Kampli, to turn right to Kamalapur, and then to Hospet. This may be a longer route, but I can avoid cause-ways. I took his directions and reached my hotel by sunset. It is needless to say, that I concluded the deal.