Weekend in West Godavari

"They sell fish and buy cars," said my friend and host, most matter-of-factly, as we watched a shiny white sedan draw up by the dusty track outside the house. She was referring to the rapid replacement, over the past decade, of lush paddy fields by aquaculture ponds that brought quick riches for a large number of entrepreneurs in the region. Of course, there are also several stories of those quick bucks making an equally quick exit, but there's no denying that West Godavari is one of the most prosperous areas in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh.

But I wasn't really here to engage in an economic analysis of the district. I was, in fact, here to disengage from analysis and simply take that much needed break from a non-stop series of deadlines. It was the first step in taking my own advice seriously (ref: my previous post).

So, here are a few moments from that pause in my city-fied routine.

I find myself, an unlikely pilgrim at the Ramana Kendram in Jinnuru

The two heroes of the district, Alluri Seetharamaraju and Sir Arthur Cotton flank the ubiquitous Gandhi bust outside Jinnuru's community library

On the edge of the new economy of prawns; aquaculture in Peddanindrakolanu

Jesus and Israel help us relieve our thirst with freshly picked tender coconuts

Gadde Danamma watches a herd of goats with her trusted aide

...while the Goddess of the paddy fields tries to ward off inclemency of various kinds

Emerald green and fiery orange: my lasting impression of the Godavari basin

And then there are pictures that are left for my mind to savour: a rickety yet pleasant auto-rickshaw drive from Bhimavaram to Peddanindrakolanu; a walk across the village with my friend Sreedevi and Parvathi, who insists on showing us both the Sivalayam and the Krishna temple (rare moments for the skeptic in me); waking up to crisp, hot pesarattu spiced with chopped onions and green chillies, made by Pinnamma; sitting on the terrace and watching the sun set over a scene I had only so far seen in the odd Telugu movie.

Comments

Sumana Kasturi said…

This looks idyllic. And yes, sometimes we need to set our analysing selves aside and enjoy the moment! Hope you had a good break.

8:21 AM

vinod pavarala said…

Sounds like a great break. I haven't been to that side of APn a long time.

11:14 AM

A house called Ayodhya

How do words get taken away from you? How do they mutate and reconfigure around entirely new meanings, only weakly related to those that they held when you owned them? And then, through repetition and constant association, they solidify into these new forms, their other histories hidden behind impenetrable layers, where they have not been erased altogether. I live in a house whose name often elicits a curious look, raised eyebrow, a muffled cough, a judging eye, or even a vigorous nod of approval. But for even the least politically minded, the name is evocative of something. For some of us, it is the wave of negativity, divisiveness, and violence unleashed by the events of a December three decades ago. For others, it may represent the righteous assertion of identity. But the name etched into the gate pillar, now fading and diminished when compared to the glitzy lettering on neighbouring walls, has nothing to do with the politics of place and claimed heritage. It is a simpl...

Talking about Talk: a conversation with Sherry Turkle

Credit: CNN Image s The Tang Building sits on the southern edge of the MIT campus, overlooking the river whose grey this autumn afternoon acts as a foil to the gold and auburn of the trees across its wide span. I rush up the stairs to the second floor—I am a minute past the appointed hour—and arrive, just a little out of breath, on the second floor. The corridor is dark and the roomy lobby leading to the room that bears the number I’ve been given is even darker. I check my phone again to make sure I have it right and then venture inside, flipping the light switch and finding a spot on a comfortable sofa. One never feels quite prepared for an interview. Especially when it involves someone who has already been in the media eye over the years, whose engaging commentaries on life in the digital age have found their way to the TED stage and from there into millions of YouTube and Facebook shares, whose books straddle the academic and popular; someone who could be the Nora Ephron ...

Remembering Ja

Ja (right) with Maxine, at the Alternative Network meeting, 2004 I opened the newspaper this morning and way down at the bottom of page five was a small insert in remembrance of an old friend and sometime mentor, Janaki Iyer, known simply as "Ja" to many of us. I myself took a decade or more to make the transition from "Mrs Iyer" to "Janaki" to a very hesitant "Ja"--the diminutive seemed not to do justice to a woman who in a very gentle and quiet way had touched so many people, young, old, and like myself, somewhere in between. First, the specifics. Janaki was a teacher from start to finish. After many years of teaching in an upscale Bombay school, she moved to Hyderabad and, with an enthusiastic friend, started Ananda Bharati, a learning space for children of migrant labourers, in a small room in the YMCA, Tarnaka. Many of those children went on to join the mainstream school system and complete their secondary education; a few even obtai...

What are words worth?

Search This Blog