Visit to interiors of Guntur District

I last visited my Alma mater (Bapatla Engineering College at Bapatla) in 1986. Afterwords I have not visited that place or other interiors of Guntur District in the past twenty years other than passing through that area by bus or by train. I attended a ceromony in Pesarlanka village near Repalle. I had been to that place in 1984 last time. So in the span of two decades and that too visiting that place during heavy rains and floods I got strange feelings and thoughts.

I was joking with my colleagues that I used all means of transportation other than ship and plane for this journey. Narsapur Express from Secunderabad to Guntur then Delta Passenger train to Bhatiiprolu, then RTC bus to Vellatoor, rikshaw to near to revu (river over the road) then boat for crossing the flood hit low area of Krishna waters followed by auto rikshaw to my sister's in laws place.

The journey is wonderful and so are the nostalgic feelings. I was born in Guntur and studied in Krishna and Guntur Districts of Andhra Pradesh. So life at coastal belt, the cyclones and depressions in Bay of Bengal, seasonal changes and once in while floods to river Krishna all - are part of life. Also in my engineering days, my roommate and me were crossing the River Krishna from Mopi Devi to Penumudi and then to Repalle with so many short trips on boats and in between short walks inside River Krsihna bed. The journey is a wonderful trip and at times if we walk slowly it was taking 3 - 4 hours also. That ride finally reaches to Penumudi and then travel by a rikshaw to Repalle. This is followed by a bus trip to Bapatla on a Repalle - Chirala RTC bus via Chandole or by Nagaram. Touching villages like Pittalavani Palem, Cherukupalli etc I feel I visited them the other day,

Now there is a bridge on the River Krsihna Connecting Mopidevi and Repalle. I have not travelled on that may be to keep the fragrance of remembrances of the boat trips and also when the river is in full swing a direct motorised trip from one end of the river to other end. The small huts inside the river bed and people of two districts crossing for their day to day affairs and meeting people. Now I was told that it is only a 15 minutes trip on the bridge. So modern infrastructure is doing a lot of advantages but at what cost? Are we not damaging a lot of natural way of things? Am not saying still we walk across River Krishna even in 2010 also bol ke. (I came to know that in both Godavari Districts also there are villages one can visit only by boat.). At times I like nature in its own wild way.

Life has not much changed in my land or in my roots where I belong and the modern communication revolution is seen with people using their mobiles every where. Roads are not improved much - even for a coming lorry to give way RTC bus has go down the road margins. Journey between Repalle to Tenali is the same or in fact more than it was nearly a decade back. So we are also developing but at what pace is the question and to what extent? Why can't we take the cue from the Chinese in curbing the urbanisation? Why every body have to come to metros and cities leaving all our small townships? (Am also in the same bunch - reached Hyderabad for starting my own business).

It is pleasant to meet people after a gap of nearly a decade and more. So many relatives and all are having a high time with a sorrow note for a relative's loss and at the same time inquiring how is life bol ke. Also in the conversation I heard somebody saying every passing day is good compared to the days that are yet to come. There is a lot of meaning in that statement. When I said living in the past also has advantage. There is no need for you to worry what happens in the future because that is what you are very much aware of.