Connect your Soul with the Soil

Want a refreshing and rejuvenating travel; pay a visit to the gracious green Mountains of South-West India -the unassuming and humble Western Ghats. It is a pleasure both to the eyes and the heart- to behold the dumbfounding natural beauty in its luxurious green cover, the energetic, bubbly white rivers on the road side, and the playful mist all game in for a hide and seek. It is an experience beyond words to describe the glory of mother Nature, when the cyclic South West Monsoon unleashes its bounty brought all the way from the Southern hemisphere; epitomizing the promise of a devoted lover distanced by time and destiny.  

A Local Story

A Drag to the East and the Damn Dam.

(Autobiography of a Known River)

Mother Nature was unkind to the rain shadow region in the east, hence man forcefully brought water to the parched lands under a lease agreement in 1886 by constructing a reservoir made of sugar, brick and lime on me. In the meanwhile, the reservoir gave birth to beautiful lakes lacing the already shy mountains, and animals of queer variety nestled to make their home in this paradise. There were tremors of earth and fear in the highlands for if the dam breaks, I would be helplessly flowing over the manicured tea gardens, proud rubber plantations and cozy pepper climbers, and eventually hammering the spine of my state’s economy. Of course, in my course, my waters would gobble up the entire population too. Soon, I became a witness to raised hands armed with placards, serpentine queues, media people, VIPs, VVIPS and a hell lot of hullabaloo. There was tension, tension everywhere, but not a drop of action anywhere. Setting aside all these, people of the parched land argued for the strength of the dam being supported by the might of gravity and weight of the materials used in the construction. Hence, it can store more of my water. However, the people of my state protested vehemently fearing my pent up ferocity. Well, in the mean while, I admit the fact that I enjoyed my possession being fought over by two strong contenders.

My joy was short lived since the contenders did not confine themselves to verbal duels alone. Things took an ugly turn to hate crimes  taking a toll on the once healthy relations. Some interventions from the North included some experts and commissions affirming the safety of the dam, but the people along with me are not yet convinced for reasons better known to them. But let me tell you people, from the pages of the wisdom of a river, that if the height of the dam is raised, you may or may not be in probable danger but I can name a few who would definitely be in the vicinity of death – Scores of Tigers, elephants, lion-tailed macaques, herds of bison, sambar, boars and all those beautiful creatures who had found their home in my paradise of the Periyar Widlife Sanctuary. I guess, I need to remind you of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. O! So wild of you, forgot about them among your own personal bargaining!!! Anyway forgive me, if you have made arrangements for their safety….You know I am just a River flowing to the West and these are the wisdom of a simple river- a river, whose free spirit is sometimes arrested by a man’s whims.