WHERE ONE LIVES.

My house, in which I have been staying for the last decade,is only 100 metres from a beautiful river flowing towards the Arabian sea about 3 kilo metres away. In fact,from the balcony of my house,I can see a portion of the river and the occasional country boats carrying village farm produce and building materials mainly sand(illicit and licit)from up the river.We had a better and wider sight of the river till recently before a friend of mine constructed a residential building on the opposite side leaving only a gap between two buildings for us to see the river. In fact buildings are coming up fast on both sides of the river and it will be only a matter of time before the river view is completely denied to the residents on this side.

The river and its banks offer a fascinating sight with a good road on one side and a kutcha road on the other and is ideal for a morning or evening walk( a morning walk in the evening or vice verse can also be attempted !!).In the evenings one can have a view of the sunset, the sun disappearing behind the trees and the mangroves.(Kandal forests).There is also an old, about 30 metres long, bridge across the river nearby on the Tellicherry-Coorg road. It offers a beautiful sight from the river side. The narrow bridge is past its prime and in spite of its dangerous condition heavy vehicles including fully loaded buses, are plying on it day in and day out. There is also a prawn cultivating farm on the river side threatening to pollute the river.

Yes,this place is in a historically famous town, famous also for all the wrong reasons like political rivalry, violence,knifing,bomb making and bombing, hartals and bundhs(regular as well as the instant catcall model) and even potential for atrocities of the 'Palm-chopping'variety. But in spite of all this we all live here peacefully as if these things do not matter to us and looking only to the positives like the cool sea shore, beautiful Nature,friendly people, easy accessibility to other areas like,e.g.Mahe for those who are attracted to it, temples,hospitals, a grand old fort,a newly completed Town Hall, Cricket Stadium, Indoor Stadium, a sports stadium etc.etc. A new observation point for watching the roaring Arabian sea has come up recently about 2kms.from my place and is namedOverbury's Folly built on an elevated position almost on the sea with a Watch Tower and the whole area beautifully done up for people to spend a quiet evening on an ordinary day.It proves that we can also implement good ideas successfully. Like the river, the bridge, the mangroves and hillocks, there could be several other natural beauties near and around waiting to catch our attention. Let us look around to get amply rewarded.

Nostalgic old buildings,shops,grand old 'tharavad' houses,theatres, open areas,whatever is left of the paddy fields, good old playgrounds of our younger days, etc., are vanishing faster than the hair on one's head.Several areas which were familiar to us even five years back have become unrecognizable.The small old typical 'hotel and tea shop' on the opposite side of the road, from where we used to get our breakfast of 'Pittu', Kadala and Velleppam' on days when we did not feel like cooking, has vanished suddenly along with other petty shops nearby as part of the road widening programme. Similarly a beautiful tiled house opposite to us has been converted into a concrete monster with an outlandish coat of paint.It is now my regret that I do not have a photo of the tea shop and the old house!!

P.S.: As digital photography is now cheap and easy let us click and preserve on record all the fond things around us.Don't forget the old black and white photographs.


Click on the photos for details