Floods!

Ammamma's place of birth Bethapudi and the places she worked in like Repalle, Bhattiprolu, Vellaturu etc are all under water, for the first time in a century. Repalle is almost submerged with neck deep water - the sub jail where Ammamma was oncew lodged is also under water and the prisoners there have been taken out and lodged in Tenali jail. Tatayya's village Chinapullivarru must be also affected badly as it is very near Bhattiprolu and Vellaturu. Pallekona station, from where Ammamma, Maapi and me took a passenger train after visiting Suryavati Athayya (Jhansakka was posted as a teacher there), is also under water. It seems strange actually as it never happened before.

I understand that Bethapudi was flooded about 106 years back, but Ammamma does not remember any one in the family talking about it, even though her parents would have experienced it and her elder brother may have been born by then. She remembers her elders talking about a severe famine though in hushed tones, the likes of which they have never seen - people ate mud to survive I believe. It must have been the great Bengal famine. The word in Telugu is Dokka Karuvu for describing the extreme nature of the famine. Dokka is pit of the stomach and therefore conveys the extent of food deprivation. But of floods - there was no discussion.

I do remember Krishna in floods once when we were trying to cross river at Puligadda. There were free flowing rivulets on the bank, which was earlier all sand. We had to cross two such rivulets before we could board the boat. Unaware of the danger, I was thrilled to be walking in water that came up to my waist. A coolie was hired by Ammamma, who carried our large grey iron trunk (you have light suitcases now - we had only iron trunks, which were ugly, heavy and often cut us with their sharp edges!) on his head and Maapi on his hip. Ammamma was carrying bags of odds and ends and some foodstuff for us. I was playful and tripped once - Ammamma shouted at me and said that the river's current is now so strong that if I slipped, I would surely be drowned and I would be washed off straight to the ocean as there were no further dams or barrages on the river. Instead of getting scared, hopeless romatic that I am, I was actually thrilled at the prospect that it would be poetic, just like River Kinnersani meeting the ocean!

Ammamma was recounting all the times that the coastal areas were ravaged, specially during the tidal deluge of 1977. What the future holds for this area is definitely not promising as the treacherous Bay of Bengal is anyway eroding inches every year from the east coast of India, while the Arabian Sea is receding inches year after year (that is why the beaches in Goa and in Kerala are walkable in water for a longer distance as the sea is shallow for a stretch.

Let us hope that the region gets back to normalcy fast.