This is a day of the village. Reached Nellor..and from there took a bus to baniyanpetti ..where Swamiji had come in his bolero to pick us up for yadagri.Something on swamiji,he is a digambar swami from Datatre lineage. He is revered all
over the place,meets you extremely lovingly,is more than 70 years old but still has more energy and strength than most of us.A bolero was gifted to him by one of his devotees ,seeing him drive a bolero was little strange 🙂
Now today would be a day of the villages,finally got a chance to see the real villages of India .First had bath in an all natural source of water and also got to see the famed nandi statue at yadagri temple. This statue when installed was pretty small but mysteriously grows in size every year,currently it has started touching the very pillars of the shed that housed it and may even break it in a few years.It is rumored that when this happens,it will be the end of the world. Truth or another dooms day theory :). after that went to swamiji’s to be ashram, a large piece of land in wilderness or it seemed to me ,you could see farmlands but no huts and where ever you see, you could see palm trees near the end of your sight. The whole place is surrounded by mountains, before you get the pretty picture ,get this, it was 1:00 AM Hot ,burning hot and the only shade we had was of the Bolero,not a pretty sight by any means.
We measured the dimensions for puja hall, 13.6 feet by 12.2 feet for 3 pujahouses. Since we wanted to be precise ,that too on a not so plain surface,it proved to be a mammoth task. We remembered the first rule of measurement, every time you take a measurement, it will be different and you will go crazy. It took us well above 2 hrs to be almost precise.
Then had food there on the ashram ground ,prepared by one of the villagers wife ,people are really surprised at seeing me eat soo less of Rice. Not sure why but I cant eat that much rice, it leaves people worried that I didn’t like the food, but even if i love the food my Rice eating capacity is less. People aound me are so concerned they lovingly keep asking me if I want them to make chapatis.After the tiresome task we headed towards sitarampur village which would be our abode for the night ,now i realize why swamiji needed
bolero.It was the worst road imaginable,barely a road made with mud and cut out from the hill. No traffic,nothing,sitarampur village evoked the same feelings as las vegas might evoke in a traveler’s mind in US. You are in complete wilderness and suddenly you see light:).. We stopped in between to fix some posters . Now thats where i saw the real village, these are the places where you see people out on the streets every evening,chilling under trees ,every evening is like a Mela,every small event such as we fixing a poster attracts attention.People see swamiji driving from their windows and give him a shout,and he stops
to be greeted by half of the village,fighting to touch his feet. I somehow felt at home but still away from home,my gut feeling is the next revolution is going to happen here,any revolution may it be political,social or technological,it will happen in villages,India still lives in its villages…we urban people are far far far away from real india and how it works.Currently at sitarampur village,special chapatis were arranged for me though i had not expressed any wish :). It rained a little and it was awesome,it was like falling in love with rain all over again. Now its windy,cool cool breeze and i am outside typing this,soon will switch off this lappy and gaze at the cloudy sky with wind in my hair and go to sleep. What a life!!!
PS:This post was typed 3 days ago but not posted because where i went,even radio signals dont go :P..unless you are rajnikant
Leave a Reply