Seeking the Source

I have a fascination for rivers. One reason is my early impressions of Cauvery in full flow at Srirangam in my childhood days. Nowadays, it's more often dry due to "known issues" but the images of the river in all its majesty have stayed. Okay, if you want, etched in my memory. It used to be mentioned in our textbooks that while in some places it can get as narrow as "aadu thaandum kaviri" (so narrow as a goat can cross it in a jump) , it also becomes "Akanda Kaveri" (so vast that you see water till where your eyes can reach). Krishna @ Kanakadurgam is very good, it's tough to be in flow all year round in the south and it's Andhra Pradesh's good fortune that it is blessed with two of them, Krishna and Godavari.

Best so far and almost matchless are Ganges and the other further north rivers that drive in to the Ganga. Mandakini @ Kedar, tops them all. Heard Brahmaputra is among the most ferocious rivers and makes it extremely tough for river-rafting. Our raft coach, whom i believe has rafted in 11 countries, rated Brahmaputra as the toughest and the most exciting raft destination. A friend who visited Beas @ Kulu, Himachal Pradesh was full of praise for it.

Two rivers I want to visit some day : Godavari and Narmada. Godavari for comparing it with Krishna, particularly, Godavari @ Bhadrachalam. Seems there is a two-day trip on boat that ends at Bhadrachalam. Narmada, for the fanciful images I have about its grandeur and also about its enormity as discussed by the NBA. Walking all the way from Kerala, Adi Shankara is said to have met his guru Gowdapada on the banks of the River Narmada. Why mention this here, well, he is one of my icons, so I have to bring in my icons and all their fascinations into my posts. Someday, I should post nice pictures from our Chardham trip, taking the blog to the next level, photo blogging. Even as I write, Ramnath has already beat me to it by posting pictures of the Bhagirathi Mountain, hopefully I will supplement that by posting pictures of the Bhagirathi River.

Chitravathi is rarely in good flow, but when it recently indeed was, we all made a beeline to the river especially to watch it flow. There was even some news/rumour that some bund/dam upstream was broken due to heavy rains and chitravathi would flood, that was not to be. Or as in local slang, antha scenu ledhu. But it was in pretty good flow. And that was good scenery. A friend of friend of somebody offered Chilli Bajjis, it aptly fitted the occasion, so we put a heheheh face and gladly accepted, munched and shot off and dedicated that day's group discussion entirely to the Chitravathi river, its origin, its problems, it's floods in the earlier years and to the responsible policemen who were warning the folks not to venture into the river. Now there is a also a nice road that runs parallel to the river, so makes it a very good stretch for walkers, thinkers, poets and meditators (as long as you are not on the road). And hey yes, more recently, for bloggers too. One of my friends mentioned it's particularly wonderful on cool early mornings. Hmm.. to confirm that personally, I will have to change my schedule and check out some day.

As kids, we were trained to chant a sloka when we are just about to finish our bath, invoking the sacred rivers. My sanskrit is poor and even worse when I put it in English, but here it is:

Gangecha Yamunechaiva Godavari Saraswathi
Narmadey Sindhu Kaveri Jalesmin Sannidhim Kuru

(The meaning is here. )

I think rivers have something ethereal about them. For one, they have a calming effect on your mind. After a brief calm, they can ignite your imagination. They make you reflect on your imaginations and prod you to seek their source, i mean the river's source, and when you reach their source, they inspire you to find the source of your imaginations. And once you are done, they make you blog about what they have done to you.