Publishers: Penguin Books
Pages: 202
Edited by Amita Baviskar
Price: Rs. 295
Whether it is Ganga in the north or Kaveri in the south or any small river in between, there is a good amount of romanticization of every river that flows in the country. And ‘Waterlines – Penguin Book of River Writings’ does a perfect job of representing this romanticization.
The book is a collection of writings by various authors, edited by Amita Baviskar. The book covers every aspect that goes with the river including journeys along with or on the river, holiness of our rivers, people’s love for their river, some fiction that revolves around our rivers and even grave issues of modern India like pollution that the rivers are suffering from.
The highlights of the book includes pilgrimage travel along river Narmada and Bhagirati by Geoffrey Waring Maw, Jim Corbett’s experience of catching fish and much more. Reader’s heart pains to see what we are doing to our rivers when we hear about how dams and pollution are killing our rivers like Amaravati in TamiNadu and Bharatapuzha in Kerala. Romulus Whitaker shares his amazing experiences with crocodiles and snakes by riverside while he also moots sadly on how we are destroying our rivers slowly.
Must read are the narration of Badrinath pilgrimage by Stephen Alter and wonderful depiction of life by the Ganga at Banaras by Nita Kumar. Kumar writes –
“The river, in its changing persona through the year, gives Banaras their understanding of time. Their attitude seems to be marked by unpunctuality and disregard for time distinctions. But it is not that time has no importance. It is rather too important to be sacrificed for arbitrary purposes. It has to be lived with the full, every bit of it”.
Along with her subtle attempt to make one realize of blissful inactivity by the river, she describes the way town changes its habits every season along with changing moods of the river which involves you through the entire story and carries you along with it.
Some of the writings involve careful and scientific study like the origin, history and stories associated with rivers that could be dull reading for a section of readers while enlightening the rest. An excellent book for any one who has fallen in love with our beautiful rivers.
Also see: Riverside picnic places around Bangalore
If you are in and around Bangalore, have a half day at your disposal and would want to visit some nice waterfalls or a quite place near the town, head to Muthyala Madu(Muthyala Maduvu, and also sometimes awkwardly called pearl valley). But keep in mind that you can find water in the falls only for some days after it rains. As of writing this, there is good amount of water and I expect it might last for another month.
I was there yesterday and it was my first visit. I was not expecting much and presumed it could be no more than just a small stream. It actually is a small stream but very beautiful, nevertheless. There are a couple of waterfalls in a small narrow valley. The falling water hits the rocks and bounces up in droplets of water all through these waterfalls. And the bouncing and falling droplets in the backdrop of the sun are a visual treat, appear like drops of pearl which brings in the name for Muthyala Madu(Muthu is pearls in Kannada, Madu is a small water body).
If you have not seen the place yet, do not miss being there as early as possible since the amount water should be reducing by the day and you may not get to see much in winter. Of course the fall will come alive next rainy season.
Muthyala Madu Information
It is an hours drive from Bangalore and must be almost 40kms. Its in the periphery of Banneraghatta National Park. To reach the place, head out on Banneraghatta Road, continue beyond Banneraghatta National Park and reach Anekal. Take a right from Anekal and drive for an other 10 minutes to reach the valley. Don’t expect good roads, but you should be able to manage without much problems. An alternate, slightly longer road is to reach Anekal via Attibele by taking Hosur Road. Don’t expect to find any food or accomodation, but unfortunately you can find some one selling beer and soft drinks!! Start early and reach by 8 or 9am to enjoy the quiteness of the valley in early morning and also to avoid noisy day trippers who arrive later in the day.
As I tuned into the radio this evening, I heard that the first snow of the season has starting falling in Uttaranchal, which brought back the memories of skiing in Auli last winter. The news reader said that the temples of Badrinath and Kedarnath(which are close to Auli) are about to be closed owing to beginning of the snow fall.
I am going to be in Auli again in the coming skiing season a couple of months down the line. As always, waiting is a killer when there is some excitement coming ahead. And I also got a couple of requests to write in detail about Auli so that they can get prepared for their Auli trip. So while in anticipation, I have started writing a trip report on my last visit to Auli. Till its out, here are the images from the previous Auli skiing trip.
Also see more about Auli in paintedstork.com
Visit to Auli in 2005
* Images from Auli(plenty of snow)
* Trip report
Visit to Auli in 2006
* Images from Auli(little snow)
* A back-breaking journey: from Rishikesh to Auli
* First Day at Auli
* The days of Skiing
* Spending time in Auli
* Trekking and walking around
* About Auli