Meghane trek log - III

l The journey l Meghane peak l Meghane village l Basavanabayi l PaduBeedu l Godanagundi l

In the pics: A few snaps of the descent from yesterday's post.

23/12/2006
06:20 PM: Myself with Nayana and Ravindra reached the residence of Mr. G, family head. The house consisted of a small cattle yard at the entrance, where a few buffalos and a few cows were residing in. Further down there was an open bathroom with a big container called Hande, with a fire burning the logs under it. This is the water boiler. The bathroom was opening to a very huge porch or an open veranda. This porch was totally covered with a thick coat of cow-dung (sagaNi). The porch had an entrance to the house which opened into a backyard and then the jameen (lands) extended till the compound.

A dog welcomed us with its tail movements and the phenomenal eery sound. A small puppy came rushing to us with a wagging tail, kissing our feet. We sat down in anticipation of others and thought of getting freshened by washing our faces. A lady was washing some utensils at a small pipe from which water was flowing. I asked her where shall we get water to wash our faces and get freshened up, she instructed us to use the same pipe with running water. We freshened up, I then asked her where the water was flowing from, for which she answered that the water was flowing from the mountains. After the use, I asked her in a very urban way to hand over a stopper to stop the flow of water in the pipe, she said, “let it flow, we won't be closing it”!! “Save water” slogan has not reached this village yet, I thought.

Everyone came, tired and exhausted. But one thing that made us all happy was the fact that there was no more trek that day. As soon as we all assembled, the first thing we did was to spread the mats, fasten the shoes and sit on them in a very leisurely way.

The Lady of the house also told us that the village had 54 families living in it. It recently had a few provision stores opened, and all in the village belonged to the same caste called Kudubis (tribals living there), who spoke distorted Marathi with Kannada words in abundance in between. G came and he continued the story. Meghane was geographically situated at a different part, in Sagara taluk itself, though. When Linganamakki dam was built as a Hydroelectricity project across the river Sharavati, Meghane was submerged by the backwaters. The government allocated this declivitous downhill region for their living. These people accepted it gracefully, de-forested the region, and shifted the whole of Meghane here. It had been 60 years since the move. He is the second generation to be living here. His father's generation had to live there without electricity, road, school, or any other civil facility. It doesn’t mean that the current generation is exposed to all the urban things easily. They still don’t have electricity.

Yes, those people who sacrificed their everything for the sake of power generation to be supplied to the whole of Karnataka are devoid and deprived of electric supply!! What an irony of our lives. We cherish their sacrifice, and they are compelled to do the same sacrifice even today, again and again.
But they have no complaints. They’re happy about it and their lives. Probably these people are the inspiration behind the Bhagavadgeete of Vyasa Maharshi.

Realizing all these, govt. very recently distributed solar power generators to each family there, it seems. Stating the fact that maintenance would be a problem if they laid electric lines amidst the forest, these people are given one domestic solar power generator per family. This power is used by them for lighting the household for a few hours in the evening. They can hardly light four lamps for three-four hours. Once the generated power is lost, they have to use batteries for the rest of the night, for everything. And in the monsoon period, when Sun is out only briefly in the region, they must spend the nights in darkness.

The village is at a 5 km distance from the main road where there is not so frequent transportation to Bhatkal, the nearest (a coastal) town. So, these people have to trek 5KMs in time or wait for the next bus for hours and visit the city for everything and come back before it is late. Can some urbaner imagine such a life, at least for a day? We cribble for everything from traffic to medical facility, from the distance we have to travel to the office to a short power cut. Would we have lived bearing such great negligence?! We might have not. But these people are very much content about how they live. I rate their lives superior in terms of quality and contention.

We went for a stroll inside the village, to a small provision stall, where many men of the village had assembled for a light evening discussion. All of them seemed out of control, heavy with alcohol. The reason behind it could be attributed to the lack of any other entertainment programs. These people, we learned, would prepare Sarai (alcoholic drink) in their backyards for domestic use after a day’s hard work.

We had a magnificent dinner prepared by the duo of Nayana and Madhu and went to sleep on the porch, in front of the house. We slept at 10 o’clock, against the very nature of us all. Thus ended one of the beautiful days of the year.

We slept cherishing the beauty of Meghane, forest, the hills, the peak, magnum view from the peak, villagers with good humility, their hospitality, and their never-say-die attitude.

24/12/2006
06:00 AM: Nayana screamed “Tea ready, get up you all”! We had a relishing hot tea on that cold morning, then finished our morning duties in nature’s company and then waited for the breakfast. Yummy Upma was being prepared and by the time we changed our attire for the trek, it was ready. Had the break-fast and started on our journey upward.

Here, we had a problem. Sharat’s swollen ankle troubled him and he wanted to go out of the team and return to Bengalooru. Sampath tried convincing him, but he didn’t seem to be moved. Nayana announced, “If you are going back, then all are. If we are trekking, then you too. We can not break the team”! Sharat agreed and continued to stay on. It was accepted that Sharat’s luggage will be shared by the team to make his journey easy.


To be continued…………..