Memoirs of 2009: Travelogues – 2 [ Discovering and Rediscovering Cauvery ]

Whenever I think of our Mysore – Coorg tour which we did in June 2009, the memories of the magnificent Cauvery river come vividly in front of my eyes. “Yatra Tatra Sarvatra” – I guess these words aptly describe her presence because wherever we went, the river Cauvery was there to greet us.

From the hilltop of Brahmagiri hills where she starts (what is called as Talacauvery) flowing with an enthusiasm of a small kid, to the famous Bhagamandala temples where one sees the sacred confluence as the river Cauvery takes along with it small rivers like Sujyothi, to the grand falls like Shivasamudram and Abbey where one sees the river with all its rawness, to the ancient monuments like Talakat where one can see her serene calmness, to the temples in places like Shrirangapattan and Kumbhakonam where one sees the river with the spiritual peace and finally to the places like Mysore where one sees her grandeur on one side of the Krishnaraj Sagar dam, one sees the river in all possible forms.

Being a person grown up in a city like Mumbai where there is no river, (as the only natural river in Mumbai; the infamous Mithi river has been converted into a manmade gutter by Mumbai’s rulers and citizens alike) I feel jealous of those whose life has been spent in a place which has a river flowing through it. I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of my leisure time on seashore but have hardly spent time on the banks of a river. One can look upon the sea with all its grandeur as a patriarchic father figure but one always tends to treat a river like his beloved mother. And a mother is after all a mother.

A mother has a big heart; mother Cauvery welcomes the flowing of other small rivers unto it and also accepts the man-made solid / liquid wastes in her sacred water with a big heart. For a mother, all her children are equal; mother Cauvery bestows equal fertility to the soil through which it flows. We found that people living at the bank of river Cauvery always treat her like their mother – “Amma”; never allowing anybody to enter in her waters with slippers / shoes. We saw many boatmen saluting the mother river before starting the river ride. Mother Cauvery, the lifeline of the people in Karnataka and Tamilnadu, is really a jewel much more pure and most importantly much more valuable than any of the rare gems ever have found in India; even the Kohinoor diamond!

I end my Cauvery saga with the following lines:

Oh river Cauvery,
The moment I think of your majestic flow
My heart lifts up and eyes start to glow

Dear mother Cauvery,
The child’s enthusiasm, the youth’s rawness,
Old men’s calmness and a saint’s spiritual tranquility
You show all of these with a humble modesty

Oh my great river,
From the Hindus to the Mughals to the English dynasty
You bestow unending happiness to every religion of humanity

Oh my beloved mother,
Where lies the source of energy that keeps you gunning?
What is the secret that, till today, keeps you running?

Dear mother Cauvery,
You are so serene…
You are so scenic…
You are so sublime…
You give us life – You give us hope – You show us the way
I know one thing for sure, which I would loudly say,
Everything in this world might change but you are always going to stay

Tomorrow: Tale of Two Balajis