Being a denizen of Nellore I have had a great fascination for the river Godavari. This mighty and beautiful river which had been extolled so much in Telugu Literature and inspired many poets and artists to weave magical words and images about it was nearly unknown, because I did not get an opportunity to see it until after my 25th year. My first impression of the Godavari was when I had to attend the wedding of one of my friends in Rajahmundry. The mighty, majestic views of this river as it rolled serenely towards its confluence with the ocean on that misty morning as the train chugged along the Road cum Rail Bridge left me awestruck. Later after my training in Guntur when I was posted in WG dt for my first posting, the first thoughts that crowded my mind were about the Godavari. Indeed my tours in this area always exhilarated me and having worked in the mandals of Kovvuru, Nidadavolu and Chagallu as flood relief officer, I could witness the Godavari in spate and fury also. When one sees the Godavari, one cannot but agree with the poets who have infused the river with an essence, a spirit and a soul. A river is a great body of life, forever flowing and forever nourishing which makes me agree with Mark Twain and I quote, “The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book–a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day.” (About the Mississippi)
The Godavari has a great number of stories too. Alighting from the bus or your vehicle to witness ‘Life on the Godavari’ is an occupation in itself. There is a fisherman mending his nets, there is a woman washing the gourds or filling her vessels, there are college students waiting to board the launch or the Pontoon, there are children idling on the sand, there are vendors with their wares roaming across the island hamlets. The variety of the scene is unending which makes me think that being a natural force far superior to my vision or imagination, the river has seen everything and has omniscience. Nevertheless to capture that feel of the romance of a river journey which Sarojini Naidu writes about in her poem ‘The Coromandel Fishers’ “Row, brothers, row to the edge of the verge, where the low sky mates with the sea.” I set out on a journey to the Papikondalu. It was a trip I had planned for a very long time. I had wanted to go up to the Papi hills but restricted my journey to the Gandi Pochamma temple. From Eluru to Polavaram it was a winding journey. At Polavaram I was received by the officers of our department and had to rest in the flood shelter of the forest department. We started at about 2:15 P.M. The water was blue green and light. There were a few boats with their sail up cruising along with the wind. Across on the banks, there was fine white sand spread like an unbroken plate. There were some boys, some herdsmen frolicking in the water. We saw an oil rig obviously of the ONGC installed for tapping oil and natural gas. A group of fishermen were throwing their net into the river. I was told that it is called Aila.
We reversed our course and we stopped at the Nandiswara temple. This seemed to be an ancient temple, quiet and beautiful. After crossing the sand banks one gets a spectacular view of the Godavari. Although it was dry and thin because of summer one could see the great bed of the mighty river, all sand and clay now. The Nandiswara temple is located atop a hill. There are beautiful Moon beam trees in full bloom all around the temple. I walked across the dry river bed and was informed of the level up to which the river swells during the monsoon. I was aware of my mereness before Nature. I had seen such large open spaces and so much of indolence and freedom which was a total contrast to my life in cloistered surroundings. My mind raced to the novel ‘Soul Mountain’ by Gao Xingjian : described as a Man’s quest for inner peace and freedom, on a night by the banks of the mighty Yang Tze river by the author before the dam was built. The Godavari can evoke this feeling in you; that feeling of contemplation and quiet solitude.