What I Observed Standing On The Shore of River Kaveri (or Cauvery)


What you see is a calm river shore, a ghat where people are going about their ritualistic life, the soothing calmness of it. Beautiful imagery for certain. But images do lie. What I saw vis-a-vis my real eyes was a slow process of killing what was once a roaring mighty river. Kaveri or Cauvery - however you spell it. A river which once protected Tipu Sultan’s island of Srirangapatnam from enemies, a living breathing river that was lifeline of so many lives, river that saw lives grow and disappear, river of many legends, not anymore. It is a dying stream now. Srirangapatnam is no more an island. The old river no more flows around the old town. Tipu Sultan was long killed by British Army. His Srirangapatnam plundered. And today the prized river is slowly killed by the modern man. People from distance come to the 'holy' river, they take bath in its fabled waters and then dump their clothes and trash into its 'holy' waters. They think they’re dumping their sins. But they’re committing new ones.


If only we looked at a river as just a river. If we only looked at it as the lifeline which it is. Carrier of water and not absolver of sins. If only...



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