My memories of River Arkavathy - Part 1

It is said that 'you can't be unhappy in the middle of a big, beautiful river'. As I dialed the numbers 80009 80009 for Rally for Rivers campaign, my thoughts wandered back to those happy 80s & 90s. 

I personally have fond memories of River Arkavathy during my childhood. The prospect of playing in the river was the biggest motivation for an otherwise tiring bus journey those days to my native village of Harobele near Kanakapura. 

I am sure my friends and cousins who were born brought up there have fonder memories than me.Our visit to the village used to be twice a year. Once in summer and another in October.

During October Arkavathy used to over flow and there was no chance of playing. But, the rain water and the overflow created number of small streams and water bodies for us to play. In summer, we used to rush to the river as we got down from the bus. My grandmother always wanted us to visit the church first after freshening up. But our devotion was with Arkavathy. 

‘Thore’, as it is called in villages used to be covered by trees and was not visible until we were a few yards from it. We could however hear the flowing sound and that added to the joy & mysticism. Hence River Arkavathy will forever remain in my memory as a small river with which we grew up and now sadly seeing it gradually disappearing too.

For a small introduction, Arkavathy originates from Nandi Hills. Passing through Ramanagar, Kanakapura finally joins River Cauvery near Mekedatu. Smaller Rivers Kumudavathi & Vrishabhavathi are (were) its tributaries. About 20% of City’s drinking water used to be from this river. 2 reservoirs,each at Hesaraghatta & Tippagondanahalli were built on it.

The history of Harobele & many adjacent small villages or ‘Doddies’ as they are called fondly remembers River Arkavathy has their life line for centuries. The main source of water for thousands of villages en-route its union with its elder sister ‘Cauvery’.

The water used to be clean and clear. There were specific places for children to play-swim, for ladies to wash clothes- utensils, for youngsters to catch fish-crabs. In fact until three decades back, Arkavathy used to be the main source of drinking water too.

Small holes to a size of a vessel used to be dug up on the bank of the river. The crystal clear water used to surface and would be collected after filtering with a piece of white cloth on the mouth of the pot or vessel. Though bore-wells and small wells provided drinking water, the sweetness of the river water was always preferred.

(to be continued....)

My memories of River Arkavathy - Part 2

Continued from Part 1

As kids, we identified ankle deep, knee deep & neck deep areas  for playing . We used to jump from an 8 feet rock. I still remember a small snake peeping out from a small hole from the same rock. My cousin told us not to worry and if we made loud noise it would never come out. Experience spoke, we made more than a loud noise and it never came out.

After the swim, drying ourselves and the clothes was more fun. There was a Mango tree in the adjacent farm. The branches outgrew the fence and mangoes were open for all. There was neither shortage of mangoes on the tree nor shortage of stones under it.

Thus the competition of bringing down those Mangoes began. The prize, the mangoes were shared by all. Salt & Khara was always brought along. Lifebuoy soap too was an integral part of swimming. The smell of Lifebuoy soap still brings back all those memories for me.

What followed during the next decade is really tragic. The ever rising climate and human greediness contributed in killing Arkavathy slowly. The growing Bangalore population contaminated the tributary rivers joining Arkavathy. The unplanned growing constructions obstructed it’s free flow.

The rising irrigational activities and massive plantation of Eucalyptus sapped not only the ground water but also consumed the small streams which fed Arkavathy. The constructions on lake beds almost stopped all shallow water resources leaving the Arkavathy gasping for life.  

With houses getting water through pipes, Arkavathy was no more the life line. With Cable TV coming to the villages, water streams were not the favorite pass time anymore. Nobody cared to give a thought about the dying water bodies nor did anybody make an effort to revive them. There was more unclean water flowing.

My last memories of playing in Arkavathy water now goes back to 1997. 30- 40 of us plunged in to the waters after a family function. Another instance in 1999, where our entire cricket team played in the water for hours after a cricket match on a very hot day. No such luck in the later years.

Water flows, but not the water of those years. Arkavarthy is not the same it used to be. History says great civilisations prospered on the river banks, so did our childhood memories. Just hope to see all the rivers get back to their past best including our own Arkavarthy. The city of Bangalore does owe a lot to the River of Arkavarthy and its revival, for it has quenched it's thirst for decades.