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.