Hemantha Kalam - 72 'Paanee re paanee...'

 

 

“Paanee re paanee tera rang kaisa

Jisme milaa do lage us jaisa…”

 

(Water O water what’s your colour

Whatever you mix me in, that's my colour)

---Indrajeet Singh Tulsi

There has been a post on the WhatsApp a few days ago and I think it was dear R. Ganesan who had posted it. That was about a waterfall flowing upwards in Maharashtra. This reminded of my visit to Tirupati and the Tirumala hills some fifteen odd years ago, just to view the Paapanaasanam falls at Alipiri area and the Kapila Theertham area. For people coming to have the darsanam of Lord Sri Venkateswara or Balaji on the hills, the waterfalls are just icing on the cake.

 

But then, being not very religious, I attended the felicitation of one of my favourite Telugu authors Late Pulikanti Krishna Reddy at Tirupati and the ensuing literary meet in the morning, along with dear Avineni Bhaskar. Well, the year was 2004 and the month was November where the crowds in the religious place were not very thick. From the hotel hall, where the felicitation function was taking place, the view of the waterfalls was tantalizing and after being unable to resist the temptation, I waited for the function to draw to a close.

 

We came out of the venue and hired a cab for something like Rs.300 or so for a couple of hours with the sole intention of climbing on to only half of the hill to view the waterfalls from close. The cab driver went agog when he came to know that we were not going to the temple for darsanam but were taking to only the waterfalls.

 

Mr. Bhumana Karunakara Reddy, an influential person (who later went on to become the Chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Board for a period) was the chief guest of the programme and perhaps, if we wanted, he could have arranged for a relatively easier and quick darsanam of the Lord for us.

 

But then our minds were not on HIM but only on HIS creation of the nature. So halfway on to the mountain road, we asked the cab driver to cut across from the upwards road to the other downwards road and wee, we went to see and take the photographs of the waterfalls, albeit almost at the end of the season. 

Some photographs are given here.

Paapanaasanam (Alipiri) waterfalls

Kapila Theertham Waterfalls

View of Tirupati town/city from the Tirumala Hills

All photographs by Yours faithfully

 

The water passes from somewhere in the Seshaachalam forests and flows down gathering medicinal values and its share of pollution too. Yet, what appears is so pure as water acquires the colour of that in which it is mixed. If you think it is holy, it is!

 

Interested to go and see for yourself, in live? Go ahead and indulge! The season in Tirumala mountains starts now for the waterfalls to be seen in full glory and by September and October one can see torrents of water falling down.

 

Do let me know of your thoughts later, after visiting!

 

Till then, adios amigos!

 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Bohoma Sthuthiyi (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai), Dankie (Afrikaans), Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish), Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian & Malay), Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea), Malo (Tonga) and Vinaka (Fiji).

 

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India