Children love boats and boating ….. Me too!

It is true that all children love boats and boating and in my case this childhood passion has not diminished with age. Next week on this day I am starting for Rajahmundry along with Lalitha and Srikanth for a day long cruise on River Godavari. This would be our second ‘day-long cruise’ on Godavari. My association with Godavari is from infancy. We were at Kothagudem for 27 years and at an hour’s drive from Bhadrachalam which is on the other side of River Godavari. For 13 years; until the bridge over Goadavari was ready, we had to cross the river by boat and launch or only launch to visit Lord Sree Sita Ramachandra Swamy Temple at Bhadrachalam. And as I grew up I never missed a chance to have a boat ride in lakes or rivers, at places I visited.

While working at Praga Tools Limited, I had to visit Calcutta at least six times a year for 15 years. During every visit I used to prefer travelling between our office at Fairlie place and Howrah Station or Cossipore by Ferry service over River Hooghly/Ganges. The above photographs are of our boat or launch rides at Ooty lake, Kodaikanal lake, Ulsoor lake, Hussain Sagar, Durgam Cheruvu, River Godavari-Bhadrachalam, River Godavari-Basara, River Krishna -Vijayawada, River Krishna-Nagarjuna sagar and River Krishna-Srisailam. There are many other boat/ferry rides I had on Ganges and Yamuna at Prayag – Allahabad, Brindavan gardens, Ranganathittu bird sanctuary, Cochin boat tour, trip to Miyajima Island in Japan and at few other places of which there are no photographs but all these events are fresh in my thoughts and bring about pleasant memories.

I am eagerly looking forward to the next week cruise over Godavari. Previous ‘day-long cruise’ on Godavari was from Sri Ramagiri near Bhadrachalam to Perantalapalli, Kolluru and back. Forthcoming cruise will be in the opposite direction from Rajahmundry to Perantalapalli, Kolluru and back. On my return, I shall post a blog on this exciting trip on Godavari through Papikondalu hill range, the lush green hill range with interesting places enroute and the gentle music and breeze of Godavari.

Very honestly it is just not the boats and water, I do enjoy outdoors and nature as much as I can, the forests, trees, fields, flowers, hills, birds, butterflies, the star-lit sky, lakes, rivers, sea, sand and the rain. I need nature to feel good, inner and outer.