I have spent my childhood in town which is lush green, less than 40 miles away from Godavari river, extremely fertile and rich but never had a mountain or hill. The rainy season was moist and swampy because of it's alluvial soil and in a way disgusting as I get to see various types of arthropodes born overnight in countless numbers, various types of larvas clinging to the trees, with crawling earthworms under your feet, and few scorpions peeping out of their homes to sting a bite. The town litterally looked like a jungle book. It had it's own river which bigger than a canal. The fox howl at night on the other bank of the river which is not yet inhabited. Men and women bathe in it and pass through the streets in their wet cloths. Many poor wash their cloths in the same river just besides a person who is filling his water for drinking. The water flowing in the rainy season looks red and muddy and inorder to purify that people use seed called "Indupa" . A paste made out of it is mixed in the water. In matter of minutes the water turns crystal clear.
On the banks of river few festivals were celebrated and many women with their metal "Gowri" decorated with flowers on their head place their deity on the steps of the river and finally distribute "Poha'(Atukulu)
either soaked in milk or curd distribute to all as prasadam. That was one of my favourite prasadams. Men and women in the biting cold of "karthika Pounami" bathe in cold waters of the river and women leave their mud lamps placing them in banana tree bark. Girls group to gether hunt for mehendi tree. They pasted it to decorate their palms.
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