INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN...181

INTO THE PAST WITH PAIN….181

Dr K Prabhakar Rao

(It is the border area of Karnataka and Andhra states. There is no flat ground any where in the vicinity. There are deep gorges some even kilometers deep to an extent of miles and miles. Gandhi, Patel and Nehru are seen sitting near a rock and are making tea over fire with the help of dry twigs.)

Gandhi. I think we are caught in some very inhospitable terrain. After seeing this, I feel I am in Nevada State of USA.

Patel. Hee.. You are correct.

Nehru. Bapu exaggerates and Patel claps shamelessly.

Gandhi. What I say is very true. Some years ago before partition of India, I came to this place. All these areas were covered under bush forest and rocks. It was a rocky plain. There was some wild life too. Now look. What is there?All has been looted and eaten.

Nehru. Changes do occur.

Gandhi. But this is man made change.

Patel. Bapu. There are two guys called Gali brothers from Karnataka. They are ministers too in Karnataka. They got lease for mining in this area some time ago.

Gandhi. Does this mean they dig out entire state? Are they not humans? Probably they are beavers. (Gandhi coughs) ugh…ugh…ugh… Give me some water Patel.

Patel. Bapu. There is no extra water. Tea is ready for you.

Gandhi. That is fine.

(Patel gives a cup of tea and Gandhi takes some sips and feels comforted)

Gandhi. Yeah I was telling some thing about this area.

Patel. Indian miners are like vultures and beavers, In India, we do not have beavers, We have moles ( Pandi kokku in Telugu ). These moles can dig up any thing to any extent. I was told that these Gali brothers have an army of some few million moles and these are fed by them. They dig up every thing here. However recently the hydraulic monsterous Shovel diggers called JCB have come up and work has been made very easy in mining.

Gnadhi. They have lease of few hundred acres of land. But they dug up entire thing. I was told that they made deep tunnels in to AP state few KM under the ground.

Gandhi, That means AP state is in danger. All poor old buildings are now standing on false foundations.

Patel. True. Like our country is on false foundation with dynastic rule and showing that it is worlds second largest democracy. hee..hee

Gandhi. Is there no end to this?

Patel End is there. That is with end of AP state.

Nehru. Please do not exaggerate things. How AP State will end?

Patel. These miners have dug deep tunnels mining off things and these tunnels are a kilo meter under ground. Probably these tunnels have now reached even Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Medak, Mahboobnagar in Telangana, Kadapa, Kurnool, Ananthapur and some more districts.

Gandhi. It looks AP has become hollow under ground and people are sitting on a hollowness.

Patel. Bapu. This could be also very risky too. Slightest earthquake can cause collapse of residential areas. Even dams like Nagarjunasagr, srisailam could break if tunnels are dug under ground. These tunnels must be surely several hundred feet wide and deep too.

Gandhi. Ohfo. It is so dangerous to the state.

( Gandhi and his friends get to the edge of a deep gorge and look down. Suddenly Nehru shouts and vomits. With great difficulty Patel holds him from falling down)

Nehru. Eee..eee.. My head is spinning. My eyes are also spinning. I can not stand vertically. What happened to me? eeee..eeee My end has come.

Patel. Nothing happened to you.Any how you are already dead. You are not used to look in to deep gorges. You were always sitting on thrones aping Englishmen. So it is like this.

Gandhi. Patel. I feel like going down in to one of this gorges and explore things.

Patel. Sure Bapu. I am also ready. How about Jawaharlal?

Nehru. I am also ready. I am no less.

( The trio slowly start getting down the gorge and after long struggle, they get down to bottom and it almost dark by the time they go down)

Patel. Bapu. It is getting dark. Is it safe now to get into a tunnel?

Gandhi. There is not one tunnel. There are several ones. We shall choose the central one. Look . This tunnel is almost half a kilo meter wide.

( The trio slowly walks into the wide tunnel and start moving. The floor is uneven. Gandhi has a pen torch and he guides rest probing with his stick. They move on several kilo meters inside.Gandhi occasionally says Ram..Ram..)

Patel. Bapu. We have been moving for many hours and it is time we rest now

Gandhi. True. Poor Jawaharlal is also tired

( The trio rests for the night and sleep on the ground. ) After few hours they wake up a and start walking again. )


Patel. Bapu. We must have walked several kilometers. No we do not know where we are. Many other side tunnels have joined our tunnel. We can not go back either.

Gandhi. So Gali brothers have dug away entire state.

Patel. True Bapu. There must be very few supporting areas between tunnels. Some day whole state could go down suddenly.

Gandhi. That means physically they will go down. Otherwise too the state is sunk with political crooks playing the game of Telangana, Separte Andhra, Rayala seema and now Hyderabad state.

Patel. If the state collapses physically nothing will be left. Even Charminar will break into bits.The Charminar can never be rebuilt because all projects would be swindled. More over there will be no place left for foundations. They have to start building foundation from two or three Km from down.Golconda fort is already eaten away by people. Nothing will be left. Gandipet and Himayt sagar, Hussein sagar will flow into thee gorges.

Gandhi. How about sriram sagar,Srisailam, Nizam sagar Hussein sagar and singur dams?

Patel. SriRam sagar will not have water after Aalamatti dam (in Maharshtra state )height is increased in Maharshtra. Nizam sagar is always dry.It has dried up with Nizams rule. Srisailam, Nagarjunasagr and Singur will break and flow into these gorges along with buildings men and women.

Gandhi. Gali brothers will surely escape because in India no scamsters in past have been punished. They are above law. Only investigation is done and are let off as CBI is doing now about Katrochi..

Patel. How about AP universities?

Gandhi. If these tunnels have reached under AP universities surely they will collapse. I am hundred percent sure that everything is standing on just hollowness.Osmania University would be the first as it has old and very large buildings. Ap state woudl be too happy because it has becomea major head ache to governmnet.

( The trio spends several days in these tunnels wandering aimlessly as they are unable to go back.They are surviving on biscuits held with them. At last they see some light at a distance )

Patel. Bapu. It looks like the tunnel is ending surely. Bapu . Have you noticed thelight?

Gandhi. Sure. Soon we will be out.

( The trio at last reach the source of light. There is a small opening to one side of tunnel and with difficulty crawl into the narrow opening and walk for some distance on their knees. They now get into a small tunnel hardly for a man to go. They walk for few hours through it and get into a dry deep well)

Gandhi. We have landed into an ancient tunnel that led us into this dilapilated well.

( They shout loudly for some one to see them)

Gandhi. Bapu. I see some fort walls at a distance and I am sure this must be in some old fort.

Nehru. There are many forts in AP.

Patel. Hoo..ho.ho Is there any one here? Please help

( After some time a person peeps down the well and he is scared)

Gandhi. Bhai. Please save us

Stranger. Iam guard of this fort. Who are you? How you have fallen in this well.

Patel. We shall tell everything. Please save us.

Gurad. Keep waiting. Please take these biscuits and eat.

( He throws two packs of Tiger Biscuits which Nehru grabs immediately and distributes. After some time, a fire Brigade team arrives after full three hours and they take the trio out. Gandhi, Nehru and Patel are in bad shape much exhausted. The fire officer comforts them. Gives them hot tea too.)

Officer. Who are you guys? How you are in this old well? This is Golconda fort near Hyderabad. You look very sick too. I shall call a doctor

Gandhi. Thanks, there is no need for a doctor.I am not sure of our doctors. I am not confident of them. Many can not give intravenous injections.They are bad indeed. I am scared of them. We shall be OK soon. We need some good hot water bath and some food to revive.

Officer. Please tell us how you got inside.

Patel. In fact we never entered this well from Golconda side. We actually were exploring Gali mines at AP Karnataka border and travelling through the tunnels of mine we reached after many days. Now what is the date?

Officer. It 01 Jan 2011 .

Patel. We entered mines on 01 December 2010. That means we have spent full one month under ground.

Officer. This is very great and something very interesting too.

Gandhi. Officer. The mining guys have dug up entire AP state. We are all sitting on hollow ground.

Officer, eee..eee.. Now what will happen to us?

Patel. God only knows.

Gandhi. One can not rectify it too.

Officer. Sir Some TV guys have come to interview. I told them that you are very tired and they will meet you after two days rest. We shall take you to Fire control room and please stay in our gust house till you recover.You neen not pay us anything. You look like MKGandhi.

Nehru. Thanks. I am much pleased.I am not looking like him. I am real MK Gandhi.

Patel. That is good sir. Iam real Patel

Officer. That is great really. But they died long ago.( Scratches head). We shall see that later on .

(The trio is driven off in a car to guest house and all disperse. It is learnt that the guard at the fort was recommended for a bravery award for rescuing the trio and the officer got promotion for directing the rescue operation.)

CURTAIN FALLS