The lost world

A beautiful sacred and perennial river flows serenly most of the year but for a spate in monsoon season. Vedic scholors and students are very much part of the streets along with the local farmers and traders. Houses are low roofed slanting and tiled to avert rain damages. Every street has many small and clean temples of deities well maintained by devoted non greedy priests. The place has so many serene secluded area that any seeker would like to sit for meditation and soul search. And believe me ,this place was specially chosen for this sole purpose by a great seer. The shops sold only local items with occassional sighting of some'new' product proudly displayed in the front. Locals frolicked in the Pyols of lined houses with persons of all age groups joining in the merry. Clean streets with rangoli designs in front of every house.cows wandering leisurely the roads which have occasional traffics.year round festivals in some form or other bring people together and make life interesting. No high rise buildings ,no blaring horns,no noisy songs defying the silent atmosphere no plastics and garbages strewing all over and above all no spoiled minded people. Do you like to see such a place in India ? Well you just missed the chance . All these changed and now all that remains is a temple thronged by not seekers but tourists who take every opportunity to merrymaking and meticulously spoil the place and minds of people in any area. Money which until now was just one more mean to get any basic need has become the sole reason for happiness. And along with it have come the other evils . Houses are sold for high price and in their place high rises soaring above the once prominent temple gopuram have come up. Shops stock any thing from hair oil to shoes and pepsi to wines. Panipuri carts and eateries with smelly foods are common sights. Buses ply non stop, dropping thousands and picking up thousands. Tourist vans and latest model HUVs  bring unscrupulous tourists to this small town bursting at seams  Locals have learnt that driving autos and mini vans are more profitable than working in fields. Women folks refuse to do household jobs since they see more money working for lodges and guest houses which have made their feet well rooted in this town once known for it's athithi sathkaram. Above all the sacred river that entwined the town serenely  catering to umpteen species of birds and fish has been  diverted and blocked to make way for one more bridge and parking lot to accommodate more tourists to spoil. The river now is a big pond  slowly turning smelly and accumulating garbages thrown around. The town I so far talked about is Sringeri in Karnataka. A place once ear marked for soul searching has become one more hill station to be spoiled in line with Ooty ,kodaikanal or Simla. And so now all you can do now is imagine or go look for another unspoiled place to soul search. I wish you hurry before some 'fore sighted ' town planner gets his blueprint approved modernising the place.