A surprise opportunity to visit IITTM, Nellore again came my way last week. After finishing the engagement there, I took an evening bus to Gudur, an hour's journey from Nellore. As we know the soul of India is in her rural areas. The bus trip to Gudur was interesting and lively as the bus cruised through the NH16 for most of the time and then turned into the villages to reach old Gudur bus station.
Gudur is famous for its lemons (Lime) and mica mines. Gudur lemons are available all over the south of India and mica is used domestically and even exported to different parts of the world. Since July was not the month of lemons I did not see much of it in the market which was full with fresh vegetables and fruits from the neighbouring farms.
A local market without its colorful flowers is not complete. Gudur was not different. Marigold, jasmine, rose etc everything added to the sight and smell of the town market.
An elderly gentleman at the oldest club of Gudur was so kind to give me a few minutes of his and he advised me how to go about to the Lutheran church in the town. The next day morning I walked to the church which was infact just behind the old Bus stand.
Rev. Manohar, who leads the church now told me the Gudur churches (Andhra) were started by the Lutheran Missionaries, John Christian Fredrick Heuer from the Pennsylvania mission and later joined by Rev. August Milieus from the Hermaunsburg Evangelical Mission of Germany (HELM). The Gudur church has fond memories of Rev. Milieus and they have his tomb inside a church in a place called Zulapet, some 30 kilometers away from Gudur.
For our British Heritage interest I was delighted to know Sir Arthur Cotton and many other British officers have worked and cooperated with many Lutheran and Baptist missions for the development of these regions. I hope to follow up those aspects in another visit.
This visit and the look around helped me learn about some exceptional personalities like Sir Arthur Cotton his daughter Lady Elizabeth Hope, William Burgess, Rev. Benjamin Wesley, John Wesley, Rev. Charles Walker Posset (Beautiful Medak Cathedral builder) and the associate officers of the British period make an interesting British Heritage study of the period from 1850 to 1920 in the South. Sir Arthur Cotton is still revered as a saint in the South and is the only English man whose statue has been erected after independence for his love for India and the tremendous social contribution he has made to the country the fruits of which are enjoyed by even the present generation and the generations to come. He turned Andhra with his pathbreaking irrigation projects to the bread basket of the south.
My visit to the Lutheran church was over by afternoon and I took an evening Passenger train to Chennai. Train Journey by local passenger trains are less expensive and a big boon to the local villagers everywhere.
Passenger trains of the Indian Railways are an experience of Incredible India which we can hardly forget. The color, the smell, the sounds and the crowd all add to our India tour experience. There were people both men and women from neighbouring villages bringing in their fresh fruits and vegetables in big aluminium vessels and plastic caskets by head loads to sell in the Gudur town market. Some of them start early hopping on to the train and return by evening in the same train. The life of ordinary Indians who do not have the social security or the pensions like the government employees or big corporate employees, folks who have to depend on their everyday earning to live the day. They seemed very happy and peaceful as many of them squatted on the floor of the train discussing the day and planning for tomorrow.
There were fast vendors who came on to the train selling boiled peanuts, ghee biscuits, masala tea. They hopped on and off the compartments at stations, there were many of them earning a living from selling eatables to the tired passengers.
Even though I wanted to go back to Kerala, at Chennai I changed my mind and stayed back at my favourite back packing hotel at Tambaram where I usually stay when I come on recce tours. The Biryani at Abu's at 11 in the night was still good, though it would have been at its best in the afternoon.
I stayed over for a day more at Aruna Taj Residency compiling notes on the British Heritage Tours. Its always good that way, if we keep noting for later, it just gets later and later.
I hardly went out except to the CSI church at Tambaram, though they do not have any thing historic there even though the Tambaram Railway station is the third oldest station from the British times.
How can a stay at Madras end without the mention of its beautiful flowers...
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