Veranda Tales-A very long rope
Storytelling has been an integral part of my life since childhood. I grew up listening to stories during the hot summer evenings and nights with my cousins. Mothers and grandmothers would gather all of us children for story time. It was usually pitch dark except for a very faint light coming from the flickering candle. Power cuts were as frequent as the hot and humid summer days. We all spread out on a cool concrete floor or bamboo mats on the veranda intently listening to fascinating stories about kings, queens, princes, princesses, and peasants alike. Stories about love, life, families, and people entertained and taught us life skills. These stories transported us to distant worlds, strange yet familiar. Often the same story told by two people sounded different as storytellers added new twists and turns adding their personal style and flair to the stories.
Storytelling wasn’t limited to summer evenings and bedtime. I was surrounded by adults who didn’t pass up an opportunity to share their wisdom using the art of storytelling. These rich vibrant oral traditions include songs, poems, stories, and సామెతలు (Sametalu are proverbs in Telugu). Men and women sing songs as they work in the fields, grinding grains and spices and doing other daily chores at their homes. Stories are often used to teach important life lessons, interpersonal skills, and survival skills. These stories and the time spent listening to them made our lives richer leaving an impression on me. This series is all about reliving those memories as I share these stories.
కొండవీటి చాంతాడు (kondaveeti chantadu)
On a recent trip to Chicago, I had the pleasure of hanging out on the Lake Michigan shore. It was awesome to watch the waves crashing and Canadian Geese lounging close to the shore taking off when a water scooter got too close for their comfort. It is very easy to forget that you are on a lakeshore while watching the endless waters and waves relentlessly breaking at the shoreline one after another. I am an unusual beach person. I don’t like to sit at a beach sipping margaritas or other drinks. I like to walk along the beach with my feet sinking into the sand. I find it fascinating how water pools around my feet as they dig into the sandy beach. It is a reminder that the water table is right below your feet.
People living in coastal areas and close to rivers know all too well that their lower floors could flood when the weather turns stormy. The houses on the beach look strange standing on the stilts. There are some obvious disadvantages with the water table so close the surface. There are advantages to a higher water table as well. In dry areas the water table is so far below the surface, you have to dig very deep to reach it.
I lived very close to the coast where there was no need to even think about water scarcity. I also lived in arid places where the water table was so far below the surface, the wells in our houses had to be dug very deep. It is indeed frustrating to keep digging and digging and not find groundwater. Once you hit the water table, it is indeed like striking liquid gold. After reaching the water table, the dig continues to go deeper to make sure you have enough of a depth of water to submerge a bucket to draw the liquid gold from the well.
There were wells in both my maternal and paternal grandparents’ place. The well at my maternal grandparents had a pulley system on the top to make it easier to draw water from. The well at my paternal grandparents' place stood in a corner without a pulley system. It was more of a problem than help. The house got plenty of water from the city waterworks, so there was no need to draw water from the well. Without the pulley system it was hard to draw water from it as you would have to pull the bucket up by hand.
This well was used primarily as a hiding place for us kids when we ran around and played hide-and-seek. We could hide behind the well and not be found for a considerable period of time. We also lost clothes to the well. When a piece of clothing that was hanging on the clothesline nearby fell in, it took some effort to fish it out from the well. You had to tie a grappler hook to a long rope and dangle it down into water trying to reach the piece of clothing as it tried to escape. Peering down into deep dark well, it was hard to locate the clothing unless it was a bright colored one. I lost a red pair of pants once and stood by the well staring at it for a while as it floated in the water out of my reach. It took a while to fish it out.
When we lived in arid areas it was hard to get water for drinking, bathing, and other household chores. In some areas groundwater tasted good and it tasted awful in others. We would draw water up using a small bucket and keep filling a large bucket until the bucket was full. Some wells would have a rope attached to their pulleys and you could walk there with just a bucket. Others required you to carry the rope and bucket. అమ్మ (Amma is mother Telugu) was concerned about keeping our hands smooth and soft, so she didn’t give us the task of getting water from a well. Drawing water from a well is a good upper body workout. Why do you need a gym when you have an old well, a rope, and bucket?
కొండవీటి చాంతాడు (kondaveeti chantadu) sameta originated in పల్నాడు (Palnadu) region in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The village of కొండవీడు (Kondaveedu), which was home for కొండవీడు కోట (Kondaveedu Fort), was established as a fortified township by Gopanna, a commander of Buddhavarma of the Telugu Choda dynasty. Even though the కొండవీడు (Kondaveedu) Kingdom stood between the Krishna and the Gundlakamma rivers, the village and fort were higher up in a hilly arid area. As a result the water table was so far below the surface, the wells in that area were very deep. People needed a very long rope to draw water from the wells in this region. The words కొండవీటి చాంతాడు mean “rope used for drawing water from a well in కొండవీడు (Kondaveedu). A 15th century Telugu poet, శ్రీనాథుడు (Srinadhudu) wrote about water scarcity in the పల్నాడు (Palnadu) region.
People use కొండవీటి చాంతాడు (kondaveeti chantadu) sameta to describe a long winded explanation of something that could be explained in a few words or when someone drags on a grievance for a long period of time. Reading the last chapters of the Lords of the Rings book comes to my mind when I hear this sameta. After the ring is destroyed, Aragon gets crowned, Frodo bids his long goodbyes, and starts his journey back to the Shire. The rest of the story drags on and on like a కొండవీటి చాంతాడు (kondaveeti chantadu), finally ending with Sam coming back to Rose and his children after Frodo sails to the Grey Havens.