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A speed-breaker called...
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Penukonda. You'll love it if hill stations make you weary and you find beaches choking
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IT'S LIKE any other speed-breaking town you pass by on a highway, with people walking across the road, not apparently going anywhere in a hurry. A town in Anantapur district, on the Kurnool-Bangalore Road (NH 7), Penukonda is deceivingly commonplace. No one would actually set off from home, saying: "Bye! I'm off to a holiday in Penukonda!" It is really one of those places you stumble upon when you stop for that chai during a long bike journey. But you'll be tempted to change your itinerary and just spend a day or two here. Anyone who's visited the place will put her foot firmly on the red soil about that. So, if you feel resorts are stifling, hill stations make you weary and beaches are overdone, you'll love Penukonda.
Even as you drive to the place, a large statue being renovated on the hill will take you by surprise. "Hmmm... how did Sravanabelagola get here?" you wonder. Knock yourself on the head. Twice. The statue on the hill is that of Bhagwan Mahaveer (but not Gomateshwara), constructed there because of its proximity to the ancient Jain temple (11th to 12th Century AD) at Penukonda. Sitting at the foot of a big fortified hill, 70 km from Anantapur, the temple has the idol of Parshvanath in the kayotsarga (abandonment of the body in meditation) posture. There is a dharmashala in the temple compound, where visitors can board for 24 hours and tuck into the fabulous and unbelievably low-priced Jain food.
For those neither spiritually nor culturally inclined, Penukonda has another face — one that tells a development story. Right at the beginning of the town is surprise number one: the SEDS Vocational Training Centre. It isn't everyday that you find farmers tinkering with race bikes and cars, being shockingly knowledgeable about what 2T oil does (the explanation is in Telugu, of course). Founded by Rajen Joshua, an ace bike racer, the training centre teaches carpentry, sewing, and mechanics to people from nearby towns and villages.
Twenty years ago, Penukonda would've been a ghost town, what with locals fleeing to Hyderabad and Bangalore in search of a livelihood. But since 1980, when the Social Education and Development Society (SEDS) was set up by Rajen, things have changed. His farm and central campus for SEDS in the village of Anandapuram houses 28 children who are taught in-house. The kids who have been taken in are either orphaned, abused or come from homes of neglect. They're housed, fed, clothed, and educated here, primarily through private sponsorships. A 10-year-old leader of the pack (or so he claims) shows you the way to the farm, speaking chaste English and Telugu.
Penukonda is like a gloriously thick book of classic tales about "human triumphs". Go up the hill from the farm and you'll find proof of what an idea can create. Simple yet effective methods have been used to construct water banks and collectors.
Many city-breds would only call water authorities and complain that they don't have running water for their bath, but wouldn't do much to set it right. But the locals in Penukonda are so adept at water conservation and rainwater harvesting that they, in fact, could teach us a thing or two. In 1987, the groundwater table in the area was at an alarming 40 feet. Today, it can be harnessed at just eight feet below the ground.
There are guest cottages in the SEDS farm itself, where visitors or volunteers can board. If you like sunshine streaming in through the windows at the crack of dawn as you lounge on the bunk bed waiting for bleariness to fade, you'd be better off planning a visit right now. As said above, you'll be walking right into a fairy tale.
Call 25452108 for details or e-mail manil_jj@hotmail.com.
R.M.
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