Road - widening hits home : (
When the announcement had come two years ago, all of us had accepted the fact. Yes, our roads were too narrow to accommodate the sudden increase in traffic - both local & tourist.... and, widening them was necessary.
Proposed & approved way back in the 70s, financial shortcomings had post-poned the widening works till now! Those of us along the proposed widening path were hoping that the financial crunch continued & the proposal would remain just that!
Alas! it didn't happen that way. Today, the dreaded moment arrived and was gone within a couple of minutes, leaving all of us sailing in the same boat ......
Most neighbours have lost old, high yielding coconut trees, mango trees, etc. Some have lost a portion of their verandas. We have lost about 8 feet of our garden.
My favourite corner would look like this at this time of the year.
Now, it looks like this .....
Soon, it will be tarred and be called 'road' .......
To give me some credit, I have managed to re-plant/ propagate and save all of the 20 plus varieties of plants that had to be sacrificed. Though I'm heart-broken for the moment, I know, one week of rains and things will look better.
Irreplaceable, of course, are all those huge wayside trees that had to be felled.
The weather's warming up and all of us, including the road users, have begun to miss our canopies.
And, as this one across the road came crashing down, I realised that all we now have are memories - of the pleasure of having centenarians towering over us, protecting us .....
When the announcement had come two years ago, all of us had accepted the fact. Yes, our roads were too narrow to accommodate the sudden increase in traffic - both local & tourist.... and, widening them was necessary.
Proposed & approved way back in the 70s, financial shortcomings had post-poned the widening works till now! Those of us along the proposed widening path were hoping that the financial crunch continued & the proposal would remain just that!
Alas! it didn't happen that way. Today, the dreaded moment arrived and was gone within a couple of minutes, leaving all of us sailing in the same boat ......
Most neighbours have lost old, high yielding coconut trees, mango trees, etc. Some have lost a portion of their verandas. We have lost about 8 feet of our garden.
My favourite corner would look like this at this time of the year.
Now, it looks like this .....
Soon, it will be tarred and be called 'road' .......
To give me some credit, I have managed to re-plant/ propagate and save all of the 20 plus varieties of plants that had to be sacrificed. Though I'm heart-broken for the moment, I know, one week of rains and things will look better.
Irreplaceable, of course, are all those huge wayside trees that had to be felled.
The weather's warming up and all of us, including the road users, have begun to miss our canopies.
And, as this one across the road came crashing down, I realised that all we now have are memories - of the pleasure of having centenarians towering over us, protecting us .....
SAD
ReplyDelete:(
ReplyDeleteYour blog has the fragrance of nature and small town.
ReplyDeleteI had been to your blog many a time in the past and liked it and had it book marked but as i use many browsers according to my whim, i lost track of it.
Thank you for giving me back the link of your blog.
You're welcome, Squirrel!
ReplyDelete@ Arun Sir & Nanda...sad, but what to do? 'Development' came quicker because, namma ex-CM is a mahaa bhakt of the Rambhaapuri Matt on this stretch :(
The same happened here, when all the lovely trees were cut down, every time I saw them, they looked like dead soldiers in a battlefield.Now all the trees in the valley,on the left while going up to Manipal have been cut down. It is horrible.
ReplyDeleteThat green valley was a kind of landmark for me - to be alert for your lane! Now, I guess it'll be a valley full of apartments :(
DeleteYour "before and after" photos are quite jarring!
ReplyDelete4 months have gone by.... I'm yet to get used to the lack of shade/ foliage :(
Delete