Unity matters
Srirangapattana: Unity can work wonders. For instance, people from the two neighbouring villages of Maralagala and Doddapalya in Srirangapattana taluk of Mandya District have united to clean up and give a new shape to the centuries old kalyani, situated right next to the Anjaneya temple in Maralagala village of Srirangapattana taluk.
So committed are these people to the work they have undertaken that they have not sought any kind of help from either the local authorities or people’s representatives of the villages.
Instead, they have pooled their own money and bought a diesel engine to pump out waste water and other materials from the kalyani.
The water of this kalyani which is built in an inverted pyramid style, was once used for abhisheka in the temple and for drinking water purposes. Through there are no proper records to show when it was exactly built, residents of the village believe it was built prior to Tippu Sultan’s regime. However, over the years, the entry of borewells rendered this historic kalyani useless, resulting in huge deposits of silt.
According to Shivalingegowda of Maralagala, “We have not invited people individually to join the cleaning programme. We just announced about it through thamate and people came voluntarily.”
Once the cleaning work is done, kalyani water can be made use of in a productive manner. Unity definitely pays, doesn’t it?
U M Mahesh