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My trip to Kovvali village was like revisiting my childhood and introducing the village life to my young daughter. My childhood memories are infused with the rich tapestry of village life revolving around the farming activities - from tilling the land to transplanting the rice and looking at the caravan of bullock carts bringing home the harvested rice and dry grass.

I could once again view all these activities in the village while staying at the scenic house of my friend, which is adjacent to the rice fields.

My young daughter had tremendous fun riding the tractor, posing next to the bullocks and most importantly trampling in the wet rice fields where transplantation was apace. She merrily sunk into the knee-deep mud and refused to come out of the field.

More importantly, it was an opportunity to see how sincere efforts to engage with different communities in the village can help in beautifying the common areas by planting trees to provide shade, painting the walls with folklore and putting benches to sit.

Finally, visiting the rice mill gave a perspective on the scale of cultivation in that area, as the rice mill owner shared the information that it had a capacity to mill a truckload every day and that it was equipped with very modern milling equipment.

Before flying down to Vijayawada, I had a certain imagination of a friend's farm in Kovvali village. Coming from New Delhi, trying to escape the madness and chaos of the capital city, I was hoping to catch with my friend of many years and if possible snatch few moments of quiet and peace. Rather, Kovvali offered much more. The ancestral family home overlooking the green paddy fields, grandmother with her filter coffee that I got to enjoy early morning idling in the courtyard, under the clear blue sky ….. Its been a long time since I experienced
such tranquillity.

Kovvali was much more than just this…a walk around the neighbourhood and you are bound to receive invitation for a family function by the warm, hospitable and generous locals. Believe me , no amount of restaurant hopping in search of Andhra cuisine will give you the awesome authentic taste and variety that I managed to experience at these homes . Lucky indeed.

To list all that I experienced is a bit overwhelming since there are many memories. The beautiful traditional architecture of homes , maintained painstakingly by some families, the clean bylanes, the benches under trees by the roads , the early morning walks in paddy fields , villagers offering prayers to the deity by the tree in the courtyard,  the glow worms in the night…. These and many more memories linger to this day.