A nostalgic journey

Certain news items read in newspapers stir nostalgia, bringing to mind, the pleasant memories of the by-gone days in one's life. One such news item I read in the The Hans India about the reappearance of Jatka Bandi- the horse-drawn cart in the rural areas of Rajahmundry, East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh ( "Jatka Bandi makes a come-back"-THI, July 9) made me recall the memories of my childhood about our rides in Jatka Bandi. I still remember vividly our rides in Jatka Bandi which we, children, enjoyed so much during our summer-holiday tours to our grandparents' villages and to the pilgrimage centres.

When we made train journeys and got down at the railway stations of our destinations, outside the railway station, there would be a row of Jatka Bandis waiting to ferry passengers. The moment we, children, saw horse-drawn carts, our faces lit up with happiness and we found ourselves in great excitement.

The horses and the carts decorated so colorfully presented the pictures of marvellous beauty. Especially,the horses, white, brown and red in colors ,caught our fancy. When we got into the cart and seated, we were immensely excited. Waving the whip in the air, pulling the reins of the horse,the horse-cart man let the horse run over pucca paths with a cloud of dust rising.

Once the horse-cart started galloping, there would be jolting, throwing the passengers one over another. While our elders sat, holding the iron-frames of the cart tightly, we,the children, falling over each other would keep screaming, laughing and enjoying the jolty trot of the horse-cart. Sometimes, the horse on its way would slow down its pace and often stop,being reluctant to move on.

Then,the cart-man,making clucking sounds with his mouth, brandishing his whip,would release strokes on the skin of the horse and the horse would spring into a gallop.

While the horse-cart was trotting along the paths of the villages,passing green fields on both sides of the paths,we,children, would be watching so delightfully, the beautiful sceneries of nature,the spectacles of singing birds on tree-branches and of grazing cattle in fields and the scurrying squirrels up the trees. The rides we had in the horse-carts in our childhood days remain as the much cherished, pleasant, exciting memories in my adult mind.

Now, as years rolled by, with the advancement in the mode of transport,cabs,taxis,auto-rickshaws,vans, city-buses,metro-trains, motor-cycles replaced this old-time mode of transport-Jatka Bandi.

When I happened to read the news-report in" The Hans India"about Jatka Bandi as an important mode of transport in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh in these Corona times, my heart leapt up in joy with my childhood memories of Jatka Bandi rides flooding my mind. Thank you,for your wonderful news-report about Jatka Bandi.

Dr Venugopala Rao Kaki, Kakinada