Tambur Kere

This article is continuation of the previous post Tambur Basavanna Devastana.

Tambur Kere is about a kilometer from the village towards the south. This manmade waterbody can be called as a large pond. When its filled to the brim, the pond is 550m at its longest and 250m at its widest. The pond is fed by streams flowing down from the surrounding jungle and agricultural fields. A small check dam is where the pond overflows. During our visit the pond had overflowed a few weeks back. A stream of water had caused considerable erosion in its path. The pond seems to be shallow... probably due to accumulation of dirt on the bed. Anyway, the pond is a pretty sight.

The day was warm, sultry and humid, clouds were building up rapidly.

Along the northern shore of the pond are sugarcane fields. This is the tallest sugarcane I'd even seen. They were almost 15 feet high. Surely the farmers have worked hard, yet the credit for such a crop has to be attributed to rainwater. Along the southern shore is forest department plantation. The villagers had cautioned against entering the jungle. We had no intention of doing so, we weren't prepared for a jungle trek.

With the sultry weather, everything was still, the pond surface looked like a mirror. If not for the projecting grass shoots, it would've been a perfect mirror.

That shore along the jungle could be frequented by wildlife during nights. Wild animals like deer, bear, leopard, porcupine, fox, wild boar, and even elephants live in these jungles. Peacocks are abundant here, one can hear them cry early mornings.

The pond has hundreds of lotus plants. The cluster of lotus plants almost runs from shore to shore. This is a sight I don't remember seeing before. Every leaf had puddles of rainwater, probably it had rained in the night, The puddles looked like gems scattered over the leaves.

Normally lotus leaves are flat. Here we have a curled up leaf. I guess this leaf is drying, probably at the end of its life. An important characteristic of these leaves is they are waterproof. The puddles are really are adhering to the leaves, rather they are floating on them. These puddles must be feeling "so near yet so far." 

In this picture, besides the partly curled up leaf, there's a fully curled up one, as if its been rolled up from opposite sides. I guess that leaf's life is over.

The brown patch at the pond center are water plants or remains of water plants. I wonder if its remnants of lotus plants. I guess the pond has been leased to some fishing contractor.

A fallen tree carries on as it is. By the looks of the tree, it must be like for a few years.

Captured by Pushpa while I shot water lily leaves.

The fallen tree probably stood at the edge of the pond. A gust of wind must've pushed it into the lake. The path to the road passes over this mound.

As we walked back to the car, our eyes caught a few striped stones, or rather layered stones. The black layers seems to be rich in iron.

One last look at the southern shore. The tall tree is the landmark here.

The path over the mound is used by people and cattle. On the way a cow and its calf froze in their tracks. We were strangers and they were skeptical. As we neared them, they didn't have a choice but to move ahead and away from us :)

This is the view of the pond waters from the check dam. The dam is barely 15 feet long and 2 feet wide at the crest. Village women come here to wash clothes. Four of them were here chatting happily and working... typical village life.

Back to the road. By now the air was warm and thick with humidity. See the dark clouds forming. Chances of afternoon rain was high. We just wanted to get into the car, start driving and feel the cool air.

We passed through the village and heading out. On the outskirts, a lad on a bike waved at us to stop. When he came to know about my blog, he asked me to write about Tambur Basavanna temple. Then he told me about another ancient temple close to the last house of the village on the road. Yes, that would be interesting. Our next stop was half a minute away- Uttarakumara Gudi.
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