The Kali river bridge, built over the Kali river at Kodibag,
Karwar, is one of the best places which is surrounded by Western Ghats,
beautified by the tiny-appearing islands in the near vicinity, and the view of
sun blushing crimson at the brink of Arabian sea making it intensely charming
and beautiful. Youngsters and the aged-ones love spending time with their
friends and breathe some fresh air to relax their mind and body.
But behind every beauty, lies a darker part too. People of
excellent intellect enjoy the beauty and feel a sense of peace around them but
the perturbed minds come with an intention to rest in peace forever(which they don’t).
The river has been undesirably accepting the applicants who break into the Kali
river without a call letter using bridge as a platform and maybe this
involuntary activity of the river to engulf the disturbed minds is why the
river splashes away its tears in the form of waves, hitting the rocks and
singing an elegy.
People love to jump into rivers after looking at the calmly
flowing water, but this is one of the few rivers where people would not even
dare to swim after knowing its history. Two of my young friends who were
excellent swimmers, and used to swim daily in the Kali river, once never
returned back from the river alive. And when some of the localites went in
search of their bodies underwater, they found both of them together in an
almost-to-hug position holding each other’s arms. Localites believe that some
evil power might have pulled them downward and they both might have fought
together but couldn’t succeed. The reason behind it is still a mystery. When I
once dived into the river during our sailing expedition training to search our
ropeless anchor, I had all the stories in my mind which I had heard. These
haunted stories are the reasons why one fears to get into the oh-so-calm river.
There have been so many deaths in the past years that people
are now scared of even walking over the bridge at late night. There is an
incident that has deepened this psychological effect. An auto-rickshaw driver,
while returning back home at midnight was stopped by a young lady and he agreed
to drop her looking at the time and worried of her insecurity. On the way, he
asked the destination of the young lady and received no response. He pardoned
and yet again found no response. Then he turned back to check why he wasn’t
receiving any response from her, and this was the time when his night turned
into a nightmare. He found that the lady had vanished from his auto-rickshaw.
Totally feared by the incident, he returned home on full throttle and took time
to get over this.
These small-small incidents intensify the terror and bring
about a psychological pessimism in the minds of many. The Kali river bridge was
built to END the distance between Kodibag and Karwar, but people are using it
to END their lives. The perturbed minds
are still not understanding the preciousness of life or maybe they don’t intend
to face problems in their life.
Nature doesn’t care. Birds chirp out early morning, sun rises
and sets, river flows through its way, people provide a little sympathy; but
all that is lost is a precious life which could have been beautiful if lived.