The Tale of a Blacksmith
"I am Narayana,
Kammari Narayana.
I am a blacksmith by Caste, and
I belong to Yaswada village, which was submerged
under Lower Manair Dam".
"The Dam forced us to leave our village and
to flee from our own homes and hometowns like birds
without a destination".
"We left our places where our forefathers and
we lived with pride and dignity as skilled professionals.
Our family used to serve the agricultural needs and
supply iron-made tools to the entire village".
"As a young professional I started my traditional career at the age of 8.
I won the hearts of more than hundred farmers for more than fifty years".
"Suddenly they announced the construction plan of Lower Manair Dam and
a little compensation was thrown on us like alms to beggars". "With that meager compensation, along with my wife and only son, I wandered here and there as a beggar and finally settled here".
“After a decade of the settlement in this village, I am a stranger; no one recognizes me and my skills. They still look at me with suspicion doubting my skills and credibility".
"No one comes forward to give me the carpentry work. My own caste people also do not allow me to take up the works from the local farmers because the village is their Vathan. "Traditionally the rights have been assigned to their families for generations".
In my village I was a king, Every morning dozens of farmers used to wait in queue before my house to sharpen their instruments".
"Now I am helpless just sitting outside my hut with my dried up furnace and waiting for a customer who visits once in a blue moon, that too, not to sharpen the iron bars or spades but to dig the graves."*
**Kammari Narayana cried loudly narrating his story when Dr. Chakrapani Ghanta, the researcher visited his place in 1996, as a part of his fieldwork for a documentary on ‘Displacement’ of Lower Manair Dam outskirts in Malkapur village near Karimnagar.
** This story was part of my presentation in an International Conference on Social Sciences, 13-16 June, 2005, Honolulu, Hawaii,US
Originally Published in June 2005 in my google site Yaswada
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