Atmakur, Nellore

A place with old charm and new beginnings

I have spent considerable amount of my time during covid in a place called Atmakur. This is my wife native place, so I split my time between my hometown and this place to maintain peace in my family.

It's an old town located on the banks of river Boggeru which a tributary to Penner River. Atmakur connects many villages. This is a diverse place with different religions and different skilled people.

It got busy streets filled with vendors. It got desperate barbers waiting to latch on customers. There are people who fix things like fix your gas stoves, fix agricultural equipment and so on. Now the modern life is bringing new things to this old town like mini malls, shopping complexes, burgers and fries.

There are some famous people from this boring town like the ex DRDO head Satish Reddy or one of the new youtube celebrity Bangaram.

I go frequent walks around the town and visit this town for various chores. I keep on encountering different people in this town whom I will briefly discuss below.

Sanitary worker

He is the most important man in this town. He go nice khaki shorts. He is old aged, wears spectacles, have a big body and moves slowly. He wears gloves to his hand and has broom stick. He clean roads for the town visitors and for its people.

Cobblers

The Cobblers make chappals out of buffalo skin. They fix old chappals. These handmade chappals are breath of fresh air where the culture of branded chappals became norm. The chappals are made of the basic thing like nails and leather. This chappals are heavy, strong and durable.

Barbers

The barbers have unique work ethic. They give royal treatment to who pay regularly and substandard treatment for other people. Some people are talkative and nosy about you, the others are professional and mind their own business. They keep on extending their facilities. You go for shaving they sell your haircutting and hair coloring.

Political leaders

Whenever a Minister visited, or someone won an election, they put up big digital printed boards everywhere to shout out their relevance. This boards are filled with people who are aspiring leaders giving wishes to the leaders. They burn the crackers and their big cars blocking the narrow roads.

Doctors

On a usual day there are lot of people fighting in queues for doctors in the hospitals. You find more people in private hospitals than the government ones. There are hospitals for pregnant ladies, hospitals for old people for all sort of people. There are dentists and ophthalmologist.

Teachers

Teachers are the middle class in this town filling the void after Politicians and Docters. They got a colony for themselves called teachers colony. Some of them make their kids study engineering or doctor, sending them abroad for work or study. They build nicest buildings of this town with their retirement savings and their kids money adding modernness to otherwise to this boring town.

Spiritual people

There are people advocating meditation and spirituality. Some of this people advice you to not to eat non veg. They indulge in donating food for free. There are societies that built pyramids to absorb sun energy.

Street Vendors

There are vendors who are selling vegetables, fruits, fish and sweets. There are two women in particular mom and daughter. Mom is lean and daughter is heavy. Both are organized focusing on customers to sell their goods.

Police

There were constables guarding streets for people without masks. One got a big stick to enforce the law. Throughout the covid these are the people who enforced that town people didn't come out unnecessarily. They took photos of two-wheeler people who are wearing without masks fining them based on their number plate. They are the people who see that elections happen regularly and without any tussles.

Funny Conductor

There is a talkative conductor. He never stops talking. Ladies love his humor. He forgets his whistle that helps him to stop the bus and also forgets to stop bus for a passenger. But nevertheless always defend himself to the core and blame the passenger. His personal woes seem endless complaining always about his wife and family. He never lend his hand to a struggling passenger to get off or on the bus. He keeps the spirit of bus alive and never a dull moment with him around.

I loved this town with all these kinds of people inspiring me every day with their hard work, humor.