ADHVAGATI

Recently, a relative who traveled to Puducherri , decided to drop by the Alamparai Fort on her way back to Chennai, having heard of the place from me sometime ago. But the report of her trip was dismal ! She sounded cheated ! And after seeing her pictures, I was dismayed too. In place of the somewhat respectable remnant of a fort that I had visited a few times ( the last visit in 2003), stood broken stumps of brickwork and crumbled walls. The only part that looked halfway recognisable was the inner stairway . To begin with, the remains that had survived to this century were not all that strong and majestic , as the fort was not of stone, but of brick and mortar. At best, it was in a state of precarious preservation. Came the Tsunami and chunks of the fort got washed away in a jiffy. And then, the torrential rains (of this season and the last ) seem to have knocked down a few more weathered structures. What remains now, apparently, are sad heaps of wet rubble . Unfortunate

Yesterday, I received a forwarded mail with pictures showing Venice inundated by the recent flood , almost turned into an Atlantis Theme Park ! I remembered our own visit to Venice and our dread at just such a prospect ! The water level was pretty close to lapping over the stone avenues when we arrived at the San Marco water taxi jetty. We later learnt that we had escaped an episode of 'aqua alta' ( High Water) by just two days. Aqua Alta flooding is a periodic phenomenon that leaves major portions of this beautiful historic city submerged knee deep in tidal backlash for short intervals. Not that this discourages Tourists swarming in ! Come Hell or High Water, excited gaggles of camera toting visitors overrun Venice throughout the year, wearing rubber boots when necessary. If you can capture a quiet corner all for yourself, consider yourself fortunate ! Our visit was just a daylong trip . Chugged in by the early morning train and took the last one out. A fully