VIJAYAWADA: It was around 11 a.m. The usually bustling Lenin Centre was unusually noisy, despite it being a Sunday. Close to a 100 people lined up on the edge of the bridge overlooking the Ryves Canal, shouting, whispering and pointing towards a girl who was struggling to stay afloat. Just behind her was a young man, trying desperately to reach her. It was obvious that the current was too strong for both. And, it was also obvious that the duo had no clue how to swim. However, none of the curious dared help. After all, it was in the same canal that Dr. Surya Kumari, a medico, had committed suicide not so long ago.
A few yards from the bridge, near the Dharna Chowk, were a group of police personnel, keeping an eye on contract employees who were on a relay hunger strike protesting the abrupt termination of their services by the government last October. The weather was pleasant and the few protesters at the venue peaceful, giving them time to relax and chit chat. New to the city, the cops, all from Kadapa district, were listening to their immediate boss, reserved assistant sub-inspector MN Chowdary, a loquacious and humorous man who is never at a loss for words. “We were jolted out of our seats by the piercing screams and sudden commotion,” recalls constable A Srinivasulu, as we sit with him for an interview a few hours later at exact spot.
The police and the protestors raced to the embankment and saw the duo drowning. One suggested a long bamboo stick could be held out to the girl, but the current was too strong. She had already gone down twice and wouldn’t be able to survive the third time she goes under water. At Chowdary’s command, Srinivasulu removed his shoes and shirt and ran down the embankment littered with broken glass and garbage to plunge into the water. “There was no time to lose. I can swim well. I swam fast, got hold of her and brought her back to safety,” the 39-year-old explains as if it’s natural. It was the first time he had ever pulled someone out of water. Wasn’t he afraid? “No,” he replies and after a pause, asks, “will we sit idly by if one of our own is drowning?”
The young man behind the girl too survived. He jumped after her and managed to reach her, but frightened, she held onto him tightly making it difficult for him to stay afloat. Both would have drowned. Instinctively, he freed himself and made it to the shore.
“The girl was shivering. We made her sit for a while,” Srinivasulu says visibly happy that he had saved her. The son of a farmer, he had earlier worked for 14 years in the elite anti-Naxal force Greyhounds. The modest constable now lives in the city with his wife and two sons who are in Class VI and VII. “None from my immediate family is in the police department. Some of our relatives are into IT. A few are in America,” he informs.
He and his colleagues had come to Vijayawada just three months back. Proud of his feat, Chowdary and colleagues took him and the couple too to Joint CP BV Ramana Kumar who was incidentally at the Press Club nearby felicitating Hasini, the precocious daughter of another cop. Impressed, the Joint CP rewarded Srinivasulu and promised to recommend him for the Indian Police Medal. The humble constable, though, betrays no pride and credits the superintendent of APSP Kadapa district, 11th battalion, Raj Kishore Babu who trained him and his colleagues, for his selfless service. As we bid adieu to the group, Chowdary remembers a poem and points out, “There may be some weeds in the department but see, there are also men with a heart of gold.”
Was it because of a movie?
Tirupatamma, the girl who nearly lost her life, is all of 19. The young man is her husband 20-year-old Raja Reddy. Both were in love and married just four months back. They were out shopping in the cool weather when Tirupatamma wanted her husband to take her to a movie. A cook by profession, Reddy refused, triggering a war of words.
It was in the middle of the argument, on the spur of the moment, that Tirupatamma jumped into the canal which they were passing by. Residents of Vambay Colony, the couple is now back at home after a harrowing day. Reddy had been warned by the Joint CP to take good care of the girl. “Please call Srinivasulu if you have any problem,” he told her. But was the tiff between the couple because of a movie? Apparently not.
The husband hadn’t been home for a month.