Angalakuduru

Angalakuduru Angalakuduru
Village
Population
• Total	20,000

Angalakuduru

Angalakuduru is a medium size village in Tenali Mandalam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenali) in the Guntur District, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The village is about 5 km from Tenali on a state road, which links Tenali (on the East) and Guntur (on the West) and is about 20 km from the district headquarters in Guntur City. And it is about 300 km from the state capital Hyderabad and can be reached via Vijayawada (North of the village) on NH9 and Tenali.

The Legend

According to one legend, the original name of this village used to be "Anganala Koduru". 'Anganala' means Women's and Koduru is a colloquial synonym for 'village' or 'a hamlet'. The full meaning is "Women's village". In ancient times women used to be more in number than men in this village, thus the name. Over a period of time the name was transformed into "Angalakuduru". But this story is only hearsay, no historical or documentary evidence is available.

Surrounding Places

Neighboring villages are Sangam Jagarlamudi on the West, Kopalle on the North, Chavavari Palem and Yadlapalli on the South and the Mandal headquarters, Tenali is on the East.

Connectivity and Facilities

The village is well connected by both road and railway networks to travel to the nearby towns and villages. The village has all the facilities like Govt Post office, Panchayat office (Village Administration Office) Primary Health Center, and govt run Veterinary Hospital. Drinking water was never a problem in this village for the last 100 years due to excellent underground water table. The village has good (Concrete) roads, initially the work of Alapati Venkataramaiah, once a Minister in State Government. He is fondly remembered even today, after 40 years of his death, for his excellent contribution towards the development of the region. No other politician contributed so much for the region.

Income Sources

Agriculture is prevalent, with rice, lemon, gram and vegetables all being grown. Corn growing has also become a trend in the recent years since the yield of Gram has dwindled over the past 10 years and the support price of corn has become profitable. The first crop of the year has always been Rice and the second crop is usually Gram or Corn. The cultivated fields are fed by number of fresh water canals which are branches of Krishna river. The canals are branched out at Prakasam Barrage (reservoir) built on the river Krishna (River Krishna divides the Guntur and Krishna Districts) by a renowned British Architect Sir Arthur Cotton before independence. The underground water table is substantial due to the seepage from these canals. Water flows for almost 9 months in the year through these canals, except for 3 months during the summer. Even the so called dry lands are cultivated (Lemon, Betel leaves, Banana Plantation etc.) using the ground water. This village is a part of a wider Tenali (Mandalam) area, which is extensively cultivated and generally inhabited by well to do farmers and businessmen of farm produce.

Till the late eighties, the farming used to be done by the farmers (land owners) themselves, but the situation has changed drastically as they began to lease out their lands to other poor farmers for a share in the produce. This is mostly because of division of families (thereby division of land and decreased output) and high education rate in these families. Since, The educated children of these farming families started leaving the village for white collar jobs in cities, virtually there is nobody left in the family to take care of the farming. This is the situation in most of the farming villages of the state. Virtually every true land owner is dependent on the lease-outs.

Cattle (mostly Buffaloes and no cows) rearing was very much prevalent up till the early nineties, but has come down substantially due to high cost of fodder and labor.

The staple food of the people in the village is rice, vegetables and meat like Lamb, Chicken, Fish and no Beef or Pork.

Climate

Climate here is like at any other tropical place. The climate is mostly sultry. The max temp could reach up to 46 C in peak summer (April and May) and rarely goes down below 23 C in Winter (December and January). The Relative Humidity is always well above 75% and can reach up to 95% during Summer, due its proximity to the coastline. The best time to visit the village is, of course, Winter (Nov-Feb) during which the climate would be very pleasant.

Religion

Ninety percent of the people in the village belong to Hindu Religion. Other Ten percent make up the minorities like Muslims and Christians. Communal harmony is excellent and one can not really remember any kind of a skirmish between the religious groups. Political situation in the village is also stable, even though the people are divided as far as their political affiliations are concerned. The tempers rise up a bit (but never to alarming proportions) during General Elections to the State Assembly or Loksabha (Parliament) but calm down once the elections are over. The competitive spirit prevalent during elections would be reduced to friendly banter after the elections.

The village has 4 to 5 temples of Venugopala Swamy, Anjaneya, Shiva, Sri Rama as well as two government run schools: a primary school and a high school and two private schools. In the temple of "Srirama" free boarding and lodging was being provided for the people who were passing through the village during the ancient times, when people used to believe in the adage " Athidhi Devobhava" (Guest is equivalent to God). Hence it is also called "Satram" (A house of charity which provides free food to the needy) in Telugu.

There seems to be an unprecedented increase in "Bhakthi" movement and spiritual tendencies of people during the last few years. This is quite evident from the fact that the old temples are being renovated and "Yagams" or "Homams" are being held on a regular basis by spending huge sums of money which is being collected through donations. But,while it is a good thing to preserve the old temples which are a part of the village's heritage,there are people (Sadly, they are branded as Atheists or Infidels or even worse,godless people), who are genuinely skeptical about these events, who understandably think that these tendencies give rise to unnatural superstitions and huge amount of money is wasted through religious rituals. Instead, they feel, the money collected through donations could be used to provide necessary amenities for the village (instead of depending on the government and the elected representatives) and create a fund for education of poor students (irrespective of their religion or caste or creed) through scholarships. But the big question is how to make the deeply superstitious village people (educated and uneducated alike) understand this urgent need and donate to the cause as liberally as they donate to religious causes.

Communications

Land line telephone density is moderate, but the cell phone usage has substantially increased over the last few years. Virtually everybody flaunts a cell phone these days.

Location & Other Features

The village is located in the proximity of the municipal town Tenali. Angalakuduru is mostly dependent on this town for essentials and shopping for products and services like higher education, provisions, textiles, gold, entertainment, health care and medicine, as well as other small things which are not available in the village. It is also not unusual for people to visit either Guntur or Vijayawada (40 km) for the above purposes.

The land prices in this village have substantially gone up in the last few years, partly due to real estate boom and other reasons like its proximity to a town like Tenali and the location on the state highway to Guntur and well connected by road and railway networks to other places. Another valid reason is that this village had no water shortage for the last 100 years. For these very reasons, people from other places started settling in this village even if they have to make a daily shuttle to places like Guntur or Vijayawada to go to offices or businesses. This is another important reason for the land prices to shoot-up.

But again, this very fact of people from other places settling in the village poses another problem which could prove to be irreversible in the future. This obviously increases the population in the village which in turn may put lot of pressure on the resources of the village. For example, Water. The ground-water table, which is excellent right now, may deplete over a period of time due to over-exploitation. Political unrest or communal conflicts also could become a feature of this village due to the involvement of the settlers in the affairs of the village. So far, the political or official corruption did not touch this village so much. The day is not far for these very demons to engulf the village which could result in division of people. This very corruption, which is actually plaguing the state of Andhra Pradesh (an all time high)at present, may also take root in this village unless people are wary of these future problems and take preventive steps.

The village is located on these coordinates: 16°14'19"N 80°36'22"E

Local Language

The only language spoken in the village is Telugu.