East Godavari: Class IV kid loves piggyback ride

KAKINADA: We’ve heard of people riding horses or camels. Others even use buffalos or donkeys to ride on.

But here’s a lad,  Amaladasu Mahesh, studying in Class IV in an elementary school in Kondevaram village of U.Kothapalli Mandal in East Godavari, who rides on pigs!

His family members rear pigs at home and he adores the animals, like Varahavat-ara of Lord Vishnu.

Mahesh has one or two pigs, who are his favourites. He roams about in the village on the pigs. “Sometimes, I even go to school riding on the pigs!” laughs Mahesh. One pig is so devoted to Mahesh that it won’t allow anyone else to ride on it, not even  friends of Mahesh.

His son’s obsession with pigs is giving his dad cause for concern. “My son and his pet pig are inseparable,” said Amaladasu Venkanna, the father of Mahesh. He worries about his son’s studies as Mahesh spends more time with pigs. “He has had this habit of feeding pigs and playing with pigs from his childhood. He can’t live without pigs,’’ he observed. Which is probably why he is not selling those pigs which are closely associated with Mahesh.

The ‘Gopala Mitra’ of the village, Mr GLP Rajasekhara Reddy, said that the pigs were being reared with care and he gave them medicines whenever they were ill.

Meanwhile, Mahesh’s mother A. Satyavathi wants her two sons Mahesh and Sumanth to study well. But, Mahesh’s academic progress is discouraging. She admitted her second son Sumanth to a private convent school in the village recently.  Venkanna wants to use his eldest son Mahesh for rearing pigs, but Satyavathi wants him to study well. “I don’t want to lead his life like us. He sh-ould be settled well.’’ She wants the government to  support their family by allotting them a house site.