RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM: Love does not always find expression through grand monuments. Sometimes it quietly takes the shape of a simple machine built with care, determination and imagination. That is exactly what 65-year-old farmer Satti Siva Narayana Reddy of Arthamuru village in East Godavari district, about 35 kilometres from Rajamahendravaram, has done for his wife Satyaveni, 58, who has been suffering from severe knee pain.
Without any engineering degree or formal technical training, Reddy designed and built a homemade escalator to help his wife climb the 21 steps to the first floor of their house. The project took just 20 days to complete and cost only Rs 70,000.
Arthamuru, located near Mandapeta in the fertile Godavari delta, is surrounded by green paddy fields and irrigation canals. Reddy studied up to Class V because the nearest school was too far from his village.
His fascination with machines began in childhood, and years of working with agricultural equipment helped him develop skills. Today he owns four tractors and a rice mill, cultivates five acres of farm, and repairs tractors, rice mill machine and agricultural equipment on his own.
Speaking to TNIE, Reddy recalled how his wife’s daily struggle to climb the staircase affected him. “We live on the first floor because Vastu experts advised that the house owner should stay upstairs. Every day, I watched my wife suffer while climbing the steps. One day, she said, ‘You are a technician. Why don’t you make something like a lift for our house?’ Those words stayed with me,” he said.