The sight and sound of water, and the poetry associated with it, must be nauseating to lives that have been overturned by the floods in Kerala and Coorg.

But nature is a two-faced brute.

At Gaganachukki and Bharachukki, 70 km from Mysore, the Cauvery in spate shows off its awesome power to thousands of ooh-ing and aah-ing spectators.