Devupalli borders on the eastern ghats in the deccan peninsula. The legend is that the Vizianagaram founders wanted to make it their capital. But then they thought the enemy army could easily fire missiles from the hill tops and hence they dropped the plan. There is an abonded fort in the village proving the theory. Devupalli, the village as I know, is relatively a big village with a population of around 10,000 (circa 1985). The village is organized into blocks (though little haphazardly) based the family profession (like fishermen, washermen, harijans, businessmen etc...). There is a country road connecting it to NH47, the nearest paved road.
Paddy and Mangoes are the major crops. Green paddy fields and ponds & tanks that provide irrigation can be seen all around the village. Our past time in the school was to walk to these ponds for a bath or to dump-off the body wastes. Due to its proximilty to the eastern ghats, forests on the hills are another source of livelihood for many villagers. They collect fire-wood, jack-fruits, tamarind and other derivatives from these the forests. You can see man-made forest-fires during nights for producing coal. Every thursday, there will be a farmers market in the bazaar. They accept money or goods like a bartender system. In some sense, they are sel-reliant. You can almost be sure that they know you, even if you are a stranger. They are very well networked and know each other.
It has a small library too. Primary school, high school, bus stand and library, the panchayat office all were in the same compund, surrounded mango trees and fields. Our house was just a block away from the school. When compared with the many schools in the urban India that doesn't even have a well ventilated room, I feel privilaged to having studied in these schools that are untouched by the "civilized men" .