Bakul identified the turtles for us. I did not understand at all, not even enough to figure out for myself later. Himalayan Box Turtle? Perhaps. That was a name I discovered. But I know nothing about turtles. Can anyone help?Ducks - we saw hundreds of them. A beautiful orangish red duck was everywhere."Radisson duck," said Bakul. Or at least, it sounded like it. I came home and looked it up. 'Radisson duck' sounded believable enough. A Google search threw up images of Radisson ducks, though. Click there and you'll find out what I found out. The ducks we saw weren't Radisson ducks. That was certain.I looked at the larger picture, breathing deeply. I blinked. Everyone else was still looking at the turtles. I peered again, just to be sure. "Haathi!" I said, incredulous. "Haathi!"Those who have seen only captive elephants have no idea of the magic of wild elephants.And I could … [Read more...]
Rhinoceros Unicornis, Kaziranga
"Haan, rhino hai, udhar," said Bakul."Rhino?" I repeated. I had to have misheard. He could not be so calm. He could not tonelessly say 'rhino hai udhar' and leave it at that. In my head, though, I was saying, Rhino! Oo, rhino! Rhino! Where's the rhino? I want to see ...And there it was. Across a lake, eating away to glory. Rhinoceros unicornis. The real thing.Thoughts tumbled one after the other. Does it get cock-eyed looking around its horn? It really has a horn! It's so big! It's slaty-grey. It's ... it's a rhino!In my experience with forests so far, you don't just go away. You don't say, "Ah, there's a rhino," and peacefully drive off. I once watched a bear eat for almost half an hour. Because that's the way it is.Or so I thought."Chalein?" asked Bakul."Hmm?""Shall we move on?" someone translated for me, as if language was the problem.It was unheard of, unthinkable … [Read more...]
Mihimukh, Kaziranga
How different Kaziranga is from the other reserves I've visited! For one, you can get off the jeep in several places. In each zone, there's a watch tower which you can climb to look at the world around you. And the zones don't have complicated, circuitous routes. There's no decision to make about what path to take, where to go ...The gate to the reserve opens at 7:30, much later than at Tadoba. Expecting the cold of 6 o'clock safaris, I was armed with a beanie crocheted by a friend, in addition to my jacket, shawl and socks. I was set. Safaris in December are just something else.Birds. They just blew me over."What is that?" I asked. "Pulley-necked stork," was the answer I understood. Pulley? I wondered. Why pulley? Maybe bully? Who-ly? It was only in the evening that I had my Aha! moment. Woolly-necked stork. That's what it was!A huge stork, much bigger than my pulley-necked … [Read more...]
Back from Kaziranga
Elephant grass. Anything could be hiding there. (A rhino, perhaps?)Huge birds that made me think of pterodactyls. (Wasn't it enough that the word 'rhinoceros' tempted me to say 'rhino-saurus'?Hog deer. (My auto response, by the way, said I was away looking at/for rhinoceroses.)Swamp deer. (I wonder ... Why don't we use the second part of the one-horned rhinoceros's Latin name? Wouldn't that be exciting?)Cold, cold December days. I didn't know whether it was just the cold that was making me shiver, though.Many years ago, I had a pen pal from Assam. I remember him going to Kaziranga and writing to me about it. I had heard of it, but someone 'real' going there made it a place rather than a name. I lost contact with him years ago, ironically, when emails replaced letters. But finally, I went there, to Kaziranga. Four super safaris ... I still have rhinoceros-shaped bubbles of … [Read more...]
Ahmedabad
How I love to travel!Sitting at the airport this morning, I watched the people around me. Some confident, some scared. Most busy on their mobile phones and laptops. Impatience: that's what's in the air. I watch everyone even as I read, my eyes darting from book to face, book to face. How do I appear, I wonder ...?Landing in Ahmedabad made my lips twitch. I was in a plane that reminded me of days gone by, a small plane that looked like it belonged to a different age ... I let my imagination go wild. And then I remembered the time, all those years ago, when I was stranded in Ahmedabad for hours together. I smiled, shouldered my bag and walked into the airport.The feeling of reaching a new place with different people overwhelmed me.All the way to my hotel, my heart kept leaping to my throat. The signals seem to be showpieces. No one notices them. Honk-honk-honk at the signal, even … [Read more...]
Nightjars
When I think of nightjars, I think of poetry. Was it in "Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas? Or did I come across a nightjar in something by Keats or Byron? I think of nightjars and I have the sense of something I do not know. Something that I can only imagine.And then we saw them - both earlier this year in Nagzira, and this time in Tadoba.In the pre-dawn light, little, brown birds sat on the red road. The jeep's headlights fell on them as they sat there. We watched wide-eyed, as unblinking as the small, round birds with their black eyes. We held our breath. It was breathtaking, but hugely stressful.What if they don't fly? What if we run over them? What if they don't fly? What if they don't fly?They waited, unfailingly, until the last possible moment. My heart was in my throat as I watched them finally taking off. In the bright light from our jeep, they flew, their wingspans seemingly … [Read more...]
Back from Tadoba
We were famous, the talk of the town. Everyone knew us; the official at the gate wrote my name down each morning and each afternoon without having to consult the safari ticket. He grinned at us, exchanged a few words, and wished us luck. "Now at least, you must ..." At the end of each safari, as we signed out, he looked up hopefully. We shook our heads, almost delighted at being so difficult, and he let out his breath and gave us a crooked smile."Everyone is talking only about you," said our driver Ashish. "All the time, everyone in Navegaon - the guides, the drivers, everyone - is only talking about somehow showing you a tiger. Yes, it's a jungle, and yes, it's unpredictable, but how is it possible that after seven safaris, you still haven't seen the tiger?"We smiled. The people at the forest gate and the hotel seemed more upset than we were. We felt tempted, over and over again, to … [Read more...]
What Went By
It's taken me a while to write about the last month. How full of emotions it has been!We performed in Kalakshetra for Pushpa Teacher and Jaya Teacher, my teacher's teachers. We peaked and fell, rising and falling with a tide of emotions. We felt we underperformed, and then we were overwhelmed by everyone's responses. The teachers praised the performance; nothing else is important. My heart is brimming with joy and gratitude.In Bangalore, I did a two-day reading workshop. I wrote about day one here on the blog, but kept postponing it, even though I've been waiting to talk about how wonderful it was to conduct a workshop there.Atta Galatta is a delightful place, with the perfect ambience for a reading workshop. What warmed my heart is that the store ordered ten copies of The Story-Catcher, some of which were bought by the children after the session. (If you're in Bangalore and … [Read more...]
The Duomo in Milan
Torino, the parts of it that we saw from the bus that was not a train, seemed like an interesting city, but not interesting enough for us to change our travel plans. We took from Torino a train to Milano, and we were lucky to get places together. Trains in Italy are a lot more like trains in India, in terms of the number of people. Soon after we left Torino, there were even people standing.We reached Milan and we were flooded with memories. I've written already about how we went back to the counter for instructions on how to get to the duomo, but I never described the Duomo experience.In 2006, when we visited the Duomo for the second time in our lives, we experienced the sublime. The Duomo lifted my soul and made it soar. I don't know what to say, I've written in my diary, I think part of the charm lies in the fact that even though it is magnificent, it doesn't dwarf you; it … [Read more...]
Chambery to Torino
From Lyon, I went to Chambéry to meet my correspondent from the French exchange programme and her family. It was a lovely stay, though short. My 'Maman' in Chambéry is a boat-driver, and, as I was there in summer, she had long hours of work, so I did not want to impose on them for too long.My sister came to Chambéry to meet me, and we stood in queue to reserve places on a train to Milan. The plan was that we would get to Milan, go from there to Bologna and finally, find our way to Greece. With Eurail passes, we did not need reservations for most trains, but for trains from one country to another, we did. The train to Milan was full, though, so we considered our options, and then booked tickets to Turin instead.With a few hours to spare, we wandered around Chambéry. Nostalgic about the exchange programme, we looked around happily, but made sure we got back to the station well in time … [Read more...]