Halcyon Days

Tata Nano - Sorry for the inconvenience...

2009-03-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

Well, the car has been launched. A car most of India has been looking forward to. And going by the Tata Nano's web site this is what you get!

"Our website is experiencing heavy traffic. Please try again a little later..." (note the spelling mistake in the apology)

That brought me to think of what the conditions of the roads in smaller cities which don't have any flyovers, which have cattle and goat on roads, which have tea stalls, paan shops and even parking in the middle of the road.

Will there be signs that say "Our roads are experiencing heavy traffic. Please try again a little later. Sorry for the inconvenience"

So be it...

A wonderful winter morning

2009-01-08T19:56:00.000-08:00

Getting to know me - tag by Tikuli

2008-12-22T05:05:00.000-08:00

Tikuli tagged me on this on ;-)

The age you will be on your next birthday - All of 45 in March 2009

A place I would like to visit - Leh, Laddakh

My favorite place - Home, sweet home!

Favorite food - Anything, provided it doesn't move in my plate!

Favorite drink - Vodka

Favorite pet - Dogs

Favorite colour combination - sky blue/carbon blue

Favorite piece of clothing - cotton shirts

All time favorite song - Oh! I love so many songs... can't say which one...

Favorite TV Show - Currently Prithvi Raj Chauhan

Town in which I live - Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India

Screen name - I prefer my name please...

First job - Registrar in Ophthalmology, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sewagram, Wardha, Maharashtra, India.

My dream job - Nature/wildlife reporter (provided I'm paid well)

Bad habit - Waking up everyone as soon as I wake up.

My worst fear - Losing someone precious!

The one thing you’d like to do before you die - Apologize to those who may have been hurt by

things that I did when I was younger (and brash)...

The first thing you will buy if you get $1,000,000 - Stocks (with the market as low as of now)

I don't tag anyone this time...

On all fours - tagged by Ritu

2008-12-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

Tagged by Ritu

4 places I go to over and over again

1 Kanha National Park
2 Bandhavgarh National Park
3 Pench National Park
4 Bombay (Mumbai)

(Yeah! You guessed right, I'm a wildlife freak! Of course that has nothing to do with Bombay, thats where my favorite maternal relatives live :-D)

4 people who mail me regularly

1 Jaspal
2 Asha (my wife)
3 Aparna (my sis)
4 Nandu mama (maternal uncle)

4 of my favorite places to eat

1 Home
2 Chinese restaurant (any good one)
3 Tandoor joint (any good one)
4 Sea food joint (any good one)

(Not in that particular order :-D)

4 places I’d rather be now

1 On a flight to Mars
2 On a luxury cruise surrounded by (heh heh)...
3 Home (I'm at work right now :-D)
4 Bombay

4 favorite TV shows

1 Who's line is it anyway
2 America's funniest home videos
3 Gunisses Book of World Records
4 Prithviraj Chauhan

4 Movies I could Watch again and again

1 Macenna's Gold
2 Guns of Navarone
3 Terence Hill/Bud Spencer movies or even the more sober Westerns
4 Carry on series :-D

I would like to tag these people

1 Dr Aparna Bagwe
2 Tikuli
3 Ashvina
4 Jogesh

Whoosh...

2008-12-01T04:45:00.000-08:00

It was a lovely summer evening, the crimson sun had just set and I was there in the jungle by the forest lodge overlooking a melodious rivulet that I loved so much. Nothing feels as good as the evening breeze that rushes through old undisturbed trees and grasses as tall as little children swaying and playing to the wind... bringing in a whiff of that very smell of nature that we have forgotten living in the concrete jungle built by us.

Nearly a forgotten pleasure to be an audience here, standing silently and hearing the trees talk to their friends and the crickets gossip while a lone distant wolf declares his importance! Oh! I could stand there all night and just listen to the jungle... there is nothing that pleases me more!

It was then that I felt a gentle nudge, it was more of a feeling of someone passing by. Very close indeed, enough to make me reflexly balance myself! Though I'm sure I would not have fallen. And it was as if all the flora and fauna around me had suddenly stopped to look at this little "accident". The sudden silence was chilling!

And then after a few baited seconds, the symphony of nature began humming its tune again, completely forgiving contact by mischance between man and spirit...

Whoosh!

(this being the second and final brush that I had with "spirits" click here for the first)

Mumbai terror attack - a black day for India

2008-11-28T04:32:00.000-08:00

Blood and gloom, the guns the blasts,
You shake our home, but see? It lasts!

You may create panic o'monsters terrifying,
You may see us screaming and even dying!

You come with one and only one intent,
You want to see us cowering and impotent!

You feel you can shake our foundation,
But you realize not we are a strong nation!

You feel you can make us hate your religion,
But you don't realize we see no division!

To us all religions lead to only one God divine,
In Him we have faith, in Him we align!

You call yourselves martyrs, but we know better,
Violence in the name of religion is no trend setter!

You think God will accept you when you go!
My dear fellow human, let me tell you, gladly, NO!

Links:

Pay your tributes to those who died in the Mumbai terrorist attack

Tell the world we stand undivided

The Brush

2008-11-25T02:57:00.000-08:00

This is a true story...

This story goes back to the summer of 1983. My best friend Pradeep and some of our very close friends decided to make a trip to the forests of Bandhavgarh in the month of May. Bandhavgarh at that time was not a developed tourist spot as it is today, now it even boasts 5 star accommodation at the maharajah's palace...

At that time there was only one lodge, with a small restaurant besides a flour mill and a general store on the ground floor and 4 rooms on the first floor. An elderly couple owned and ran the place. There were 8 of us, we took 3 rooms. My friend N K Singh (Neki) and I were to share a room in the far end and the rest would share the 2 rooms in the middle.

The lodge itself overlooked a rivulet and luscious green forests behind us and the only road that passed through the village in front of us. Dusk was fast approaching and we were tired from the 200 km ride over rough road in an old Willis petrol jeep belonging to Pradeep's elder brother, that had brought us there. We quickly ordered dinner and prepared to freshen up over some rum and water... yes, that was our favorite drink during student life!

With a couple of pegs, or one more or one less :-D we had dinner and took a small walk in the dark along the dusty road till we decided it was time retire!

Our room was small, it had two tiny cots, one cupboard built into a wall, one small window, a fan, a tube light and a night lamp, and of course the sole door that lead to our room. The night was dark and the forest sang its expected song which lead us to keep the night lamp on and the fan of course, it was peak summer time.

Not much time passed before we were fast asleep... then, somewhere in the middle of the night I felt a soft caress on my leg!

Fully expecting the naughty sardar in mischievous drunken stupor, I turned over to face him... and found him fast asleep!

Well, it must have been my imagination, I thought!

Soon I was asleep! But this time I felt a slight but cold touch on my cheek, that jolted me into an upright posture with a long drawn scream that catapulted Neki right out of his bed straight at me. Seeing the expression on his face, it looked like he had seen a ghost - out came another involuntary scream from the depth of my lungs... and that of course drew an equally agitated yet inquiring scream from Neki!

The came the deathly silence, mouths agape! And then the obvious question...

"Why did you scream" asked Neki. So I told him what had happened. He assured me it was not his work and I believed him.

We turned on the tube light fully expecting a cat inside the room. Checked everywhere, the window too had a fine mosquito mesh on it that was secure and the door was bolted from inside! There was absoutely no way anyone or more importantly anything could have got in, touched me, and exited

With that came another obvious statement form Neki, "...must have been a ghost, heh, heh" ending in a nervously polite subdued laugh!

I tended to agree with him, but I'm not one of those who accept the existence of ghosts publicly, at least not then since it was my maiden encounter in first person.

"No, thats rubbish, it must have been the rum" I said to him, "now lets sleep"

This time it took us much longer to fall asleep, but we did finally!

We woke up in the morning with Pradeep banging on the door. It seems he had heard us scream around midnight and had come to inquire if we were well! How nice of him, couldn't the rest of the guys have asked us how we were when we were screaming? Bah!

Er... they were too afraid they said, "Your screams scared us enough, we could not gather the courage to step out of our rooms" Just great! So much for friendship!

And then when we finally caught up with the owners as we went down to the restaurant for breakfast. The elderly gentleman asked us if we had a good nights sleep, I grew suspicious and immediately asked him what he meant by that?

"Well, you see, sometimes, in that room on the far corner, you have unusual things happen. There was this young couple that had stayed in that room about an year ago, they committed suicide. I heard some screams last night and knew they had been visiting my lodge again!"

Again?!

Neki and I exchanged glances. The rest of the boys too didn't like the sudden change in atmosphere. We decided to pack our belongings and head home on the double...

Khaari Baawari

2008-11-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

There is a place, slightly off the road on the Jabalpur-Katni highway (NH-7) called "khaari baawari" by the locals. Its not a place one would like to be on a dark, lonely night. You would likely kill yourself in frustration if you be a hunter! Or so they say...

The name literally translated in English would mean a "salt water well" or a "well with water that is salty to taste"... its an abandoned well in a moderately dense forested area about 80 meters off the road. There is a small old shed by the road, dilapidated, made of stone and rotting timber, no roof now.

But as the story goes, when hunting was rampant in the state of Madhya Pradesh, and that was only a generation ago, this was a place open for a peculiar challenge! And the shed would be a place for the hunters to rest and curse their luck!

There are a lot of spotted deer that can be seen around this place even now. And the challenge was to be able to injure or kill a deer in that area. A number of hunters tried and failed. No one could hit a deer (or any other animal) in that area.

The locals say there are spirits that protect animals there. In fact they claim that on "amavasya" (no moon) nights the spirits appear as shadowy deer around the well and can be seen frolicking around it...

So is the legend of "khaari baawari"...

I wonder...

2008-11-22T05:56:00.000-08:00

I walk my daughter to her school bus each morning. The walk is short and sweet. And so are the things around us :-)

There is this big pup (4-5 months), a stray, who rushes to us every morning, out of nowhere, wagging her whole body, not just her tail... almost as if we are her long lost family!

What is it that brings her to us with much gay abandon? How can she know we are dog lovers? Is it simply the smell of our pets on us? Or is it something more?

She's there till the school bus arrives, either sitting quietly at our feet or jumping around in glee, barking at anything that passes :-D

For those few minutes she's our watchdog, she's ours and we are her sole possession!

And when the bus finally leaves, its time for me to head off for my morning walk. I pat her on her head and she walks away to wherever she goes, with a simple honest smile on her lips and a soft wag of her tail...

I wonder :-)

Which animal would I wish to be reborn as... (tagged)

2008-11-21T02:16:00.000-08:00

[Tagged by Tikuli]

They are all majestic in nature, the predators, but all have fallen prey to the most ruthless predator on earth - us, humans...

This fact apart, there is nothing more majestic than a tiger roaming free in the jungles! Especially so the saal and bamboo forests of Central India so well described by Sir Ruyard Kipling in his jungle book!

Yes, that is what I would like to be if I were to be reborn as, a majestic Royal Bengal Tiger, but not one that is caged, or bred to be killed for medicine in China, or consigned to the circus, or displayed as a living trophy in a zoo... but born to be free and rule the jungle as the ultimate predator of the wild!

Revelations ;-)

2008-10-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

Ritu tagged me into forcing out 5 innermost secrets, cloaking them in intravenous injections called OCD's, of course she hoped I wouldn't know what OCD's are about ;-)

Its so tough to discover hidden obsessions now that I'm down to penning them... so lets see... ;-)

1. My things gotta be where I left them last - I really don't understand why my table has to be tidy, neat and clean. My reasoning is simple, if I need something it has to be there in front of me! I just hate it when my things are "misplaced" under the cloak of tidying things up! ;-) My idea of tidiness is keeping things in geometric symmetry, I don't care if it looks askew to you :-P

2. I just hate it when people ask a question and don't wait for the answer! And its worse when people give the answer themselves, especially I have my brain aligned for the answer :-D

3. My breakfast has to be on time. I detest going out and being served late breakfast. Of course it can't be earlier, cause I have my breakfast at 8 am!

4. When I gotta take you out at 9 pm you all gotta be ready by 8:55 pm... man... I just detest being held up for the sake of a tangential "pallu" or that last minute change in nail polish! Worse - when the sari doesn't seem to match the occasion at the last moment... aaaargh! :-X

5. My idea of relaxing, yeah! People have laughed at it before - absolute solitude! I'd prefer to be in the middle of a jungle playing naughts and crosses alone! :-D (I wouldn't mind a laptop and unlimited Internet connection though)

The Chase

2008-03-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

It was in 1984 that we were sent on a scouting mission to Chikhaldara (now known as Chikhalda) in Amravati district. There were the four us sent out by our MBBS batch mates to checkout the hill station and ensure that it be worthy of a picnic!

On reaching our destination we came to know that there was only the MSTDC (Maharashtra State Tourism Development Corporation) Lodge where tourists could stay. A small village sat on top of the rather sparsely forested mountain, a plateau of a kind, not really flat...

The lodge itself was located rather wonderfully overlooking a small lake about fifty meters below us with a gradual incline. It was there that we decided we would explore first, later in the day after lunch and a siesta...

We talked to the people around there to familiarize ourselves with the main tourist spots found out there were a few. Those could be covered in two days at the most and did involve trekking.

It was around 4 PM that we decided to go down to the lake, Rakesh and I. Sunil and Prashant decided to extend their siesta a bit! We headed towards the barbed wire fence picking up a packet of potato wafers and a bottle of water. I had a Sony Walkman which could accommodate two sets of stereo headphones. We headed down to the lake with headphones plugged in on the common Walkman.

The lake was beautiful, crystal clear water, you could see the fish, large and small... there were some ducks too. A significant distance away was a small boat with a couple of men who were fishing. They waved at us, we waved back, music on and eating wafers.

They waved at us again, we waved back... simple people these villagers... they were probably trying to be friendly... then they started jumping up and down in their boat, waving at us. Some sort of ritual? We looked at each other got up, jumped and waved, music blaring in our ears and wafers almost over.

But then I noticed those guys were waving at us rather in a peculiar fashion... you know, starting from one side, slowly to the other and then back. We just decided it would be better to just acknowledge them and ignore them for the time being.

Rakesh had a gulp of water and decided he needed to do the loo... we had had beer with lunch. So off came the headphones, that is when we heard those two men shouting... "don't run, walk slowly up the hill"! That was rather silly... suddenly I heard Rakesh's gasp... he had headed towards the bushes...

Rakesh was standing face to face with a sloth bear, about his size. He was stunned and was not moving! Neither was I actually, but those seconds fly! The bear wasn't menacing us in any way. Just staring us in the eyes. Not something anyone would like, I assure you.

I walked up slowly to Rakesh (and the bear of course), heart pounding... all I could hear was my heart! As I got close to him, I reached for his back pocket, tugging at it and asked him to start walking slowly uphill, towards the Lodge!

We started moving, hand in hand, step at a time, not looking back. A quick glance assured me the bear had not moved towards us... we walked a few more steps, eyes straight at the resort fifty meters uphill!

Suddenly we heard a sharp snap behind us, we sprinted without looking back, tumbling over lose stones and dirt but running like there be no tomorrow!

When we did reach the barbed wire fence all out of breath, perspiring, trembling and about to faint... we heard another snap behind us... summoning all energy that could be summoned we rushed straight for our room... the door of which was bolted from the inside...

Those two dolts! We kicked on the door, shouted, screamed... only to see Prashant's puzzled face morphing into terror... we ran him over, shut the door behind us and bolted it... simultaneously assaulting Sunil for not opening the door immediately...

It took us some time to settle down, probably a few minutes more to breathe and speak normally... hardly had that happened we heard a commotion outside...

Peeping out through the cracks in the closed door we could see three men looking up at the roof and shouting... the bear had climbed the roof! And it was a tiled roof. So much for four scared boys... we expected the bear to remove the tiles and drop in right on top of us!

But fortunately those guys managed to scare him away... we did not venture out till the morning, slept hungry! It was only with a lot of determination that we did move out... had a hearty breakfast. Talking to the waiters at the restaurant... they told us bears don't usually chase tourists. Must have been the wafers! Ha!

Our MBBS batch did have a picnic there... we had kept our story a secret till we settled down for the night in Chikhaldara... our narration then in the dark was enough to scare most of the boys and girls for the night!

The Walk

2008-03-08T04:52:00.000-08:00

This is something right out of a story book, however true.

It was a warm dusty evening when we ventured into the jungle in Kanha National Park. Then I was a teen and very new to jungle safaris. We were a moderate sized group...parents, Aunts, cousins and close family.

My cousin who is a few years younger than me and I decided to avoid the Elephant safari. For no particular reason. After some time we got bored and decided on taking our Ambassador car into the jungle.

As is the rule there were the four of us apart from me, my cousin, the driver and the guide. The guides there are locals, villagers who have been displaced by the creation of the park and earn their livelihood as guides, "chara cutters", mahouts, and even forest guards.

The guides are very well-versed with the park and know it inside out, since they were born and brought up there. Not only the geography, they know the flora and fauna, animal behavior and are only happy to tell you in English and Hindi the names of various animals, birds and trees.

Tourists mainly go to these National Parks designated as Tiger Projects by the Rajiv Gandhi Government to see the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger. Most of the tourist are mighty disappointed when the have taken a couple of trips to the forest, be it a gypsy safari, elephant ride, or in their own petrol based vehicles and have not seen a tiger.

At that age, that was my prime concern, I wanted to see a tiger, or at least a leopard. And I made it quiet clear to the guide. So the guide with all his jungle acumen took us to a point where he thought we would come face to face with one. We waited with halted breath, car engine turned off, absolutely silent... to get some clue of a tiger nearby.

The romance lies in the jungle fauna, how they converse with each other, how different species help each other. One such classic example is the relation between the Spotted Deer and the Langurs. The Langurs from their tree perch shake branches so that fresh leaves litter the ground below them. The deer in turn stay with these groups of Langur as they get easy feed. The deer in turn keep watch for predators at ground level, the Langurs at tree level. They are thus able to warn each other of any suspicious predator movements.

It was just after a couple of minutes that we heard a Sambhar's alarm call, rapidly followed by Langur calls too from the trees nearby. We waited hoping the tiger would come our way. Unfortunately the jungle soon quietened and the tiger was nowhere to be seen.

It was getting late now and the guide asked the driver to take us to the barrier and out of the park. Visitors are not allowed inside the park after sunset. We needed to turn around so as to go back. It was then that the unthinkable happened!

The driver took the car off the dirt road just a wee little bit and the rear wheels got stuck in mud camouflaged in dense grass! He tried his best to move the car in a rocking fashion so as to be able to get some momentum... unfortunately every movement took the wheels deeper into the mud and soon the rear axle too was properly stuck!

It was 5 PM then, being summer the sun would set around 6:30 PM. We had some time to get out, provided someone accidentally bumped into us! The guide informed us that it would be against the rule to walk back to the barrier that was about 12 kilometers from where we were stuck, according to him. So we waited...

By 6 PM we were getting apprehensive. The guide assured us that the forest guards or at least the officials at the barrier would send someone to bail us out. Little did we know that those people would not come to know of our predicament till much later when it was time for all visitors to leave the park. Only then would they know that one vehicle had not come out yet.

By then it would be dark and not knowing where in the 990 square kilometers of forest would we be, the forest officials would not take any action. The rule in such cases was to lock up the car, roll up the windows and remain inside till dawn!

However, very soon my cousin started saying he wanted out of the jungle, following which the driver too started goading the guide. The guide too, after very little persuasion decided that it would be best that we set out for the barrier on foot!

There was a catch though! It was getting dark... and we did not have a portable light source! That is when the driver took out his pack of "bidis" and a matchbox. The guide quickly found a dry bamboo stick and lighted it. Dry bamboo burns rather peculiarly... it does not light up as in flames, but burns slowly just like embers of coal.

In pitch darkness that bamboo stick provided us with sufficient light to be able to walk without groping! And so we began our walk to the barrier, with my cousin who being younger than me, but taller, under my left armpit, all scared and trembling.

And that is when the fun began! The jungle is all about melodies, sounds made by birds and animals, bamboo rubbing together in the breeze, crickets, owls and other night birds a symphony that would probably sound ecstatic, provided you were listening to it in the comfort of your home!

Here, the stereophonic calls of the the barking deer would appear to surround us starting at one end on the left, to right around us and back to where they began in the first place... one little twig cracking behind us would make us walk faster, just hoping it was not the tiger we were trying to spot... was it just the breeze that was causing the leaves ahead of us to tremble?

You have to be in such a situation to believe it. There is nothing you can do, you are at the mercy of the wild, absolutely...

That burning ember lasted all the way through the two and a half hour walk to the barrier... there we had a grand reception committee, our family, the forest officials, a sobbing mother... and emotional return!

It was only after we had reached our destination that we felt the hunger and the thirst and the extreme physical and mental stress that we had been through! We ate well and fell asleep.

We found out in the morning that the guide had been penalized for walking us through the forest against the rules... and also that the tiger we had missed seeing was actually a tigress with cubs... we had been lucky she did not consider us a threat... in fact, we were lucky to have come out of our adventure alive and without a scratch!

One Love!

2008-03-07T05:19:00.000-08:00

I see two eyes and a nose between,
You are my love, you are my queen,
You are always there to greet me dear,
Its because of you that I feel not fear!

You are my friend, my pal, my gal,
Be it winter, summer, spring or fall,
That tiny tail you wag when I call,
Be I near you or behind the wall!

Your large eyes always follow me around,
Be I on the terrace or on the ground,
You hear my slightest little sound,
And straight for me you happily bound!

You are my gift, my toy,
My bundle of joy,
It doesn't matter if you are a girl or a boy,
My friend for always, until the day I die!

For my dogs... Blackie, Lilee and the others who are somewhere else now...
(Image - without request from http://www.e-cart.biz/stores/vintage-metal-art/images/bulldogsketch.gif)