Field Diaries: Napokulu

Been a while since I wrote. We've been coming back to the IB quite late these days. I haven't had any interesting walks either. Used the leech socks borrowed from P. They are efficient, don't let leeches inside. Also used salt to ward them off. They just cringe and fall to the ground. Salt works! So all you have to do from time to time is to wipe your shoes with the damp cloth containing salt, and you are safe. There was a place yesterday where there were just so many leeches, that when I looked down, I saw some 10-15 of them stuck to one shoe, some 10-15 stuck to the other. And a few climbing up my trousers. I didn't know where to start dabbing salt first. Anyway, I think I am getting used to them. I am a lot better now than the first couple of times.

Today is sort of an off day. So what did I do - washed clothes of course! And here I am sitting on the veranda of Napokulu PWD IB, binocs and bird book by my side, writing all this down. Whenever I sit like this, lazily in the veranda with plants and trees and flowers around, I am reminded of my house in Bhopal, 4 N6, where I've spent many such lazy afternoons, especially in winters, sitting in the sun with Maa, sometimes Avi, and later with the dogs. Doing nothing. Maa would of course knit or do her round of the garden. It used to be like a scene from Jean Renoir's 'The River'. I also like these IB's because of the birds around here. I saw a Plaintive Cuckoo, a Baybacked and Rufousbacked Shrike here yesterday. This little place is a paradise for birds.

On our way back from one of the walks, P and I met an auto wallah we had asked directions from before. In his auto was sitting an old time Coorgi - sozzled in mid-afternoon. He said, you might see some pigs here. But Coorgi's are good hunters, they might have hunted them all down. He was hardly able to sit upright himself and he was saying all this with a drunken sway and a slurred voice. How's that for effect. :-D

Last night we were at Udumbe Forest Guards Cottage, waiting to be picked up. It's a hard life for these guards and foresters. Far away from civilisation. Far away from their families. The only entertainment is radio. And probably finding out nooks and corners around the cottage where the phone might catch signal. These people were nice and kind, they offered us tea and bananas, and when our pick-up party got really late, they also offered us dinner. I sat in the veranda filling data sheets in the afternoon. Time passed...it was evening and then it was night. I love to see how it gradually gets dark in a forest. The sounds of birds are replaced by the sounds of cicadas and frogs. And when it is very dark, the glow worms light up the forest. I have a feeling they all do their glowing act in sync. Coz at once, most stop glowing, and then as suddenly, start glowing together. So the forest looks beautiful with hundreds of these small lights floating around, switching on and off at intervals.

It's hard to follow the motion of a Swift or a Swallow. They are just so...well, swift!

We had a very long drive last night. Had to drop off three field assistants at their homes in different villages. The road from Maukut onwards is so atrocious - big potholes for a long stretch. I was shocked to know it's a national highway. Anyway, so with the way we were stuffed behind in the jeep last night, every lurch of the vehicle was becoming increasingly painful. We reached the IB at 3 in the morning. I was so glad to stretch my limbs and hit the bed after that terrible journey.