Field Diaries: Thalacauvery

I have to think hard to remember what date it is. Very hard to remember the day of the week. Avi and Jaya had a daughter. She came yesterday. 10th April. It now becomes an important date in our family. I don't believe it. Avi and Jaya and their tiny little daughter. And Jaya already sounds like a mom. I don't have signal here, so actually I would have gotten this news a few days later. I was prepared to be out of touch with the world for 4-5 days that we are here. It was yesterday about 11:30 in the morning when I was wandering about in a plantation on top of a hill(the caretaker of the plantation was a friend of our guide, that's why the long halt there between the walk), I came close to where my bag was kept and heard the phone ring. Surprising the phone was catching signal at that point and someone actually thought of calling me then! I took the call and from then a sequence of calls led me to make a call to Avi from whom I finally got the news! It was unbelievable.The rest of my walk was just mechanical most of the way. I don't know how many tracks or signs I missed, but how does it matter! I was happy and I was with my family in Bhopal. I was imagining all the joy and excitement the new born must have brought to everybody there. I wished I was there too! Anyway.

So continuing with the walk...The last 2 kilometers were very steep downhill, which was made worse by the fact that the track had a thick layer of dry leaves. Somehow managed to come down with a few slips. There was fresh elephant dung on the path every few meters. From the look of it, a herd of elephants would have passed not more than a couple of hours ago. They could have been there somewhere, so we were very wary. We reached the anti-poaching camp at Munjachal; a modest structure, with 3 small rooms and a kitchen, crammed and small but with a pretty neat garden - hibiscus and pineapple and cashew and bananas. Just crashed in the veranda and in a couple of minutes it began to pour. It rained heavily for half an hour, it was beautiful and refreshing. Some roof tiles were leaking, found a dry spot to sit back and enjoy the rain. The folks at the camp came back from their daily vigil. After tea they began cooking dinner. It was a pretty setting with the sound of the stream water in the background. It slowly got dark and the folks started Malayalam radio. We chatted about many things, had dinner and slept with the sound of the stream more clearer in the night. I kept checking the signal on my phone but the dratted thing never came! So I couldn't call home again last night.

Today, it was a very long bus journey(many buses) back from Munjachal camp to Thalacauvery Forest IB. We reached almost by evening. Within minutes mist started descending on our little cottage from the hills and forest behind it. It was almost unreal. Like some set of a movie. Very soon, in a matter of minutes there was mist everywhere; everything got engulfed in it till I couldn't see just a few meters ahead. The mist just kept doing this covering-uncovering act throughout the evening. There was the sound of distant thunder in the hills. I thought it might rain but it didn't.

Here we don't get water in the taps. We need to fetch water from the well. So as I heaved matka after matka of water to fill two buckets for my bath, I remembered Rewa and the old well there. There are just so many memories - so many summer vacations - around that well. I remembered how Maa would wash clothes on a big stone near the well, fetch water from the well for rinsing etc. How I used to get two cold buckets of water from the well for bathing. And of course, the wasps around the well. As kids we'd get stung at least once every vacation. The pain and the swelling would keep us off the well for a few hours. The water of this well is very cold. I washed my clothes on a stone by the well, washed my hair as well. It was like going back to village life. It appeared inconvenient, but I realised it was so easy and natural.

In the night, in the trees behind the cottage, there are hundreds of glow worms. They look like small twinkling lights in the dark, sometimes 10-20 of them lighting up together in a kind of quiet celebration of the night. It is beautiful to just watch these glowworms on those trees. The two bamboo clusters in front of the cottage sway and rustle in the wind. The toads croak. Insects make their own noise. I spent some 10 minutes outside watching the glow worms and listening to the sounds of the night. It is beautiful. I think I shall cherish these moments.