yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

This article finds space in July - September 2014 issue of Hornbill  I visited the Siju Eco Camp, located on the banks of the Simsang river across the Siju Wildlife Sanctuary, Meghalaya, during first week of February 2013, with colleagues. A part of Samrakshan’s eco-tourism initiative, our objectives were to organize an in-house workshop for team members and allot time to look for birds. Samrakshan has taken up interesting and unique initiatives to conserve the habitat. These range from participatory elephant monitoring program to one on Community Conserved Areas. Samrakshan, a NGO registered as a Charitable Trust, works towards conserving biodiversity values in an equitable and just manner. Its Baghmara field-base was initiated during 2004. Pitcher Plant (Memang Koksi), South Garo Hills : Pankaj Sekhsaria Simsang from the hanging bridge at Siju : Pankaj Sekhsaria First the birds... A Blue Whistling-Thrush Myophonus caeruleus had made the Siju Eco Camp its home

Kohima War Cemetery Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission We react to people. There are people we are at ease and love being with and there are those of the other kind. One reacts to places as well. Places that tend to make one comfortable and at peace - enough to be lost in thoughts that one wants to – are rare This is one such place After the first trip to Kohima - when a friend and I missed it - have tried to make it at least once during each trip On one of these missed those I had lost in recent years Not easy to recall another place - that one has been to - which has been maintained in such an immaculate fashion Once as I sat on a wall I was stunned with the manner in which one staff-member moved over the walls – for me it would have been high intensity jumps ( and a failed one had I been foolish to overrate myself and attempt one ) but looking at him, as he moved from one wall to another, was like enjoying a ballet The

The Peripheral Centre Voices from India’s Northeast Edited by Preeti Gill 2010 Zubaan An imprint of Kali for Women This interesting collection of 26 essays on the region had me engrossed and also rekindled some memories! Different perspectives on a single issue present an interesting picture. Temsula Ao in her ‘ Benevolent Subordination’: Social status of Naga Women states “ Cultural impediments to social change can never be removed by legislation alone and cosmetic reforms like the induction of women into parallel bodies like the Village Development Boards, Town Committees and other similar organizations do not really address the issue of gender discrimination in power sharing .” While Lal Dena in Status of Mizo Women states “ In the final analysis, the overall democratization of Mizo’s socio-economic and political structures can be expected to promote women’s empowerment and emancipation .” Continuing with Lal Dena’s essay the quotes below succinct

The Book In the County of Gold-digging Ants 2,000 years of travel in India Puffin Books Published by Penguin Books India 2009 The Author Anu Kumar The Cover The Reviews Share 2 reviews I found online and quite agree with the later that says that the book is for those aged 8 – 80; if one finds the details missing one can launch off online from the leads the book provides. Saffron Tree Good Books The Musings Intriguing how even then It was difficult to understand ‘India’ on account of treating it as one unit.  (for some reason recalled Javed Akhtar’s lyrics ) . We are an enigma? Extreme inequality was more of a norm than an exception. A friend shared of how after all the ‘development actions’ we have managed to reach the inequality levels we were at, a century ago! Halide Edib Haldie contrasted the poverty and inadequacy of primary education with the limitless riches of the universities she had visited, in Aligarh, B