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

Title: Steed of the Jungle God – Thrilling Experiences in the Wild Author: Raza Tehsin with Arefa Tehsin Illustrations: Sumit Sakuja and Sonal Goyal Publisher: National Book Trust, India First Edition: 2018 Price: 575/- ISBN: 978–8 –237–8145–7 Pages: 142 Number of stories: 20 This Review was published by First Post on 29 th June, 2018 here . Thanks are due to the team at First Post. Steed of the Jungle God: Thrilling experiences in the Wild contains stories of the forests written by someone has put in lot of time in and around them. The author Raza Tehsin is well versed in natural history, loves jungles and like many before him who have done so, retains his humility. These stories, spanning more than half a century, tell us how the natural world around us has changed during the period. The author points out how the scenario prior to Independence was very different; most of the lakes in Mewar were almost full throughout the year, many rivers and nullahs...

As Varanasi's ghats come alive with music, the city could stake its claim to being India's cultural capital This piece was published on FirstPost on 27 th June, 2018. Thanks are due to the team at FirstPost. Bathing to purify oneself of sins, the final rituals of the dead, boating, evening  aartis ,  sadhus , and hippies are among the things that come to mind when one thinks about the  ghats  at Varanasi. Seldom, however, does music find a place. This, when the town could well boast of yet another tag — that of being the musical capital of the country. Raj Ghat is at one end of the eight-kilometre stretch of  ghats  along the Ganga, and Assi Ghat stands at the other end. Each of these  ghats  is on the side of the Ganga that touches the town. These famed  ghats  play host to a majority of events, some which are relatively new, such as the Kabir Festival which had its second edition during November last...

Sparks from a conversation This piece finds place in The Hindu, Edge on 25 th June 2018. The Conference was organized by Vidya Vanam. Warm thanks are due to the team at Vidya Vanam .  Thanks are also due to The Hindu and Shalini. On a journey to find peace amongst ourselves, we must first trace the root of the problem. A two-day gathering focusing on peace education explored the subject. Diversity of the panel members and audience ensured that quality questions were raised. The issues Any form of exclusion is violence, stated a panellist. The idea, at school, is to enable a sense of belonging, to blur the line between ‘us’ and ‘them’ said another.   To what extent is this possible, one wonders, especially given that there is so much of ‘us’ and ‘them’ the society incessantly bombards a child with. The ‘us’ and ‘them’ of religion, of caste, of status, of nationality and more. A child has no role in any of these and the adults too have little clarity...

Day Nine is some exciting sightings and a dramatic stopping of a hunting party ~ Morning starts to a chatter which is by now both friendly and familiar. I have half a dozen éclairs today before food. If I was in a city these would have been avoided as fakes. Here they are a luxury. Relativity at work. Some walk over trunks ~   We start at 10.30 with a new addition to our post putting team. He is the MTP president from Lomasu and for some reason is referred to as president and not by his name. We reach post 17 that we had put up last evening and being to walk ahead. After a while we stop at NT’s suggestion to discuss our route. We discuss for a while but somewhere in our hearts we know that none of us has a clear picture of the route! I understand this is one of the not many locations in our country that offer this luxury and feel privileged. And what a walk! While we have been tracking the Kumai river over last 3 days (a la Mark Shands over Brahmaputra )! Today...

Day Eight is one of those days within the survey when nothing too crazy happened ~ or perhaps we were getting tuned ~ I get up and make not very successful attempts to spot the birds creating this wonderful music.   But we aren’t in the open. The canopy is dense and the lazy sun makes it more difficult. These 2 reasons I understand also do not allow me to get a location on the GPS. Tea is nice and I await food which is late today. Some of us are up early ~   We hear a hoolock gibbon song a little before 9 am. When I point out the possible location 2 companions smile and say it is from the other side of the stream.   We go a little higher but are unable to see it. Do the voices in these forests echo? The posts that we are to work on today are missing and we can only wait and augment our skill sets pertaining to patience. I do nothing for sometime and then write a little while Ja and Jo go off with binoculars. They return with a dead grey-headed canary fly...

Day Seven is more of mulling over the survey and self. Sitting on the beach I see the lesser whistling duck flying very low over water when whistling and then getting as stationary as a statue on a small rock on the banks. Thick-billed crows have been very prominent today; I wonder if they are looking for fishes or left over’s of our food or both. I noticed 2 of them fly low in circles one behind the other. 4 more then appeared on the scene. The doves too were around - slim, appearing from bushes and rushing to nearest tree on one of us getting near them. We had food and I waited for tea leaves, sugar and water to boil optimally before I took one full bamboo glass prior to leaving. Glasses on stands  As we walked the magnitude of our efforts stuck me. We were to put posts at roughly each half kilometer on the entire perimeter of the Tokalo Wildlife Sanctuary and none of us had been on this path before. The posts and food had to be carried along. What we had in the name...

Day Six was being enamoured by the place, swimming in the river, enjoying the food and mind taking the happy road. I wake up confused whether to lie or rush out to bird songs. Walking out I see ethereal mist lying on the surface – or was rising from it. Places undisturbed by humans are difficult to define. It would have been impossible to do justice to the mist, river and all around then in words. I refrain from making an attempt - there is anyways too much injustice in the world. The hut ~  After a while I sit with the camera and binoculars on the stores near the river and Ra arrives with steaming tea in bamboo. I see the wagtails enjoying themselves over water and a thick-billed crow. On occasions the wagtails appear as if an invisible hand is musically swaying black and white objects and on others as if the wagtails are keys of a piano, kaladan being the piano. The meal follows. I have begun to enjoy the food. The sugar and dal have intermingled while they wer...

Fifth day is all about colleagues, me and of course barbecued fish. Got up in time and realized that we were not moving at the pre-decided time. So visited the neighbours to take a look at their pet – a rhesus macaque and put in time with Ja and Jo. Kaladan ~ 2 odd kms before Burma ~  Ja seems to be having a great time in his new role. He has been amazing in spotting birds, recognizing them in field guides and recalling their Mizo and Mara names. The manner in which he ( like some others here ) exclaims in Hindi is fun to hear; his writing is best not talked about though. During the coming days he will teach me patience and letting things go. Jo has been confused and conscious and many a time left me surprised with his lack of awareness of Maraland beyond Saiha and his village. Talking of awareness of places my awareness of Gujarat and Baroda, where I have stayed the longest, is a topic better kept away from discussion. Jo works very hard but many a time utters yes b...