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

Day Twenty Two brings the adventure to an end We take the boats early morning. The boats glide slowly and gracefully along the river, its pools and the rocks. What a lovely morning it was  We glide for longer than I had envisaged. Enroute we also spot birds. This was fun given the boat’s movement as was sharing the field guide with colleagues in the other boat. Besides couple of not so common ones we also come across a fisherman who had captured a coucal and get it released. The interactions were funny. A published note based on the morning experience here .  The bird before being released We reach what appears to be a river port straight out of Charles Dickens’ works.   Jarda was being brought and packed for export. I move around the town till the food gets done. As I walk I see how this is like other transit places that I am familiar to – albeit at a smaller scale and of course with different sounds and colours. This apparently is a river port to get into Burma a

Day Twenty One is about returning I wake up with an urge to be at Saiha soon. Tea is followed by discussing the options of getting to Saiha. The road route that goes via Phura is a clear NO for some of us for the road is bad and getting a vehicle is both – costly and difficult. So we will go by the river on speed boats and dug outs that ply from Burma. They will take us to a point in neighbouring district of Lawngtlai. From this point we will proceed to the district headquarters and then finally to Saiha. I take a walk and meet a young man who had applied to work with us. He is from Tokalo and works as a temporary teacher here. He tells me that the school has yet to begin after Christmas holidays. We are in March. We have a meeting with the MTP, VC and Burmese underground to discuss the Wildlife Sanctuary. I talk of (on being asked to) hunting being an issue and that it is prohibited both inside and outside the Wildlife Sanctuary and if they continue to hunt and trap as

Day Twenty is about scampering through Waking up today to cheerful faces I realize again that most of us are excited that the survey is coming to an end. First and last time coming like this is what I have been told more than a few times. The meal today is interesting – wild banana flower with dal. Packing and getting ready to move is a much leisurely act. Were we happy to see this?  While people spend abysmal sums on meat and other actions poverty too – in these parts - is stark. One of the colleagues - helping with luggage - has never worn foot-wear in his life. Another shared that tea at his place is tea leaves and water; he simply cannot afford sugar or milk. I recall sugar being priced at 40/- and milk powder at 400/- a kg. My sojourns at Barista and Café Coffee Day come to my mind, as does a friend. The craving people have for meat has been both surprising and disturbing. How they are able to assimilate this quantity of meat besides the tobacco and areca nut remai

Day Nineteen is a long walk   Tea comes over. I see the route mapped thus far, on GPS, and get eager to look it up on a larger screen. Ditto with the images. I pack. Food is ready and soon we all too. Part of the morning meal A few hundred metres up the Tika and we are in a tougher terrain. We shift our trail for, as Jo says, ‘ there is no human way’ . This ‘ easie r way’ has me walking on trees, some sleeping and others dead. I hone my mountaineering skills – take weight of body and bags on my hands, hold crevices in rocks and move upwards. Knees have cuts as we reach the top. The smart me is for some reason in shorts today. I also come across one of the largest tree I have even seen – so huge. Awed and numbed at the same time – I touch it. Respectful silence. Though I know my picture taking skills will not do justice to it – yet I try. On reaching the top – help demolish a trap. We move across and then down towards the Khopai river. The slope is steep and the bam

Day Eighteen is about replacing the missing posts. I see that rice and other items are being readied – for the rest of the survey - by new colleagues from Lopu. I do not feel the need or urge to meet them. In some ways I am also learning to function in a detached manner (unlike how I have been in the office). Hat at the Hut I discuss the Wildlife Sanctuary with the Village Council President. The villagers want their orchards and rice- fields to be exempted from the boundary. I then get to know, on questioning, that neither has the Forest Department informed them of the Wildlife Sanctuary (and its boundaries) nor have they visited them. And this, is one of the larger villages from amongst those which will be affected. Why the forest-department has espoused this attitude is beyond me and that too when the pressure (on forests) from people in the villages is not at a level that warrants conservation attention. The village has not been informed of the Wildlife Sanctuary by t

Day Seventeen is about homes and traps I wake up in yet another house. After kua we move to interact with people in the village. I recall staring at this for long I see a volley-ball match in progress, broom-grass being dried, girls going to fetch water, people looking with amusement at me and more. We meet a couple of young men. They are eager to chat with Ja - I refrain from interfering. Next I see papaya orchards. They are as much of a surprise as was the carefully laid orange orchard I saw yesterday. This is followed by a homestead with tidily laid out cauliflower. Some of the houses have bamboo placed to ensure that the doors remain shut. There are some goats too besides the pigs and chicken and they make their presence felt on the dusty roads of a late winter morning. I am told that cows do not survive in the village despite bring present in nearby areas. People here do not milk cows, buffaloes and goats. They are either for help with cultivation or food on table.