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 ge...

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 r...

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...

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. ...

Day sixteen is about interactions with people. Our leaving early has been cancelled. We will leave after food. The Village Council is offering the meal; in other words my colleagues are about to roast – clean – cut the pig. All of them are enthused about this while I feel – not again! Socio-cultural differences or my being judgemental I wonder. The 2 nd cup of tea arrives and I get on to more important tasks. I also successfully persuade the hosts not to cut chicken for me; I would love to have just dal with rice. Some houses I will remember for long, this is one such house The people have been very nice during the adventure. From the young girl on Kaladan banks who offered soap to wash hands to the Village Council President who today asked if I needed warm water for bath. From the Forest Department person thinking I had erroneously forgotten my razor and offering his to the lady yesterday who on coming across my tired face offered an egg saying it would help. This is ...

Day fifteen is about questions on the Wildlife Sanctuary. I have milk tea after long and Ra comes over to convey some confusing news. I thank the house owners and move towards where the rest of the group is. On the way I see a couple of other colleagues rub their sleepy eyes. They join us.    After the discussion we move to Lesai. I ask Ja again to check out the trophies and we land up with remains of an Asian elephant. People of the house claim they found them in Lesai stream during 2006. The remains have been coloured in loud green. Saiha is ivory is local language - sai stands for elephant and ha for teeth. The landscape, at some time, was associated with the pachyderms. Today, we ask people if the last remaining elephant has been spotted in recent months! The Sai of Saiha I am reminded of The Tree Where Man was Born where Peter Matthisessen writes, ‘I can watch elephants (and elephants alone) for hours at a time, for sooner or later the elephant will do ...

Day Fourteen is about being amidst villages again. I a m hassled out of sleep early and we leave, tea in my hand and the freshly purchased jaggery in my bag. It is not yet 6.30 am. I record the location at border pillar 15. This is on the Burmese side and I realize there is another pillar with same number on the Indian side as well.  Here we made food after crossing both the border pillars After we cross the pillars we give our bags rest and decide to cook our meal. I am told that the rush was as the Burmese Army was expected at Ralie. The Village Council of Ralie had failed to inform them of our visit. But, here, back in India, they did not matter. I smile, look around, and see chicks in lieu of the planned baby goat! As the bamboo contraption holding chicks is put down they escape. Our group gets more excited in getting them under control than I have seen them during the past days. At some level I am envious of their simple joys. As the food gets ready we sit aroun...

We walk over to the neighbouring country to re-stock provisions and also to stay over for a night. The tea is warm and waiting. I decline the aluminium mug, take the bamboo alternative and tea vanishes inside me pretty fast. I put in my goods, lying around, in my bags. I have finally learnt to be patient with these and not rush. I also realize that since the treks in the western Himalayas this is the first time I haven’t changed clothes for a dozen days. Straps of couple of our bags have not been able to withstand the journey. 2 colleagues, within half an hour create replacements, with bamboo. Bamboo baskets to carry the bags; with bamboo straps. For more than the next half an hour I am left wondering on their skills with the equipment they had – dao ; the deftness of their hands. What could I manage with mine other than push pencil over paper! This will carry our bags  Ja is hardly noting down anything in his diary. In this scenario I have neither energies nor incl...