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

Joining the Dots Text and Photographs: Nimesh Ved and Swati Chaliha We are indebted to the people of Ungma and Longsa, and the DGZ committee for bearing our ignorance and teaching us of forests during those very wonderful days and – of course - for the very lovely pineapples. Thanks are due to friends at NEPED for sharing of Nagaland, the energies and humour. Colleagues at FES we thank for being together and for presenting the opportunity. This piece appears in the July – September 2015 issue of Hornbill ( BNHS ). Twice on the first day, the dilemma posed to us was whether we should take the tar road that snaked along the path, albeit a little further from where we had figured out the boundary lay, or cut our way through the wild growth. In both cases, after deliberation, we decided that the easier path was not the one best taken, and cut through the forest. We were walking the boundary of a Community Conserved Area (CCA) in Mokokchung district, Nagaland. CCAs are...

Some thoughts on Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai I moved out to the street – in heavy slow steps – and called up the number I had not answered as the film was being screened. Other end: How was the film? Me: Disturbing. Other end: Audience? Me: Room was full, more people than chairs and no one either talked on the phone or went out. Other end: Did anyone disturb the screening? Problems have been reported from Delhi. Me: No. We were to discuss conservation education but it was kind of difficult task after one had heard of people being cut, killed and burnt. As I sat in the bus, I wondered on saving wildlife when human life had very little value. I was returning home after attending a screening of Nakul Singh Sawhney’s Muzaffarnagar Baaki Hai at Lamakaan. The screening had been disrupted few weeks ago at Delhi and 25 th August was the date for screenings at multiple locations across our country. Lamakaan is an inclusive cultural space that promotes and presents the ...

Pleased to share link to the piece which finds place in the Hindu Sunday Magazine Many thanks to The Hindu. The unedited version I share below. Last Sunday I  got an opportunity to attend a concert on Hindustani Classical music at a Club. Brilliant performers had the audience enthralled at the excellent venue. As we moved out of the hall for refreshments I noticed tea being served in disposable plastic cups. For a club which is elite enough to continue, some of, its ‘Days of the Raj’ practices and stress on a dress-code, surely lack of cutlery could not be an issue. I eves-dropped, as I moved, and heard not one voice talking about it; it just was not a concern. I shared of this ‘something being out of place and wrong’ feeling to the person standing next to me and was pointed to the disposable plastic glasses for water! Neither the club nor patrons had any qualms in using disposable plastic cups and adding to our collective trash; one that we have no idea of disposing...

I had read of the proposal to construct homes in the Osmania University Campus but for some strange reason it did not hit me till I talked of it over phone with a friend; that it would take a part of the campus away. After I put the phone away I wondered on how the campus has – since more than a year – been an integral part of my life in Secunderabad. Silly enough, for a while after I moved to Hyderabad was not aware to staying so near to the campus. The Campus. More than a year of walking and I continue to discover fresh-for-me paths, small temples, neat dargahs and more in the campus. This week’s addition has been the Deer Park. ( A case report in Zoos Print published during 1999 says that 10 deer were introduced in the 24 hectare demarcated area in 1990 and during 1999 the deer population was 90+ ). It today lies abandoned. New buildings slowly raise their presence amidst existing brilliant architecture and houses – many of which lie uncared for. Open spaces, some of th...

Kullu and Naggar Nimesh Ved Published by The Alternative on 20th August 2015. We move towards Autt from Gushaini simultaneously charged and exhausted from our trek in the Great Himalayan National Park ( GHNP ). Here we put up at a fairly basic hotel that lies amidst the stretch of shops which constitute the Autt market. An evening walk in the market had us pick up walnuts and red kidney beans to take back home and apples to eat; each of these local, fresh and delicious. When we returned to the hotel we saw the hotel manager in exactly the same position that we had seen him when we left; busy playing teen-patti ( card-game ) online. Reach of the mobile-phone based internet and uses people put it to has been a mind-boggling phenomenon. As one travels, one learns more of one’s own country people. Not being able to contact the person we had planned to meet, we dropped the idea of going to Shimla . We would instead go to Kullu, the morning next, for Dushera celebration. D...

** Cradling on the tracks, Getting lost in thoughts, Memories of days long gone, Open eyed dreams of those to come, Shutting off world, when in laps of those near and dear, Staring at all around, from within nature’s lap, Rekindling the art of doing nothing, Knowing a bit more of my country as I move. ** No tabs, laptops, fancy phones, people trying to look important, Such a difference as one moves to the more interesting class, Open windows and meals with unknown, Few years ago most of us moved this way, Today, only a handful see it as an option, I wonder why ** She comes to sell toys as the train moves across a reserve forest, I wonder if I could buy one or two toys, Like the newspaper I buy in evenings if stuck at the traffic signal, For the seller and not to read, She carries sharp features and a baby, Passes again after a while – tone more pleading, One of those who owned and lived amidst untamed lands, Got only this from devel...