Kuch dikha kya ?

25 Oct, 2015






Two questions irritate me. One, after a session of meditation or chanting to be asked “how are you feeling ?”, followed closely by a second one that of being asked “Kuch dikha kya ?” after a safari in the jungles. The former seeks approval for something that should be so personal that one should be allowed to savor or atleast discover what exactly the hour or so of the quite inside journey has accomplished. The latter simply because what I want in the jungle or I feel inside the jungle is something you may not wish to put on the board of your favorite sightings. Most  times when I am in the jungles, I am looking up at the canopy overhead, asking my naturalist buddies all kinds of questions, urging them to stop for everything from bee hives to burrows, trees to watering holes, a butterfly ‘huddle’ to swarming dragonflies. And that for me is the jungles….. untouched, a termite mound as mighty and important to the forest as the tiger, as mysterious as the sudden chatter of birds at dusk exactly the same way they rise to the gently breaking dawn, as beguiling as the silhouette of a bird in flight. The jungles restore in me a sense of peace, in the brief naps I take especially when the chill of the morning is pervaded by the welcome warmth of the rising sun, I sleep better than I do in the comforts of my home. A thoughtless, dreamless, deep slumber. Then there are the jungle stories of stalwarts like Gabbar and Kankati, the high tension drama around an alarm call, the smell of grass high after the monsoons, early morning mist hanging low, the gaur and its resemblance to a bison, a ruddy mongoose crossing our path, an inquisitive sambar peeping from behind high grass the sun behind making its ears curiously translucent, endless games my naturalist buddies play of collective nouns, anecdotes of  VIP visits, umpteen stops to check a track or a scat.... aah ! I could go on. Each has his own reason to seek the forest and it is not always to see the tiger. May that ilk flourish.

The forests are an intrinsic ecosystem, in one sense not very different from urban jungles as they have their own law and rhythm. Only more natural and stories that should continue undisturbed if only we , the most intelligent beings on earth can only see that everything does not need intervention, thrift is a virtue and every tree need not end up as paper on your table nor every mountain as the floor under your feet and jungles are not only about tigers and leopards just as ‘Apple’ is not the only mobile maker !! As such ‘kuch dikha kya ?’ is a trick question !

Haha. Funny.
Trail-stained Fingers | 20 Nov, 2015
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Unknown | 08 Mar, 2016
Thanks for sharing such a nice post. Families who visit pench for Jungle safari look for jungle house villas in pench for a stay and relax. The stay at jungle villas make the trip merrier.
Unknown | 08 Mar, 2016
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Unknown | 29 Dec, 2023