Longer..Warmer days in April ' 05

As the colours of Holi faded and the coolness in the morning breeze subsided, the chirruping- chatting- whistling of the birds too vanished, probably the approaching harsh summer has driven them to safer, cooler havens in the North whereas I still have to negotiate the acclivity of the IIFM hillock in the brighter - warmer sun, every morning. It was sure that April has arrived but it seems I could not wait for the monsoons any more!

Month of April can well be dedicated to Indian Railways, without which I wouldn’t be able to crisscross the country travelling more than five thousand kilometres in a single month! I travelled almost every week (weekend) towards north, south and west from Bhopal visiting places where I earlier had been to and to some places for the first time, each journey exciting, interesting and refreshing! Undoubtedly April seemed to be amongst the swiftest of the time I had spent lately.

India’s first ISO certified train ‘Bhopal Express’, has definitely diminished the distance between New Delhi and Bhopal, or else I have been bitten by some sort of capital bug that maketh me to travel to New Delhi fifth time in a short span of 3 months. The trip was a sort of an unusual one, as I remained far off from that red city (JNU) and passed the time with my soldier friend who treated me in a very lavish way. On the top of an elaborate Chinese dinner at a posh restaurant near Saket, he even reimbursed my travelling to Delhi, for which I still fell a little uncomfortable at my heart, but nevertheless I dropped any further teasing out of the issue and tried to make most out of my trip?

I wasn’t even settled properly after my Delhi trip when I received the most exciting news of the year, which I hope you all can guess very well, yeah it’s the news of the arrival of a sweet little angel, ‘Milli’, who will call me uncle. She was born on 4th April, Monday and I made an elaborate purchasing of gifts all over during the rest of the week, before boarding the train to home at weekend. The journey seemed to be comfortable, I am not sure whether it really was or I was so overjoyed with the idea of seeing and meeting my niece that everything else doesn’t really mattered. I reached home early morning, and a glimpse of the little one made my day. The ‘sleeping beauty’ decidedly resembled my sister Rupali to such a great extent that she received this particular remark from almost everyone, a Xerox copy! However, Milli’s father and my brother-in-law, Sandy reaped this opportunity quite nicely by quipping, ‘Milli got looks from her mother but the traits will follow her fathers’. (Huge expectations, isn’t it?)

I found Milli so tender and soft that I could not overcome the fear of hurting her if I try to handle her and so I returned back on to my work desk, punctually on Monday ensconcing the bunch of many pleasant memories and waiting for another occasion when I could have her in my lap without hurting her.

The largest potion of train journey was covered in the second and third weeks of April. It was a journey towards peninsular south, towards the city of Bangalore, a journey of more than 1700 km one way! I was actually heading for Rajiv Ghandi National Park, Nagarahole, where I was to attend a one-week training cum workshop on the census of large herbivores in the rich forests of Western Ghats. I was overwhelmed with joy as this was my first opportunity to be so close to real jungles. Real in a sense that inside a National Park (NP) only jungle law is held supreme and we humans are not more than just the intruders. On reaching the camp I discovered that I was a part of the team of around 20 wildlife enthusiasts who volunteered for this transect survey exercise. Interestingly, among the crowd of these amateurs I was alone who felt that biodiversity conservation holds sufficient water to be pursued as a full-fledged professional career. The stay at the Forest rest house facility inside the NP was incredibly superb. Those 7 days were filled in with many sessions of in-house briefings; training classes, discussions and a 3-4 km stroll twice a day, beneath the densely crowned forests. Every-time after completing the walk we were treated with highly aromatic, rich and spicy items typical of the Southern Karnataka cuisine prepared in-house by the talented cook. I felt that I am getting nourished doubly, from within body as well as soul. The calm tranquil and pure forest environment was instilling new energies to all my senses while the nourishing food was making up for all those vitamin deficiencies that I have been suffering since I was away from home. And all that moments of learning were a bonus!

This trip has an additional attraction. I managed to meet two of my old friends, one from my schooldays and other from my university days. The meeting, although short was remarkable in a sense that I was able to spent some time with them after a long time and shared the past course of events with them. The time snapped down any possibility of venturing deep into the minds of each other to actually judge what’s going on and I left for Bhopal for the same monotonous life that I feel so accustomed now.

It was for attending my cousin’s marriage that I boarded the train during the last weekend of April. The marriage was to take place at Pilani, my hometown, where my parents got married, where I was born and where I have had my life’s many of the most unforgettable and extra ordinary moments, moments of love and of pain alike. During the marriage, I met a great number of my relatives, many of whom I have not visited since I returned from UK. It was an occasion of fun and joy, of exuberance and excitement, of glamour and extravaganza and everyone seemed to be in perfect harmony with the moment, either truly engaged or very successfully pretending to be intensely involved in the moment, except for me. I could neither pretend not approve such pretence, for all this appeared a farce to me. The whole idea of staging huge propaganda, which down the years, has lost its traditional and cultural significance and is performed for the sake of society suddenly appeared unpalatable to me. The scores of people who showed extraordinary dexterity in managing their way through the buffet meals among the huge crowd without giving a damn to either the bride or the groom, stood a strong testament to this belief. I wasn’t much happy after witnessing such a futile showdown of the resources and next day when I started off for Bhopal I was seriously thinking how not to allow this to happen in my case. Before boarding the train in Jaipur, I sneaked some time for one of my close friend (KG), with whom I have not met since past 2 years, The meeting was soothing and prepared me for the journey, which was as usual, nothing great and I resumed the office on time with a feeling of tiredness due to a hectic travelling schedule.

Marching on.......March' 05

Hi Pals,

Here I am again with the latest edition of Bhopal Update featuring my adventures in the month of March. Here I have tried to weave in every interesting event of past month with as much detail as possible with my hardware and software i.e. memory and my ability to express the events. People say, that ‘man’ has been lucky to have the gift of forgetting, but honestly while compiling this update I was astonished to see that this blessing works so profoundly on me. Therefore, although I believe I have included everything in this current update I may not be blamed for leaving some bits because of my fast aging memory.

It does take a little effort on my part, a mental outline and a few rough drafts on paper, before finally setting out for keyboard and the events starts reshaping with their own special tenderness, freshness and unique fragrance lest they assume the distinction of ‘those good old days’. I enjoy this exercise not merely because I feel refreshed after this but more so because very subtly I convey my own thoughts to you people, whom I consider important to me.

As the Feb gave way to March, I started experiencing what one does after settling in comfortably at a place, getting used to Bhopal. The development, which might not seem very apt at this stage of my professional career, when I should rather be more focussed and determined to leave this place as soon as possible before getting ‘typed’ for an government institution. But sadly enough, I could not help it now! May be a ‘break’ some where else, would alter the course of my institutionalisation.

I do not remember what I did in the first weekend of March, (too much for the fast eroding memory) but what I did remember about first week is the meeting with one of my ‘entrepreneur’ cousins that made one odd evening, refreshingly special. Quite obviously, he was on a business trip & too busy to spend long hours with me, however I got a good share of what he used to call ‘quality time’. During the discussion he nonchalantly told me something, which, later struck to me as the bottom line for success in this capitalistic world. This is the age of ‘concept selling’, he said and I later wondered how true he was! Once again I confronted what I had always admired, the enormity and vastness of an idea, a concept, a thought, sheer force behind any phenomenal change.

Second weekend of March did not pose much difficulty to recollect, and with the least strain I can now describe how I felt so lucky to have left Bhopal for New Delhi. I was there for two very dissimilar reasons; one, I was visiting Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to add another new page to the life-long romance with this ‘red city’[1] which started way back in 2001 and second, to meet a special friend, precisely for third time since we knew each other, in the ‘Olive-Green settlement’ of the city. With ‘Olive-Green settlement’ I mean army tents where my lieutenant friend was camping soon to fly off for his foreign posting as a part of the coveted United Nations peace keeping force.

After reaching the army camp I was charged with a rather uncommon sensation, a feeling, that was much different from what I have been comfortable with, I was enthusiastic and yet cautious, alert and yet receptive, keeping myself at low profile I took this as an opportunity to learn and understand ‘what a soldier thinks’ or ‘does he even thinks?’ ‘how closely he resembles an ordinary civilian or how strongly he believes that he is from an entirely different lot’. I don’t think this is probably a better place to throw open my understanding and conclusions but I must acknowledge here that a soldier is, after all very much a human being and do have justifiable viewpoints or else, it may be the case that my friend is not a perfect representative of a typical soldier.

Having a warm, lazy but an interesting afternoon in the army camp, I set off for JNU in the evening. And sticking to my usual forte to surprise friends, I reached JNU and for a change found myself surprised. Fortunately this time it was not one amongst those instants where I have found my friends missing and witnessed my plan writhing and collapsing silently. I was really lucky to have chosen that Saturday for my Delhi trip and more so for planning a visit to JNU, as 12 march was the big night for the ‘Periyar Hostel’. ‘Palash’, as this annual event (hostel night) was named this year, has the same glitz and glamour, which I had so intensely enjoyed a year ago while being an inmate of this hostel. This time I was there as a guest but feelings doesn’t know such differentiation and I enjoyed being there in the same indifferent manner. Undoubtedly, it was rather a big surprise for my friends who had no idea of me turning up suddenly out of the blue.

Funny, as it may appear but next day when we chose a brand new ‘Bullet’ for criss-crossing the roads of the capital city, people gave way to that powerful machine! And when my friend dropped me at Delhi railway station I kept wondering why the time never tires and relax for a while.

After having a monotonous week at office I chose to stay in Bhopal over the third weekend as I found that there are still some places to be explored in and around the city. Oddly enough I picked ‘Indira Gandhi Manav Sangrahalaya’ which is in itself so peculiar in its conception and composition that it is just a sole museum of its kind in India! This museum is an ambitious attempt to showcase the lives, culture, art and religion of a widespread fraction of India’s 450 plus Adivasi tribes. It was indeed an unforeseen experience for me and while passing through a special section dedicated to the tribal and folk mythologies I came across an interesting explanation of the myth by J. Swaminathan, ‘Myth is a flight from reality in order to make the imaginable real’ but who in here can define categorically what is real and what is myth? I was perplexed.

It was on 25 March, almost 3 months since I came in Bhopal that I set forth for the World Heritage site located 46 km North of Bhopal that attracts tourists from round the world. I am referring here to the ‘Sanchi Stupas’. It’s among the list of places where I always wanted to go (Interestingly, Eiffel tower also appears in that list). I still remember very clearly when I first saw photo of Stupas in my history book and suddenly grew curious about the shape, size, peculiar construction and the age of these immense structures. I really feel that these historical treasures are not only the subject of national pride but also give us a point to ponder as what possibly could have been the source of inspiration of such a thought, an idea which was so powerful and strong that it persist even today and will go on possibly for many centuries. Also the colossal effort by emperor Ashok is worth a praise who nurtured, nourished and fortified an idea to make it immortal. Undoubtedly, not many such structures are left today to inspire us when we strongly believe, approve and recommend ‘living in present’, negating the thought and declining our responsibility for the time yet to come. Had this been the maxim of all ages and the people ardent believers as they are in present times, I am sure we would not have any heritage site or altogether a sense for it even.

Holi brought all shades and hues of brilliant colours that camouflaged the strong feelings I was having since my visit to Sanchi, and I let myself mingle with the environment. Soon it was all over and a sudden tiredness encompassed all of us, me and my three friends from the ‘God’s own country’. Quite intelligently they have arranged for something more suitable for the occasion, the Bollywood classic ‘SHOLAY’ and I joined them in the pleasant confines of their home. The day was called after enjoying the entertaining spell.

Quite understandably, the flight of time is so swift that it literally escapes ones’ attention but yet I feel this monthly update is a useful attempt to register the happenings and to document how time has been pouring fresh moments to my life. And I would like to thank all of you for being a source of motivation otherwise I would not have been treasured these precious moments. Lately, I was reading Ruskin Bond and I remember what he says in the book “… yet the butterflies will be beautiful” leaving this entirely upon the reader to interpret that ‘butterflies would be beautiful’ but lets keep our sense of admiring beauty else they will of no appeal to us. These interesting moments are scattered around like those ‘butterflies’, which will remain beautiful, lets enjoy their beauty today and always…

[1] Not just the bricks that makes it red, more often it’s the students’ allegiance with some political parties that is reverberated in the slogans during many protest marches in the campus

Swift and Short....the month of February....

Hi Folks,
The purpose of this ‘Bhopal Update’ is not just informing you about myself, it actually means a lot more to me. First, it chronicles the past events before every thing just vanishes from my transient ‘memory’ as the receding tides of the time. Second, it gives me yet another opportunity to visualise or go through all those moments of intense involvement providing me one more chance to experience that very same feeling in a more subtle manner. Third, this exercise allows me to delve deep into the outcomes of my actions and thus provides me space, time and insight to plan how to steer my way to make my time count. Truly this gives immense pleasure, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment and I feel I am a happy soul! (…touch wood!!!)

At the beginning of this second issue, where I have elaborated the events and happenings of Feb and tried to exhibit all those interesting tit-bits that made my days certainly different from the normal if not exceptional, I would again like to mention and I think that’s for the last time, that Bhopal is a nice place to live and it offers an easy-going life. It provides what many metro cities have to offer but out rightly lacks the typical attributes of such cities - heavy traffic, noise, pollution, congestion on roads and a fast life within an indifferent society.

Month of February passed so swiftly that I hardly get any time to write this letter. I am not saying that I was totally busy but I was fully involved that’s for sure, in various official chores and was working for numerous deadlines. But that could not keep me away from my share of entertainment over the weekends. And so I went, with a couple of friends, to the world heritage site, ‘Bhim Betika’, about 50 km from Bhopal. This site is famous for its rock-shelters that contain prehistoric cave paintings from over 10,000 years old. Overlooking those fascinating pieces of human creativity, I was spellbound when suddenly ‘time’ seemed to have lost its relativity. The display of the life of the prehistoric beings in the form of these paintings was fascinating and truly engaging, I think this is what probably those historic men intended when ‘they’ conceived the idea of creating something extraordinary to be counted as a heritage today. The revelation that the journey to that era didn’t even take a fraction of second, was without a precedent and it fuelled the desire to have such revelations too frequently. After ‘Bhim Betika’ we headed for Bhojpur. The journey was kind of a competition between the remaining few rays of the setting Sun and myself on the motorbike, riding on full throttle to reach the temple before the last of those wandering shreds of the sun dies the usual death. I lost this battle over ‘time’; the same ‘time’ that seemed so miniscule when I was witnessing those timeless cave paintings. There wasn’t much that I could see or capture with my camera in such bad light, however the fact that this Shiv temple, constructed by ‘Raja Bhoj’ of Ujjain 5-7 centuries ago, has the biggest ‘Shiva Lingam’ in India wasn’t very difficult to discern. Legends have it that this huge temple as it appears today, was constructed in one single night, which is actually hard to believe. But undoubtedly if it has been a completed structure, then the majestic stone embankment and the decorated ceiling of the carved granite (may not be true) rock must have attracted a comparatively large number of tourists then what it does today.

After the active and adventurous first weekend, I visited home on the second weekend, this was first time after I came to Bhopal. Trip to home was as usual refreshing and interesting, except that the 3 days passed so swiftly that I felt that I spend more time in the train than being at home. When I came back from home, I never knew that now this whole week is going to be such a great fun. One of my old friends from my good old school days was waiting for me in Bhopal. With him I had a pleasant time all over the week. I went with him to ‘Birla Temple’ Bhopal, visited a couple of restaurants and had a lot of sleepless nights talking about the past 6 years of life since we last met. It was as if we both were cleaning the dust that has settled over the time, treading so cautiously down the memory lane as if not to disturb anything in between and reconstruct the events as and when it happened in each other’s life to attune each other. With him I went to Bhojpur Temple once again and discovered that it well deserved a second visit in bright sunlight to have the feel that it was constructed for.

The week commencing on 21 Feb was an important week for the ‘Project on Sustainable Forest Management’ of which I claim to be one of the Managers. We had our annual Project Steering Committee Meeting for which the ITTO (Funding agency) representative came and for two days we had a hectic but enjoyable schedule. After attending a high profile dinner party at the Bhopal’s heritage hotel, where I would not have gone by my own, the project team went to one field site of the project, ‘Rata Pani Wildlife Sanctuary’. This visit was one of those times when I feel free, away from the concrete jungles, out there where the nature, in small patches, is struggling hard to persist. These stretches of forests and the adjoining villages provide a kind of space where one can breathe and feel a sense of rejuvenation (Pardon me, if it’s not the case with you).

The last week, as I think is generally the case with everyone with little finances left, escaped swiftly without giving me much space to venture away from Bhopal. Nevertheless, Bharat Bhawan- the art and theatre hub of Bhopal came for rescue where a week-long drama festival was going on. It showcased the local (M.P. & Chhattisgarh) art and culture, this gave me an opportunity to acquaint myself with the finer details of the art of theatre going and appreciating what is being performed absolutely live. It actually began in the month of January, when Charandas Chor, a popular play by the famous play writer and director, Habib Tanvir was staged in Bhopal for the cause of Tsunami victims. I really enjoyed that evening and soon Bharat Bhawan became the popular destination for enjoying a evening differently from the routine schedule.

Thus in its very own way, February gave way to March. The temperature started climbing and the weather became appealing. It was indeed a pleasure to walk uphill to my office in the morning when the cool breeze took off all that exhausting sensation of climbing the hillock to reach the office. The flowers in full bloom, birds’ singing-chirping and a slow lazy stroll, who would agree that going to office could be a delightful experience everyday. (For 15 days of Feb & March) until the temperature escalates for this climbing to remain a fun!

Bhopal Jan' 05....Month that had been....

Greetings from Bhopal!

Its been long since I have written a comprehensive mail elaborating what I have been doing since past one month. I thought it would be apt to make this lazy day a bit exciting by going through the happenings of last 4 weeks. Yeah, it was all very interesting and exciting and I have enjoyed a lot. Be it watching movies, visiting fairs, attending Dramas and Plays, chatting with friends over cup of tea or almost regularly before sleeping at night, a journey to the old Bhopal days with my retired house- owner who has been in Bhopal since last 50 years!

At the outset, I would like to make a statement; Bhopal is a cool place to live and an interesting place to be for persons like me. It offers so much with least effort for the satiation of the varied senses which, I have developed in due time. I am really enjoying being here.

In the month of January, Bhopal had its Annual event, a Fair, which was actually a place where one can see a variety of people, all too different but all seemed interesting. It was a rendezvous for these people (myself included) coming from all sections, classes, castes and regions that it was an exhibition in broader terms of the diversity that is synonymous with India. This fair offered almost everything one can think of, be it adventurous rides, sizzling delicacies, stalls, mini zoo, exhibitions of ultra modern electronic gadgets, handicrafts, books, furniture, automobiles and so on.. I went there for two consecutive weekends.

Subhash Ghai’s ‘Kisna’ kept me busy on the third weekend. This movie took off well and seemed to flow well initially but soon collapsed on the rocky fringes of Himalayas (around Dev-Prayaag). I, however, enjoyed the comments from the fellow viewers who were unwilling to partake this drama silently. The dinner - 'Special Masala dosa' at Indian Coffee House, New Market, is still keeping fresh in memory, after all it made me sleep well during night, which was unlikely after missing the dinner at mess.

Last week of Jan., I was out in Teak and Sal Jungles of Chhattisgarh. This was first time I was out in open dense forests. It was a splendid experience meandering through the thickets of trees, which were equally valuable to the local villages in the vicinity as were precious for the Forest Dept. We also visited 5 villages- I would not say ‘remote villages’ and so, because they were not cut off from the modern world. One might not find medical centres and schools or metalled roads here but products marketed by Hindustan Liver and ‘Gutkas’ were available easily. On 26 Jan, we (there were 2 other project members with me on this trip) celebrated republic day by freeing our selves from the official job of collecting data and went to a place called ‘Amarkantak’, this is a place from where two rivers have originated, Narmada and Son. It hasn’t been worth a visit if I had not seen a cluster of very old temples near the point where river Narmada originates. These temples, supposedly 600-700 yrs old caught all my attention, not just because of its age but because of the sheer neglect these temples were experiencing by the Govt. There was even no boundary wall to protect and secure these historical buildings, which were housing the treasures of our civilisation. (I later came to know that the Idols of Goddesses in these temples were worth many Crores in the international market and there had been many attempts for stealing them)

Last day of my trip should be noted as a very special one. On that day, since we had finished all the activities outlined for this trip, I left the place and went to a town called ‘Champa’ about 100 km away. This was something unprecedented and unexpected with this journey. This was the place where I had lived with my parents exactly 20 years ago. Here only I began my schooling, Nursery and Kinder Garten were from this place. I visited my old school and found that only two of the teachers from past 20 years are still serving there and to my greatest surprise these were my class teachers during Nursery and KG. Unbelievable!!! but it happened like that! I also went to see the house where we used to live, the river bank where I used to go bathing on Sundays with my father and the nearby ‘Hanuman temple’ where we used to stop by and my father would have some prayers. I don’t quite remember but I would have waited for ‘Prasad’ from the Pujaari at that time. (that’s I am sure). This trip was indeed very spectacular, I managed to restore all those childhood memories which were too faint otherwise to remember anything in detail but were still persistent in my thoughts.

I came back to Bhopal on 29 Jan’05 and remaining 2 days had nothing much to add to a month that has been full of so many pleasant moments however I visited ‘Lok Rang’, annual festival of folk and traditional art. It has some good stage performances and a sale of handicraft articles from all over MP and Chattisggarh. Items from the tribal hinterland caught my attention and I ended in buying a piece of wooden art depicting a tribal couple in their traditional dancing stance.

In this way Jan. as the first month of 2005 should be registered as an interesting and a very joyful month, full of many uncommon and very interesting incidents and events and I look forward for having similar moments in the month of Feb, when the seasonal transition would be evident in the colourful hue of flowers all over IIFM garden. I hope my time here would be colourful like that, with the company of nice friends out here in the IIFM and with the sweet memories of those, which I have left behind.