The New Neighbour

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, I was wiling away my time watching a wildlife documentary in the drawing room while Shivani, my colleague and flatmate, was reading a book in her room. Just when the leopard was about to pin down the poor deer, I was forced to pause by the door bell ringing. I waited, hoping my flatmate will forget about my existence and get the door. When I realised that would not happen, I walked up to the door mumbling about an afternoon being disturbed by that horrible sounding bell. We really need to request our landlord to change it or even better to remove it. Once at the door, I decided to look through the keyhole, as a safety precaution. A gentleman whom I recognized to be our new neighbour, stood at the door looking anxious and glancing at his watch repeatedly. I opened the door with surprise and suspicion still in my eyes. The gentleman smiled and said,

‘Hi! I’m Shankar. I moved here last week and I live there.’ he said while pointing at his house. I introduced myself as social etiquette demands ‘Hi! I’m Divya. Nice to meet you!”

He continued into what was a long monologue ‘I know this might be too much to ask for, but you must understand that I currently have no other choice. I live with my 4-year old daughter Sapna. Her mother passed away recently and that is why we moved to a new place. I haven’t yet had found a good nanny who can take care of her while I am away. I have been trying to get in touch with my other friends to take care of her for an hour while I need to attend to some official work, but haven’t managed to find any yet. As a last resort, I have come to request you to watch over Sapna for an hour while I am away. Please? She is a nice kid and I promise she won’t be a trouble at all. I just don’t want to leave her alone because she might get scared at home.’

There was so much sincerity in his expression that I couldn’t decline the request especially after learning the fact that the child was still coping with her loss. Moreover, it was just for an hour.  I replied with a smile, ‘Sure. You need not worry, Sir. We will take care of Sapna until you return.’

‘Thank you so much. I promise to be back in less than an hour. I will bring my daughter in a jiffy’.

He left for his apartment and I closed the door before walking into Shivani’s room. Lifting her eyes from the book, she curiously enquired, ‘Who was at the door?’

‘We will soon have a young guest coming to our apartment for a short visit’ and I continued to explain to her what happened. 

She wasn’t very impressed with my handling of the situation as she is not fond of baby-sitting. Our conversation was interrupted by the calling bell.

‘That must be him. I think you might want to keep Jurassic Park away for a while and join me to entertain young Sapna.’ Shivani looked at me with a puppy face hoping that I would let her continue reading and not deal with a kid. I ignored her tactics and added, ‘I’m not leaving you with a choice and I insist’ before leaving to get the door. She left the book on the bed and unwillingly followed me to the door. The man stood at the door with little Sapna on his right side, who was smiling and talking to her giraffe soft toy. ‘Hi. This is my daughter.’ And then he turned to his daughter, ‘Sapna, you have to stay with didi till dada come back. Okay, beta? ‘Okay, dada.’ He kissed on her left cheek and she kissed him back. After handing her to me, he said, ‘Thank you so much! I will be back in an hour’ and walked away.

I held little Sapna’s hand and welcomed her to our humble abode. She was a cute kid who was very easy to handle. So we didn’t realize time passing by. An hour later Mr. Shankar came to pick up his daughter and also got us both a box of chocolates to show his gratitude. While we were talking, he said, ‘Are you interested in photography? I noticed the DSLR next to the computer.’ I looked in the direction he pointed and replied, ‘Yes…I am.’

‘Oh! That’s a nice hobby to have. I have a studio in the city and would be very happy to show you around if you want to visit us one day.’

‘That would be great! Thank you very much. I will definitely get in touch with you when I am in the city’.  

While I found myself to run a few errands in the city, I called up Mr. Shankar to enquire whether I could visit his studio that day. After hearing an affirmative, I went to the studio. At the studio, he welcomed me and took me for a grand tour in the studio. There were various photo shoots going on. We both walked into the interiors of the studio and as we walked I asked him what kind of photography excites him the most. He replied with a diplomatic “I like everything….” As an afterthought added, “I especially like wildlife photography”. I was thrilled by this finding as I consider myself a budding wildlife photographer.

When we walked into a room, I was shocked beyond measure by what I saw. There was a photo shoot going on with a leopard standing on top of a table above the red-carpeted stage. It was being made stand in particular poses that would look menacing on posters, all the while being whipped or poked by its care-taker to get it to behave. So this is what he calls "wildlife photography!”

When he went around to talk to the crew, I walked out of the room, still being utterly shocked at what I had just seen and wanted to express it to someone. I called Shivani at the office and when she answered, I just said 'I don't think I like our new neighbour!'I couldn't hear what she said because my alarm woke me up!

A for Agumbe...

I spent a few weeks of my summer in 2013 (actually during the monsoon) at Agumbe Rain­forest Research Station (ARRS) doing an internship on the microhabitats of frogs. I hadn’t heard about Agum­be until a friend of mine (Neha) mentioned it casually one day. Agumbe is a village in the Shimoga district of Karnata­ka. It is situated at an altitude of about 642 metres from sea level. It is known to be home to the world’s longest ven­omous snake, the King Cobra, which is also the flagship species of ARRS.

The day I reached Agumbe, I got off at the wrong place, Thirthahalli, which is about 30 km from Agumbe. After a lot of phone calls to the base camp, I got on to a bus to Agumbe. The path that led to the base was a kilometre or two away from the village and was densely forested on either side. The research station was inside a four-acre areca plantation. There were a few boys playing crick­et in the yard in front of the research station. I was greeted by Ram bhayya (Ramprasad), who was working on fish­es and frogs, and Jiggu (Jignasa Patel), who was a volunteer there. They intro­duced me to the others at the Station.

Every morning I woke up, to my sur­prise, at 5:30 AM, to the calls of the whistling thrush, which used to sit on the rooftop and whistle away to glory. When the whistling thrush stopped, it was Chikki and Naala’s duty to keep the music going with their barks, howls and growls. Chikki was the calm and composed one while Naala was the naughty one, even though she was the mother of four puppies. The Research Station was like a mini pet shop with various animals including tadpoles and the Malabar pit viper around. I had the pleasure of seeing these tadpoles at the different stages of their metamorpho­sis. I also spotted vine snakes and cat snakes during the course of my work.

Agumbe is rich in amphibian diver­sity. Even though we looked for them, it was their calls that made it easy to find the frogs. Pseudophilautus amboli, Raorchestes luteolus, Raorchestes tu­berohumerous, Ramanella marmorata, Rhacophorus malabaricus, Hylarana aurantiaca were a few that I saw. It is known that mouse deer, sambar deer, leopards, boars, slender lories (I was only lucky enough to hear them) and giant squirrels are abound in the in­terior of the forest though I got to see only a mouse deer. Once, Ram bhayya and I went to a meadow across a stream, in the forest in search of mammals. The path was blocked by fallen trees because of which our walk was more adventurous. There were only jungle fowls in the meadow. We saw some marks on the trees made by the Sam­bar deer. My luck with big mammals during field work was quite bad and my record still stands at one with a mouse deer saving my record from zilch.

It rained cats and dogs most of the time and when it did not, it was misty. On one such day, when rain was the norm, we decided to go swimming. While we stood there admiring the stream, a log came through and Siddharth, the director of ARRS then, jumped onto it and went down the stream like in ac­tion movies, minus all the safety belts. Nagana, the cook at the base, set up a net in the uncultivated paddy field to catch fish for later when the water lev­el would drop. Thanks to the heavy downpour, I never got to eat those fish but that was compensated for by the mouth-watering chicken and pork served at the base. He could make won­ders even out of simple vegetarian food.

While getting dreamy about the food and place, I must not forget to mention the leeches, the vampires of the rain­forest. When a group of us went to a waterfall, 1KB, (I am oblivious to the etymology), about 4 km away from the field station, I was made a good meal of by a few leeches. Though I had got­ten a few leech bites before, I had never seen 10-15 leeches at the same time on each leg. But 1KB was worth paying that price for. I stood on top of the waterfall stretching both my hands out and tak­ing in the view. I could see the whole of Shimoga from there. We spent some time playing in the water and then re­turned to the base, tired to the bones.

When I run the reels back, I see those wonderful days I spent in Agumbe.

In Search of The Hunting Hero of The Snow

The summer of 2011 was one of the most exciting holidays of my life. I went to Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh for a project on the Snow Leopard, the hero of the snow. This was the first time I was travelling all the way to the north to visit the Himalayas. We got into this project through Dr. Ramana Athreya and Dr. Charudutt Mishra of Nature Conservation Foundation, a non-governmental organization that works on conservation in various places across the country. After a long and tiring journey, we reached our base camp village called Kibber, at an altitude of 4200 m.

After resting for a day or two, we set out on our work and visited a village, Chicham which can be easily seen from Kibber, but is actually around 50 km by road due to a gorge separating the two. The best part of the visit was to cross the gorge in a “Joola” or a cable car. We also had an opportunity to camp for 3 days in Pin valley where nature has painted scenery using her magical brush. We were lucky to be a part of a nature camp held at an open field in Chomaling (4400m), near Kibber. It aimed at getting the children of Spiti to admire their surroundings, learn more about the plant and animal life and above all care for them. It was a great learning experience for me because I started to look at nature with an appreciative eye and hence discovered the hidden joy of observing even the tiniest of the creations.

I was in awe of the flora which includes beautiful flowers like Arnebia and Para aquilegia to thorny short bushes called Caragana. I spotted wild animals like the Blue Sheep, Ibex, Red Fox, Woolly Hare and not to forget a pair of Tibetan wolves just after their feast. I also saw domestic animals like Yak, Zomo (cross between a cow and a yak). Spiti has magnificent bird life for a cold desert with huge birds like the Golden Eagles, Lammergeyers, Himalayan Griffons and the common Raven to small birds like Horned larks, Wagtails, Finches etc.

The people of Spiti are very kind and ever willing to help. Though they have a native language, Spitian, most of them are comfortable with Hindi and quite a few can manage decent English. Their culture has had an obvious influence of the Tibetan culture. We got to witness one of the annual horse races where the horses were decorated with age-old cloth work and the jockey was clad in the traditional gown. Most of their culinary delicacies are made of meat and include momos, timos, tukpa, chirul etc. Their way of life and festivals is mostly dependent on the seasons, the busiest months being May to mid-August.

Even though I wasn’t lucky to see a snow leopard, I am glad to have spent some moments of my life in this lovely place. I got to meet various kinds of people - from field assistants, students to professors, each working in an exciting field of their own. I will never forget my Spitian Adventure!

She leapt on to his thigh and sat there as though it was a throne that belonged to her. He remained quiet. The fellow who was whispering in his ears dropped a white liquid on his left shoulder. May be molecule touched her which made her hop to the other thigh. He continued to remain still while she grew more restless and hopped to a stone above his head. The other fellow stopped whispering and flew to a nearby branch. Before disappearing into the darkness she whispered a soft 'Meoww...'

The Silent Ringtone

In our first year of college saary naat caalege, IISER, being the juvenile selves that we were, we decided to play a prank on one of my friends. It materialized on a lazy day when we gathered in Saudamini’s room post lunch for a quick nap before the next lecture began. As usual the break did not proceed as intended and my friends got to cribbing about the morning lectures while I entertained myself by playing the game ‘Bubble Buster’ on Saudamini’s mobile phone. While I was playing the evil idea flashed through my mind. When Saudamini left the room I poked Surabhi to get her attention and tell her about my plans. After a relatively long time for a sensitive person that she calls herself, she looked up from her phone, irritated and asked me to explain myself. I asked her, ‘Surabhi, I want to change the settings on Saudamini’s phone?' With a suspicious look she asked, ’Why?’ and I replied ‘Turn on ringing for the ‘silent’ mode?’ with an evil smile and I saw the expression mirrored on her face. ‘Hmm…That would be fun. I’ll call on her phone while we are in the class.’ she said and I added, ‘Yay....It will embarrass her....Muhahahhaha’. We first had to get over our moral dilemmas about whether it will affect our friend but with some bit of rational thinking, reasoning and analysing earlier behaviour of Prof. Nice we decided it might not be too much of a problem. I immediately changed the settings of Saudamini’s phone. Though it showed ‘silent’, the ringing was turned on with the weirdest ringtone one could ever think of. We decided to call her phone during the first lecture post lunch and also decided to sit somewhere behind so that Saudamini as well as the professor wouldn’t notice two girls giggling away to madness. 
We got ready to leave for class when Saudamini joined us. She took her phone and switched to ‘silent’ mode before dropping it in her bag. While we were going to the class, Surabhi and I were thinking about the fun we were going to have. Funny how Saudamini did not notice our rather suspicious behaviour. The class was already full and luckily we got a place behind. Surabhi and I went to sit in the 4th row from the front while Saudamini chose her usual place on the front bench with our other friends. We decided to call in between the lecture. 
The noisy class suddenly became silent which indicated the arrival of the professor. The professor went past me. I gave an ‘Oh No...What do we do now’ look to Surabhi. Prof. Not so Nice had come and he genuinely hated any sort of distractions and interruptions in the class. Most of the students in the class were terrified of him. He went and stood on the platform and announced, ‘Prof. Nice won’t be able to take the class today. So we are switching our class timings' and proceeded to begin the class without any other remarks. We had no choice other than to cancel our plans as it could go out of hand. Our moods dampened. Another thought began to nag me, ’What if someone else calls on her phone?’ I expressed my concern to Surabhi and we both dreaded the consequences of a call. We both couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the class and I started praying to all possible gods hoping no one would call Saudamini.
Ten minutes into the class, Ram, with his shabby hair and sleepy eyes, entered the class and everyone’s attention shifted towards him. Mr. Not so Nice expressed his disapproval by checking the time and then pointedly looked at Ram and gave him a furious look. Ram did not seem bothered and proceeded to occupy the only place left in one of the front benches. The lecture continued. 
Nothing bad happened till the next 20 minutes until the expected happened. A mobile phone started to ring with the weirdest ringtone one could ever think of. Surabhi said slightly loudly, ‘Oh My GOD! It has happened. Disaster strikes.’ I held her hand tightly so that she would keep quiet. Everyone’s attention shifted to the front bench while I muttered ‘Saudamini will be thrown out of the class and when she comes to know it was us, we are doomed'. We didn’t want that to happen. We just wanted to embarrass her.’ I regretted what I did. The professor stopped lecturing stared at the front bench while Ram took his phone out of his pocket and turned it off. The professor was fuming and shouted at Ram by pointing to the door, ‘Ram, out of my class, now.’ Ram stood up, stared at the professor and then decided to leave. While Ram was leaving, the professor continued, ‘If you are planning to come late anymore please don’t come.’ The professor got back to the board and continued lecturing. Surabhi and I were relieved but waited with bated breath for the lecture to get over. 
The lecture got over soon. I thanked my stars for what had not happened. No one called on Saudamini’s phone. I wanted to change the settings of the ‘silent’ mode back to what it was. I told Surabhi,’ Surabhi, I’ll go and change the settings’. She replied, ’Yes, yes please do’. I went and asked Saudamini for phone to play ‘Bubble Buster’. She took her phone out, looked at it disappointingly and then showed it to me and said, ’No charge. It’s dead.’ A wide smile was about to appear on my face but I hid it and put up a sad face. Surabhi who was listening to our conversation from behind shouted in delight, ‘Saudamini, your phone is awesome’. Saudamini replied, ’Get lost’.

Thunder?

I was reading a book when I heard a big noise along with the windows shivering. 'Earthquake?' I thought. I ran down the stairs to the room where my parents were sleeping. I asked my mom 'Did you heard that?' She said 'That was thunder, sweetheart. Did u get scared?' I replied, 'Yes'. I turned and walked back to my room. In another few minutes the power failed. It took 45 minutes for power to come back and for me to go to sleep. 
I woke up in the morning and my mom met me with a grin on her face. She said 'Do you know what happened yesterday?' I replied with a confused look 'No'. My mom continued 'There was a bomb blast in Rajendranagar (a place which is located 1- 2 km from my house). See the newspaper.' I read the news for details. So that was a neither a thunder nor an earthquake but a blast!

Extract from an early morning dream

I was walking down a deserted road on a cold winter’s night. I felt anxious and was scared to move my foot as it was pitch-dark. The streetlights were off and the moon was hiding behind cluster of dark clouds. Suddenly I felt warm and heavy on my cold hand. My right palm was resting inside someone else’s palm. I tried to release my palm while looking at the face. By then we had reached near a dimming streetlamp. In that faded light, I saw a glimpse of his face.  It looked familiar. He said, “Don’t worry. It’s me”. I felt better that I was not alone. We walked. I saw his face clearly under the bright streetlamp. The moon showed half of itself from behind the clouds. The face still looked familiar but it wasn’t whom I thought it was. The face made me feel more comfortable and happy. I held his palm tight. The moon was full and bright. We continued walking.