Showing posts with label village. Show all posts
Showing posts with label village. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

An Equine's caress

Navigated by a little village girl
into a pastoral setting next to the river -
a field, two storks pecking for their lunch; and
a white horse assiduously grazing on
a mostly barren patch of land dry and inglorious
The horse himself bears a glorious mane and swell body.
I near in my hippie frenzy,
and reach out anxiously
The caress on his soft fur, the bristles of his mane,
those emotive eyes seem to convey a strange, sedate expression.
He isn't scared of me,
for once the equines have see me in acceptance,
I feel elevated up the Maslow's hierarchy, towards self-actualization.

Snuggling up to me, bowing subserviently...
Have I, today, tamed the beast with a single touch?
I make a larger and confident motion across its glorious fur,
now that it has turned and faces me sideways.
Its movement, however, doesn't cease
and on his axis he keeps on turning till the hind now faces me.
The little girl remarks on his cantankerous disposition
before I realise what is to come.
And I leap and twist
as it leaps in a graceless motion himself.
The two hooves well versed in this technique
manage to catch only vacuum this time,
but in a parallel universe I am very much in pain.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Straight from the Scene of Adventure

Writing this sitting in the village of Guniyalekh, 12000ft up in the air, and 30km away from an equipped civilization. Village scenes bring up a romantic image; but this doesn't fall for any of those adjectives. Here it isn't rustic or idyllic, it is WILD. Right now there are at least two man-eating tigers operating in the Kumaon region, and their territory can range over a large area, especially these - both the villages of Padampuri and Kala Agar/Kalagarhi that lie on either side of us accounted for kills in the times of Jim Corbett. It is after dark that I'm writing this; there are only sleeping forests of pine and oak to give company; the stretch of road down the sight lies empty, except for the odd farmer or two awaiting the arrival of a mini-truck to carry their farm produce to the lower regions of Haldwani. We - me and my baby brother - reached here just a little while ago, trekking up our hill in the pale light of tonight's moon; it was great luck that we managed to reach here after setting out as late as 1700 from Bhowali.

It is darker now. Cold out here but not the kind that freezes your bones. It is a rare moment that the heavenly lights - the stars - outnumber the terrestrial ones; here it is so. A mere 6 household lights on this hill and 8 on the hill facing ours put a dull challenge to the millions of stars above; dim lights of Dhari in far distance are optimistic, yet a detachment. The night sky is as clear as can be and drapes around the landscape like a fabric; only in Lansdowne have I seen better. I just caught my first meteor (that I can vividly recall) - a renegade in the form of a white ball streaking through the blackness at almost my eye level. People immediately follow up with fancy wishes, I followed up with the thought of why anybody would do so upon the annihilation of an object that has traveled millions of miles through the space and holds many secrets for the sciences.

Standing outside on the porch was unsettling. The thought of a carnivore lurking in the vicinity eats your head. It's not the scare for me, it's the anticipation that does it, followed by heroic tales spun in the mind while staring into the blackness. Fact remains that this region has dense forests and there is a certified population of carnivore, but a good number of shikaar (ghoral, kakar, wild fowl etc) to keep them disciplined.

The lightbulb count has further reduced to 4. I'll also take to the bed and await sleep after and exhausting day packed with adventure.