Of late, i've developed this insatiable thirst to explore nature, get to discover it's well kept secrets, surprise myself with it's unanticipated beauty. I can credit these opportunities to my hectic work life which more or less dictates my schedules for the weeks to come, thus building up stress and an air of monotony around me. My mind quite naturally denies the diabolic build up of stress by building up an inclination for organising get aways on periodic intervals, though always on a tight schedule of a day or two more often than not, but in the end giving me the much required breathing space to rejuvenate and face every challenge the concrete jungle has to throw at me. My trips to the silent valley, Anaikatty, Mudhumalai, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Pichavaram over the last couple of months have inadvertently made me a fan of Mother nature and her nuances.
Now coming to my trip to Pichavaram. When my friend of many years Ansar first came up with the idea it sounded just as much exotic as much as it sounded a bit far fledged as I was meanwhile trying to discover places which were on our way to Pondy which were worth visiting rather than going beyond Pondy. When he explained what the place had to offer and when I went through his pics I had a mild adrenaline rush coaxing me to support his idea. Come what may I always enjoyed long rides with friends so I was excited about the whole plan. Neha and Sowmya, my classmates from 10th Standard, teamed up to make our trip more exciting. It was always going to be nice to meet someone after so many years. So that plan was to assemble early in the morning, rush to Pichavaram as soon as possible, catch the boat ride and then visit a few places in Pondy and Auroville on our way back. I knew for a fact that Pichavaram was a sure shot and that we could surely catch a few sights in Pondy as well but if we were too pressed for time we would have to let go of our plans for Auroville. We set off on our journey as scheduled, not to mention that I surprised myself by waking up early on a perfectly lazy Saturday morning. Any other day and I would have been in a dream sequence romancing heroines or having other self appraising heroic endeavours in my dreams, but this was just no ordinary day. All along the trip, with the early winter morning pleasantness, a gently steady wind on my face and the warm rising sun caressing me, I couldn’t help but think I needed such breaks more often and whether I would get such opportunities more often? I answered myself, when opportunities don’t materialize, make one. The jokes, the swipes at each other (happens more often than not when Ansar and I are competing for verbal supremacy ;) ), reminiscing our school days, great music added much more flavour to the trip than I expected. If this wasn’t fun, nothing else would be. On our way we passed by an array of parked vehicles, which slowed us down, which we later realised was because of an accident. A truck that had it's front half ripped open lay by the road side while a much bigger carrier, into whom the speeding truck had bumped into from behind allegedly, had veered off course a bit and had lodged itself on the road divider. The accident was without doubt fatal for the truck driver and it reminded us how dangerous the highways were when we had rampant truck drivers and drunk youth speeding down the roads, either sleep deprived or in a fit of madness. Clearly shaken but undeterred we continued with our journey. Suddenly, sitting in the front seat of a small fragile car didn't make me seem all that smart. But eventually the nerves passed as the beautiful country side revealed itself.
On reaching Pondy a fulfilling breakfast at a mediocre road side hotel upped the spirits by a few notches and off we were again on a 75km trip to Pichavaram. Setting aside the green vegetation and miles of crops and fields there weren’t many visually appealing sights but hey, that was how a country side was supposed to look and for us city slickers, so accustomed to seeing apartments and concerete towers, this wasn’t something we got to see every day. So I reveled the sights while I could. While the driver maneuvered his way through the treacherous roads, I was immersed in the sanctity of nature. We stopped by a lush green field for a few snaps on our way. While posing at the field I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the lifestyle of the farmers who owned the crops. While they were just something out of the ordinary for us, it was their livelihood. Their expectations, their disappointments, their glee, their worries, though seemed frivolous for us, all inarguably affected our lives in some way or the other. Mother nature doesn’t need to subject to floods, earthquakes, incessant rains, and other disasters to get back at us, just a year with a bad crop produce would do. We will be spending our days lamenting over spiraling rates of vegetables and spices, heavy imports, debts, surge in junk food, malnutrition etc. The more we messed around with her, much more are we messing around with ourselves in the process. Feeling silly for thinking about all that i tried focusing on the fun that lay ahead.
On reaching the destination we almost immediately found ourselves making our way to a boat, assisted by a boatman nicknamed ‘Complan’. Slowly but surely we inched towards the mangrove forest and I was almost certain I could pinch the extensive excitement in the air around us. The perfect time of the day, the perfect set of people to be with, far away from work and the crowd and with a mind all ready to soak in the nature, what more could I ask for. Though not always vocal with my excitement I was easily in the best frame of mind I had been in in weeks which excited me even more. Quite confident that we weren't planning to push each other overboard we took off our life jackets. But quite a few times along the trip we felt a strong urge to push Ansar over, but somehow restrained ourselves ;) According to the boatman there were about 3000 islands comprising the evergreen forest, spread over nearly 3000 acres consisting of canals and cave like paths through the jungles which were the must see on the boat ride. Riding against a current the boatman veered into one of the canals soon enough. I couldn’t help but wonder at the green vegetation that just seemed to grow out of nowhere in the water. The trees though they looked similar comprised of many varieties as per the boatman’s explanations and the best part was that we were in season to catch the migrating birds too. Though the boatman aroused my curiosity to keep an eye out for jungle cats and water snakes, I was quite sure that they were more prevalent in the nights than in broad daylight, nevertheless it made me keep an eye out for them throughout the trip. We went from one canal to another. We did notice that there were fishing nets along the length of the some of the canals which caught the occasional crab as well and we easily mistook the floaters or pointers to be floating soccer balls and even a skull. Since Ansar had already been here he had the usual air of nonchalance around him while the other two were more vocal in their excitement which sustained the all important mood in the air. Gradually we veered much deeper into the forest and we chanced upon a cave like tunnel that went right through the vegetation. Tree cover from all around reduced the brightness outside to just streaks of sunlight creeping through the gaps between the branches. There were roots which were growing from the tree trunks making their way towards the water and with the tunnel snaking it’s way deeper into the forest they became more prominent and we had to duck plenty of times to avoid getting tapped silly on our face by the roots and branches. I had seen this in movies, now i was seeing it live. We encountered another group of visitors, a big smiling family apparently, who seemed jovial at first but tagged along with us staring at us incessantly, annoying me, making me act a bit more civilized which I didn’t want to and dampening my spirit a bit. We stopped momentarily inside one such tunnel where we had access to the branches and in an instant Ansar and I started monkeying on the branches, until Neha too decided to join the ‘pack’. Good at tree climbing as I was when I was a kid and having conquered the tallest tree in my colony I was fighting a strong urge to climb further and out of reach of the others. When the boatman threatened that there were occasional raids by forest officials to deter such activity it ended our antics abruptly. After tapping the branches a silent ‘goodbye for now…but see you soon’ I got back in the boat to continue the trip. The kid on the boat that had followed us glared at us half amazed and half amused. Guess we gave him an idea or two to try out back home, much to the dismay of his parents. As we tugged along I managed to collect some weird elements from the water - one such thing was remnants of what seemed to be a flower once upon a time, a twig, a colorful big leaf, a floating stem (which later we found out could be planted somewhere for it to grow again) and kept fishing out stuff which made least sense. Fun nevertheless for the crazy me J . Though I consider walking into the Mudhulmalai forest alone in the early hours hoping to sight a tiger or a wild elephant, armed with nothing else but my mobile phone a few week back as my craziest act till now this was probably a fraction crazy of what I was back then. Who knows if there had been crocs here I would have done something equally crazy to catch one on camera. The excitement levels gradually came down just to be spurted up again when we all posed while rowing the boat, though all of us succeeded in making fools of ourselves, it was fun to be a fool today. Am sure the boatman was least amused when we kept shuffling to and fro on the boat, while the boat swiveled in the strong current just to pose for the pics. In the end him being annoyed didn’t make a difference to us so we went on undeterred. We then spotted the most elusive residents of the trips, the birds. Some wildlife at last. We had managed to spot a bird or two for less than a moment or two, deep in the wilderness but here we were looking at a tree spotted with white feathery residents all over. I assumed they were migrating storks relaxing on the trees. We had also witnessed an Eagles valiant attempt at fishing towards the first half of the trip. He went about 30 – 40 foot in the air, probably keeping a sharp eye out for the fish swimming in the shallow waters below, and swooped down majestically within a moment hoping to grab one off the water. Though it made several attempts, as long as I witnessed, it returned empty beaked.
When he finally brought us back to the land after 2 1/2 hours, we were a bit tired, a trifle sad that the trip had ended but elated that we had had the time of our lives. Before I walked away from the boat I took one more longing look at the enigmatic forest we were leaving behind and that which had given us such a good time. I made a silent promise that I will be back.
All along the journey, apart from personal issues and trivial needs, my mind wavered to a totally different world where I was observing the extent to which human life had intruded nature’s manifestations and infested the lands. Too many of us spoiling the broth. Advancements in technologies, reduction in death rate, an increase in birth rate, uneducated rural folk, deforestation for the ever expanding human settlement, gorging cattle, was inevitably adding more pressure on the lands and it’s resources. I knew for a fact that the forest reserves of today might be the concrete jungles of tomorrow when the population explodes and when cities of tomorrow will be merely reduced to ‘ant hills’ of human life, mechanically going about their daily tasks of accumulating wealth and knowledge to better their peers or for a ‘social status’, with total disregard or ignorant to the fact that nature needs us much more than we need material comforts. In succinct words, total disregard to the fact the disintegration of nature, the eco system in and around cities adversely affect our lives, our generations, our so called wealth and our respect for ourselves as an end result. Denying this fact was as good as self immolation. What could we do? What can we city slickers do to prevent this impending catastrophe? What could we do to prevent the knowledge of what mother nature has to offer from just being present in their text books? Considering the fact that I’m just one of those city slickers who’s after all those material comforts, relentlessly in pursuit of the so called ‘secure’ life, I must say the least I can do is I grab every opportunity I can to explore nature and spread the word about it, educate and enunciate. Hoping that the other zombies out there wake up and realize that they have a little role they can play which can make a huge difference some day along the line.
