We, The Living.!

The Place we Lived.!

Yes.. the title is of Ayn Rands' book, but we actually experienced the thing yesterday. What does it takes to be a poacher aka pardhi, as they are commonly called here.?

I was almost on the verge to break down when we saw a flock of around 2000 domsile crains, birds, landing in front of our eyes. It was spellbound and I canot even think to describe this. As we saw them landing on the front coast, they formed a uniform otrageous line along right to left of the lake.

It was like, that thing was like a law of nature - that one cannot question, alter or implore, just witness and shut up.! 

For three hours we were in a baby pose, in crawling, me and my Olympus, all drenched with marsh, mud, as it had rained last night, fungus and what not. I  wished time should have stopped, but in vain.. good times and bad ones, they never last.

As we were on the "wow" pose, suddenly flock took a flight agan in the pink sky and to our surprise two human figures were coming out of flock. Surprise, n all surprise.!! what the hell was that..we were like.!! We started pouring MCBC galis with full throtle on. They were approaching us with some dead bodies in their hands, birds dead bodies.

In than five seconds we understood that they were poachers and they had trapped around 10-15 birds, was ridiculous, my thought at that point. As they we were getting closer to us, we already had dialed forest rangers' phone, the thing that they also had understood..

When they were infront of my eyes, I witnessed two 10 yr old boys in their shorts and only two nylon ropes. For a moment I did stun with the thought that how one can catch so many birds with only two thin ropes. As expected, emotional drama started. They began to crib and were trying to convince us to not to call police. But by that time my buddy was already on call and handed over a phone to me.

Ranger knew all these things, poaching and all. He told me that he'll be here in an hour and to wait there. OK. The boys were on the verge to cry and started telling their familys' pathetic condition and cribs, cribs and cribs. It was not a routine thing for us to feel so bad. Helplessly, I asked them where do they stay.? They requested us to come with them as they were living nearby.

Danger. Obviously, we thought as they were poachers. But thankfully we both had our military knifes, got from Corbet, so we didnt hesitated too much. The only thing to worry was our binos. They took us to the place, See the pic.! It was as miserable as that anyone cannot even dare to imagine. They have built their house, Tambu sort, to be more precise, with all the waste cloths that are available on the earth. 

It was terrible. 11 people were there in family. Illiteracy. But too much of love for everyone. A high quality parental care and warmth. They were not bothered about what tomorrow. Their only goal was to live today in the most happiest way. Poaching and selling the meat was their only mode of income, survival. By the time we observed all this and had a dialogue, we were already in their home.

No show offs, no ostentation, only the harsh reality inside. For a moment I thought, we keep fighting over a nonsense issues when life is so comfortable for us and see here. They requested us to have food and stay there at there home. It was a very awkward situation. But somehow, we reached to the decision that we'll stay only till 4 am and then will move. Fine.!

In an hour got the call from my ranger friend to find out where were we. Explained everything. No legal actions and all. We didnt want to make it more miserable for them. 

We were inside for 4 hrs, had their typical Pardhi food, all laced with meat. No sleep. Only mind boggling thoughts.  We got up at 3.30am. As we were on the highway, a desperate thought crossed in both of us' mind, "Man, have to have beer. Its too much."

4 Beers at 3.55am at Veer-da-dhaba. 

Shantanu.
Posted on 1:14 AM by Shantanu and filed under , , | 6 Comments »