Tales from a juvenile boarder!

6th June, 2003

Dear Diary,
I’m so tired of acting brave & strong. Mom saw me off yesterday evening & seeing tears in her eyes, I had to crush the urge to bawl openly coz my weeping would have distressed mom all the more. So I put a brave face & consoled her instead. After all it’s only a matter of 45 days. FORTY-FIVE DAYS! Will I be able to survive in this new school that long? FORTY-FIVE DAYS! My eyes sting at the thought of mom’s embrace. I love the fragrance that she exudes when I hug her. I love hugging mom!

7th June 2003

Dear Diary,
Everyone’s kind to me here at the boarding. The weather is a bit cooler than Bombay. There are birds perched on the branch of the tree outside the window closest to my bed that I have never seen before. I’m fighting hard to not cry. Did not eat the bun they gave me for breakfast. Have never ever eaten one before & yes…they expect me to eat apples…can you believe it? Just like how the monkeys eat them…biting straight into the fruit! My mama gives me all the fruits in a milk shake or juice. FORTY-FOUR days more to go. Can’t wait to see mum. I miss her sooooo very much!

10th June 2003

Dear Diary,
I have made a few friends here now. Nikita, April, Sanjana, Alka, Blanche, Sakshi & Silvin. I have managed to solve my “bun” problem too. Silvin eats anything I give her. She’s forever hungry. I miss mum in the night. FORTY more days to go before I meet her.

14th June 2003

Dear Diary,
I’m sure you missed me. Was down with a bad bout of cold & fever. You see, we were wandering in the rain & with the chill here, Sakshi & me, both called sick. Silvin wanted to show us how to catch frogs. Ugghs! I wonder what kind of girl Silvin is….catching frogs! Wonder who will marry her when she grows up.

You know, I missed mum so much when I was down with fever. Though she generally doesn’t pamper, I love the way she hovers around me when I’m sick. Such attention! I love getting sick back home. I like it here since I get to play with so many kids here. Little girlie’s fight a lot too.

18th June 2003

Dear Diary,
I hate Sr Sangeeta. She’s a beast & we all call her sangu! She’s in charge of the infirmary. She yelled at me when I wouldn’t take the bitter medicines. She force fed me & asked me not to be a sissy! She’s cruel & I hate her with the bottom of my heart! My mum would have never allowed anyone to be rude to me. I miss her….THIRTY-TWO days more to go….

23rd June 2003

Dear Diary,
I have been a bit naughty today. Alka, Silvin & me slipped out after supper this evening to watch the fireflies. They were there everywhere. In the flowerbeds, the bushes, the trees, the grass…twinkle…twinkle all the way! We plan to look for an empty bottle & catch a few of them. Just like how we are our mama’s pet…they can be our pets! Yahooo…

26th June 2003

Dear Diary,
Can you imagine…it took two days for us to sneak into the junior dorm kitchen & look for the empty spice bottles. Silvin’s bottle is HUGE compared to my chotu bottle. We plan to slink away in the evening, before study hour & hope to catch a few fireflies. Can’t wait for the sun to go down. Err…Diary…what would mum say if she knew what I was upto?

30th June 2003

Oh Diary!
Sorry…sorry…sorry for not writing to you earlier. You see... I have been very busy ever since Appu’s presence. I can feel your head creasing wondering who the hell is Appu? Well…he’s my little cutie pie firefly. I call him Appu coz he’s the chubbiest amongst all the fireflies we caught between Alka, Silveen & me. My bottle being small can accommodate only Appu. Have placed some leaves & a pinch of mud so that he doesn’t feel lonely when I go to attend my classes.

2nd July 2003

Dear Diary,
Appu is sure a handful! I hope you do not resent him for keeping me away from you. Can you believe it…he made me forget mum! Well…such is life! We forget our mums when we become mums ourselves. Appu is great fun& I secretly carry him wherever I go these days.

4th July 2003

Dear Diary,
Have been crying since morning today. My stomach feels knotted & food looks repulsive! Appu is dead! Saw him lying limp in the bottle & no amount of dabbing him in water could revive him. I wanna go home…I miss my mum!

7th July 2003

Dear Diary,
Did you know I could act? No? Well...Neither did I. Yesterday Sr Teresa forced me to take the part of Joseph, Jesus’ dad. I wanted to play Mary in my heart but sister said she wanted a fair skinned girl & also that Mary could not be taller than Joseph. So Joseph it is! Though the fun part is Jesus calling me dad & I get to discipline the one before who the entire world bows.

12th July 2003

Dear Diary,
I’m so tired juggling drama practice & daily lessons. I sleep off during the study hour in the morning. And yes…I had a fight with Silvine today. She expects to eat my bun every morning. Not fair…is it? A child needs to eat her bun every once in a while!

16th July 2003

Dear Diary,
Our drama costumes are ready. Sometimes I wonder if I could swap my part with one of the three kings. It just doesn’t seem to be fair. I’m Jesus’ father & they get to wear the good clothes & crown. Next week…mum, nanu & nani will be here to see me….yipeee! I’m so happy!

20th July 2003

I’m so tired but needed to tell you about our big day today. All the parents came to see us kids perform & after that they could take us out on our weekend exit*. My eyes were at the gate since morning awaiting mum. All the mummies & daddies stood at the gate eagerly to be let in.

I was sad coz my mum was nowhere around. It was then that Alka came running with the news that mum was actually the first to arrive & the lady wearing the blue saree at the gate was in fact my mum. Oh dear! How on earth does mum expect me to recognise her in a silly saree. She looks better in pants.

Anyways…mum was so proud of me. She clapped the loudest & I’m snuggled with her in bed writing to you. She promised not to peep. After all what we share is OUR secret…right?

*Weekend Exits – There are specific weekends wherein the parents of the boarders are allowed to take their wards & spend the weekned them. The exit gets over on a Sunday evening 5pm when the boarder has to be deposited back to the school.

Copyright © BuntysBanter 2006

Copyright © BuntysBanter 2006

Mangalore calling!

As the train chugged sluggishly into Mangalore station in the wee hours of a November morning, my much-anticipated spirit couldn’t hold me to my seat. Meeting my guru yet again was something I had been looking forward to for the last 2 months.

Jump, charansparsh (touch feet in reverence)…hug & ready for the ride home!

Had once asked him to autograph my book on Indian birds by Dr Salim Ali. He wrote…

The wise old owl sat on an oak,
The more he saw, the less he spoke,
The less he spoke, the more he heard,
Wouldn’t it be great were we more like this bird!

Just hanging around him is a learning experience coz he is a walking / talking encyclopedia. Birding, wildlife, art, science, sports, history, religion, social customs…just about anything could be the topic & he can talk for hours non-stop. It's wise to be silent around him.

But then we do get into bouts of productive discussion as I call it & idle argument in his opinion. His high decibel strain’s the eardrums. Says can’t help it…blame my teaching profession. When secondary smoking gives me a dull headache…he suggests a metacin! But what is life without a few imperfections! I say chaps….perfect could be boring.

Day one –

Lakshmi, Doc’s caretaker is beaming as the car enters the gate, the dogs barking excitedly to be let lose to douse me with their slobby, jumpy, smothering wet welcome. I’m sure this entire racket drives the birds in the vicinity to migrate to the other side of the ghat for a day!

That evening Dr Harish, a product of doc’s medical academy joins us to hang around the Ullal – Nethravathi Bridge that attracts a wide variety of migrating water birds. The Brahiminy kite rules this place with its majestic expanse outstretched in a glide. The setting sun as the backdrop with the train rushing across the Ullal Bridge, flowering reeds on either sides of the pathway, night herons, little egrets, black winged kites & palm swifts dot the fading flame-red skyline. A medium sized vine snake slithers in the bushes as I try to press closer to get a shot but the fellow is a smarty pant as he disappears even before I open my cams shutters.

Day two-

We plan to inhabit the Deralakatte & Konaje area the next morning. The temple at Konaje along side the pond looks serene but with a huge difference. The picture perfect shrine has some overtly enthusiastic devotees & screeching slokhas drive home the “sight contradicts sound” theorem.

A pair of snow geese & mallard (introduced species) swim elegantly close by. A red-wattled lapwing along with a large pied-wagtail sit on the rocks at the water edge bathing in the misty morning dew laden rays. As we walk along Deralakatte, doc points out more birds with twisted names till my head’s spiraling, struggling to remember the names so as to not invite the wrath of our committed teacher. The rest of the day is spent recording/photographing more birds that perched around doc’s bunglow.

Day three –

Today we head for the Western Ghats. Dr Harish collects us & we head for Moodbidri to hook up with another teammate, Dr Krishna Mohan who runs his own hospital there. Dr Krishi is told was probably the youngest individual to graduate in the Indian medical history. He started scaling the Himalayas at the young age of 16 & is an enthusiastic & committed wild lifer & environmentalist. He also loves eating live termites & caterpillars while trekking in the deep forest & encouraged us to try the nutritious diet.

After collecting Dr Krishi, stuffing our selves with idlis, rava masala dosa, tomato uttapam & goli bhajji flushing it with scalding aromatic coffee, we head for the Western Ghats where Dr Krishi owns a patch of undisturbed forestland. This place is close to Bisale, Subramanya the famous snake god temple where cricketer Sachin Tendulkar had recently paid homage. The diverse biota of the Western Ghats is striking with deciduous forest that are cleared in some areas along the habitable belt to make way for rubber plantations.

The drive up the ghats is seldom steep. Doc informs that the roads were years old elephant pathways that the British raj had converted to roads to bridge the unapproachable areas to the rest of south India.

The drive from Moodbidri to the ghats is a good 100 kms & we reach our destination around mid-afternoon. Dr Krishi narrates a tale about jungle bandits ambushing & looting the pilgrims & other wayfarers off their belongings. Pointing to a huge rock on his property he says, the dacoits roosted there. So we make a pradikshina (circle) as homage to the louts & secretly wonder about Dr Krishi’s intentions of recounting this tale. At this point, our hardened travelers, doc & Dr Harish (who are wearing sandal’s roaming the snake & leech infested ghats like robin hoods) get latched on by one respective leech each!

As they bleed, doc mumbles incoherently something to the effect of “tumhare liye ek budhe admi ne khoon bahawaya hai” (an old man has bled for you). How am I responsible in them walking with half naked feet in knee length grass, I wonder. *Barf*

At the top of Bisale we enjoy the amazing sequence of a Shikra (bird of prey) hunting… diving to catch his prey. Though a bright day, the wind is strong. We hang around for a while & then head for some tea, biscuits & chitchat at small hamlet in the middle of nowhere. By this time its 4pm & time to head back to civilization. We reach home by 10.30pm weary but satisfied & thanks Dr Harish for safely depositing us back. Seriously! His driving skills get full marks…driving us nuts I mean!

Day four –

Is spent generally recuperating from the prior days commitments & a 30km drive to Pilikula Nisarga Dhama, a place that houses a variety of jungle cats (of all variety), reptiles & birds.

Day five –

Today we go to Puttur, in South Canara, which is about 80kms from Mangalore. Our destination is Dr Ravindranath Aithal’s clinic. Better known as the snake doctor, he claims to cure snake bites inflicted by the deadliest of serpents inhabiting the Western Ghats & its surroundings.

He has a decent snake collection of around 24 species of venomous & non-venomous snakes. A rare forest cane turtle is also one of the temporary occupants there. But my interest is the King Cobra pair that he houses from the past 15 years. A number of King Cobra releases are to his credit in the Western Ghats.

The King commands great respect with his thinking gaze. His stare is steady & deadlock looking at your movements with acute concentration. His eyesight is better than most snakes & can see clearly up to 100mtrs. The one I photographed is about 17 feet long & it is capable of raising one thirds of its body. So by this standard, the King can stare in the eye a man six foot tall. His main diet is his own ilk & hence is also know as the “cannibal”.

Photographing him was an experience of a lifetime! His partner was in the skin shedding phase & hence quite immobile. Most of the adult snakes shed their skin every three months.

My favourite amongst the collection was a cute little vine snake & though my hands itched to touch him, Dr Harish reminded me of our promise to Doc. You see, Doc had warned both of us not to handle any snakes even if it was of a non-venomous variety. Though having prior experience of handling a few constrictors (boas & pythons) & despite my pout, nothing could deter him to give in. *sigh*

The day is wrapped perfectly as we get to photograph a very rare & cryptic bird, the blue-faced malkoha right on doc’s doorsteps.

Day Six –

My friend Al, a coffee planter from Coorg (doc’s family friend), takes me around Mangalore. We visit his grandmother & uncle who has a lovely collection of vintage cars, antique collection of sewing machines (had never heard of a sewing machine collector before), ancient coins, cameras & many more. In fact his house looked like a museum with the ceiling painted & beautiful & ancient things propped up on pedestals etc

After a lovely lunch of chicken biryani, we head for the St Aloysius College & church, a bookstore & then after tea at the famous Taj Mahal (doc’s favourite haunt), we head for the Panambur beach, which is next to the Mangalore port. The sun disappearing into the sea, waves washing down the pristine beach, miles of undisturbed waves plunges me into a melancholic mood. We collect a few shells for my daughter & then head home.

Day seven –

This is my last day at Mangalore. Since Doc had mentioned his meeting schedule with the deans of other medical college’s, I get up by 5.30am to bid him farewell & manage to persuade him to skip the meeting. But as lady luck would have it, a sudden emergency at the medical hospital takes him away. I head to catch my train back to Mumbai in the afternoon accompanied by Doc’s driver Srinivas & his wife Geetha, Laxmi & her husband Ravi. Sensing my somber mood, Laxmi tries to cheer me into some conversation.

As I bid adieu to Mangalore this time…I know I shall come back. After all it’s my second home.

Copyright © BuntysBanter 2006