North Easterlies - 1

I had just a single point agenda at the start of our 20-day long tour of the Northeast – to sight a rhino in the wild. It would give me Nirvana. The Aircel “Save our tigers” campaign also intensified my ultimate desire to see this beast in the jungles of Kaziranga. I did not know whether it was 1411 or 1511 or whatever number of rhinos left in the wild; All I knew was we were quickly losing all our wild animals and the sooner you get to see them, the better. Along with the elephant, giraffe and hippo, rhino is also in the elite, four-member club of land animals weighing 1000kg plus. Even the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) is excluded from this league of extra-heavy gentlemen.

Kaziranga was to be covered in the second circuit of our tour. We opened our tour with the Tawang lap. This place is up in the mountains, really up. Apart from the popular locations like Guwahati and Tezpur we also got to spend some nights or stopover for food in Thai menu-like places namely Bomdila, Dzongrila, Jang and Balukpong. But all throughout, the only thing that was in my mind was the Great One-horned Rhinoceros. Even the legendary Ceat-born tough ad was flashing in my mind from time to time.

We were supposed to take some time out in a place called Sela pass. Tawang is in the valley beyond Sela pass that is at an altitude of close to 14,000ft. Apparently the Chinese had come near this point during their intrusion a few decades back. Our Innova was gasping and fuming as we got closer and closer to Sela. Gradually, to my utter surprise I could see patches of half-cooked snow on the both sides of the road. I had never seen snow in my life before. I had missed a great chance during my college days when I stayed back from my group’s trip to Manali. Ever since those days snow has been at the top zone of my to-see list. Our Innova was struggling more.

The surprise was turning into an excitement. The needle leaves of the trees around were sagging with snow. The dark earth was getting transformed into a white earth, snow-white earth, to be precise. The aroma of snow was filling our lungs. We took out our gloves from the backpacks. Upped the window glasses.

With no gender bias and male chauvinism in my heart and mind, I would like to humbly submit that I have observed more members of the female sex using “Wow!!” very liberally. (I hope I have succeeded in saying what I wanted to say without raising feminist eyebrows) Most of the times even the mundane, little things like – neatly laid out salad, a wall poster with a setting sun, aquarium with a few old gold fishes etc – attract this “Wow!!”. Webster's is yet to fit in this term in the “good” hierarchy. Is it good-better-best-wow or wow-good-better-best? The Webster's is as confused as anyone like me. The situation gets murkier when the word “Cuuute” is also thrown in. Anything from an orange-coloured hand kerchief to the modern robotic arms you find in the automobile factories has the potential to attract “Cuuute”. We almost reached Sela.

“Wooooow!!”. This time it was me. I realised there is no other word in the English language to express my excitement. Our Innova had stopped at Sela. We were in the midst of an ocean of white snow; the rocks and the bushes around had taken as much snow as they could; the countless, colourful flags radiating from all the poles around made the place look like heaven; only the chill wind reminded us that we were still very much on the harsh earth.

Sighting a rhino at Kaziranga was only going to be a bonus. Nirvana attained at Sela.

(Darjeeling, March 13, 2010)

For Photos http://picasaweb.google.co.in/sundar.rajan/NorthEasterlies1#