The love for Nature

It was two o’clock at night. There was a knock on the door. I wondered who it could be at such an ungodly hour in the middle of a forest. In my childhood I heard a lot of scary stories and I was told not to respond to such knocks. I guess I was way past those days. That being said, if someone knocks on the door of a wooden cottage in the middle of a forest at two o’clock in the morning, your heart would definitely start pounding. I somehow got up and enquired ‘Who’s there?’ From the other side of the door, a voice said in whispered, “Piklu, you two get up quietly. Don’t speak loudly. ” I was like “What did I get myself into?” I have only read stories of Adventures in the Jungle but never in my life had I ever thought that I would have had to do it in real life. I would rather keep Buddhadev Guha in my head. I was not up for exploring the forest at two in the morning On top of that; it was not any other jungle. It was the Simlipal of Orrisa.

It was in the month of March 2007, just two years before Mithi was born. We set out on an expedition. We booked a wooden cottage right next to Jaranda Falls in the forest of Simlipalle in Orrisa. There were three rooms. We were three friends and their wives. The six of us spent the night in Baleshwar, collected all the rations and left for the forest in a car. The guy in the group of six wasthe young driver. As our car drove more deeper into the jungle, we felt as if the panthers, the elephants and tigers were all waiting for our arrival. The name of our team leader was Shanka Shuvro Bandyopadhyay aka our favorite Bithin. It was Bithin on knocked at our door at 2 in the morning and asked us to not ask too many questions and to just follow him.

As we dived deeper into the forest we started hearing sounds of all sorts of animals in the forest. But I could hear the sound of my thumping heart more clearly. In the moonlight, the waterfalls of Jaranda seemed to have adorned the forest and the hills with silver ornaments. It was a spectacular scene. Even today when I close my eyes I can visualize it very clearly. Some of the voices of some animals were even making my body tremble in fear. As we were looking at each other’s faces in wonder, the call of wild elephants could be heard. The waterfall was the source of our drinking water in the forest, the wildlife of the forest has been drinking the same water since ages. It was almost evening when we reached Jaranda. Wild mosquitoes were more frightening to us than poisonous snakes or wild animals. This mosquito bites could deadly in that area. So everyone applied mosquito repellents from head to toe.

Following the advice of the caretaker, we bought a rooster from a distant Santali village. I also saw a small shop in Santali village where Charminar cigarettes are available; I have never smoked such a small and hard cigarette in my life. It was pretty rough on my throat. I wondered how Feluda could smoke Charminar. Our cottage was a long way from that Santali village. The caretaker started cooking in the evening. Chicken and rotis were on the menu, but as it turned out the food was a disaster, the meat was very hard to chew. Always trust broth and potatoes in such places. Meanwhile, the environment around us was pretty intoxicating. In the moonlight, six people were busy evoking emotions. Bithin’s wife was singing with her utmost passion, she is a student of Indrani Sen. Sraboni’s voice in the jungle atmosphere seemed to bring another dimension to our night. Our chat continued till about half past twelve in the night. The sound of the waterfall also took a while to cease. It didn’t take a while for us to sleep as we were pretty tired.

We were woken up by the voice to Bithin at 2 in the morning. He was telling us to be quiet and follow him. We were pretty annoyed but still were looking for some thrill. It was very chilly in the Jungle even though it was the month of March. I wore a jacket and followed him with a torch in my hand but I wasn’t allowed to light it. The six of us crouched down and sat behind a bush. For some reason I can never be angry with him, maybe it’s the charm of his face. Once in a cricket match he got me run out on purpose. I could not say a thing to his face. I do not know why.
Anyway, we were crouching and sitting behind the bushes. Suddenly, Bithin said, “Look, look ahead.” After seeing what he told us to see, I simmered down instantly.

-Sudip Basu-