From a recent trip to K. Gudi Wilderness camp

Of all the Jungle Lodge Resorts that I visited, the one that occupies the highest recall value, is the B R Hills or K. Gudi wilderness camp. One reason could be that this is the only lodge that is well inside the forest. But it also could be that this camp has a character of its own and my unconscious self loves that. In fact many years back when I visited that camp last time I had an uncanny experience of looking into eyes of a big tusker from a distance of 20 feet on a full-moon night. It was one of those moments in life when one second becomes almost a lifetime!
Something in the back of my mind was craving for that experience and probably was pushing me for another visit. However, ten years is a long time and in this period of fast change even in my dream I could not expect  this place to remain unchanged. So I was expecting lot of changes, in fact this time I took a different route so that my mind cannot keep comparing with my previous experiences. However when I reached the place, the Maharaja bungalow and the layout brought back all the memories. Beside the forest appeared lot greener on the way, nothing major really changed about this place! I even was given the same parking place that I used ten years back! I was looking for some familiar face but the person who greeted us told that all staff changed one and half years back including the manager. I felt little sad, may be older too. We were allotted the Chamundi loghut and I must admit that the loghut was very comfortably designed, full with almost every amenities that you could ask for in that environment. There was a change though; last time it only had candle and lantern for night [ they wanted us to experience the wilderness as mush as possible, the manager said that time] but this time there were CFL bulbs decorating the rooms as well as common pathways. I guess this change was inevitable given that most of the guests come from very urban, cosmopolitan environment.
We proceeded for our late lunch and the we were told that there was a jeep starting the safari early and if we like we could join them. The incentive is they have jungle permit and therefore could take us little inside compared to other safari vehicles. We welcomed the offer and went for the vehicle. Ashish, our host and our guide greeted us warmly. He looked very young, most likely in his mid-twenties. Something about him told me that he is not just a guide or driver. In fact he appeared to be very different from the other staff in the resort. He had an easy fluency with both English and Hindi and an air of courteous self-confidence that is too urbane to ignore. He probably is a wild-life enthusiast who happens to be associated with this place, I thought.
He took us near a water-body after a long and winding drive; chances of spotting a leopard or a tiger are higher near a waterhole. We could see few spotted dears, sambars and birds on the way. While driving, he took shots of few birds and animals.and I was gleefully surprised to see that he was using a huge Canon 500mm prime telephoto lens that you expect only with a professional wildlife photographers. We waited near the waterhole but not of much luck though it did not bother me. The silent, densely green forest is itself an experience by itself. We came back to the camp well after sunset and I went back to the loghut to freshen up. The camp-fire has lost some glitz without the appetizing view of bar-barbecue. The person told that the smell of barbecued meat was a bit too enticing for the the wild animals and they had to stop that from last year.
It was during the dinner, that I was told that Ashish, our host for evening safari was actually the resort manager. Still it does not explain his above-average enthusiasm about wildlife photography, I thought. Soon I learned more and that was a Revelation! Ashish Abraham actually
is a graduate mechanical Engineer. He even joined a Tata concern but unlike many others he realized a bit sooner that his passion is wildlife and not a factory life and he would be happy with a job with Forest service. So he appeared for Indian Forest Service, cracked it and finally landed to BR Hills as the resort manager after completing the course. How inspiring! When people around are struggling day in and out to fit themselves in the square holes that their jobs demand and losing themselves every moment bit by bit, here is a young boy who showed the guts to stand out and follow his passion. It was delightful. It was reassuring. I felt young India is not lost. I felt Ashish is not alone; surely there are many more young Ashish out there, following their dreams, converting their passions into their professions. I suddenly felt more hopes for this country, a lot more than my cynical mind would allow!
C'est tout..Ah! not to forget,  do please take a look at Ashish's website, http://www.livingintothewild.com/  He has put many of his awesome shots there.

Like USA, India also is a land of immigrants!

Really, it is established after so many years that India too, like USA is a land of immigrants. My Keralite friend always told that they came from outside India but like you, I also did not believe him. But now we have Supreme Court judgment supporting his case. Quoting The Hindu of January 12, 2011, "If North America is predominantly made up of immigrants, India is largely a country of old immigrants, which explains its tremendous diversity. It follow that tolerance and equal respect for all communities and sects are an absolute imperative if we wish to keep India united. If it was believed at one time that Dravidians were the original inhabitants of India, that view has since been considerably modified. Now the generally accepted belief is that the pre-Dravidian aborigines, that is the ancestors of the present tribals or Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes) were the original inhabitants. This is the thesis put forward in a judgment delivered on January 5, 2011 by a Supreme Court of India Bench comprising Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra."
So finally India is not any more the land of Aryans, Dravidians, Jats, Thakurs, Dalits, Punjabis, Marathis, Assamese, Malayalees, Bengalees, Kannadigas or even Tamils, as each of these communities like to believe. It follows therefore that we, part of a nine billion strong immigrant population live [though 'live' would be a gross understatement] in this country that was fondly named 'India' by some western rulers and governed by the the Constitution of India which is written by immigrants like us who again were inspired by another set of immigrants [in case you are wondering, Indian Constitution authors were heavily inspired by the Constitution of USA beside UK]!
How do you feel?! I know.. it feels like someone has pulled the nice carpet under your feet, no? Nothing, nothing is rightfully your ancestral property! We actually are enjoying the gracious hospitality of the people who we pushed to the fringe of this land! You must be feeling sorry for those of your friends who keep boasting of their heritage, their upper cast status. Really, there seems nothing original, nothing authentic about our sense of belonging. The very concept of India itself is imposed, created by the invaders; the heritage that we brag about is just an immigrant heritage, a lot like North American heritage, however unpalatable it is! And we have been fighting for these identifications, these narrow spheres of belongingness, for ages, which if we think carefully, are nothing but set of ideas, unquestioned, untested!
However there is one true sphere of belongingness that will always be there for each of us, whether immigrant, invader or aborigine and that is the sphere called humanity. And that is the only circle of identity that we truly can aspire to belong to for our entire life; that is the only sense of belongingness that is as real as our existence is and that is the only gift from nature that we can fall back when all ideologies fail; that is which can give the true meaning to each of our own individuality.
Rest are all false, unauthentic, prejudices!

Pledge to be yourself

Many years back I bought a track suite that had "Believe in yourself" written on the track. I loved that! I thought it is a good message to myself and others. Believing in one's capability gives one confidence and motivation to go ahead. I remember that I used to jog wearing  that track. Some people, little inquisitive, some times would try to read the letters on the track  while I walk/run. I would steal a glance of pride and quickly wear an air of indifference, as if I was a celebrity and quite used to people's attention!
But following the rule of nature, those letters faded away after many washes and I lost the motivation to wear the track. Many years went by after that. I forgot that entirely. But memory works in a strange way. As soon as I typed the title section, it brought back the memory associated with "believe..yourself". In other words it hashes "be yourself" and "believe.. yourself" to the same symbol. Now, I am trapped! Every time someone tells "Be", my memory is going to jump to "Believe"! I am now wondering, since most of the time I am not as relaxed (read lazy) as I am right now, if my semantic functioning also changes. Like all my "be" function gets juxtaposed with "believe" function when I am not aware of these small hash errors in the memory retrieve faculty of my brain. Thinking of it, I realize that I must be doing it all the time. Being is as natural, as harmonious as nature is, 'being' means functioning as the nature has designed you, as a necessary part of it. ...But I am afraid, I instead, apply my beliefs and try to be what I believe I should be!
How stupid of me! It is like making a step jump in the beginning of a complex derivation and reach altogether a different solution and claim the originality of the proof! ..I was feeling sad..very sad..and in my sadness I started looking around, hoping to find at least one more person with same predicament as mine. It is painful when you suddenly become aware of your shortcomings and only thing that consoles you is when you find there are others like you!
So I looked around..Ah..I did not need to go too far. The Prime minister believes in good governance but his govt. loathes transparency. Our Finance Minister swears by India's growth story but news report tells that highest number of farmers committed suicide in 2010 due to their financial insolvency. News report also tells that manufacturing sector grew by mere 3% last year. Not to forget that latest observation tells that while India's population continues its growth, the agricultural land cover is going down drastically year after year. How will the nation feed its burgeoning population tomorrow?
Since most my readers are IT professionals, I reckon we also could talk about Indian IT. Indian IT honchos believe they are the visionaries, while most IT companies live and swear by risk-free cheap IT services: India cannot even claim ten percent of the technological asset that China has created in last fifteen years. Neither the IT luminaries have an answer on how India will compete after 10 years from now. "Believe" problem is not limited to top of the pyramid as always is the case with any system. Many IT managers swear by six sigma and quality process but very few of them can claim of delivering a project as planned. Many IT engineers lament about poor job satisfaction but never tread the path of building something on their own...Ah! I felt a sense of relief.. I am not alone, whole system got deformed by operating from "believe"!
It seems fairly logical to think that our first step should be to delink ourselves from 'what we believe' and link to 'what we are'. A journey from 'believe' to 'be' must start with acceptance of what we are, collectively and individually. A foundation of  honest and candid assessment of what we are would help us to recognize the malformations and build a healthy future for next generations. So let's pledge to 'be', simply and fearlessly! From this moment, let's start operating from 'are/am' than 'should' or 'ought'. Let's accept, rather than hide, every shortcoming in us with courage and grace. Let's build a transparent but integrated 'me' first. A transparent and healthy system can only be built by authentic and transparent individual 'me's. Let that be the pledge for this new decade!