Baranti, A trip to remember

I am an earnest patron of the cultural history or things like that, sometimes ventures my habit to go through some periodicals or treatise or magazines or books specified to that. I was then contemplating specially on old traditions and culture of Bengal. It was a crispy afternoon of November, 2010. I flicked through the crinkly pages of an old book, at the solitary corner inside the ‘Bangiyo Sahitya Parishad Library’, stalling oldest collections of Bengali Books in Kolkata. I hardly remember the name of the book where the name of the place grabbed my attention. I returned home and browsed thoroughly about the place, revealing a very little information posted online. A few lines were written in a blog along with a very few low resolution photographs. But I managed to get a phone number of a resort, furnished at the very bottom of the page. 

I had only a few friends of mine, inculcating the same trains of thoughts and interests parallel to me. I made a pre-planned rendezvous with them and I flung the topics of my findings about a tribal village of Purulia district, which overlooks the co-existence of Baranti River and Baranti Dam alongside, naturally flanked by three hills; Jay Chandi Pahar , Muraddi Pahar and Baranti Pahar. I enunciated my intervention to find the name of that village to Soumya and Arjya. They were listening with rapt attention positioning their jaws on their hands... when I finished the description... Arjya jumped up, hugged me and screamed.... “yeeeeeeh!!! We’re ready. But please ask Rumali to come with us (It’s the nick name given by Soumya to my girlfriend).”It was not out of uncertainty whether I can manage her or not. So I asked them to convince her...

I dialled the number that I had collected form the blog and with my full astonishment the mobile number was found to be of Kolkata itself, more precisely Keshto pur. A gentleman picked the phone up and happened to talk with me. He made me informed to the fact; although it is a Kolkata number, but I have called at the right number to get reserved for Akashmani Resort, at Baranti. With three of his friends he sought out a joint venture to buy a handful of plots at Baranti about 15 years back at the time when there exists only a distant jungle, desolate and dense with a tiny tribal village beside the Baranti dam. Eventually they transformed the plot building a small cottage to spent vacations in a calm and quiet place in the lap of nature, where it can be found at its crudest form. Recently they have opened it for the tourists but not for all. They have their own verification process, through which they decide whether they are going to give the booking or not; as they want only the people who loves nature and respect tribal cultures to go there. He asked me to meet him at his place.

...26^th Dec, it was the last day of our semester exam. We met at Kaka’s shop after the paper. I make them remember that only 4 days left to our trip. They rushed to the market for some shopping and I returned home. Our railway tickets were still not booked.

   It was about 10:30 pm. We boarded on Chakradharpur Passenger.  The wooden bunks of our reserved compartment drew different and unique expressions on the face of four of ours. I personally loved it for the vintage look and feel. It was the first time we were travelling in a train compartment like this. As the train starts and left the Howrah station behind, tremendous cold gripped us in. All of us were shivering and the sound that was coming out from the rhythmic collisions of our teeth assonantly rhymed with the mechanical sound of the train. We took our dinner (Biriyani) and tried to sleep. It came in beats and pieces. But you can surely call it a sound-sleep (A sleep interrupted by the sound).

The train was scheduled to halt for only 2 minutes. The last piece of our sound sleep broke suddenly when only about 30 seconds was left to start the train again. We took our bags and jumped on the platform with all agility and the train slipped from the station in no time. We were still in the measure to ponder about our belongings whether anything had gone with the train or not. The name of the station is Adra. We had to take another local train of Ashansol cord line from here and the first train of that route was to leave at 6 am. So we had to wait there for 2 hours.

It will never be a misfit to register an adorable memory to get the view of sunrise from an old railway station like Adra. The old British structures, the broken shades and the concrete benches looked mysterious in the dark, imbues the arcane pasts and the morning sunlight made them to be anointed with a baptizing freshness. We bought the ticket and board the train. In that morning train along with the sleepy passengers we crossed two stations, named Jaychandi Pahar and Burudi. The third station was Muraddi. We got down here. It was a small village station and there was a small market just beside the station. We bought some chicken and other stuff for lunch and took a van rickshaw to reach Baranti. It was a 40 minutes trail through village roads, treading through jungle and finally we reached Akashmani Resort. It barely accommodates a two roomed cottage with an asbestos roof which overlooks an area of about 2 bigha of Akashmoni plantation just beside the Baranti Dam.

We kept our baggage there, handed over the chicken and other cooking stuff to the caretaker and came out for a walk by the side of the Dam. The Famous JayChandi Pahar is seen clearly at the opposite side of the dam from here. [Heerak Rajar Deshe- the famous movie of Satyajit Ray was shot there].  We took our bath and by the time the lunch was ready. While taking our lunch, sitting just outside the cottage, we were introduced with two interesting characters Manu and Sona by our caretaker. They were two street dogs lives in the compound.  The caretaker provided two plates for them and they took their lunch calmly with us.

Soumya and Arjya went to take a nap and we two i.e. Rima (Rumali) and me went out for a walk. With our utter surprise we found that Manu and Sona were following us. I patted them on their heads and told them in simple Bengali to show the way through the tribal village. I didn’t know what they understood, but after few moments we found ourselves following them through the village road. What a beautiful, neat and clean village it was. Each of the mud houses had hand drawn design on the outer wall. Domestic poultry birds were running around, some of the villages were sitting by the side of the road and trying to tune their radio. 

Women were working the households. In front of the last house of the village Manu turned back to us, as he was asking that if we want to go farther. I again asked him in Bengali what was there beyond the village.  He didn’t reply, but started running towards one direction. Sona was sitting there idle. I was clueless about what to do. After about 10 minutes, when I was taking some photographs, saw that Soumya and Arjya was coming towards us with a little girl and Manu was leading their way. She was the caretaker’s daughter, who was coming with them. Seven of us then united and went through the jungle to the other side of the dam. The sun was setting; we sat there for a while until the little girl asked us to push off. It was getting dark.  The birds were returning to their nests, the crickets and foxes heralding the end of day time by their noisy presence. We froze at our feet by the shivering wintery clutches of cold and walked as fast as possible towards the resort.

Pakora and tea was ready for our evening snacks. We ask Jayanta da (caretaker) to prepare few packets of popcorn, what we were carrying with us. It was difficult to sit outside. So we slipped in to the room, plunged into the blissful gossip. Jayanta da came and asked what we liked to have in dinner. We asked for chicken pakora, aaloo vaja, salad and roti. It was the New Year eve. Soumya brought out the bottle of Royal stag from his bag. Celebration started. 

Jayanta Da knocked the door in the morning with smoky cups of bed tea. After having breakfast we prepared for the trekking. We had a plan to track to the Baranti hill. But Jayanta da told us that he couldn’t go with us as he had to prepare the lunch for us and suggested us to take Manu and Sona with us. Although we were not so sure whether it would be a wise decision or not but as there was no other option, we decided to go just like that. I didn’t know how many people will believe that, Manu and Sona show us the way to the top of the hill. They showed us the easiest possible ways to climb the hill and whenever we took the wrong way they barked and alerted us. The first half-an-hour we were struggling a bit for understanding their signals but after that it was a fun. We believed that they would show us each and every nook and corner of the hill where we could reach by giving moderate effort.  We reached the top, took photographs, had some dry food shared it with two of our guides. Then we returned to the resort taking a different route led by our most trusted guides. It was a very unusual experience for us.

In the afternoon we were sitting at the bank of the irrigation dam. Jayanta da was with us. Three hills could be seen from here, the Baranti hill at our back, and Muraddi & Jaychandi Hills at the opposite side of the dam. We came to know that this tiny village was a safe hiding place for the Maoists. Farming and fishing were the main two ways to earn the livelihood for the villagers. We saw some village women were carrying big pieces of coal on their heads. Jayanta da told that the women worked in some illegal coal mines. Many businessmen are involved in this illegal business. They and their supervisors come here every day at night after about 2 am. Huge trucks loaded with coals, passed through the road just behind the resort. Some times during the ripening seasons of rice, wild elephants come and stay at the adjacent jungles. It is a nightmare for the villagers. There was no bank, high school or Hospital within 5 K.M. There was only a primary school at the end of the village and a health centre about 6 K.M away from Baranti.

Another sunset at Baranti Dam. A round shaped boat was floating, few open bill storks were flying around, the colour of the sky and the water were changing rapidly. The hills at the opposite side of the Dam were turning into silhouette guards deployed by the nature.  Some bullock carts and trackers were coming through the road of red bolder just behind us. Jayanta da stood up and started to walk towards the resort. He had to call Shantosh, who will take us to the Garh Panchkot, Maithon Dam and Kalwaneshwari temple the next day by his Maruti Omni. We waited for some more time to drink the cup of nature to the lease. Finally the sky turned black. Stars started to come out one by one. We returned to the resort. The silence of the dam prevailed. I woke up at the night by the sound of the heavy vehicles once and understood whatever Jayanta da told us was true.

We started at about 8 am from the resort next morning and reached Garh panchkot first. It was a valley surrounded by the hills. A broken temple and some other ancient broken structures were scattered here and there. They were nothing but the ruins of Panchkot Palace stood as a silent testimony of Bargi attack in Bengal during the 18^th century. After spending some time there our car approached towards Maithon dam.  It is a dam built on the Barakar River for flood control and also generate a huge amount of hydelpower. It was built during the World war II, when a devastating flood in Damodar Vally detached   Kolkata from the rest of the country for about 10 weeks. The lake is spread over about 65 square Kilometres.  We stopped here for some time and headed towards Kalwaneshwari Temple.  This temple was about 500 years old. In remote past human sacrifices were offered to Goddess Kalwaneshwary. The present structure of the temple is built by the Rajas of Panchkot. It is situated at about 5 km downstream from the Maithon dam by the side of Barakar River at Asansol, Bardwan. Girls offered puja to Devi Kalwaneshwary.  We took a vile meal in a dhaba near the temple. Then we returned to Maithan Dam for boating.  Boating in Maithan lake was a pleasent experience. After that we had some snacks and returned to Baranti. Shantosh promised us to buy mutton for our dinner. But when we reached the meat shop it was about 6:30 pm and the shop was closed. But Shantosh went to the shop owner’s place and convinced him to re open the shop and bought mutton for us. When we reached our resort, our clock was showing 8:00 pm.

It was the last night there.  We finished our dinner with rice, aaloo vaja, beguni, maach vaja, mutton, chutni and salad. We talked and talked and talked... and every one of us might be praying for stretching the night for at least few hours. . Nobody slept that night.

In the morning after bed tea we took our bath as soon as possible. We packed our bags again. While taking the breakfast, the horn sounded. Shantosh had come. We hugged Jayanta da. He told,’’Abar asben’’ (come again). Manu and Sona were sitting at a corner; suddenly they stood up and started rubbing their head against our pants. Soumya gave some money to Jayanta Da as Bakshis (tip). We board the car, Jayanta da and his daughter was standing at the gate. The car started. We saw Manu and Sona were running beside our car. First we thought that they were doing this as their regular practice, But after  5-7 minutes when we found them still running beside the car I told Shantosh to stop. We got down from the car, gave them biscuits, pat them on their head and neck. Seeing their innocent faces our eyes filled up with tears.  Shantosh reminded us, if we didn’t want to miss the train then we should go now.

...... car started again. We headed towards Muraddi railway station leaving Baranti Dam, Baranti Hill, Akashmani resort,The small tribal village, Jayanta Da, Manu and Sona behind. May be within the sorrow and tears there was a hidden promise......  We will come again...

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  The Pain                                                          

Hold on! The last scream I heard.

The flickering light of the torch was overpowering my eyes. Strangely I felt no glare. My sight was now poised. Gradually my vision was diverging to a new spectrum.

Suddenly all vanished! I could see only dark. It was not the existential darkness, but it was limitless. I was staring at the unfathomable darkness. No, I was unable to navigate my direction with my will. I was moving…

A faint blob of light was seen. It was getting bigger. The light was gradually approaching towards me. Now I could see a full celestial panorama of brightness all around me.

“Look up my friend!” a divine voice resonated from the back.

I looked back. A divine man was staring at me. His eyes were wistful & glorious. His entire body was suffused with a magical aura. The radiance of his face was vivacious. I had never seen the man before.

“Who are you?” I said.

“A traveler like you!” he replied.

“A traveler?”

“Yes!”

“But how do you know me?” I asked.

“Here everybody knows each other. Because everybody is a traveler here!” he said.

“I don’t know where the path leads.” I said.

“The path is never ending here.” he said.

“But I have to find the right path to return.” I said vehemently.

“Follow me!” he said with a smile.

I followed the divine man being completely unaware of the intervening path. Suddenly he paused.

“I have to return! My chest is soring with pain.” I cried.

“The pain is momentary my friend. You can cure it.” he said.

“Please guide me to find the path.” I said with a whimper.

“You still have to fight the battle.” he uttered emphatically.

“Battle?”

“Yes.”

“No, I just have to return. My chest is soring uncontrollably.” I said.

“Your pain is your battle.” he said.

“Please! Show me the way to return.” I cried.

“Follow me!” he said again with a smile.

I followed the divine man again. A deep chasm appeared. We stopped at the highest point.

“You can’t proceed further.” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you still have to fight the battle.” he replied.

“But I have to find the path.” I mumbled.

“Your freedom is your path.” he quibbled.

“How can I seek that freedom?” I asked.

“Chant my name silently.” he answered.

“What is your name?” I asked.

“Time.” he replied with a smile.

Suddenly all vanished! I could see only dark. But my eyes were closed. I opened my eyes.

An arid battlefield appeared. I was lying amidst the countless dead bodies. A man was shaking my hands frantically. I looked at him. “The liar shot a bullet through your chest!” he cried out.

But I felt a tingle at my chest, like an ice-cube placed there!!!!!!!




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A JUNGLE SAFARI

“No!” uttered my elder brother (Dada).

“It’s not going to be like any normal conducted tour. It will be a different sort of tour.”

“What about the location?”

“Probably the location that I will prefer, firstly & lastly a jungle”

“Ok! All right”

“I will decide the spot & call you later.”

“Ok”

The line got disconnected.

My Dada is always bearing a free & judgmental mind quite apart from the orthodox ideas. With keeping a balance between expense & location he chose the Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary in Odissa.

‘Sign of four.’ We were four heads- me, one of my friends (Soumyakanti), my elder brother (Abhijit) & one of my brother’s friends (Arjun). My elder brother Abhijit Bhunia was script writer cum sound director & photographer. Arjun Ghosh the perfect zoologist I have ever seen teaches zoology in college. He also indulges into the photography amateurishly, also has good command over the foreign language like Spanish. I & my friend were just college students.

   

We boarded the Dhauli express from Howrah on 23^rd December. At the full bloom of our agility & muscularity we managed to board safely jostling with the very crowds. It took nearly three hours to reach Baleswar station.

It was almost mid-morning; the morning sun was on a little scorch. The Baleswar station was sufficiently outfitted for the regular passengers, accommodating a number of platforms.

We stood huddled with our luggage, brushing off our pants & collars. The express whooshed past us. A group of passengers were seen to be in hustle also with their luggage. Concertedly we carried our luggage with spurning away the repeated trade cry of the porters & auto drivers. We got out from the station.

A man having a stocky figure approached us & introduced him with us. He was our guide, Shyamal Dalui. He was appointed by my Dada prior to our tour. There was another man, who was our driver. This long-haired man was quite amiable & every time a faint smile was seen to be crossing his lips. They took our luggage gently & made us seated in a white Tata Sumo.

    

Amidst the hilly backdrop of Nilagiri & Kuldiha range our Tata Sumo made its way along the national highway. We made our urgent phone calls on the way, as our guide warned us about the unavailability of the network inside the jungle.

The driver wanted our ID cards essential for entry to a forest. But my Dada, the main head of our group was found to be forgotten his ID card at the eleventh hour of his packing expedition who devoted the whole last night to pack his luggage. The ID cards of the rest three solved the situation, also by the tactfulness of the driver.

Within few minutes our car entered in the main fringes of the forest & it took a narrower road leading through the jungle. Under the canopy of Sal & other deciduous Deccan plants the main jungle road prevails reclusively. Our car hummed through this jungle road with a slow pace & made us wobbling against each other.

We reached at the Kuldiha FRH (forest rest house) & took a dormitory.

Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary is about 300sq km of hilly landscape in Balasore district constitutes the Kuldiha forest. It is close to Nilagiri forest towards north & Mayurbhanj forest in northeast. Sukhapata & Gagua hills separate Kuldiha from Simlipal. This thick wooded forest of the region accommodates wild animals like the tiger, elephant, leopards, sambar, bison, gaur & giant squirrels. It also houses a variety of birds like hornbills, hill myna & peafowl. The streams drenching this area are also the habitat of reptiles. Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary is the perfect niche for these endangered species.

At the very brink of our dormitory there was a dense wood sloping towards the top, covered with the lush of shrubs & trees, entrenched by a trench from the forest range area. Our first wild visitor was waiting in an unexpected manner.

An intermittent moaning noise was constantly running through our ears. Initially I misunderstood it as a bird. But the sense of detection & instant comprehension was quite high to Arjun Da. Caressing at our every footstep & cautiously restraining our every footfall against the dried leaves we approached for it.

The mind-puzzling greenery of the trees & the camouflaging attributes of our visitor put us in confusion to spot it. After some fixed vision the reality came to light.

In naked eye from at least thirty hands distance I could spot two brown figures resting on a bough. My Dada & Arjun Da took a clear snap by their high definition camera.

Our first visitor was a group of langurs!!!!!!

The entire forest range area was made at a suitable location inside the forest. So abiding the little inadequacies of here we got bustled. At day time there is no electricity, making the solar panels to get excited to illumine the dormitories at night.

We took our lunch on a mahogany table, within the air of earnest reception & hospitality. Our driver was seen to be a perfect jovial man who also took part in serving foods to the guests. After a long exhaustion we ate our lunch with relish, which was cooked delicately.

“There is a unanimous fame about the Odia cooks all over the whole India!” exclaimed my Dada.

     

It was the second turn to be familiar with our second visitor. Following the response & eager eyes of others I settled down at my collars. For a while it seemed that I am belonging to the fairy world of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which was unraveling their anomalous nature.

With my first glance it grabbed my attention by its brilliant red colour, lively & pure. Sunlight gave it the extra tint with its magical rays. It moved within a flash & started prancing all over the forest range area. The habituated eyes in our nearby trees, orchards or railings got an awe-struck gaze with the morphological magnification of a small squirrel. Yes it was a giant squirrel, quite larger than normal squirrel with having the same homologous organs.

The third visitor emerged just like a fugitive. With the air of nonchalance it started to roam all over flaunting its many hued fantails. It cast a look of a royal unconcern to the onlookers.

By the sheer stroke of opportunity some people held their camera prodded by their instinct & approached for it. Other eager people were also in haste to catch its view.

A rough female voice crackled in the air!!! She cursed & shouted to all the photo catchers for hiding it from their view in a spurt of arrogant Bengali tone.

That is why the wild entities always tend to stay apart from human society. Sensing the upcoming danger our visitor managed to flee with cocking a snook to us. It was an adorable peacock.

The clock strikes at three. We set out for a new location Jadachuwa, 9km from our resort. En route we took a halt, got down from the car & followed our guide.

The swashing sound of water hit my ears. It appeared as if I entered to the monolithic age (Stone Age). I could sense the dampness & earthy smell of the place.

A stream took the possession of the place, coming down step by steps naturally hindered by stony obstacles. As we approached above, we could see that the stream was gushing from a mossy lap of stones, taking the toll of the place.

By magical spell of a wizard, the stones & boulders strewn all over, gave the place a solemn & grave calmness under the shadowy shelter of the gigantic trees.

The guide took us to a wetland situated at a corner of the jungle. We could spot a trail of big pug marks approaching towards a pond. They were easily recognizable to be of elephants. I could feel the thumping sound in my mind visualizing about the jumbo animals, striding at a long foot steps. The guide told us that the pond was a regular place for those elephants which served them water.

We drove towards Jadachuwa. A few jungle fowls crossed our path.

There was a guest house in Jadachuwa enough posh & suitable for the jungle visitors. But the forest department imposed a closure on it pondering the safety of the wild creatures.

At one side an empty area was left, isolated by a big trench from the ambit of Jadachuwa guest house. “It’s a saltlick in this jungle.” said our guide.

Soumyakanti looked curious & proceeded.

“A salt lick is a deposit of mineral salts used by animals to supplement their nutrition, ensuring that they get enough minerals in their diets.” said Arjun Da.

“Is it made here artificially?”

“Yah here it’s an artificial saltlick”

“But I can sense its commercial motive here.” urged Soumya.

“Artificial salt licks are to attract wildlife such as deer & moose, along with smaller creatures like squirrels. Animals may be attracted purely for the pleasure of the humans who install the salt lick with the goal of watching or photographing animals around the salt lick.” said our guide.

We spent that night in our dormitory. In the faint light of our room we sat together.

Soumyakanti was in mood to shuffle & rearrange a rubik cube, which he brought to kill his boredom. But he was in mocking modesty to demonstrate its solving procedure to others. He picked Arjun Da quite gullible to talk about it, but he found my Dada contentious when he approached him.

“By the way I’m not teaching you about it!” hurled Soumya after a light altercation with my Dada.

Arjun Da & Dada was on a little tussle about the comparative theme between the Sherlock Holmes film & TV series.

It was 24^th December. The exploring stuff of a new place & inner urgency made my Dada to wake up earlier being a daily late riser. He pushed everybody to get ready for the jungle trekking.

A narrow passageway was leading through the jungle from the forest range area. We followed our guide & this time he was another man, a staff in Kuldiha FRH. This time there was another group of photographers in this trekking, also guided by him.

Arjun Da told us to fix our field of view by 360* & to be aware of every minute sounds.

We walked under the shade of the tropical trees. The benevolent morning sun was peeping through leaves, singing the song of the immobility of profound silence, urgency of the jaded leaves scattered here & there, grim toughness of the boughs… The long eucalyptus trees stood adamantine. Somewhere various orchids were sprung out from the ground or trunks of the long trees.

The presence of the trees like Acacia, Arjun, Mahogony & Sal were also perceptible. There were lots of parasitic trees, extending out their branches in geometrical pattern to consume their host. Somewhere it is helical; somewhere it is serpentine, annular, straight, curved & many other forms.

Some tawny (coloured like copper) soil mounds (heaps) were seen to be amassed here & there. There were various mounds to be seen; some were as big as mountain, some were medium shaped & some were small. At a single glance it seemed to be brittle (breakable) at a single stroke, but it retorted against my hands by their solidity & compactness. It was damn hard like a stone! It was ‘Termite’s mound’.

With a sense of utter vigilance everybody’s eyes were running through all over; through the fronds, bushes, boughs; through the slightest gap between the leaves; through the hindmost trees, branches & leaves.

Playing giant squirrels were common sight everywhere.

Professor Arjun Ghosh was quite proficient in the realm of ornithology (the branch of zoology that deals with scientific study of birds) as well as zoology. He was crammed with all sorts of information especially about Indian birds as well as others. The sense of optical & auditorial recognition seemed quite high to Arjun Da. His black pair of eyes through the frame of the spectacle comprises the sharp vision of a hawk. In the stark darkness he holds the ability to identify small to smallest insects along with its species. The traits of a good zoologist were imparted by his maternal uncle from his very childhood, who went on to the expedition to introduce young Arjun to all sorts of birds in the lap of nature without using any binocular. Arjun Da made us familiar to many birds visible in the Kuldiha forest.

‘Sun Birds’, the common & endangered family among the birds. Arjun Da & my Dada managed to take lots of photographs of these birds with their exertion. Sometimes I & my friend took part in spotting the location of the birds. Some of these birds are quite restful; some are skittish, jumpy; some are moderate. The species visible in Kuldiha are- Purple Sunbird, Brown-throated Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Rufous-winged Sunbird, Red-chested, Spectacled Spider hunter etc...

Somewhere the wood peckers were pecking the woods with making a hammering sound; somewhere the colourful parakeets were on a hustle (busy) at the very top of trees. There were also Hill Mynah, Drongo, Hornbill, Blue Robin, Kingfisher, Linet & many others.

Our jungle way hits to a small rocky hill. We started to ascend to the top with a slow pace. The scattered dung-cakes here & there gave us the allusion about the frequency of leopard, bison & other herbivores. At the very high point of the hill we took a halt.

From the very top we got a panoramic view of the entire jungle. A verdant (green) landscape cradling down & disperses all over. The entire jungle seemed to have cloaked by a green blanket, emerged from an unfathomable abyss.

Here one thing must be included, the swanky group of photographers seemed quite lacking of common sense. Sometimes they were found to be calling each others with a loud tone of voice, which was absolutely antagonistic of the basic rule of the trekkers especially when they are inside a jungle. Surprisingly this guide was also found to be quite uncanny. He did not hesitate for a little talking in his special cell-phone loudly, perching on a big stone on top of the hill. He was altercating vociferously with his phone in outright Odia accent.   

We returned to the FRH & spent few hours by bird watching in the vicinity. We took our lunch.

Our driver promised to let us have a close encounter with the jumbos. The Tata Sumo revved & made its way through the jungle road.

Seated in our car my mind was drifting to the universalism of the elephants.

“In ancient times the elephants played a major role in warfare as well as consolidating the security of a territory.” said me.

“Please don’t get dramatic again!” leered Soumya.

“But the sense ‘Drama’ was quite majestic to Indian history.” said Dada.

 Arjun Da was silent. The Tata Sumo was racing through the jungle road.

“Alexander reached the borders of India when he had a substantial number of elephants under his own command. He defeated the king of Punjab, Porus deploying his special war elephants. Looking further east again, however Alexander could see that the kings of the Nanda Empire & Gangaridai could deploy 3000 & 6000 war elephants. Such a force was many times larger than the number employed by the Persian & Greeks, which discouraged Alexander’s small band of men & they effectively halted their advance into India.” enunciated my Dada.

Another Tata Sumo was seen to be stopped in front. This time a ‘dantal hathi’ (tusked elephant) was reported to be seen. A forest guard was on duty. He wore a traditional guard’s apparel, held a stick & buckled a gun.

We happened to talk with him. An elephant had just crossed the road & it was expected to exist nearby inside the jungle. The guard & driver were made to be sure that we could run if the elephant would attack.

They took us to the nearby passageway leading through the jungle. With keeping aside the dangling branches & creepers, brushing off the cobwebs & managing our every footfall against the dried leaves we proceeded. Unsorted pug marks & scattered dunk-cakes were foreboding about the constancy of the elephants through this path. Somewhere broken stones, broken trunks, trampled foliage gave the same allusion. Being blended with strange thrill & fear we were walking on…

A tapping sound was lingering in the air for a few minutes. We came near a bush from where the sound appeared to come.

We stopped.

The guard & driver, who were leading us, went to the different directions to perceive the source of that sound.

“Try to find the advance escape route!!!” Arjun Da whispered.

A jungle parakeet cried! It momentarily perturbed the weighty silence prevailing all around us & thereby causing my heart bits to pound upon my chest.

“Aren’t you feeling scared?” whispered Soumya to me.

I was silent. I was not in condition to express my feelings. A weird sensation of suspense was hovering over my mind. There was no way left but to wait patiently.

Long silence…

The guard gave a smacking sound to hint the driver from his position. They were again united.

“The elephant seemed to have been moved more inside, hard to track them at this time.”

“After a while there will be no daylight.”

“It’s better to depart this place right now.”

 He led us to another shortcut way to escape easily, one part of which was through a narrow rocky passage beside a deep chasmy gap. The only thing worried me that was my slippers, which I wore for this afternoon presuming that there would be no trekking like journey. I was in quite fidget in restraining my slippers against the topsy-turvy or jagged or up-down stony obstacles, with avoiding a further slip or skid of my legs. The passage way ultimately ends to the main jungle road.

I heaved a sigh of relief. “You haven’t any idea about the danger we left behind. If the elephant took a slightest attempt to chase us, there would not be any single way by which we could escape our death!” said Arjun Da. My Dada gave a supportive smile. Arjun Da has seen the condition of the human victims who were trampled by an elephant. It was hard to describe about the condition of the contorted corpses killed by an elephant.

“We the human beings are dull-headed, but the elephants were proved to be more over smart!” said the guard lecherously. The guard was also in utter tension about his five thousand rupees, which he kept beneath his bed at night & forgot to keep it aside in the morning.

 

One thing I forgot to mention, our first encounter with the jumbo yesterday.

It was the exact converging time between day & night, the twilight falls. The west horizon was at dusk, hushed the entire jungle gradually as the daylight faded.

We were completely engrossed at the very presence of two deers on the salt lick of Jadachuwa, tenderly licking away the salt.

The news darted to our ears unexpectedly!!!! Our guide took us to the nearby spot, where the presence of the elephants was reported.

We stood on the main jungle way, leading through the dark forest by two sides. There was the weighty silence everywhere. Amidst the dark woods that evening seemed to be weird which outwit our normal daily evenings, as if it was in attempt to unfold the most sinister things from its core.

The normal humming sounds of the birds was almost on the verge of ending & the crickets started its chirping.

At the right side of the road a herd of elephants were reported to be gathered inside the jungle. After long silence a rumbling sound was heard from the jungle, as if somebody is trampling the leaves & gnashing the boughs.

Long silence……

Again an intermittent hideous thumping sound was heard. The guide made us aware that it was nothing but the hitting sound of the heavy legs against the bark.

I stood froze at my feet, feeling a long term trembling in my legs. I could hear my faster heart bits.

The rumbling & thumping sound was again on the board, made me feel that the sound was engulfing the entire right side. It gave me instinctive caution that the jumbos were very nearer to me & it would trample over me by any chance.

Everybody was talking in whisper & I could sense the tinge of suspense striking everybody including the guide too. Sometimes we proceeded & sometimes we retroverted sensing the upcoming presence of the jumbo. In this regard our driver seemed quite mercurial & fast, having a lithe figure. He & our guide were leading us, every time they were seen to be speculating about the position of the jumbos.

A faint trumpet (the cry of an elephant) was heard!!!! After some moments the rumbling sound was again heard & this time it was the sound of approaching.

It was almost dark, a faintest daylight was left. Our driver outstretched his torch & alighted the flash of the torch upon a front portion of the road. In that torch light the most awaited entity materialized from the dark & gently crossed the road to enter the other side of the jungle. I heaved a sigh of relief at the first glance of an elephant in that jungle.

The guide made us aware that there were still some elephants in the right side jungle & all of them were in spree to return home. Resorting the same way we waited to catch a glimpse of another elephant. But the elephants appeared to be more over smart. The driver told us “Khub chalak! Era ektuo norbena, protita step era bujhe bujhe fele” (They are very clever! They will not move single inch of their body if they sensed danger. They are decisive at their every step.)

We ventured to exert our last effort to get the view of the jumbos. Our car drove us to a spot. There was no sunlight left & it was completely dark. Our guide & driver took us through a rocky path with lighting his torch. In the stark darkness I could feel the eerie presence of bushes & trees by two sides, which silently witnessing our trail to get the view of that gigantic grey figure.

It ultimately halts at the top a reservoir, from where the entire view of that natural reservoir is visible. It was completely night, made our view quite inaccessible in plain eyes, but heralding its presence by the strong gushing sound of water. The guide put his torch light on that water source; a small falls was seen to be merging with a water bed, flowing torrent.

“The elephants used to come here to quench their thirst. So the elephants are very common in this place.” said the driver.

No. We still did not get any another view of an elephant.

“Last Friday I got a tip of 500/- from a group. The group encountered with a bear on the open jungle road.” said the driver.

“You own self driving the car?”

“Yes!”

“What about the bear?”

“It proved to be very ferocious. It was in complete attempt to pounce upon the car & attack.”

“Then what you did?”

“I stroked the accelerator quickly & managed to run the car with a full pick up! By the way we came out of its range.”

“We also heard about the presence of leopard in this jungle.”

“Yah it is. But there is only one leopard is survived in this jungle.”

“Only one?”

“But it’s difficult to get its view easily. It likes to live recluse.”

“Have you ever got any view of it?”

“I work here for seven years. But I only saw him once perched on a tree.” said our guide.

The last night we spoke a lot with our guide & driver. 

That day we hired tents to spend the last night in Kuldiha. The tents were in the ambit of FRH, rigged up quite luxuriously with an attached bathroom. I & my friend was in a tent, my Dada & Arjun Da was in a tent face to face each other. We sat together in front of our tents. My Dada was quite adept to narrate any incident or any matter in his own ways. He cracked some solid jokes & funny incidents about his school life, made us burst into laughter.

A scuffle was heard. Somebody was heard scolding some group of people for a while in Odia accent. The fracas was from the main office in FRH.

The five thousand rupees of that guard were reported to be stolen. A group of workers were suspected to stash the amount, who left FRH at noon. We felt sorry for such a loss of that guard, who would earn a short amount of salary treading the entire jungle everyday.

Under the star-studded sky the long puff of marijuana seemed profound. The cosmic consciousness was merging with the infinitude.

It was a long term peace being adrift in the silence of the dark night. The life is not about grasping bookish knowledge, not about filling pages in the answer script, not about toiling hard on the text books, not about solely taking part in the rat race; life is just like a breeze, just like ‘blowing in the wind’.

“How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man…” I could feel the immortal lines of Bob Dylan on that night within me.

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                       64, the manifestation of the universe

Are we all divine? Are we all one? Then what are the factors that continually resonate all along our whole being? Is the key potential is very near to us? Then what are the hindrances that block our wisdom everyday? The space & reality is immanent. The quantum mechanics expounds our existence as the vibrational interpretation of the reality. The red colour radiates out from a flower, makes the observer to substantiate about its red colour, called ‘the observer’s effect’. Does that really mean that what we perceive & feel is all relative? Is there any God to put us constantly in the realm of illusion? Or is it any ploy, masterfully crafted by any masterminds? The divisive line between the science & religion is relative. The metaphysics, philosophy, art evolve from the same human minds. All the philosophers, sculptors & even teachers from the very ancient days used to point towards the oneness of creation in different aspects. Even scientists like Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein & modern era physicists ventured their probing mind to unearth the mystery of the universe.

Nassim Haramein, a Swiss physicist developed a theory along with physicist Elizabeth Rauscher, which is a Unified Field Theory; where he incorporates torque & Coriolis effects. He used Einstein’s Field equations to develop his Resonance Project. Nassim did not much emphasize upon fundamental particle of all the matter, but he devised thoroughly about the fundamental pattern of all the matter. He  proceeds to tell us that over many years of his life research, he has finally found the fundamental pattern that creates all matter, which is a 64 tetrahedron geometry shape. This geometry shape is the geometry of the vacuum and all matter. We could say it is the fundamental pattern of GOD/THE ONE, all that is.

The 64 tetrahedron is made up of 8 star tetrahedrons coming together.

The centre piece of the 64 tetrahedron is an enfolded star tetrahedron, known as vector equilibrium; this is encased within a star tetrahedron that in turn, is encased in another vector equilibrium. The two vector equilibrium act as a supporting structure for the middle star tetrahedron.

This gives the 64 tetrahedron perfect strength and balance to hold the structure off a sphere that spins.

According to the physics of Nassim Haramein, the 64 tetrahedron grid is the first harmonic of the Cuboctahedron geometry and what eventually becomes, with scalar octave growth, the infinite holofractographic vacuum structure of the entire universe. 64 is the fewest number of tetrahedrons needed to begin to see this geometric scalar fractal pattern emerge. The coincidence or the secret link of the human cult had also its precedence to validate about the 64, which is essence of the universe. Material skeptics may think it as the forced imposition of coincidences or fantasy. But has it really crossed the silver line of doubts, when….

• 64 codons in human DNA.

• 64 hexagrams in the I Ching (religious symbol in China).

• 64 sexual positions in the Kama sutra.

• 64 classical arts listed in many Indian scriptures.

• 64 "tantras" (books) of the "tantrism", which is a form of Hinduism.

• 64 is the maximum number of strokes in any Chinese character.

• 64 is the number of cells we have before our cells start to bifurcate (differentiate) shortly after

conception.

• 64 is fundamental in computer memory bits and coding.

• 64 things are needed to be able to approach the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord according to the 2

copper scrolls that were found among the 300 Dead Sea Scrolls.

• 64 is encoded in the description of the Tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Bible, which is the 4-letter

theonym YHWH meaning God in Hebrew.

• 64 is the number of generations from Adam until Jesus according to the Gospel of Luke.

• 64 forms or manifestations of the Lord Shiva in Hinduism.

• 64 squares on chess and checker boards.

• 64 Braille characters in the old 6-dot system.

• 64 demons in the Dictionnaire Infernal.

• 64 is the smallest number with exactly seven divisors.




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