The train took us through mustard fields, that was the predominant yellow that I saw outside, there was talk in the coach and it was abuzz with conversation when I woke up. Anjali was reading her magazine and drinking a cup of tea that she had asked the attendant to get, I saw my cup lying there too and took it up from her table. The thought predominant in my head while I had been sleeping, and there are times when we sleep with thoughts in our head and then the other times there is a nothingness. This time there had been thoughts all pleasant ones, I was thinking of Geetika, my friend who had done her Spanish Language Course, language translation came easy to her, she had the skills and the aptitude to do a good job.
I had met Geetika when I had travelled with her on WWF organized journey, during those days I was associated with them as an affiliate member and had gone on a trip to save the Bengal Tiger. We had cameras and lens ready to click species of all kind, Geetika had been sitting quietly in the corner when I spotted her during the trip and I had approached her with a bottle of water, she had gracefully accepted it and from our conversation from that I time I realised that she was an avid animal lover too. The Bengal Tiger Project was on her mind and she had spoken avidly about it, the mangroves of Sunderban where the project had taken us were shared between India and Bangladesh. The Tiger Species as she had explained to me, was one of the top species in the chain but the Sunderbans were under threat from rising Sea Levels that had a brought about a climate change. She had explained that the total population of Tigers in this vicinity was only 2500 and the creation of a Poaching reserves on the Indian side had helped stabilise the population by protecting the tigers from poachers.
"I was thinking of Geetika," I said to Anjali while we sipped tea.
"That's nice," she replied back handing me some biscuits as the train rocked on the rails.
She was eager to talk, my sleeping had given her enough time to read and think and there was always music that she enjoyed.
"This tea is good, there is something about good tea that is rare when produced in mass."
"Isn't it ? and then there is always the thought that the flask aren't clean enough or you didn't pay the attendant enough," she replied back.
"What about Geetika ?"
"Well, when I had first met her was a WWF photographer and writer, she was pretty as can be, dark skinned and with a attitude to match it. Once on a trip to the Sunderbans, she told me that the only way to save the Tigers was to be like them. Her thoughts had been radical those days and she had reminded of a She Wolf."
"We had been sitting on a bench at a tea shop in Sunderbans, both of us tired of the human race, getting used to living in the wild, she was rampant with her thoughts."
"How so ?" she asked curiously.
Geetika was a creature made to be admired, everything she did, she did with this thought of self possession and upholding the truest values of man kind. She had this thing about her that said "I am what I am," she was a virtuous human being and held on to her values no matter what the consequence. "So what were values," she had asked me once, were they thoughts put into our head by the supreme cosmos, and interesting thought this was because human beings align themselves with their true nature. "Whatever we do," she had told me, "at the end of it all, the search is to align ourselves with the Universal Laws of the Cosmos."
The Cosmos was about taking care of the planet we live on, the creatures that we co-habitat with, once these universal laws were reached the search was over. This was a classical and romantic thought rolled into one, "Look at the gang of people with us in Sunderbans, it is the romance, the search that has got us into this place together."
I had suddenly realised that it wasn't as if we were tired of the world we lived it, we were running from the machines that ruled our lives, the coffee machine, the refrigerator, the Aircon and etall, to connect with nature was our supreme thought, the romance of living in the wild where the primitive man had lived in all his literary glory.
"Staying with Geetika had taught me that there was nothing romantic about the primitive man," I said to Anjali, she had turned in her seat away from the window and was fully facing me, deep in thought herself.
"I think she was a Romantic."
"So was I in those days," I said relieved that I had told her this, it was a load off my chest, thoughts blazing in my head while I was sleeping had to find an outlet and she was always there.
"Tea was good, any luck with getting another Samosa from the attendant."
"Here he comes."
"Maybe I will ask him for a pastry ?"
"Do you think he would say yes, I don't think they have pastries in the pantry."
"We should ask for a bottle of lemonade, that would be safe."
"Your dreaming child," I said jestingly.
"Yeah and you are Batman himself. Save me from the Lemonade monster."
Food was due to be served in another two hours, till then the conversation would be rampant, I had no doubt, when we got together it was always that way, it was just that what with her job and all, there was so little time these days to have a tete-a-tete, a real heart to heart was what we both wanted and when we did get the time for it, it brought the memories flooding.
"If You Try And Don't Succeed, Then Cheat."
I had met Geetika when I had travelled with her on WWF organized journey, during those days I was associated with them as an affiliate member and had gone on a trip to save the Bengal Tiger. We had cameras and lens ready to click species of all kind, Geetika had been sitting quietly in the corner when I spotted her during the trip and I had approached her with a bottle of water, she had gracefully accepted it and from our conversation from that I time I realised that she was an avid animal lover too. The Bengal Tiger Project was on her mind and she had spoken avidly about it, the mangroves of Sunderban where the project had taken us were shared between India and Bangladesh. The Tiger Species as she had explained to me, was one of the top species in the chain but the Sunderbans were under threat from rising Sea Levels that had a brought about a climate change. She had explained that the total population of Tigers in this vicinity was only 2500 and the creation of a Poaching reserves on the Indian side had helped stabilise the population by protecting the tigers from poachers.
"I was thinking of Geetika," I said to Anjali while we sipped tea.
"That's nice," she replied back handing me some biscuits as the train rocked on the rails.
She was eager to talk, my sleeping had given her enough time to read and think and there was always music that she enjoyed.
"This tea is good, there is something about good tea that is rare when produced in mass."
"Isn't it ? and then there is always the thought that the flask aren't clean enough or you didn't pay the attendant enough," she replied back.
"What about Geetika ?"
"Well, when I had first met her was a WWF photographer and writer, she was pretty as can be, dark skinned and with a attitude to match it. Once on a trip to the Sunderbans, she told me that the only way to save the Tigers was to be like them. Her thoughts had been radical those days and she had reminded of a She Wolf."
"We had been sitting on a bench at a tea shop in Sunderbans, both of us tired of the human race, getting used to living in the wild, she was rampant with her thoughts."
"How so ?" she asked curiously.
Geetika was a creature made to be admired, everything she did, she did with this thought of self possession and upholding the truest values of man kind. She had this thing about her that said "I am what I am," she was a virtuous human being and held on to her values no matter what the consequence. "So what were values," she had asked me once, were they thoughts put into our head by the supreme cosmos, and interesting thought this was because human beings align themselves with their true nature. "Whatever we do," she had told me, "at the end of it all, the search is to align ourselves with the Universal Laws of the Cosmos."
The Cosmos was about taking care of the planet we live on, the creatures that we co-habitat with, once these universal laws were reached the search was over. This was a classical and romantic thought rolled into one, "Look at the gang of people with us in Sunderbans, it is the romance, the search that has got us into this place together."
I had suddenly realised that it wasn't as if we were tired of the world we lived it, we were running from the machines that ruled our lives, the coffee machine, the refrigerator, the Aircon and etall, to connect with nature was our supreme thought, the romance of living in the wild where the primitive man had lived in all his literary glory.
"Staying with Geetika had taught me that there was nothing romantic about the primitive man," I said to Anjali, she had turned in her seat away from the window and was fully facing me, deep in thought herself.
"I think she was a Romantic."
"So was I in those days," I said relieved that I had told her this, it was a load off my chest, thoughts blazing in my head while I was sleeping had to find an outlet and she was always there.
"Tea was good, any luck with getting another Samosa from the attendant."
"Here he comes."
"Maybe I will ask him for a pastry ?"
"Do you think he would say yes, I don't think they have pastries in the pantry."
"We should ask for a bottle of lemonade, that would be safe."
"Your dreaming child," I said jestingly.
"Yeah and you are Batman himself. Save me from the Lemonade monster."
Food was due to be served in another two hours, till then the conversation would be rampant, I had no doubt, when we got together it was always that way, it was just that what with her job and all, there was so little time these days to have a tete-a-tete, a real heart to heart was what we both wanted and when we did get the time for it, it brought the memories flooding.
"If You Try And Don't Succeed, Then Cheat."
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