The delay in dispatches, folks, have come with good reason. After leaving Lucknow we headed north and a bit east for a quick lunch in Sitapur and went along to Lakhimpur Khiri. These are both much smaller places than we’d been. Therefore, no wiring for Web, including at cafes. At Lakhimpur Khiri, after meeting briefly with Rotarians at the outpost and posing for photos, with the GSE team adorned in the area’s finest cloth bandanas (I looked like a rhasta cowboy), we loaded back into the trusty four-wheel to head for the tiger preserve, Duduwana, near Nepal. That lasted only to the end of the road. Flat tire. We all hopped out, much to the glee of the locals, who gathered around in gads to watch the interesting looking people look with interest at a flat tire. With good humor, Karisa pulled out the guitar and did an impromptu jam sess. The crowed grew to a couple hundred, pulled tightly around Karisa and the car. After the performance, our driver headed out to get the bad tire fixed, so we retreated “backstage” behind the gates of the Rotary complex. The road to the “the end of the earth”, as Anne called it, was dusty and rutted and thick with sugar cane fields. The villagers, unlike most who would stare with interest and sometimes chase the vehicle, looked nearly startled at our presence. We were told that India is famous for its jungles and that many westerners come for such trips, but not to the one we’re headed. The others have loads of five star hotels. Ours would be nice, but rustic by comparison. At nightfall we waited at a one-way rail crossing, the only route to our destination. When it was our turn, we drove a quarter mile or more across a thin rail bridge, which seemed no more bumpy than the roads we normally travel. Before going to the forest house, we stopped at a Rotarian’s house on an enclosed compound at one of the area’s largest sugar cane processing plants. We had a Lohri celebration, a Punjabi harvest celebration that may or may not also have something to do with the astrological configurations (this is under wide debate). We built a bonfire, fed it peanuts and popcorn and fed ourselves whiskey. The team of five, along with our primary host, sat around a table and had dinner as about 20 others looked on and offered dish upon dish. This is a central theme here, part of what builds the “American Circus” notion for us. We arrived at the house late and tucked into some damp and chilly beds to awake the next morning with the sun fighting off a thick haze. Monkeys prowled, hoping for handouts. We took car rides through the jungle and then mounted elephants to look for wildlife, with tiger as the ultimate prize. This turned out to be one of the most magical experiences, not of the trip, but of a lifetime. The view from atop an elephant: a constant and startling change between having heads in the thick trees of the forest, to that one step to a clearing that showed a vast river plain or grassy open field for miles. When coming to India, I thought of the cities and monuments, never of this unbelievable open-sky natural beauty. It looked like photos of the Savannah in Africa I’d seen. So here we are, taking deep breaths to consume the cool air spilling down from the Himalayas, and our guide spots something through the thick and up a hill. After a lumbering ascent and a push through a strong web of over and undergrowth, there stood in a small clearing, feeding, a pair of black, heavily plated rhinos. They looked at us and the elephants, about 20 feet away, with some amount of indifference. Then the elephants began to growl, a from-the-belly, guttural rumbling. The mama and her baby, after a few moments, opted to find another place to graze and pushed through the thick. We circled around, headed back down the hill, found another small trail, and before long pulled into the thick again. There, under a log (I feel the guides understood where to look) was a giant python. At its thickest point, I may have had a hard time wrapping my arm around it. It likely was 20 feet or better in length. It stayed coiled, almost entirely motionless until we hovered right above. Then, it only moved the front foot near its head and flickered about, relatively undisturbed. We pushed out and continued our lumbering safari as the sun really started to rise and warm the day. We moseyed along riverside wetlands and looked at any number of variety of birds --- cranes, storks, kingfisher, spoonbills …
Back at the forest house I was reclining in the terrace sun, half asleep when I heard a couple shrieks. I could tell Karisa, who had pulled out her guitar and was looking to relax and strum on the other side of the terrace, was having some unwanted interaction with the monkeys. This was the opportunity for which I had been waiting. With all my practice on squirrels back home, now I could leap into action. I ran across the veranda and turned the corner shortly after one of the crazy monkeys had lept and taken a swipe at Chris’ back, and began growling and jumping up and down and wagging my legs and hands wildly. They back down a bit – a mother and her little ones – but it took a second rant to make them run off. It was affective after all, and really made the girls laugh. Anne saw the whole thing from a nearby watchtower that rises about five stories. I saw her up there and went to get a look myself. There, before lunch, looking out across the river, I saw one of the most awe inspiring views of my life. A wide, undulating river in the sun, rutted with sandbars and trees and brush in all stages, and alive with animal life. Photos will be included. After lunch, in a cafeteria cage to hide from monkeys, we hit the road for Lakhimpur Khiri. That night we had a Rotary club presentation and spent the night with a host family. The following day we split for Rae Bareli and had the same program: One Rotary dinner with presentation, one night with host families. Somewhere along the way I contracted some “rot gut”. By the time we made along several hours of rough road to Allahabad, where we are now, I was no good for anything. I spent two days in bed and ate nearly nothing for three days. Some meds, which were tough to keep down, and yogurt and rice, and a lot of water and a lot of rest has resurrected me. I feel “98 percentages” today and have done away with what the locals openly and frequently refer to as “loose motions” or “loosies”. Enough of that! I had a great meeting here with a group of journalists from The Times of India. Today we went to the home of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the place where Gandhi spent many of his most influential years fighting for the country’s independence from Britain. We also went to a zoological museum and had a nice lunch at a downtown place called El Chico. Our current hosts – mine, Neeraj and Mamta, as well as our tour coordinator, Arunav and Poonam Ray, are very fun and progressive people. Tonight we have dinner together, and if we’re lucky, get a chance to relax and listen to some more Australian country music!
The latest here is my involvement in cricket. I was sitting in the street waiting for a ride to a Rotary function when some of the local boys asked if I would join them in a game. I was briefed of the rules (luckily one of the youngsters already has a pretty good handle on English, because I'm still pretty slow with Hindi), and we were off. I played one game yesterday and another this morning. I'm unsure if there was a winner yesterday, but I know today's match was a win for the good guys. As was Indian's fine win today over bad guys Australia (sorry Sonya). I'm told this is the first win for an opponent on Oz soil since 2005. If you all are as naive about the game as I was a couple weeks ago, don't worry, you won't really miss anything. You have until March to figure it out. These cats play FOREVER. Today we did a little shopping, and Anne's hosts (Arunav and Poonam) took us out for burgers, fries and Pepsi. What a treat. The burgers were REALLY good. And for those of who doubt me, they are not hamburgers, but lamb-burgers. Tonight, maybe finally, a movie. Namaste.
