Education
A unique travelogue……of love and wanderlust!
Utterly she detested felling of trees, hurting animals or purposeless constructions. People say they have seen Mit, as a little girl, talking to the earth. “Please don’t be angry, forgive these men for cutting you and building huge structures. Please don’t stir and crumble the houses of the poor.” Thus, they had concluded that the girl is abnormal and foolish
.Mit on the other hand dreamt of walking with lions riding wild horses, kissing giant elephants and sailing across the sky perched on huge condors. She wished to own a banyan tree to stay. But the poor girl was born in a common middle-class family, both parents working to earn a decent living. Her parents were God fearing and law-abiding people who rather avoided any confrontation with either.
As Mit grew, she realised that to travel around the globe requires money and not just passion or compassion towards this beautiful life sustaining planet, so she submerged herself into the world of books. She read and read about flora and fauna of every country, how to reach there and the wild enchanting experiences of travellers. Every evening lying on her cosy bed she drifted towards her exquisite location.
Mit riding on the back of Joe the tusker moved on the vast Mara land of the Masais. The tusker, an old, witness of many stormy and moonlit nights of Masai Mara. Joe though was huge yet avoided the herd of buffaloes. Water buffaloes of Africa! Known for short sightedness, bad temper and fellow feeling are enough to fight the mighty lions. Mit laughed her heart out when she met Pumba the wild hog. They ran hither and thither with such a hurriedness as if were on a UN mission.
She saw a pride of lions lying lazily, they did not even mind to take a glance of her. She felt insulted. Nature told her in its unique way that humans are trivial beings here in the wild.
She was startled by a sudden scream of a wildebeest. The great 5 Brothers were successful in bringing it down. 5 cheetahs, who have teamed up to hunt down huge herbivores proudly acquired the prestigious title of ‘killing machine’. She was hurt to hear pleading wavering sound of the animal but then …. law of nature, she moved on. A little away sat a huge stork, a few vultures and a couple of hyenas, all waiting for the cheetahs to make their departure. No one dared to go near the fearsome 5. As Joe moved, she was greeted by few black buck antelopes, thousands of zebras, two tall giraffes and a few ostriches who were busy eating leaves and foraging. The horizon had a pulchritudinous pink hue with flocks of flamingos.
The sun which was kissing the horizon looked tired and sleepy, so was the vast savannah and its herbivores. Mit decided to sleep on Joe’s back as it was the safest place. With the setting sun arose the howls of the wild and chill but clear night. Mit could see the grassland’s nocturnal predators waking from their day long slumber. Somewhere from afar she heard a soft sound…. the leopardess was on the prowl for she had to hunt for her cubs. The lionesses strategized an ambush. The hyena laughed and a chill ran down Mit’s spine. Joe could feel the tremble of the little being on his back, he caressed her with his huge trunk as if saying… “worry not child, big daddy is here!”
With the first ray of the golden sun Mit woke up to a new day only to find that Joe had taken her to the edge of the savannah. She could see the camp from where she had deflected away a few days back. She was sad yet knew the fact. She had to leave and merge back into the human stream. Joe put her down carefully she hugged his trunk and walked with a heavy heart. Suddenly she turned back to see whether Joe was crying…. maybe!