The Lure of the wild
Yes, I admit. The jungles are my own personal brand of heroin and like an addict the lure is impossible to resist. Every man needs a drug…to some, it’s their sport, to others, it’s their play. For me, the lure of the forest is akin to a slow spreading drug…the thirst unquenchable. The need to unravel its mysteries surpasses anything ever felt before. It is impossible to not lose yourself in the harsh terrain which has a surreal stillness to it, yet alive in so many ways.
To me, a wildlife voyeur, the forest land is a labyrinth which weaves itself with a silken thread around your wanderlust soul. The forest whispers ….the trees tell ancient lore; the soft grass hums a tune; the birds are the songs, the butterflies the poem. I hear the blue of the kingfisher; the brown of the Dhole; the stripes of the big cat; and the lone tusker.
She is a like a lover…she doesn’t let go. She, and in this case, I am partial to Bandipur, afflicts with a madness that has no cure. I tasted her, with all my senses…at the forest gate at the break of dawn, when fog and the chill; the dense lush green and the seemingly alive trees rise on the forest horizon casting a spell like none witnessed before. I may see it a million times and yet, it always seems like the first. In the twilight hours, where she spreads out her wings and reels me into tasting a bit more of her…
I sound like a poet…a lover…because she weaves a spell that I drown in. Some liken the wild terrain to a siren – mysterious she is and magical is her spell…that she casts over virgin and seasoned wildlife lovers.
And true to her lure, every weekend would find me in the forestland drinking in the untouched beauty of the terrain. And when my weekend sojourns in the wild comes to an end, and whilst I pack my bags and head back from the awe inspiring land, philosophy threads through my core and I resort to the age old adage – – ‘The end marks a new beginning’. And true to the adage, the next five days are spent conjuring images of the coming weekend – another drive into the virgin forest in the 4 x 4 – where the slow dance between the sensual predators and the wary preys come to the fore.
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