india unknown

How long have I known Tilak? since before joining college.
How long have I known Tilak the naturalist? probably since we went looking …

…for siberian cranes against the rising sun

We were talking over cups of tea one December morning
in 1985 “Goneshda, do you want to go birdwatchin?” asked Tilak.
He had completed his medical training and had joined the Indian Army.
I was still in University, scraping a living, poor in perpetuity, with bottomless-pits for pockets.

Tilak, the compulsive traveller, was on annual leave from his regiment .
Pockets tinkling with modest first months’ pay, feet itching to go somewhere new.
A flash of desperate magnanimity he said, “expenses are on me”.
“Where to?” … I was instantly interested. “Bharatpur, the Bird Sanctuary”.

But that was miles away, in Rajasthan, we were in my college canteen in Calcutta.
It would be a 20 hour train and bus journey; he had looked up the train times.

Was he good at spotting birds? – No, but he had some books.
What about binoculars? – We would try and do without.
He had a camera with a telephoto, besides it was said in Bharatpur one can walk right up to the birds, he added.

He wanted photographs of the Siberian Cranes, silhoutted against a rising sun;
and I could safely distinguish the crows from the sparrows. I was ready to twitch.

I decided to skip classes, it was coming upto Christmas anyway.
Within hours we packed our bags, raced to the railway station and before long were on a train,
the Toofan Mail, chugging our way out of Calcutta, bound for Tundla near Delhi.

The Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary

Photograph of Siberian Cranes (from www.nacwg.org)

The Bird Sanctuary
is known to birdwatchers and ornithologists the world over.
Outside Bharatpur, a small town in Rajasthan 40 miles west of Agra.
A marshy tract of land, once the hunting ground of local Maharajas, it became a sancturay in 1956, and a National Park in 1981, it is now declared as an UNESCO World Heritage site.
Some 380 specis of birds have been seen on the site, it also is a host to many winter migratory birds.

We rented bikes, bought simple provisions to prepare packed lunches.
We had ‘channachur‘ sandwiches for lunch, washed down with water from a well.

Tilak and I (with hat) having chanachur sandwiches

We cycled around the narrow tracks, spotting birds and identifying them in the books.
Cycling off again to try and spot some more varieties, to add them to the list.
On near 0°C december mornings, our fingers frozen stuck to handlebars,
with our teeth chattering and selves shivering we would in the reserve
well before the sunrise, Tilak hoping to photo the Siberian cranes.

In the end we could spot 105 or so of different varieties.
It was three days of amazing learning.
Unregrettable experience.

Its been twenty years since,
Tilak has since scoured the widths of India, documenting and photographing.
He is now a leading naturalist and travel journalist and has authored many books.

No we didn’t get the desired photographs of the Cranes silhoutted against the sunrise.
I got much more, I had seen some lovely birds, I had found the joys of birdwatching
and I had seen a beautiful India, like I had never seen her before.

 

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