I am told I come across as a snobbish person who thinks no end of herself. While it is true that most of the time I don't care what people think, I also feel sure in my head that people are judging me, most of the time. Its only friends I tend to feel comfortable with, believing that they love me with my faults because they also see that at my core, I am actually quite harmless.
I say I am harmless, simply because I have very little energy nowadays for anything except what I am required to do for survival. In my view smiling, making small talk, putting make up on, dressing up and wearing uncomfortable nice clothes- none of that, is necessary for survival. Yet when I convince myself of the futility of trying to do these things to socially acceptable levels (the threshold seems to keep creeping up every year), I tend to believe everyone is judging my antisocial trampish countenance!
Thinking about energy levels, sleep I have realised is the one thing which makes or breaks my day! Sleep used to be tricky when my kids were young. My profession too is notorious for disregarding the need for professionals to sleep. However before I went through the change (a kinder way to refer to the loss of reproductive potential in the fairer/stronger sex) sleep disruptions did not impact my well being as much.
Now my waking time is spent doing things which will allow me to sleep well. Nuances in diet - both content and timings, exercise, yoga, when to stop watching Television or looking at my phone- Age has me paying attention to all these things. I talk about sleep hygiene to my patients too!
Sleep Hygiene is all about following a routine and what happens when you travel to multiple cities in India attending weddings and chasing tigers? Exactly, the routine is tossed out of the window like Hrithik Roshan's handset in ZNMD.
I just came back to gloomy, miserable, cold England after three weeks in sunny, colourful, busy, festive, celebrating, bustling India. One of my Sudanese colleagues had asked me after she visited Delhi for the first time for a Laparoscopy course- How do you manage to stay away from India? Its so great!
I had very flourishingly said- India lives in me! But visiting friends, attending weddings, going on wildlife safaris in central Indian jungles made me really wonder this time- how do I stay away and more importantly; why do I need to stay away?
We visited Pench, a pleasant drive from Jabalpur on excellent roads and highways. While in Jabalpur we attended what would be considered the Royal wedding Bride and groom were children of medical fraternity royalty of Jabalpur and just like the Royal wedding the Jayamaal was held in a balcony of a posh ITC hotel with us minions looking on from below! Someone said there should be a kiss like Buckingham Palace balcony but all we witnessed was a kiss on the hand!
I have realised our traditions keep our economy ticking. My elder brother got married in a tent outside my sister in law's dad's Government accomodation but all weddings I have attended in recent times have been in Hotels. Hotels do great business as do a host of supporting services like flowers, photography (which has become big business with drones and social media), jewellery, airlines, taxis, textiles, handloom saris, gifts....Modiji had once suggested to people - marry in India! My daughter too is currently in India for her British Indian friend's wedding which is being attended by her Cucasian, Afrocarribean and Indian friends from England. They will then be going on their own sightseeing tour around Rajasthan which includes a wildlife safari at Ranthambore. Yes you guessed right Ranbir Deepika have ensured Udaipur is the coveted wedding destination! The contribution of Bollywood as a soft power for our economy cannot be underestimated.
Coming back to Pench- No we did not see any big cats! My friends who probably have taken many more early morning safaris in search of the tiger were very disappointed but I felt rejuvenated driving around in the forest at Pench. I understood that forest bathing can indeed be nourishment to the soul. The weather was great, the sun filtering through the tall trees, the water bodies, peacocks, parakeet, kingfisher, spotted deer, monkeys, vultures, foxes, boar, buffalo, Gaur, egrets, eagles, butterflies ....our jungles are so full of life. I haven't been to Africa so I haven't seen the abundance of wildlife from a hot air balloon, but I do believe nature's bounty has ensured highest mountains, wide rivers, waterfalls, jungles and wildlife in our beloved country, which we are doing well to preserve. But I also know that if the big cats are lounging around in enclosures, you get no highs from spotting them! The fun was in imagining how Kipling saw all this and came up with the legendary story of the Jungle Book. How our Panchatantra stories seem to be playing out in the jungle. The fun was in listening to the stillness of the forest and then in turn listening to the calling sounds when the tiger was on the move.
There have been many movies on Forests and Forest officials in recent times and the social media presence of forest officers along with actors like Vidya Balan and Pankaj Tripathi have raised the profile of forest workers. The safari was organised very well and we had a young lady aptly called Ganga assigned to our open jeep. She lived in a nearby village and was very knowledgable, friendly and talkative. It was nice when she referred to animals with their cartoon character names! Hakuna Matata!
The Tathastu resort too had young people from nearby villages working there. The resort is built very artistically with a nice circular platform ringed with benches, for bonfires apart from a rope bridge,over a water body, spa and restaurant. The rooms were all different. Ours were cave rooms- artificial caves with waterfalls as showers in the bathroom and lighting which resembled torches/ mashal. There was a treehouse and a tenthouse room too. We also went boating during sunset to a nearby lake and visited a village where potters were giving real time demonstrations of their terracota art. Few of us volunteered to get behind the potter's wheel and we saw school children trying their hand too!
All in all, what you hear in the Western news about India being an island of prosperity, it is indeed reflected in the vibrancy you experience in India both while negotiating the crowds, Diwali lights, decorations and traffic on the roads and in airports but also when you talk to young people like Ganga and others employed in the tourism industry which is just taking off! Praying everyone stays safe and healthy!
News of unprecedented NDA victory in Bihar is also making news and my cousins from Patna have been singing praises about improvement of infrastructure in tourist places like Rajgir, Nalanda and BodhGaya! Guess I will go again and visit the Jain shrine in my ancestral district of Vaishali, which I haven't yet visited, along with Barabar caves in my maternal village in Gaya ...which is a shame!
