Feeling one with everything is the goal. To that end, I can say it is hardest to achieve when doing mundane (or sometimes interesting) activities that happen daily - like work, commuting, shopping, reading, etc. That's when the mind is very much required to process details & be on high alert.
Being with nature like on a trek or on a wildlife tour is blissful because the mind just drops away. Then there is no limitation of being distinct from everything else. That’s been one of my main motivations for going on treks & trips!
White hill colour lord stands for Biligiri Rangaswamy – that’s right, I’d been to the Jungle Lodges resort at BR Hills with 2 other friends. We had 2 fun filled days (& nights!) out in the wild, all the while enjoying 5 start luxury. It is hard to believe – but there’s toilet paper in the toilets, hot water, electricity & even fewer mosquitoes & insects than in my own home in the city! All this comes at a steep price, but that’s the price you pay for wanting to get away, yet retain useless things. Being a wildlife sanctuary we sighted sambar (not of the rasam fame!), spotted deer, barking deer, wild boar, gaur, elephant, jungle fowl, bear & birds like serpent eagle (one of the most powerful birds of prey), white fishing eagle, 2 types of woodpeckers, Malabar whistling thrush (the male whistles beautifully to attract the female – perhaps humans took a cue from this?). We spotted most of these animals & birds both on the jeep safari & the treks, but being in close unguarded quarters with animals is a whole new experience. A lot of the crowd at JLR was composed of very noisy kids, noisy engineers & few like us too lazy to make noise. The disappointment was that we couldn’t see a tiger or leopard out in the wild – these are nocturnal, shy creatures not exactly people friendly. However, we did see 1 day old tiger shit & felt happy imagining seeing the tiger shitting in the wild!
One afternoon on the trip, I was feeling very active but my lazy friends were lying around on the bed doing nothing. There were plenty of butterflies doing the rounds in front of our hut. I felt attracted towards one particularly beautiful & exotic yellow butterfly with a green eye shaped design. I went out & stood silently. Wonder of wonders – the butterfly came & settled on my chappal clad foot! It was prettier from close quarters & I thought this was a one off incident. But gosh – it kept getting attracted to me so many times! Truly it was no coincidence, but love at first sight. Romancing the butterfly was much better than any human emotions…there were no words, no sense organs involved, nothing unnecessary…just pure love. I could even feel a sense of attachment, however slight & brief! All in all, an extremely touching experience :)
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Your sambar comment reminds me of an incident from just over a year ago. Our extended family did a trip to Ooty and we had been to a wildlife sanctuary off Ooty (bordering Kerala). A sambhar crossed our path. A little cousin of mine saw it and was very impressed. Later on, she narrated the incident to her dad (who was in another car). 'Appa, when we were going, rasam ran across the road'. Sambhar, rasam.. All the same.
Shifting over to Kannada doesn't avoid confusion either. Imagine - saaru (rasam) & huli (sambhar)!!! This will be much much more rarer though.
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