City Girl, Nature and Enigma

Adorned with the renowned brands and carrying the latest gadgets, this City Girl decided to venture out ‘Into the Wilderness!!!’ I carried two books and few notebooks to pen down my thoughts. I also carried my coffee and not to mention, the medicines, thinking I might develop the stress headaches!!!! How naïve I was then not to realise that the stress headaches or the migraine (the fancy word) is the outcome of the rushed life that I lead every day!!!

After travelling for 5 hours by road and my constant display of happiness looking at the hills, rivers and breathing the fresh air, anyone would have thought I was a crazy tourist travelling for the first time. I was very sceptical of where I would be staying because, of course, my trained critical mind was going to find many flaws. But how wrong I was; off highway and few minutes down the dirt road came my sanctuary!

What a beautiful location. So simple yet PERFECT. The place is situated by the banks of the Rapti River overlooking the forest (yes, a real forest). My first thought was to tweet and tell the world. Involuntarily I had already taken out and tweaked my gadgets but there was no connection. My panic and frustration were bubbling up but little did I realise then how lucky it was to not have the connection after all. Slowly my initial emotional waves sighed and melted into the greenery. In nature, it was just nature alone. No deadlines to meet, no meetings, no justification for my pace, no reporting. All in all, I was alone with my thoughts, time and space!

My favourite definitely was the nature walk inside the forest. I was bit scared at first thinking about the insects, snakes and what danger lay ahead. I looked at our nature guide with much irritation as he was trying to explain things I already knew and was showing birds and animals like as if they were rare creatures. But after about 10 minutes of walking down the forest trail, my irritation turned into a fascination and I began to feel an absolute admiration for these nature guides who knew every nook and corner of the forest by heart. By explaining the importance of different herbs and showing in real the variety of birds and the faunas that included Mugger crocodiles, Wild Boar, Spotted Deer, Sambar, Langurs and even the Great One Horned Rhino, the guide taught me to appreciate one thing that exists in life free of cost – the NATURE! No sooner, without even realising when, I had immensely started enjoying the ruffled leaves, muddy paths, chirping birds and the complete green.

Then the realisation dawned how consumerism has influenced my mind and soul. How I have lost the purity of natural mind amidst the hullaballoo of life. The nature and those animals and birds wandering inside the forests and taking flights over the trees sanding atop the wild forest floors taught me to live my life again. The bruises on my body after falling from an elephant’s back, the thrill of being in a canoe right next to a crocodile, the silent flow of the gigantic Rapti; then the brisk walk back to the camp in a hope to evade any danger along a moonlit trail that ran besides the same silent river, and those moments of breathing fresh air while equally realising that it could pour anytime; and later as I lay rested back at the camp, the thunder that growled and the lightening that struck throughout the night taught me to fall in love again….all over again!!!!

“I do not need any chemicals to ease the pain, the adventure and the beauty of the wilderness was my medication!!!”