Forest talk

I am a forest lover and ardent admirer of natural environment. This time I was lucky to get the privilege of driving through Melghat Tiger Reserve (located on southern offshoot of the Satpura Hill Range in Central India). It is a prime habitat of the tiger. The forest is Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests, dominated by teak. The Reserve is a catchment area for five major rivers all of which are tributaries of the river Tapti. The northeastern boundary of the Reserve is marked by the Tapti river. There is no habitation in the core area but some tribal villages in the reserve, buffer zone and multiple use area.

As we drove through the tourist route predominantly used for wildlife followers, all we could feel were the dry leaves hissing in the hot wind and thirst rivulets and streams. For a couple of minutes we stopped. All man made sounds terminated and there was a complete silence. I wanted to think something but my mind was blank. Could not think of any ramblings and went blank! It felt so close to that Nirvana state!!

After thoughts

I) There exists a galore of literature on planning, management and goal setting. The world is inundated with theories, practices and success stories of people working to make their destinies. Conditioned to this environment, I also had been an ardent follower of “Do or Die” philosophy for some time in Life.

II) I recently completed “A thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseni. I don’t remember when was the last time I wept or was highly touched by fiction work. But Hosseni made me weep in the climax, when Mariam sacrifices her life so that Laila could build a little world of her own in the new Afghanistan! Mariam and Laila are two different characters that are brought together by mere circumstances in the second half of the story line. Threatened by each other’s presence, both of them slowly develop an intimate bond that weaves rest of the storyline around their affection tales.

The end may seem a little dramatic to some readers but it set me thinking what determines the circumstances in which characters of this novel were born. What determines the context, family, environment and thoughts that rule an individual’s life? For Mariam, it was sheer destiny that she was born as an illegitimate child of Jalil and Nana, in war torn country and as a female! Her marriage to Rasheed leads to a series of unfortunate events that end with her life. I thank Hosseni for creating Mariam and Laila who make me ask the following questions:

Is an individual’s life a series of events that have been scripted out even before one is born? Are we mere players in hands of the software that has been embedded in to our spirits? If yes do we have the humility to accept it? Or we want to still continue with our trumpet that over emphasizes the word “I”.

Last month was a little peculiar. I received a series of calls from my friends, each of who had quit or were about to quit their jobs. The reasons varied and all of them had called me to discuss reasons, prospects and trauma associated with their previous/ongoing jobs. But to my surprise all of them sounded similar. It left me baffled, how can so many of my friends go through similar problems at same time in life and call me at the same time!!!

The circumstances or complaints were matching in spite of different stages of their career or organizational dynamics or their expectations of an ideal work environment. All I did was to give a patient listening to each of them. Lately, some of them have started calling back informing me that things are changing with them. Again, what I did was smiled and listened patiently!! Sometimes it helps to be a patient listener.