[HrB]

Not having contributed much till now (I got my proud membership in Nov ’18), I was feeling little guilty deep inside. Looking at the quality of each post in this forum, it really was a task to finalize my plan and put them down in black and white. My thoughts before penning down my post were whether it would be good enough to be posted in this forum, if forum members would like it, if it would be worthy enough to find a place in the home page and what not. Moreover, I remember GTO’s first message to me, welcoming me to the forum and appreciating my writing style, after I had written my introduction in this forum. Took motivation from GTO’s post and here I am. I did try to find similar posts, if any, in the forum but no luck. May be, I am not putting in the right key words. Request mods to please put this in the right place in case I am lost.

My wife, my parents, my relatives, my friends and, at work, my colleagues and my boss are all very critical of my memory which tends to cheat me just when I need it the most. If I am to bring 3 things from the departmental store, I’d invariably forget one. If I am to complete two tasks, I’m most likely forget one of the two. Many a time, I’d interact with a person without having any clue as to whom I’m speaking to.

At office, I’ve taken things to the next level. Time and again, I’ve been guilty of forgetting deadlines and at times forgot to submit an already completed report. As per my boss, "my name" basically means ‘to forget’. I knew all was well when my boss could, actually, joke about my forgetfulness and not fret too much about it. However, this was a problem and to mitigate this problem, I started maintaining a diary. But then again, being the person that I am, at times I forget to check the diary too.

However, things are not quite the same when it comes to my childhood. Strangely, I can recollect incidents from my childhood like they happened just yesterday. There are incidents from my childhood many of which my parents may have forgotten, but not me.

Today, I plan to share those incidents from my childhood which I believe are worth sharing and makes for an interesting read. Most of the incidents mentioned here are from the time when my father used to be a Forest Range Officer and that had taken him, and obviously us, many places.

1. The Herd of Elephants

I was only 3 (late 70s) years old when my father was transferred to a small town named ‘Mazbat’ in Darrang District of Assam. The forest colony comprised of the office, an Inspection Bungalow (IB), Range Officer’s Quarter and 4 to 5 other quarters for office staff, all lined up one after another. The Range Officer’s quarter was built during British era and was suspended over wooden pillars and had wooden floors. It had two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room along with a toilet. The kitchen, however, was located outside the Quarter and was of ‘Kaccha’ type.


A special feature of this forest colony was its proximity to the Jungle at the backyard, which ensured that we would have regular visitors from the wild. The most regular ones were the herd of Elephants who would come at night. The first thing they would do was to break into the kitchen, walls of which was made of bamboo with layer of mud applied on it. Their primary target was the ash from the ‘Chulha’ as we did not know of LPG at that point of time. Secondly, they would search out the jar of Salt which is a delicacy for them. Once their exploration of the kitchen was over, they would move on to the Jackfruit Tree that was just adjacent to our bedroom and feast on Jackfruits.

We used to see all these from inside the house. Being only 3 years old, I must admit, it was all extremely terrifying. Had I encountered them a little later in my life, the term I would be using today would, possibly, be ‘Thrilling’ and not ‘Terrifying’. That’s how our perspective towards things change at different stages of our lives. But thankfully, there visits were always at night and my father had instructed all the people living in the colony to leave them alone and not to ever come in their way. This ensured that they never caused any harm to any human being. The so-called Human-Animal conflict did not exist at that time.

In 2012, I had to go to Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh on official work. After completing my work there, I was returning via a place called Orang, famous for Rasgullas served in earthen pots. From Orang it takes about 3 hours to reach Guwahati. Since it was hardly 1 PM when I reached Orang, I had time and hence, decided to take a detour from Orang and check out the forest office campus at Mazbat which was just few kilometers away. It took me exactly 12 minutes to reach Mazbat Forest Office campus as I did not have to ask for direction. For the records, I was going to Mazbat after almost 32 years and my last visit was when I was hardly 3-4 years old. Did take a photo of the quarter which I am reproducing here. Now I am regretting not taking more pictures which could have added so much value to this post today.

I took this photograph from the road with a very basic phone. Trust me when I say this quarter appeared much taller when I was a kid.



2. The Leopard at the Backyard

The night, I still remember, was a full moon night. I was peacefully sleeping with my mom when my father quietly wakes me up. He was whispering in my ears and was visibly excited. Not sure of what was happening, I did not make a sound and got up. This is when father asks me if I would like to see a “Baagh” (In Assamese, we call all tigers, leopards, panthers etc. as Baagh). By this time, I was quite used to the visit of the elephants. But a “Baagh” was a different ball game altogether.

I was very excited to see the “Baagh”. Father took me to the dining room and near the window facing the backyard of our house. My mother and elder brother were already there quietly watching the Leopard. The windows of the quarter were mostly made of wood with only the top three-quarter portion having a glass fitted to them. I could see out of them only if someone would lift me up. My father did.

And there I was, looking, rather peeping, at the “Baagh” resting on our backyard. The full moon was only helping making it look more majestic. I was excited and scared to the bones at the same time. I was hardly 3 to 4 years old at that time. The Leopard was not facing our house but was sitting sideways and looking away into the jungle. The Leopard, surely, wasn’t aware that he was been observed by 4 pairs of human eyes while he rested peacefully, oblivious to the fact that he was not at a place he is supposed to be and the possible danger he might be in, in case the human eyes looking at him were not friendly.

Once I saw what I saw, I made sure that everybody goes back to bed immediately. My parents possibly wanted to stay up for some more time because this was a sight of a lifetime and may not present itself again in their lifetime. However, they couldn’t as they had one 4-year-old kid with them who was damn scared and wanted to hide between his parents and ensure that the “Baagh” does no harm to him or his family.

How I wish now that I was little older than what I was, to be able to enjoy the sight that not many have the luck for. Also, if only we had Smart Phones like we do today. That photograph would have done wonders to this post today.

3. The Man Eater

I definitely did not realize that I was meeting a man eater when we first met. What I saw was that it was furious with everyone for some reason. I understood the reason for the Tiger’s anger much later – 12 years to be precise when I read about the story of its capture, in my school, by the great hunter Late Ziaur Rahman of Mazbat.

Late Rahman was one unique hunter who always preferred to capture and not kill tigers. In fact, in order to capture such notorious man eaters, Late Mr. Rahman had once put himself as a bait as that man-eating tiger was not falling for the goat/cow that were kept as baits. Of course, he was successful in capturing that tiger.

Don’t remember the exact time of the year as I was too young to understand day, date, month or year. But what I remember is that there was this vacant space between our quarter and the office wherein, one fine night, there was a lot of commotion. When we looked out, there was this lorry being parked right between our quarter and Dad’s office. A lot of people had already surrounded the lorry and hurling abuses towards it. Of course, there was this tiger on it inside an iron cage, moving rapidly inside the small cage. It definitely did not look happy inside the cage.

I was so excited and wanted to see the Tiger up close. My dad was too happy to oblige and there we stood, right next to the cage, up on the deck of the lorry. The experience was SCARY to say the least. The iron bars between me and the tiger appeared too weak and I felt as if the tiger, that was already growling and full of rage, would just come out of the cage and leap at me. I really did not understand, then, why all the people were throwing stones at the Tiger and some trying to hit it with sticks. Most of all, I remember how bad the odor was and how angry the tiger was.

4. The Road is never a place to Relax

This is an incident, may be a year and a half later, of my meeting with the man eater. We moved to Dhekiajuli, a small town some 30 KM from Mazbat. During his posting in Mazbat, my Dad was given the responsibility of setting up a new forest range office in the town of Dhekiajuli. Once that was complete, we moved to Dhekiajuli town.

This is where I first went to school. Unlike the kids of today, I directly went to Class 1 skipping play school/pre-school. This ensured I had loads of fun and no study until I was 5 years old. And I’m sure I did not miss much by not going to school till that age.

There was this forest ‘Beat Office’ in a place called Batasipur which is about 15 KM North of Dhekiajuli. The single lane road leading to Batasipur from Dhekiajuli went through a Tea Garden and it was a pleasant drive during daytime and a chilling one (for me) at night. Most of the time we went in the evening after sunset as my father would go for jungle patrolling at night. We would accompany him to Batasipur where we stayed overnight in the forest IB (Inspection Bungalow) while my father would go about his duties at night.

During one such trip to Batasipur, my father was driving the Willys LHD Jeep that he owned. My mother sat in front while I and my elder brother were seated on the side facing backseats. As I have already mentioned, I found night drive on this road to be very creepy as the road was very lonely, dark and it went through Tea Gardens and part Jungles. We were passing through the Tea Garden where there was a slight turn and because of the tea bushes and the trees giving shadow to these bushes, one could not see anything on the other side of this small turn.

Since it was late in the evening and there was hardly any vehicle plying on that road (vehicles were anyway scarce in those days), my father was driving faster than he usually would. Right after taking the turn at good speed, suddenly we all could see this leopard sitting in the middle of the road and resting. It was covering almost the entire length of the pitch road and there was no time to apply brake and stop the jeep. My father did the right thing and tried to avoid the leopard and went from behind it. But available space was very less as we were in the middle of a tea garden and the right-side front wheel of the vehicle went over the tip of the tail of the leopard. Obviously, the leopard was hurt and out of its tendency to protect itself, launched itself towards the jeep and missed my mother by a whisker.

All we could do was to scream our lungs out. I was anyways scared and now there was this angry and hurt leopard running parallel to our jeep. Our jeep had a soft top and did not have any doors to protect its occupants. The leopard was running right next to my mother and all my father could do was to drive fast and leave the leopard behind. But, how fast a Willys Jeep, having 3 forward gears, could go? The leopard kept running right next to the jeep for some distance. It could have taken a leap any moment towards my mother and that would have spelt disaster.

Instead, the leopard took the next available opening into the tea garden and, to our relief, disappeared from our sight. The entire incident possibly lasted few seconds but felt like hours to us. Later on, my father explained that the leopard was equally scared and it was actually running next to the jeep as it could not find any way to get into the tea garden. We all prayed and hoped that it was not seriously hurt. However, there was no way for us to find that out.

A snap early morning in Batasipur. You can see me sitting on the 2nd elephant from the left. These elephants were getting ready to go into the forest to conduct survey. Pardon the poor quality of the photograph from early 80's.



5. The Milkman down the Road

This was the second incident worth a mention that took place in the Dhekiajuli – Batasipur road. It was another late evening, when the four of us i.e. my parents, brother and myself were headed to Batasipur Forest IB to spend a night.

Since there were no streetlights all we could see ahead was the road. That too as far as the headlights could throw their lights. We had again reached the tea garden through which the road passed. Being a little late in the evening, the road was deserted with no sight of any human being or vehicle in the area.

However, my father spotted a milkman at some distance, walking by the side of the road, all by himself, which baffled him much. It was not expected that someone would walk, all alone, at that time of the night where there is every possibility of wild animals venturing out. He did express his surprise to my mother. We kept moving ahead and got closer to the milkman.

By the time my mother could respond, we had almost reached near the ‘Milkman’ and whoa!! Its not a milkman but a Tiger. My father did slow down the vehicle so that we could have a look at the tiger while it was still ahead of us. The tiger chose to ignore the lights or the vehicle behind it and continued walking. We enjoyed the sight while it lasted and then quietly sped away to our destination.

6. Jatayu

“Jatayu”, the bird from Ramayana; is there anyone in India who haven’t heard of the brave and mighty “Jatayu” who laid his life in his quest to save “Sita Mata” from the clutches of “Ravana”?

Well, my first introduction to Jatayu was through my Grandmother who would tell us various stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata or the Jataka Stories whenever we used to visit our parental home. We would mostly visit our village home during some festival or other. The house would be full of children (read cousins) as everybody else would also come for the festival and it was a fight every night to get the privilege of sleeping with ‘Aabu’, as we called our grandmother, and be mesmerized with her stories.

Like most grandmothers, our Aabu too had this gift of telling stories in such a way that we would feel as if we were enjoying a movie. All the plots, characters, sets everything would just pop right in front of our eyes and we would walk right into this dreamland created by Aabu. From her description, I had imagined Jatayu as this big, old but brave, and yes, a bird who could speak and was very loving & gentle in nature. To make this image more concrete there were the Stage Theaters and Bhaonas, (Bhaona is a traditional form of entertainment, with religious messages, prevalent is Assam, India. It is a creation of Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankardeva, written in the early sixteenth century. He created the form to convey religious messages to villagers through entertainment. Source: Wikipedia), wherein Jatayu was this man with feathers attached all over his body and a beak, made of cardboard, held up with a string.

So, when I finally got to see the bird, in person, I was kind of taken aback as it was much different from what I had imagined it to be. It was surely big but black in color and looked creepier than I had imagined. Its wings, when spread, required the entire verandah of our quarter.

The bird was found under a tree, injured, by some villagers, and the forest department was informed. A team from my father’s office (Dhekiajuli Forest Range Office) went and rescued the bird and brought it to the office campus. As there were too many people to catch a glimpse of this rare bird, it was later shifted to the backyard of our quarter before it was moved to the Guwahati Zoo for treatment the same day.

We did have a photo session before it was sent off to Guwahati and thankfully, I have quite a few photographs, black & white though, available with me. Posting one below for your eyes only.

I did try “Google Lens” to check if it really was a Jatayu, but Google seems confused. It is showing various results which creates more confusion. Anyone in this forum, with knowledge of birds, may please correct me in case I am wrong with the identity of the bird. I am calling it Jatayu as I was told it was when I saw it as a kid.

That scared kid on the extreme right is me.



7. Ruby

Ruby came one day, while we were still at Dhekiajuli. I was older now and was a school going kid.

Ruby, barely few months old, and already an orphan, was a bubbly and cute fawn. I do not recall the history behind her becoming an orphan or how she was rescued by forest officials, but I do recall the great time, we, the kids of the forest colony of Dhekiajuli, had with her.

One fine day after returning from school, my mother told us, me and my brother, that there is a surprise waiting for us. Of course, we didn’t have the slightest of clue as to what that surprise could be. There was this temporary shed behind our quarter which had walls of bamboo. Mother asked us to go and check there and warned us to open the door very carefully.

We rushed to the shed and was happily surprised to find a fawn jumping around. Being a fawn and a very young one at that, she really didn’t know what fear is. Rather, she was too inquisitive to come and check us out. In fact, it was us who were little hesitant, initially, to let her come too close.

We had seen a fawn up close for the first time and had no idea how it would behave around human. We were very happy when we found out that she was playful and curious. We named her Ruby. Other than her care giver, only other humans she would come in touch was us, the kids, and she seemed to love it as we would run around inside the shed with her. Most of all, she loved to eat ‘Orange Cream’ biscuits right from the palm of our hands. It was such an experience the very few days she was with us.

Naturally, her stay with us was temporary as a deer is not a domesticated animal. However, like most captured animals, she was not sent to the zoo. Instead, she was sent to the Divisional Head Quarters at Tezpur. The Tezpur Divisional Forest Office maintained a beautiful and natural park around the famous ‘Podoom Phukhuri’ Lake. Ruby was set free in this park which had a lot of natural greenery and enough trees and bushes for her to hide and take shelter. This again was a temporary arrangement until she had grown up enough to be able to survive in her natural habitat.

Soon after my father got transferred to Digboi, the famous refinery town of Assam. We moved on and lost track of Ruby as to when finally, she was shifted to her permanent home, the forests.

8. Laxmi, The Baby Elephant

We were in Digboi, a place towards far east of Assam and some 400 KM from my dad’s previous place of posting, Dhekiajuli. Digboi is a small town, better known for the 1st Oil Refinery of Asia, established in 1901. It has the distinction of being one of the oldest refineries that is still in operation.

The Digboi Range Forest Office campus was located right next to the Digboi Refinery campus, separated by a railway track between the two campuses. It was quite a big campus with the office and employee quarters in one part and the Range Officer’s quarter separately in an adjacent plot. Our quarter had a big enough backyard for us to run around and even play a game of cricket with our friends from the forest colony.

I was in class 3 or 4 by now when one day our father informed us that they have received news from one of the nearby Tea Garden that a herd of elephants have left behind a baby elephant that fell into a drain. He also informed that he has already sent a rescue team, along with a truck, to fetch the baby elephant. We were, as usual, delighted to hear that we would soon be meeting a baby elephant. My father being in the forest department, it was quite common to see domesticated elephants coming to the office campus for various reasons. However, we’ve not had a baby elephant coming over till then. We were excited that it’s a baby elephant, although we had no idea how young the elephant was.

Well, the baby was so young that the truck was not needed at all. The baby elephant came riding in the back of a Mahindra jeep along with two staff from my dad’s office to keep it company. Upon arrival, the elephant was immediately brought to our quarter’s backyard as it had enough space for the elephant to move around and because, it would be safe and away from too much attention which might frighten the elephant.

We named her ‘Laxmi’. She was hardly 1 or 2 months old and was so tiny for an elephant that we immediately took a liking for her. She was very playful and had no idea about her strength. We would run around in the backyard and she would take active part in our play and would run around with us as well. A very light touch of hers would make us fall to the ground, such was her strength. In just a few days, she knew her name and would run towards whoever would call her by her name.

The amount of food that tiny little baby elephant needed, every day, was astonishing. It was getting increasingly difficult to arrange for her food as with every passing day, her requirement for food kept increasing. Unfortunately, her family in the wild could not be traced and therefore, as per prevailing practice, it was decided to put her up for auction to somebody who could meet up with the expenses required to raise a growing elephant. It was not long before she was taken to her new forever home.

After spending some 3 and a half years in Digboi, my father was transferred to Lakhimpur. This is where my parents took the hard decision, and off we went, to settle down in our own home at Guwahati while my father would move to Lakhimpur alone. This was done as we were growing up and it was important that we settled down in one school to finish our education. This meant there would be no more adventures, meeting with wild animals or interacting with them. Basically, life was going to be very boring from hereon.

There are, actually, so many more incidents, some I experienced and some heard from my father, like coming face to face with a wild and aggressive herd of elephants during one of our picnic parties, my father having his lunch sitting on a python (unknowingly), my father being chased by a wild bison, being chased by a Rhino or raising an orphaned bear cub at his quarter (this was before my father was married) and many more. I would really love to pen down all such interesting anecdotes, as and when I recall them and if time permits. I’m sure these would make for such a fascinating read when I’m old and can’t remember these small but noteworthy incidents due to my old age. I’m already very forgetful, remember?

I urge all forum members to dig deep down into your childhood days and bring out all such incidents and share with us all. If nothing else, your better halves, children and grandchildren would love to read them and live your childhood through your eyes. It would be such a treasure.

[ABHI_1512]

Interesting anecdotes from a childhood well lived. Incidentally, having spent my childhood in Naharlagun and having folks all over Assam as friends, places like Mazbaat and Digboi bring back memories for me too. Back in the nineties, Mazbaat became a household name in the NE because of the famous tea that made our mornings and evenings better. The lush green tea estate after crossing Orang is wonderful to look and feel about, only if people going to Tawang realise the history of Mazbaat.

Having some relatives in Naharkatia and having spent some time over the years in the Manager’s bungalow (my uncle was one back in the eighties) of the adjoining tea estates, I can well identify the situations that you were part off. The WILLY’S JEEP had us hooked and got us into the world of automobiles, only if that brute of a vehicle remained still and we could have relived our childhood again !!

The picture of the quarter that you shared here of Mazbaat is quite similar to the one I spent my childhood in Naharlagun. Going through your post made me nostalgic, the NE is amazing and we have been fortunate to be able to spend our childhood in pristine environments. Every time I land up in Guwahati, it somehow makes me happy.

I hope people who know you go through this thread to know that it’s not your memory that’s the problem but the circumstances around you in present times have made you lazy for things to remember

[HrB]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

Interesting anecdotes from a childhood well lived. Incidentally, having spent my childhood in Naharlagun and having folks all over Assam as friends, places like Mazbaat and Digboi bring back memories for me too.:

Good to know that you know these places well and also that I've been able to bring out sweet memories of your childhood too. Unfortunately, our kids aren't living their childhood the way we could.

[roy_libran]

Originally Posted by HrB

6. Jatayu

“Jatayu”, the bird from Ramayana; is there anyone in India who haven’t heard of the brave and mighty “Jatayu” who laid his life in his quest to save “Sita Mata” from the clutches of “Ravana”?

I did try “Google Lens” to check if it really was a Jatayu, but Google seems confused. It is showing various results which creates more confusion. Anyone in this forum, with knowledge of birds, may please correct me in case I am wrong with the identity of the bird. I am calling it Jatayu as I was told it was when I saw it as a kid.

That scared kid on the extreme right is me.

Excellent thread and I felt nostalgic looking at those pics because they reminded me of bits of my own childhood, although mine was a wee bit more urban than yours.

Here is the ID for your Jatayu. It is certainly not an often seen bird in India and their numbers have been declining.

[HrB]

Originally Posted by roy_libran

Here is the ID for your Jatayu. It is certainly not an often seen bird in India and their numbers have been declining.

The whole idea of this thread was to take people down their own memory lanes. Glad to know that you liked it.

Thank you so much for sharing the link. I saw this but was not sure as Google Lens was showing several other options too.

[roy_libran]

Originally Posted by HrB

The whole idea of this thread was to take people down their own memory lanes. Glad to know that you liked it.

Thank you so much for sharing the link. I saw this but was not sure as Google Lens was showing several other options too.

Definitely that species. You can also cross-check once on ASKID if you want.

If you want to view it again, it can be seen in some locations like Talchappar (near Bikaner), Munsiyari Uttarakhand, Assam/Arunachal amongst few other places, though you'll ned a bit of luck on your side.

[HrB]

Originally Posted by roy_libran

Definitely that species. You can also cross-check once on ASKID if you want.

If you want to view it again, it can be seen in some locations like Talchappar (near Bikaner), Munsiyari Uttarakhand, Assam/Arunachal amongst few other places, though you'll ned a bit of luck on your side.

Absolutely. Would love to have another encounter for sure. It's been so long since I had such luck with the wildlife.

[DudeWithaFiat]

Wow. What an amazing thread. You have written them down very well. I dodged myself from the imaginary leopard when I read that the leopard launched at the jeep.

"Its not a milkman but a Tiger" - This was scary and funny at the same time.

[HrB]

Originally Posted by DudeWithaFiat

Wow. What an amazing thread. You have written them down very well. I dodged myself from the imaginary leopard when I read that the leopard launched at the jeep.

"Its not a milkman but a Tiger" - This was scary and funny at the same time.

Thanks for liking my post. I must admit, I did have a very eventful childhood. I'm sure, if I go down that same road now, chances of seeing a tiger would be next to none.

[motorpsycho]

Lovely read! I have always been jealous of my friends, whose parents were in the forest department, I believe they had some of the best childhood memories. They usually spent their summer holidays in jungles and regaled us with stories of sightings of animals and stories the forest dept staff told them about, with the occasional ghost story to scare us!

[HrB]

Originally Posted by motorpsycho

Lovely read! I have always been jealous of my friends, whose parents were in the forest department, I believe they had some of the best childhood memories. They usually spent their summer holidays in jungles and regaled us with stories of sightings of animals and stories the forest dept staff told them about, with the occasional ghost story to scare us!

Yes, loads of ghost stories mostly in forest IBs. Plus can't forget those drives through deserted jungle roads. Owing to poor road conditions, there was always this fear of getting stuck in the middle of the jungle. Leave alone mobiles, there were hardly any land phones in those days. It was really amazing.

[saleem_k]

Lovely adventures to read! I've always envied people who are lucky enough to grow up in natural surroundings, unlike me who had an urban upbringing. I'm trying to balance that now through my travels but nothing can beat the actual experience of growing up and spending time in such environs. Thank you for sharing your experiences, look forward for more.

[deepak_misra]

Wonderful to read your experiences,
People here in Bangalore would pay a fortune to experience what you have experienced.
Do keep sharing

[HrB]

Originally Posted by saleem_k

Thank you for sharing your experiences, look forward for more.

Thank you for the encouragement. I'll surely try to come up with more.

[ramnath_77]

Amazing writeup. Literally lived through it while reading.
Thanks for sharing.