Its been a month since I have been here in Bomdo, but it just sunk in, Bangalore is now not just physically
away, its mentally a long way away too. This Sunday was unlike
others. The day began late for me since all night the hum of rain
falling on the tin roof of this 'bungalow' I stay in kept me. I woke
up thinking its too much rain so field work is not a possibility and
I can sleep in. The kid whom I recently employed to cook for me came
in late too, at 6 am. I hear him chopping some wood to make the fire
and very slowly I wake up. I was still hungover with the cold that I
caught with the onset of the winter, four days back. The rain refuses to stop, so I sent my friend Army to pick up lots of seeds
of a Castanopsis species. Small oak like fruits, that remind you of
the fruit the squirrel would not let go of in the movie 'Ice
Age'. These are quite tasty too, and the species fruits only once in
two years, so I had to get some quick for my experiments, since many
animals and birds make a quick meal of it. In fact I ate some two
years back too; roasted on fire, they make a sumptous snack. So Army
has left to bring back the seeds by himself since I am still a little
sick and the walk to the place where these trees and seeds are is
more than 5 km to and fro in the hills.
After the morning meal cooking, I put
in more wood and decided a bath is due. So I made some hot water and
just finished with a rejuvenating and a (a word that always takes me
two minutes to remember!) therapeutic bath. For the rest of the
day, I plan to read a couple scientific papers, do some data entry
and plan the field work for the next few months. I can't help but
remember how it used to be in Bangalore when I was even a little
feverish. Amma would prepare a peppery concoction we call 'kashayam'
and a peppery pongal (rice and lentils) breakfast. I could read the
newspaper and then contemplate life the whole day! Here, I would miss
her caring but hey there is warm ginger tea and I could do the
latter but contemplate not just life but my Phd too! But a bath did
me real good; I feel fresh enough to make an entry on the blog and
perhaps to get well soon enough to continue field work.
