February 22, 1999, Monday, sunny,
12-26C
[18:41 @ Rm.112, Kanha Jungle Lodge]
As
planned, while Faiyaz struck off with Tirath at 08:00 on another round of
panchayat invitations, Tarun and I set out for Baihar to call Delhi. We succeeded in reaching Manoj first try,
and he received the request for the 220 volt slide projector and the tray of
slides in near silence. We also tried
to contact Pradeep in Jodpur because he’s been asking Tarun what we’re up to,
but he was out and about. Both Tarun
and I felt Manoj either would not do as we requested, or he would screw up
again somehow.
During
our long time alone together, Tarun began to share with me some of his
thoughts. He feels that Pradeep’s move
to Canada is a big mistake, that his presence is almost zero in Delhi, and his
Delhi operation has “collapsed”. “You
can’t do business by e-mail,” he said.
He feels that the Delhi office considers him “illiterate” and treats him
with disrespect. He is supportive of
what I am doing at Kanha, but feels that there is a “great distance” between me
and Pradeep. On the last score, I was
quite open about that Pradeep and I do differ in our thoughts on staying put
and reaching out. I explained that my
coming from Canada to India is an outreach unto itself, and once in India, I by
nature would want to reach out as far as possible on the local ground, and that
outreach is the best way to generate media, which is the best way to create
public awareness, which is the highest baseline to get things changed. While on media, I also pointed out that
Pradeep and the Delhi office disappointed
me by having generated no media coverage at all for the school
presentations. So, there, we have an
understanding. I don’t mind or care if
it goes back to Pradeep. In fact, I
think that would be good.
Later
in the day, about 13:45, we drove back to Baihar and called both Pradeep and
Manoj again. Pradeep was still at
large, but Manoj reported that he had sent a “boy” out, with the tray of
slides, but, wouldn’t you know it, again, rather than the 220 volt projector as
I requested, he had sent the voltage converter instead, with the attached requirement that the converter be
sent back for use on Bara Bacha with the “boy” when returns to Delhi, which
means in a day or two. Another fuck up,
but what’s new? Well, that’s not going
to happen. He created the problem by
sending the wrong thing. Had he sent
the 220 volt projector, the converter would be in Delhi for Bara Bacha and I
would sent the WCWC 110 volt projector back with the “boy”, and everybody would
be happy. Now, they would just have to
find another converter in Delhi.
The
electric power blacks out regularly for hours at a time every day. Today, it was from 07:00 this morning all
the way till almost 18:00 this afternoon.
If tomorrow is the same, we’d be in big trouble. I worked out the solution that the meeting
with the panchayat leaders, comprising about 16 villages, will begin at 13:30
as planned. It will be a
getting-to-know-you session which will be informal. At 15:00, we’ll take them into the park, with me driving and
Faiyaz at the back interpreting. We’ll
be back to the lodge at about 17:30.
Hopefully, the power will have been back on by then, which it usually
does. I’ll give my slideshow as soon as
the power comes back on, and wind up by 19:00 at the latest.
Faiyaz
came back around 15:30 this afternoon, and proclaimed a “good” day, with
another 7 or so panchayat leaders comprising another 16 villages. They will come same time on February 27. In this case, he will go into the park’s
eastern core to visit the 22 some odd villages there, and will go another round
in the buffer zone on the 25th.
[00:16] This evening, Tarun went shopping at Malanjkhan, the
copper-mining town, and invited along the tall Chris and me, together with
Deleep and another tribal lodge employee.
We tried to call Pradeep again, and this time he was at a wedding. Tarun asked me if I had any message to pass
on to Pradeep. I said, “Say that I wish
him long life and prosperity.” And
added, “Just tell him what you know about our plan and progress regarding the
panchayat outreach and conference.”
When we came back, we had our little farewell party for Christopher
L.. Since I told my “greatest love
story” yesterday to entertain the troop, I instigated a round of personal
love-story-telling clockwise around the table (Faiyaz, Anne, Tarun,
Christopher, Chris). As it happened,
Faiyaz did not have one to tell, Anne told about her two simultaneous love
interests, Tarun told about his courtship of Dimple, Chris L. about his brother
marrying his ex-love-interest Isabelle, and Chris C. told of his Hawaiian male
lover who died of throat cancer. After
that, we (Anne, Faiyaz and I) sang our modified Yesterday for Christopher. It was a warm and loving evening for
all.
To
cap it all off, Faiyaz, Anne and Chris finally spoke those two ‘unspeakable’
words – a very timely intermediate grand-finale for Chris on the eve of his
departure.
“The
recurrent phenomenon of organisms integrating into societies, which then
transcends into being higher leveled organisms, is so universally prevalent it
should have a name,” Chris said.
“It
does, even two versions of it,” Raminothna said.
“And
they are?”
“One
is Transcendental Integration.”
“Transcendental Integration,” Anne tasted
the two magical words on her tongue – the third woman in history to do so, the
first being Professor Carole S. Hickman of U.C. Berkeley, the second being my
former love Roxy Flood who played Raminothna in the 220-minute audio tape
version of OMNI-SCIENCE that I produced in 1994. I had brought a few copies of this double-cassette tape with me,
one of which I will give to Chris L. as a farewell gift, so that he could stay
with us in spirit and in mind.
“Perfect,” Anne said.
“And
the other?” asked Chris.
“Integrative Transcendence.”
“Integrative
Transcendence,” Faiyaz’s turn.
“Perfect, too.”
“Transcendental
Integration. Integrative
Transcendence. I don’t know which one
is more perfect,” said Chris.
“They
each have their more perfect moments,” said Raminothna