March 3, 1999, Wednesday, Sunny, 17-31C

 

[05:48 (1999-03-04-4) @ Rm.111, Kanha Jungle Lodge]

     Yesterday (03-03) was another forced off-day.  So we again took the opportunity to go into the park.  This time it was Tarun at the wheel, Anne, Kim, Faiyaz, Chris C. and I participating.  With both Chris and Faiyaz in the same vehicle, both being avid bird-watchers, it is a day of bird watching, whether a tiger showed up or not.  On the road back from the park to the lodge (about 1.5 km.), we encountered two roadblocks of tree branches set up by colour-powder-encrusted villagers, demanding money for us to pass.  Tarun talked his way past the first one, but at the second one, a villager held up a pot of coloured water threateningly, demanding money or else.  Tarun had to pay Rs.50 to get past that one, which was a wise decision, since earlier, we had seen a motorist getting into a shoving match with a drunken villager, one with blood on his lips and the other with bleeding knuckles.

     “I see another interlevel parallelism,” said Raminothna.

     “What is it?”

     “When two nations are at war, they send out their soldiers to kill and be killed, like the thousands of cells that were killed in the guy’s bleeding knuckles.”

     In the evening Tarun and Faiyaz went to Baihar to call Pradeep.  Prior to the trip, we sat down to strategize the call.  They both asked me to go and speak to Pradeep about our work here.  I declined.  I've already sent him the letter.  The ball is in Pradeep's court.  If he had read the letter, there is no point for me to explain thing over again.  If he hadn't read the letter, I wanted him to get the picture by reading the letter, not to have me tell him about it on the phone.  The letter is a much better medium to convey things systematically.  I also don’t totally trust myself to be able to talk to Pradeep with equanimity.  I suggested that they go and check for any fax from Pradeep.  If there is no fax, things are fine.  It is a case of “no news is good news”.  If there is a fax saying something like the last fax, i.e. suspend all action until he arrives, I would then call him, this evening.  And if I have to make this call, it is to say “No". 

     Tarun, however, would have to make the call - to ask for money to run the place, annd for Tiger Trust action input and funds.  The situation is that no money has been released to him since early February for either, even after the first installment of the CIDA funds have arrived.  . 

     As it happened, and not surprisingly, there was no fax from Pradeep, and Tarun again could not get Pradeep on the phone, even as Pradeep was in Delhi, nor was there even a message left for him.  How much more detached from the front line can Pradeep be? 

     Anne observed, “Pradeep is not the fire and brimstone campaigner that you are.  If you have him as a partner, you will constantly be frustrated.” 

     I was having a chat with her yesterday evening while Faiyaz and Tarun went off to Baihar.  The object was that where this outreach project is concerned, Faiyaz is given to work at 150% efficiency (from 07:30 to 21:30, day in, day out, which however is what he thrives on doing), I at 70%, but she at no more than 20%, and she wanted to have more of her considerable abilities put to work.  We talked about what she could do before the conference.  She would like to go outreach to the English schools in Baihar, Malanjkhan (the copper mining town) and Balaghat, and liaise with the women’s groups there, if any.  We thought that Judge Vijay Chandra and Collector Manu Srivastava would be excellent people to start with.  Perhaps tomorrow I’ll go with her into Baihar to pay Judge Vijay Chandra another visit. 

     Anne and I also talked about what best for her and Faiyaz to do after the conference, especially after I leave.

     When Faiyaz came back, we discussed this with him and he thought what Anne wanted to do a capital idea, and came up with some more suggestions as to how to get it done.

     Faiyaz and I also talked about what best to do tomorrow.  We decided that he would again go early in the morning with Tirath to rake in as many panchayats as possible over the next few days.  He’ll spend the whole day out there.  So our planned visit to Judge Chandra would have to be in the evening after Faiyaz has returned from his outreach drive.  Another 14-hour work day for him, but as I said, he thrives on it.  I can empathize with him on this, since I’m much the same.