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Chasing the Sunset<br />
Post our appetizing lunch of fish, freshly caught from<br />
the river and cooked on location, it was siesta time.<br />
However, after a while, Bandeep, Shalini and I decided<br />
to cross the water and walk to the opposite bank. We<br />
had seen some men washing clothes and walking<br />
across that particular area seemed quite manageable.<br />
Gopika had warned us it was deeper and trickier than<br />
it looked and suggested we take a local hand along. But<br />
we were confident that we didn’t need any help. We<br />
soon discovered that it was quite a daunting task and<br />
were relieved that Ambica had insisted on us not going<br />
without her trusted help Barkat, who is the caretaker at<br />
Amariya. The riverbed was treacherously slippery, with<br />
moving water running over our feet, every tentative<br />
step of our way. With a large stick in one hand and the<br />
other hand reaching out to Barkat, all three of us finally<br />
crossed the river and climbed onto the other bank with<br />
a sigh of relief, congratulating ourselves for having<br />
made it without a dunking in the river. It is a sluggish<br />
river so thankfully we were saved the ignominy of this<br />
wetting. Surveying the scene along the river we were<br />
kept busy with our cameras until the sun started to set.<br />
Reluctant to return the same way, in the fading light,<br />
one of the cars came to pick us up, via a longish detour,<br />
over a new bridge. It was actually quite a downer to<br />
travel back on this bridge after that intimate nature<br />
walk, because it brought us back to traffic and other<br />
aspects of town-living we had happily left behind, and<br />
were not quite ready to embrace its cacophonic chaos<br />
again. Not yet!<br />
‘dada’, photo credit: gopika nath
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