I read in “The Wayfinders” that on the island of Siberut, the Mentawai people believe that spirits enliven everything that exists – birds, plants, clouds and the sky. Rejoicing in the beauty of the world, these divine entities could not possibly be expected to reside in a human body that was not itself beautiful. Thus the Mentawai came to believe that if the Nature lost its luster, if the landscapes became drab, if they themselves as a physical presence in creation ceased to do honor to the essence of beauty, the primordial forces of beauty would abandon this realm for the settlements of dead, and all life would perish, says Wade Davis.
That’s the thing about travel, we get to move with people who teach us newer and perhaps more original ways to connect with the Earth and these ancient ways to connect with the Earth prove to be more heartening and tend to lend an air of optimism. Therefore, when you get to observe a culture that has conservation and love for wildlife ingrained in its DNA, it is never bad news for us willing learners.
So when we moved on from Sinharaja to Yala one could tell from the reverence people have for the natural world that respect for Earth is a way of life. There is, of course, the presence of countless resorts with the name Leopard or Yala splashed all over them. My favorite \was Leopard-ology. There is the craze, the hustle bustle that is akin to tourism world but there is also respect for the animals. The damp of Sinharaja was soon replaced with dry and punishing heat of Yala. Oh but then, we didn’t notice that at all. Yala had us in rapture from the word go.
It wasn’t just the fauna that had us amazed, it was Yala itself. A verdant land of clear still lakes, gentle meadows of eerie white dead trees – the elders of this land perhaps, greener meadows of acacia trees and the sea, as if Noah’s ark docked here and left this amazing fauna behind for all to see and love. But this is the land of ancients, with a culture that was built around the natural world, wherein tolerance and the idea of coexistence is still prevalent. Each moment spent in Yala took my journey to the next level, you lose a bit of yourself and you find a bit of yourself.
“The ideal of a single civilization for everyone implicit in the cult of progress and techniques impoverishes and mutilates us. Every view of the world that becomes extinct, ever culture that disappears, diminishes a possibility of life.” – Octavio Paz
- Panthera pardus kotiya or the Sri Lankan Leopard – “Cherry to the Cake” moment, this stud of a Leopard was resting on a rock just when we were heading out of the park. At first he made for it, then stopped dead and settled down by the edge of the rock, as if thinking ‘Hey this is my spot! I shouldn’t have to leave!” We got twenty precious minutes with him, and we observed this beautiful animal. He was scarred, from a battle, whether he won or lost, how I would love to know. Then he growled at us, we left, as if saying “This is your spot. We should leave!”
- The Growl.
“To be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only things that make man better than the beast” – Ruskin Bond
- The diminutive Muggers were basking next to every lake we passed by. This guy resting near the man-made lake decided we were intruding into his privacy and starts trudging back to the pond.
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” – Jack Kerouac
- Chestnut-headed bee eater. Small, social and show-offs.
- Black naped hare.
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” – Eckhart Tolle
- The Open bill stork went right in, gives out a cascade of water when it comes up but dropped the fish. Our presence startled it.
This journey was turning out to be more therapeutic than I thought. Even the heat of Yala seemed to have an aphrodisiac like effect. Calm coursed through the veins, I was sweating out negativity and the cynicism that had taken residence seemed like a distant dream. It should’ve taken a little more than commitment, I missed my old courage, it took a few animals to remind me of that, as my favorite author says-
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” – Maya Angelou
- We watched as he played with mud, we watched as he used his trunk to make shapes out of it, we watched as grappled with acacia for food, we watched as he trotted from one side to another and to him we were as good as not there. I wished we could tell him that we love him, just as he is 🙂
“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.” – Toni Morrison
- He kept nodding off, he wanted to be wary of us but he couldn’t, the brown fish owl was just too sleepy.
To re-interpret David Knopfler, if for him it is a studio, to me it would be a forest – “I feel like I’m stepping into a place of spiritual contemplation every time I enter a forest; it’s always had a certain magic to me that has never worn off with familiarity.”
- A Pied Hornbill pair, as we leave Yala, our last spotting for the day. No, perhaps the peacocks were the last AND our first.
Armed with an old habit to summarize my feelings or experiences, I was in the end quite sure of a few things:
a. I loved all the wildlife I saw.
b. I loved the company I was in.
c. I loved seeing the Leopards and the Elephants. (We had seen a female Leopard with her two cubs)
d. I loved the heat. (That could also be the reason why I thought the boars at Yala looked cooler!)
e. The dry heat of Yala made me feel richer in my heart and soul.
f. I was happy tired. Just like the Leopard.
- Yawn.
Next stop. Mirissa. And that was quite an experience.
Ramya Ravi 