When the monsoon breaks in India and on days when nature reminds us that we are still intruders and thoughts turn to Hemingway or Joseph Conrad and the need to smell the musty smell of books on a rainy sunday afternoon I remember the countless treks in distant wild places and I wonder how much of this world will I ever be able to really experience.
The world's largest extinct volcano in Tanzania-Ngorongoro crater,a wild blissful place that holds in its bowels a diverse animal kingdom,for hours i have sat watching leopards strategise their hunts with patience and cunning,lions use their organisational skills to bring down wildebeest and the impala,zebra,kudu use giraffes as sentinels to warn of danger.
Another are the myterious Chimanimani mountains of Zimbabwe with their ancient lost cities,which some say where built by the Carthaginians or the mythical people of Altantis.The carved stone birds of Zimbabwe are all thats left,I remember the goosebumps one evening jeep ride with the Nguni guides and the compass running wild with night falling,apparently a hill of magnetite that affected the compass(we have something similar in Ladakh).
The days of Freedom are passing and our descendents might be lucky to find a few open spaces,some zoos;to them the animals will be more cartoons than anything to spend hours watching.An Age passes and with it its own forms of pleasure,pastimes,hobbies and all its ilk.
Thank my stars I aint immortal and I won't live to see humankind caged in concrete cells!To me those Birds of Zimbabwe carved in silent friezes are the epitome of all that was once wild and free...
