Sasan Gir at night

A friend of our family friend owned a farmhouse at Sasan Gir - so we were told; and we were to call him up when we get there. And so we did. We had no idea who he was. Couple of his acquaintances were to receive us on the way to Gir. We soon realised that the friend of our family friend was a big political figure of the region and a trustee to the local and many other schools.

Over the edge and into the river, and the bike follows

Our escorts were secondary school teachers. They told us that it was not possible for us to go any further on the motorcycle and that they were arranging a tractor for us!! We did not ask any questions and went with the flow. A tractor arrived in the next half an hour and we transferred our luggage from the bike and perched up. Our first time on a tractor. Soon we realised why. We left the tar road and went into the forest and then suddenly we were at the edge of the earth. Without halting the tractor went full speed (20 km/hr) over the edge and we were rolling down a hill and into the river, crossed the 3 feet of water and up the hill again.

Sasan Gir at dusk

We were hoping that they might be getting our bike by a longer way around but before we could think any further our bike was following the same path. Mentally we bid a silent goodbye to our bike and held on to the tractor for dear life. We reached the farmhouse after 45 mins of a jittery ride. It was beautiful, we were in the middle of the forest with no tar road coming to this place. 

 

There was a village nearby and some villagers had come to pay respect to the 'trustee's friends' and told us about an injured lion nearby that the forest officials were trying to move. As per the villagers lions were harmless as long as we did not come in their way. The scarier animal was the leopard. According to them a leopard would not discriminate between cattle and humans while the lions were only interested in the cattle. The other animal to watch out were the snakes. 

Left:Holding on for dear life; Right : mp3 player being fitted

Tractor resting at the village, Gir

 

By 6 pm it was almost dark and the tractor was ready with an inbuilt mp3 player fitted for our enjoyment. We were to go on a night safari!! The forest closes to the public by 6:30 pm and no one is allowed on the safari trails. But for us everything was fine since we were already inside the forest. We climbed aboard the tractor once again and started off with our bike right behind. As soon as we entered the forest the music blared out from the tractor - Aashiqui, Saajan with Jhankaar beats.

We reached the village where 2 more bikes were waiting for us. We were to abandon the tractor now and get onto the bikes. We entered the forest in the middle of the night escorted by two bikes one in the front and one in the back in a complete state of shock and mortal fear. We drove in complete silence through the chilly air and the scary forest noises for an hour till at one time the bike behind had disappeared and we badly needed to pee. What followed were few embarrassing compromises and we made it to the next village. We had dinner at a local's place and drove all the way back.

Though we did not see any animals, the thought of that night still sends shiver up the spine.

October heat in Gujarat

Our routine was set in a couple of days. We would always promise ourselves to start early but end up getting up by 8 or 9 and within an hour of packing and tying the luggage would be off right at the time when sun is high.

Zarwani forest lodge, Narmada, Gujarat

The trip was more Zen and art of tying the luggage. In October we had left with 2 sleeping bags, One big backpack, a smaller backpack and of course camera bag on us at all times. Tying the luggage on the bike used to take us at least 20-30 mins in the begining which was reduced to flat 7 min by the end of the lap. Usually the tying ritual would attract a small crowd around us with a list of questions. Some of the time that would end up in a meaningful discussion but more often than not it would just delay the start time. On top of that if both of us had decided to tie the bags our independent ways then there would be a nice verbal fight entertaining the crowd.

Once on the road ten mins is all it would take us to be in good spirits. Endless road is magical - it takes one into a complete meditative trance only to be interrupted by the herds of cattle or deep potholes. In Gujarat by 11 the heat would be unbearable. We would take a break every hour and gulp down a litre of chaas. After lunch by 2 pm it would be unbearable and we would look for a classic nap spot. On the way to Kachch was the hottest stretch where even trees had disappeared and all that was left was dust, thorny bushes and scorching heat.Our ropes touching the exhaust pipe gave way somewhere and we lost a sleeping bag with our shoes in it. Just to retrieve the shoes we headed back in search and 20 km away saw a completely burnt sleeping bag but with shoes intact.

Afternoon siesta

A rabari home, Chatadia, Gujarat

Windmills on the way to Porbander, Gujarat

Bumlas drying at Jafarabad, Gujarat

In the belly of the beast - 135 footer at Porbander

All my life I had never considered my sense of belonging to be tied intricately with a language. But in Gujarat language was a big connector - it immediately established intimacy and also a right to demand the same from others. In the beginning we would politely refuse invitation to tea, food but soon realised that it was taken as a rude gesture. Soon we started stopping and accepting invitations to various homes.

Infrastructure in Gujarat was really great. Not just roads but electricity, water supply and sanitation was made available to many of the remote places. All the off grid villages were given solar panels and the entire Saurashtra coast was lined by windmills. The only terrible highway was National highway 8E that goes parallel to the coast. Luckily for us we abandoned it soon after Una near Diu for the local internal roads.

The coastline of Gujarat was a nice surprise. Miles of fish drying - bumlas to be specific, windmills, and boat building dotted the 2000+ kms. Boat building was a treat to watch. From small fishing boats to big dhows that go all the way to the middle east and Africa were built completely out of wood and without a single drawing!! We hunted down a boat architect in Veraval named Narayanbhai and he gave us useful insights. The framework of the boat is out of 'bawal' wood and the skin is Malaysian teak. The length of the boat is measured at the bottom of its belly. 65 footers are usual fishing boats while 135 footers are big dhows that can go all the way to the Middle east and beyond 135 footers they come in Cargo category. The skin is fixed to the framework with iron bolts and nails and they are the first to give way. Stainless steel does not work at all with salt water and wood as it does not grip the wood and within a couple of voyages have to be replaced.

Junagadh was another pleasant surprise. This fortified hilly town still has its old charm intact within its fort walls. The layers of jain, buddhist, hindu and muslim culture over the centuries are well preserved and still used.

Food in Gujarat was no problem at all. Khichdi and chaas was available everywhere. Now and then we indulged in the spicy kathiawadi food. Fafda was the only available breakfast (we did not find Poha anywhere) and Jain dharmasalas were the cheapest options for night stay. Marzban had to be changed to Mahesh at few places.

After Jamnagar we turned towards Kachch via Bhachau and it was a completely different region. It is only fair that Kachch should be described in a completely separate post

Migratory species

One of the best things about the trip was the varied kinds of people that we met. Out of all these interactions interesting patterns of migration started emerging. Until now my definition of migratory species was limited to birds and animals. Slowly humans started entering the list and their varied reasons for migration has made this list very interesting. Here are few examples.

Rabaris at Okha, Gujarat

The Rabaris : Many people might be aware of this very interesting and mysterious group of people. Nobody has been able to pin down their origins but they originate in my knowledge from Gujarat and Kutch. They are essentially cattle rearers and travel with their livestock in search for pastures - one of the classic human migrations. In today's day and age they continue doing the same through urban and non-urban areas. They 'wear' all their belongings and lately they have started 'owning' homes, fields and settling down. They travel as far as Pakistan, Afghanistan to Karnataka, Andhra in the south and Bengal in the east. In an extreme capitalist sense their assets are worth lakhs of rupees with each rabari family owning around 40 to 50 cows, buffaloes and other livestock - each worth 40 - 50 grands.

Bee boxes in poplar field near Hoshiarpur, Punjab

The Beekeepers : Another human migration dependent on the 'livestock' are the beekeepers that carry their bees in boxes. We met this beekeeper in Punjab in a poplar field. He originated from Bihar and would roam from Nepal, Kashmir, Rajasthan to Orissa. He would rent a field that is at the stage of flowering and the bees would make/collect the honey from these flowers. According to him sarson flowers were the best bet for making honey.

Labourers from MP in Batala, Punjab

The laborers : Another classic human migration is of and as labourers. Here I want to distinguish immigrants from the migratory species. We came across interesting temporary housing in Punjab and stopped to interact with the occupants who were brick kiln labourers from MP. They would roam the states of UP, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana every 2-3 months before coming back home near Khajurao every June/July.

The mobile mochis at Garhshankar, Punjab

The mobile mochis : In Punjab early one morning we met an interesting group of people at a chai tapari. They were mobile mochis all from Rajasthan. They had customised bicycles and lunas on which they would travel from one village to the next, 9 months of the year before heading back home in the summer. All of them were from the same village in Rajasthan but knew of many such Rajasthani 'artisans' that roamed with their mobile shops through the country. They would start each morning with no fixed destination in mind but a general direction and which ever place felt lucrative would stop there for a day or two before heading further. Our obvious question was that wouldn't it be more profitable to carve a niche at a single destination for their business to grow. Their matter of fact answer was 'the hunger of the tummy can be satisfied even in Rajasthan but soul's hunger is satisfied only in a travel'. (it wasn't an awkward one liner but half hour long philosophical conversation)
And all this while we considered ourselves to be out of the ordinary for our travel hunger.

One of the major myth busters on this journey was that human beings engage in art, craft, travel, philosophy, etc.or in life beyond the basic survival only after their food, shelter and clothing is secured. But like these mobile mochis most of the people traveled because they wanted to travel.