The Day I Cried

I consider myself a tough guy and belong to the school of thought which says “Real men don’t cry”. I don’t remember a day in my life when I have cried although I had been through a few rough patches. All these changed when I met Gowrakka, a 13 year old girl.

Working as a freelance research consultant, I used to travel quite a bit in the South Zone to understand consumer behavior and attitude. That was when an NGO approached me and a few others from our industry to understand why so many kids were dropping out of school in North Karnataka. After all arrangements were made, my team travelled to a small village in Bellary. The village was picture perfect. Vast expanses of paddy ready to be harvested cast a golden hue everywhere. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset overlooking the paddy fields and rested for the day.

Our work started the next day. We met a lot of kids and their parents. Kids who were still going to school, kids who were irregular to school and kids who had dropped out of school etc.

While talking to the kids and parents, the responses I got were the obvious ones

- Poverty forced parents to send kids to work
- Kids found school too boring
- Parents thought girls don’t need education cos they were anyways going to marry and cook for their husbands.

It was around 11am when I met Gowrakka. When I asked her why she stopped going to school, she started crying. I thought my French beard and sunglasses scared her. But after talking to her for 5 minutes, she told me her heart wrenching story.

Gowrakka’s mother was forced to marry a man who she did not like. Although she did not like the man she married, she bore 3 kids with him – Gowrakka being the eldest. She was really unhappy and finally ran away with her paramour. Gowrakka’s father being a lorry driver would be out of town for almost 25 days in a month and the money he earned was not sufficient to support the family and send his 3 kids to school. Forced by circumstances, this 13 year old was forced to take up a job in a nearby brick factory.

Everyday the girl would wake up at 5am in the morning, cook for herself and her 2 younger brothers. After getting her younger siblings ready and sending them off to school, she heads to the brick factory at 8 for work. The hot and harsh environment of brick factory is no place for a tender 13 year old girl. The blisters on her hand tell the story of her everyday ordeal. She would get back in evening, play with her brothers for some time, make them do their homework and then start cooking dinner.

My eyes were already misty with tears by this time.

Although she dropped out of school, she understood the value of education and said she dreams of becoming a teacher. When she said “If I go to school, I can work in an office like you”, I could not hold back my tears.
After finishing formalities of the work, I thanked her, gave her a gift and waved goodbye for I knew I would never see that girl again. But to my surprise, she comes back around lunch time with a box of joladda rotti and badanekai yenekai which she cooked.

I don’t find words in the dictionary to describe how yummy the food was. Probably the secret ingredient in this dish was the “love” of this beautiful and bold spirit.

I will never forget this girl as long as I live and I hope she is no longer working in that brick factory.

Perambikulam Trek

(View of Perambikulam Dam)

The trek orgnized by YHAI was turning out to be quite a boring affair. Although the place was very picturesque, the trek itself was unchallenging. Having completed a few tough treks earlier, I was starting to wonder whether the whole trip was even worth it. I got my ticket to the trip after bugging and fighting with Chandru for a whole week as all the seats in the vehicle were full and getting permits from the forest department was quite an ordeal. After talking to forest department for two days, Chandru managed to get permission and i was onboard for the trip provided I share a seat with Chandru. I gladly agreed since I had heard a lot about the place and wanted to go there desperately.

We started from Majestic on Friday night almost two hours late. After picking up Raghu from Silk Board, everyone settled down for a good night's sleep. Myself and Chandru occupied the seat next to the driver and made ourselves as comfortable as possible. Chandru somehow managed to sleep the whole night while i just managed a few "power naps".


We wake up early in the morning to a picture perfect sunrise. The vibrant colors of the sky look more beautiful than Monet. After arriving in Perambikulam and paying camera fee in a couple of places, we freshened up and started our trek.

Walking along the forest floor, I was starting to wonder whether all the troubles was even worth it until our trek guides spotted a herd of elephants drinking in the river. Everyone crouched down for a glimpse of the gentle giants and were happy to have spotted the majestic beast. Suddenly, the guide announces - "if everyone is real quite, we can get close to the elephants". How close was something that nobody imagined.

After instructions from the guide on do's and dont's we followed the guide across a bend in the river. Walking through the forest floor carpeted with dry leaves is not the quietest affair. On quite a few occasions, the guide turned back to warn us and seemed quite annoyed on a couple of occasions. Couple of minutes into this commando style tip-toeing, we picked up the knack of avoiding dry leaves to maintain the much required silence.

We walked to a point close to where the elephants were drinking and crouched down to avoid detection. Cameras ready in hand, we were poised to shoot the elephants as they walk by.

Silence..... tension in the air.....minutes tick by with nothing happening. Suddenly, our guide points out the first elephant which crosses our trekking trail. Everyone is tense and so are the elephants. Still, everyone manages to click some frames as opportunities like this knock once in a lifetime.

(First elephant coming out of the river)

The first elephant emerges from the tree cover, crosses the trail and waits on the other side. After a minute or so, we see a baby elephant emerge from the dense forest along with his mom and another elephant.

(Mom and baby with a relative)

Elephants with a keen sense of smell, feel our presence and the mother elephant lets out a loud and concerned trumphet. Another member of this herd walks close to the trail and stands staring directly at us. The air is very tense.




At this point, our guide shares a piece of ancient wisdom with us - "If the elephant charges, RUN". Quite a valuable piece of advice considering most people have not experienced wildlife upclose. The mother and the other elephant masterfully shield the calf between them protecting it like bodyguards on VIP. This gives us a sense of how protective mothers are and their willingness to put themselves in harm's way to protect their bundle of joy.

Fortunately, our luck holds and the herd crosses the trail without us having to run helter-skelter. We click pictures to our hearts content till the elephants disappear from our sight. The elephants, unaccoustomed to human presence were more than happy to get away from us. We continued along our trail spotting many more animals on the way.

The thought of boredom vanished entirely and I felt blessed for such a wonderful experience. The second day was actually boring since we were walking on a jeep trail and there were no wild animals in sight. On the drive back, we did spot a few animals and the scenery was breathtaking. The driver refused to stop even once despite repeated requests from everyone. Trust me when i say i was cursing the m***** f***** with the choiciest and juciest words in kannada.

One of the best trips of the year made unforgettable by the elephants. Eagerly waiting for my next wild encounter.

Until then.....Ciao!!!