Two weeks ago I got the chance to visit an Indian village. The trip was a amazing! I rode a elephant and went trucking through an Indian forest where I saw wild monkeys swinging in the trees. It was like I was on an Indian safari. However, my safari would not have been a true adventure without the wild man who (if you couldn't tell) is the main character of this post.
Now if you saw my wild man you would probably actually laugh. He's not exactly what most would consider wild in appearance. He's small framed, clean shaven with glasses and a funny caterpillar mustache. Not exactly a Tarzan, but what's that old saying? Oh, yeah. Don't judge a book by it's cover. I guess you could say that I first saw his transformation when we visited one of the nearby forests. He along with his daughter (my friend and the one who invited me) stopped at a river. As we walked down the little trail to the river he turned to me and asked, "Natasha, will you take a bath in the river?" I laughed (Dad's are silly, right?), but he continued to look at me strangely until I finally said, "No."
He raised his brow, "Why?" I fumbled for an answer. We reached the river and he began to splash the water on his face and gargled some in his mouth. He turned to me again, "This water is pure. No pollution. You should have some."
I shook my head. I didn't mention that seeing him spit the water from his mouth back in the river made me question how clean it was. Once again he raised his brow and looked at me, "Why?" Again I stumbled for an answer. The next forest we visited was even thicker and further from the human contact the village offered. As we drove in his roughed up jeep (it kind of looked like the one from Jurassic Park ) he pointed out all the different trees and plants. He was an expert on nature and I asked him if he was a botanist. He shook his head, "My degree is in mathematics actually, but this is my home, my land, my environment. Shouldn't I know about it?"
Honestly, by this point I had started to wonder exactly how weird this guy was, but his questions made sense. Shouldn't he know about the place he lives in? That made sense, right? Actually, when i thought about it I realized a disconnection with nature is one of the problems humanity has (in my opinion at least). I starred at the wild man. He was a little eccentric, but what he said was true. He was a part of nature and so he should know about it. Perhaps, if everyone thought this way people would be more environmentally aware. We wouldn't go to extreme measures to hide from nature when maybe instead of hiding we should be embracing it. Can you say epiphany?
When we reached the forest we had to be let in by parked rangers. They first checked our ids and then warned us that there were wild elephants running around so we had to be careful. The wild man just smiled and nodded at this comment. I, on the other hand, was considering turning around. I scold myself now as I think of this moment. Where the hell did my adventurous spirit go? Isn't this what I wanted when I dreamed of India? Isn't it kind of the whole point of studying abroad? Despite my feelings, I was not the one driving and we entered the forest.
How can I describe it? It was nothing but lines and lines of towering trees. Below the roots would rise and fall like waves in the ground and all around the roots were smaller plants decorating its base. The rainy season has come to an end so all the flowers were full of water and ready to bloom. The different colored plants were sprung up all over the forest. I could hear different birds calling out and hear a river's rushing water. Of course, there was a surplus of bugs (especially mosquitoes), but I tried to ignore that part. The wild man didn't even seem to notice their presence. He was much too preoccupied identifying plants and their many medicinal qualties.
Eventually, we drove beyond the forest's border into new territory. Actually, the wild man continued driving (some how managing the muddy uneven terrain) until we could drive no more. We had stopped at the lower portion of a mountain and had to hike the rest of the way up. Straight through nature. We were out of the elephant territory, but there was still reason to be cautious. Many other wild animals were lurking around.
Now, I've been hiking before, but this was so different. I went hiking in Maine in a national park where the trails were clear and marked for the public. This was not a park. Nothing was marked and the path we took damn sure wasn't clear. The wild man and his daughter actually carried miniature machete looking knives in their hands to cut stray branches and such (or to defend themselves from an animal if it attacked...). I was having an especially hard time because the mosquitoes were gnawing on me like kids on a lollipop. By the time we reached the top I had several mosqutioe bites while the wild man (who had taken his shirt off at the beginning of the hike) had none.You can imagine my disbelief, but he actually he seemed content ( if not happier) out there in the wild, away from people.
He stood on the mountain top and looked all around him with hands on his hips. Then, he turned to me with the biggest smile and said, "Isn't it wonderful that God made all of this for us?" I just smiled and nodded. The obvious answer was "yes", but that question really showed his perspective on the world. He really loved nature. He wanted to be one with it. He wanted to learn about it. He didn't hide from it or fear it because he knew he had his place in it. All humans have a place in nature.
After resting for awhile we eventually started heading back down. It was a quiet hike down since we were all tired from the hike up. As we were walking the group came to a sudden halt. I was walking in the middle and almost crashed into my friend's back. She began to speak to her father in Malayalam (the language for this Indian state) and looked into the trees. I couldn't see anything but they did and whatever it was was a cause for alarm. The wild man jumped into a low crouch and banged his knife against a tree. He roared, warning the animal to stay away. It was at this point that I gave him the name wild man. He stood before us shirtless with only a lungi (a clothing piece that men in India wear. Kind of looks like a skirt) on him and his fist wrapped tightly around the knife. Everything was tense and the forest fell silent. He waited warily, frozen in his defensive position. Thankfully, whatever they saw or heard left and we could leave the forest with no problems.
It was nearly dark when we reached the jeep. The wild man had been collecting plants, leaves and branches during our whole trip. As he placed them in the back of his truck I asked why he was collecting them. He turned to me and smiled, no longer feral, but once again calm and friendly with his caterpillar mustache. "For my goats."
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