| <<<< |
new |
>>>> |
baloo i was walking around the other day near rishikesh ( you know where ringo decided that yoga wasn't for him ) , and then there was this path going to the side into the hills, with a worn out sign saying "waterfall".... so i started going there, walked about an hour, maybe more up up into the wilderness, and it was pretty amazing - the closest i've seen to what i imagined a jungle was like - trees with hanging veins, strange big flies, sound of birds and jungle crickets, everything completely green, sound of flowing river etc. etc..... in short exactly where tarazan would live. well i was walking, and at some point i thought that probably this is one of those times when i'm doing something pretty dangerous, walking alone in what looked like almost uncharted territory.... and then suddenly i see this woman walking back pretty fast, looking scared...... she didn't speak any english at all, and she was trying to communicate to me that i shouldn't keep on walking... at first i thought she meant it was some sort of private property, but she kept ontrying to imitate some animal, putting her hands her ears, putting air in her cheeks, and closing her eyes... and then shaking her head and saying " no problem, no problem ", very worriedly... then i thought she probably meant monkeys, but that would be strange cause there are monkeys everywhere, nothing special about that... the only other relatively dangerous animal that could fit my imagination with the scenery was tiger.... all she kept repeating was "baloo, baloo" anyway she made me promise not to go further ( in a non-language way - it's funny how when there's no common language, out there in nature, you really feel like caveman, making strange sounds and bodily gestures ), and i sat there for about half an hour, contemplating if i should go on, since i really wanted too, it was really beautiful.... then i decided i should go back, my better judgement had it's best over my will this time.... all the time i tried to imagine how i would react, if a tiger attacked me, if i would stay cool, or panic, or whatever.... ofcourse i imagined myself cool as ice fighting the tiger away... then after about 5 minutes going back, i saw something moving between the bushes, 5 meters away and above me.... at first i thought i was imagining, but then i could clearly see it was something brown, and big, moving slowly... - my first instinct was stopping in my place, blood rush out of my head, and fear overcame me.... then after a few seconds my instinct was just move my head slightly without moving my body so as not to make a sound, and look at the ground to see if there was some stick i could pick up to defend me... i love that instinct, it was just like the caveman inside me was coming out.... survival survival survival. well anyway, after a few more second, the thing continued, and i saw it was a wild deer..... phew! at least that put my ego back in place - tiger not good! anyway afterwards all the way back i kept telling myself what a coward i was, the woman was probably crazy, or over-scared of a few monkeys or something, thinking i'm a gentle european or whatever... and i kept trying to memorize that she said baloo, baloo, so i can check afterwards what it means in hindi.... and then i remembered that the bear in the "jungle book story" was called baloo.... so i checked now - |