A sudden work trip had me taking off to Corbett for a couple of days. As usual with all my journeys, I decided to make the most of it. When I was introduced to the resident naturalist of the resort I was lodging in, I mmediately begged him to take me for a birdwatch walk in the morning. He very happily obliged.

7:00 a.m. and we were off on a brisk walk down to the main road and onto a jungle trail. He talked while we walked; Teak trees planted to create buffer between the jungle and village as they dont encourage undergrowth of any kinds; tiger poop lying on the forest floor (Eyuck! I know. But then we ‘touristy’ types ask for this shit!!! – lliterally!!!!); Mahaseer fish shoals in the river; latest tiger sightings and what not.

This looked like a mystical bridge to “neverwhere”and led straight to a densely covered forest track! I was sure I would enter another realm past it and maybe never come back! Seeing it, I recalled a few lines from my current read #ElifShafak #TheFortyRulesOfLove :

“Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step. That’s the hardest part and that’s what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Do not go with the flow. Be the flow.”

Yup it was another realm all together; for this is where the bridge led. It looked like I just have to reach the cavern ahead and it will be neverwhere for sure.

“There is such a thing in faith as not being able to see the forest for the trees. The totality of religion is far greater and deeper than the sum of its component parts. Individual rules need to be read in the light of the whole. And the whole is concealed in the essence.”  – #ElifShafak #TheFortyRulesOfLove

The famous #GarjiyaDevi temple perched atop a conical mass of land, almost as if the earth surged up to form a mountain for it to rest on! I loved the red chunris dotting the mountain – Tremulous human faith tied to the mountain of faith!

“God is a meticulous clockmaker. So precise is His order that everything on earth happens in its own time. Neither a minute late nor a minute early. And for everyone without exception, the clock works accurately. For each there is a time to love and a time to die” – #ElifShafak   #TheFortyRulesOfLove

The vastness of the river Kosi and the tumultous sound it makes as it gushes forth joyously, made me want to fly! I could have stayed here endlessly. Alas! that was not to be!

“A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western.… Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. “Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! “The universe turns differently when fire loves water.” – #ElifShafak #TheFortyRulesOfLove