As
the Dholakia’s parted ways with me, the interim vacuum was a welcome break with
no occupant as my neighbor – but then, a vacuum is an aberration to the normal
functioning of the universe. Screams of ‘Baba.. Baba.. mala ikdun gheun jaa’ (Father..
come & take me along from here!) frantically filled the void with an
acrobatic & gravity-defying display of break-free attitude by a lean &
almost skeletal late-40’s body strangled with chains to the hospital bed trying
to chart out its own novel course, much alike a shooting star.
Interspersed
with heavy breathing, as the screams & shouts got louder, the medical folks
gathered around the eccentrically vocal patient armed with tranquilizers to
soothe him down. The sudden boisterous entry had ruffled the environs of the
room, as though not to let the storm ebb away, a stream of visitors made a
quick pilgrimage to the by now snoring neighbor. Eavesdropping on the
discussions revealed a case of successive liver failures due to heavy alcohol
consumption which had led to multiple problems over the course of the past few
days in hospital and the doctors had now ‘let go’!
As
the beeline began to swell, I was shifted into another room for the night. With
thoughts continuously rushing to my previous room, the morning broke to the
news that its inmate had breathed his last the previous night. The real paradox
revealed itself when I was given a discharge the same day – 3 days in the
hospital, 3 different neighbors, 3 different outcomes: on-going treatment, case
closure & ultimate case closure!
The
hospital had revealed its kaleidoscopic nature from being a care-taker to a
solution-provider to finally a gory, macabre convener of life & death
sentences – whilst I was positive to be out of it, its relationship of being a
karmic circle closer was surprising. Meanwhile, the ill-effects of my infection
had begun to subside with the care of family & the prescriptions helping
re-build the bodies reserve of platelets enabling a speedy recovery with only a
few more days of home-rest to go…
The
next morning, our chance meeting with the owner who made regular weekend visits
to the estate, one Mr. Huja from Mumbai, was an enlightening session into the
setting up of the ‘Machan’ driven by numerous restoration efforts almost 20
years back in this part of the tropical cloud forest situated over 3300 feet.
After
a decade long project that involved pruning of wild trees & removal of the dense
carpet of Karvi weeds, a single bamboo Machan (similar to Jim’s Corbett’s
treetop hunting platforms) was built as an observation point which was further
improvised to build a more permanent home - the current Heritage Machan. The
uninterrupted views of the forest’s beauty from a comfortable setting drew
considerable interest from folks that visited the vacation home in-gratis.
To
ensure the continued sustainability of the forest & provide livelihoods to
the locals, the Machan opened up its panoramic views for a charge to outside
visitors 2009 onwards. A year later, 3 additional Machans (Canopy
Machans) were built in line with popular demand.
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| The arty Machan cafe |
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| Our Customer Feedback |
The
passion of the owner across the 45-minute discussion at the cafe over breakfast, was obvious
with small nuances of the property covered in detail and his personal
involvement evident in every aspect right from the rustic furniture at the café
to the creeper that went up the nets surrounding the trampoline paid attention
to; an aspect no 5-star can boast of in a true sense.
Thanking our host for our 2-day mental-spa & of course, an experience-cum-memory of a lifetime, as we headed for our drive back home, the vibrant views of the past few days ripe in our minds were like green shoots that would sprout with their freshness spread across endeavors we undertook for the upcoming future tasks; with our rejuvenated minds back on the road, we were ready to take on newer milestones...
Epilogue:
My experiences in a quick succession of 3 months at the hospital and then at ‘Machan’ seemed quite disconnected & bi-polar when viewed as instances – but, as a pattern, they seemed to fulfil the same void at different planes.
Our active mental wanderings, very much like our hectic physical trails need a panacea of sorts – the ‘Machan’ was to the mind what the hospital was to the body. Whilst symptomatic deliverance of abnormalities at a physical level may be few & far between, the mental disease of being stuck in a monotonous thought pattern as part of hectic urbane lives today is an increasingly plaguing trend – breaks from the mundane are good ‘here & now’ solutions to the mental blitzkrieg; but, in the larger scheme of things, we all need a stronger, steeper & self-anchored totem that will hold us in good stead at a time when our mental pre-occupations are stuck in the limbo… may be the answer lies in transcending the physical as well as mental states to discover a newer state which holds the key to our other 2 states as well… Happy self-discovery!
x---------- The End ----------x
Creative Inspiration: Ashwin Sanghi
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