It was almost 3 PM in the watch and we could cover only half of the distance, around ten kilometers give or take, though we have started early with the crack of dawn. Walking 10 KMs through the street and through this thick forest are entirely different things. My local guide Raghu continuously swung his Khukri to clear out the dense bushes to make the road as presentable as he could for me, but even then, I had great difficulties navigating myself.
Adventure of a lifetime! Experience nature! Those words I told myself before the journey was evaporating with time. I climbed mount Aconcagua of Andes, I swam across the English Channel, I traveled solo to Alaska to witness the glory of Aurora borealis, but this trekking to Mahakal gufa in the dense forest of Chhattisgarh is something different. First of all, it is almost untouched and the journey is through the virgin forest, and secondly, due to the local populace, they are protected by the government under special law as it is said that they are originally from Africa, somehow came to India during probably the slave trade and stayed here thereafter. My interest in visiting the great caves of Mahakal was ten folded after reading about this Kaluha tribe, it is said that they are a part of this nature, unlike all other human species, they actually care for nature rather than exploit it. I read about them, and couldn’t let go of the chance to see them with my own eyes.
Raghu is a part of that Kaluha tribe, received primary education from a missionary school, and could understand the concept of money better than others of his tribe, so agreed to my proposal of guiding me to Mahakal Gufa, a 16 KM walk through the wilderness to the dark descent of forest.
I had hoped to complete the trek in the daytime and camp in the night in front of the caves but this only half of the distance took the major portion of the day so Raghu told me to spend the night beside this tiny stream of water that we are following upstream since the beginning of our journey. The road ahead is upward through the rocky land and the last few miles are going to be the hardest of our journey.
Raghu prepared the camp, he gathered sticks for the fire, stones for the makeshift stove, tied the hammock to the branches with ease, and practiced hand, he did all these things with ease and never looked troubled.
I wondered by the skill of this man! He is not a professional guide, and not a complete tribal either.
He spent his young hood in the city among the so-called civilized world, and went to school, even then I never felt that he is having any kind of trouble in the jungle.
He cleared the bushes mainly for me and always could find the best road with ease. I could well understand that he could have been going all the way and back to the caves if he was alone and not have to drag my sorry ass through the entire journey.
Then he did something really unexpected. Raghu went to the river, stripped all his clothes, and covered him with mud, head to toe. Indeed, they are from Africa, the dark continent. As if some sculptor made him with great attention and care, he stood under the canopy of green all over like an earthen statue, a part of nature.
He asked me to do the same. I knew why jungle people do this. To protect them from mosquitoes and other bugs in the night. I bring out a mosquito repellent cream from the bag.
Raghu took the cream in his hand, smelled it, and shook his head.
“No Saab, that won’t do, you should cover yourself in the mud, the mud is not for mosquitoes alone, but to protect you from the jungle itself.”
It might be some superstition, but I never disagree with local people. They always know better. So, I followed him and covered myself with mud following him.
‘Saab, smell yourself, what is the smell, can you tell?
I smelled my hand, and looked at Raghu,
“I could smell nothing! What is it?”
“Exactly, you smell like nothing…now Gaia won’t feel our presence, we are safe from her.”
I was about to ask him for an explanation about Gaia, but he was busy preparing our evening meals so I couldn’t.
Later in the night, I climbed on my hammock, Raghu fixed it with the scrawny branches, they bent as I put my weight on them.
“Raghu, you should have fixed them with the thicker branches, I think they might break.”
“Don’t you worry Saab, these are teak, won’t break that easily “
“This is teak!! It is very valuable then, thank God people don’t know about this! Otherwise, this would have been a barren land and wood mafias would have stripped the land to its bones to by this time.”
“This is not ordinary teak either, some say it is even better than the Burmese verity, and you are talking about people not knowing about it? Saab, people know about these woods from the British era, tomorrow we will pass through a clearing, you will see abandoned remains of camp, equipment and bulldozers, all covered in vines and engulfed by forest”
“What happened? Why they abandoned the project? Your people stopped them?” I wondered.
“Kaluha did their part, but Gaia took care of them, Gaia knows how to protect herself. After that nobody dares to venture in the forest with ill intention.”
Raghu plucked my interest. It is not only about the thrill of the journey, meeting new people, knowing about the local culture and myths, being one with the place…that encourages me to roam from one corner to another on this beautiful earth.
“Raghu, previously also you have mentioned Gaia, I liked to know about her, who is she? I heard this name before, but not from this part, not from Africa, certainly not from India, is this the same Gaia?”
“ Saab, I don’t know what Gaia you are talking about, but I know only one, and she is here, all around us.”
“Raghu, it’s a long night ahead, please tell me more about this.” I pleaded.
Raghu of Kaluha tribe then started the story of Gaia. As his story started, the jungle falls silent, the noise of cricket, the weird chirping of nocturnal birds deep in the forest, and the sound of slow-flowing stream all stopped, as if they were all eager to listen to the voice of Raghu, the dim light from the campfire was not enough to cut through the deep dark of the jungle, rather its shaking light and shadow increases the mystic surrealistic ambiance.
I know, that when my readers are going to read this story, they are going to read it in a well-lit home, in front of bright display of a mobile or computer screen, or in a paper…but believe me for experiencing the true nature of the story, you need to imagine yourself deep inside the forest, surrounded by the scary beautiful nature and in total silence but the very voice of the jungle’s own son. Raghu started his story…...
“Saab, when and how we came here to live in this part of the world, it is still unknown. Some say during the war of Sikandar we came as a part of slave labor, and others believe that we are cast away from a slave ship, whatever our origin may be, but it is sure that we were runaways as we were trying to hide, probably from soldiers or from slavers.
The slave trade was a very profitable business then, so not even the deep maze of forest could stop the slave traders to recover their stolen goods, so our elders invoked the spirit of the forest to protect us.
I heard about the rituals, and stories of that told by my ancestors many times, to tell you in short, it involves numerous human sacrifices, blood offerings, and accepting yourself as a part of the jungle, and never abandoning her.
The free spirit was not ready to bind herself with any earthly place, so she resisted, I heard that the sky turned red that night, the trees were shaking vigorously without any storm and the ground itself split in half to engulf us all, but our shaman could able to raise the spirit of the jungle at last.
They called her by some name, now after many generations, we can’t even pronounce it properly, so the British given name Gaia stuck with her.”
Raghu stopped for a bit for a sip of water, and I used the pause to ask him,
“So you think Gaia is some goddess or some kind of voodoo that is present here?”
“Saab, Gaia is not some deity, she is the forest itself. We are all surrounded by Gaia, she is everywhere, within you even from the moment you stepped into the forest.
We promised her to be with her in return for the protection, and she kept her word. Many people there after entered in search of wealth, at first it is for us, but then there was more. Our forest is rich in minerals, woods, and exotic animals….so there are always slavers, poachers, and thieves that tried to exploit the forest, all of them ventured into the forest, but very few return.
As time passes, modern civilization crawled its way into us also, and with that greed, so now even the people of Kaluha need to take care of themselves in the forest. As the boundary of the forest shrinks day by day, Gaia acting more volatile and angrier, so I asked you to cover yourself in the mud.
Anyway, there are countless stories of Gaia in this part, few of them are true, few of them are the imagination of a desperate man lost in the wild, but the incidence I am about to talk about with you is more recent, around a couple of decades ago. I was very young then, but could still remember the commotion.
A few years ago, a political party backed by the mafia came into power, as a repayment for their support they got the official approval to mine deeper, destroy more rivers, plunder more natural resources, and an exclusive agreement to get the valuable teak woods from the very heart of the forest.
Kaluha people tried to stop them, we pelt stones at the workers, sabotaged the roads for bringing the heavy equipment, and gave applications to every government authority to stop the work, but nothing happened.
We took desperate measures after all other means failed, our children and women lay down on the road to stop the advancement of bulldozers, and we hold hands to surround the tree marked for cultivation. There was no way to cut down a single tree without harming us.
They tried to beat us down, but every time one of us is down, two took place of him. We were desperate to save our home.
It got the attention, and now the media of the entire nation even from outside country published about our resistance, under heavy pressure from outside and inside, they had no other option but to halt the work.
But it was too profitable to let go, big players enter the play, the mafia himself came into the scene, and the government declared a total media ban in the area. Elders of our tribe were put into jails, villages were dislodged to make way for the roads and shelter for workers.
It was a lost war, and we were on the losing side, we had no other option but to make way for civilization. Giant machines everyday tore the century-old trees from the ground and we watched helplessly. The clean air was filled with sawdust, the river turned muddy black from the fumes.
Our jungle was no more.”
Raghu stopped a bit, though he was just a child, it was evident that he could still remember those days like yesterday.
It was nothing new to me, during my travel I heard this story, place changes, the character changes but the story remained the same. The story of how the cruel claws of civilization engulfed the natural beauty, everything which is pure. The story was nothing new to me.
After a brief pause, Raghu started again,
“The influential mafia don, the kingmaker decided to station himself in the jungle camp to ensure the progress of the job without any hindrance. And let me tell you, he was a piece of art.
Every day he hunts deer, sometimes a leopard for sport and young flesh in the night, and not just any flesh, a tribal girl.
The overseer of the operation made it sure to supply him with local girls every night and the goon became a man-eater with the touch of young virgin blood of the untamed wild.
There were no men free in the tribe who can resist him so our mothers and sisters got scared and took shelter deep in the forest to save themselves.
It was getting difficult to get any girls, so the overseer faced the music and the temper of the owner, don Dinesh Tripathi always remained in top gear.
He tried to drown his hunger in booze and in hunting, the campground was wet with all the blood from the wild animals and with country liquor.
One morning Dinesh was hunting, he was all alone with his rifle when he spots the girl.
For long Dinesh couldn’t understand the source of sweet humming, the morning air was filled with the sweet smell of the wet ground and wild flowers, the sparkling lights of dew drops in the leaves created unearthly glitters in the view, and that song…..it was so alluring that mesmerized Dinesh was looking for the owner of such sweet voice like a mad man, he forgot about the shiny Enfield rifle in his hand, he forgot about following the trail of the Barasinga that he just spotted a few minutes ago in the woods, but it seems that all aim of his life depends on the finding of the singer.
Saab, if you follow the stream upstream, you will see a slight elevation, the stream will jump around a bit playing hide and seek behind the rocks to suddenly jump in the ground to create a nice cozy waterfall, it is there where Dinesh could spot the girl.
The slender dusky bronze-like naked skin glowing with the touch of clear water, the waters from her long cloud-like hair finds its way through the curvy valley to lost again in the wild dark bush between her legs. She was nude, but her nudity was not vulgar in any way, but as natural as nature itself.
While bathing, the girl hummed the sweetest melody Dinesh have ever heard, he was such hypnotized by the view that it took many moments before he regained his senses.
The girl saw him watching, she was not ashamed a bit, never tried to cover herself with clothes, rather put her long hair in front to maintain her modesty.
Her hair covered a little, rather showed more as she walks towards Dinesh.
Who are you, girl? Are you all alone? Dinesh watched her very closely from top to bottom.
The girl never answered, kept a slight hint of smile always.
Do you know who am I? Do you know where I stay? Dinesh asked.
The girl slightly nods her head to acknowledge.
Why don’t you come to visit my tent around sundown? You can have great food, and who knows may be even a silver neckless for your pretty neck.
Dinesh touched her neck to move away the hair and steal a look at her breast. He saw many girls in his life, of all types and all sizes, but something extraordinary was in her that Dinesh felt irresistible urges. The smell from her still-wet body made Dinesh mad with lust, the smell was so recognizable, yet very unknown.
The girl move away inside the jungle, giving a last look at Dinesh as she disappeared inside the green screen of the trees. Dinesh just remembered where the smelled the fragrance, it was the smell of the jungle itself, the smell of wet ground mixed with unknown wild flowers. He should have brought the good-for-nothing overseer with him, he could have finalized the deal with the girl to ensure her presence tonight.
The sun goes down long ago, the howling wind transforms into a constant downpour from the sky accompanied by thunder and lightning, the jungle was alive that night. Dinesh was not sure if the girl will accept his invitation or not, but the slightest chance of approval was evaporated with this sudden breakdown in the weather.
The diesel for the generator couldn’t arrive due to the rain and the last bit of civilization died with the last gasp of the generator. Now the camp is under the grasp of total darkness barring a few oil lamps here and there.
Dinesh finished his bottle; he was hoping for the girl even though he knew that she couldn’t come in this weather even if she wished.
It was utter disgust, what the hell he is doing in this god-forbidden place! Why the hell that local savage tree huggers choose to interfere in his business!! Those are only trees!! Don’t they understand with industry comes jobs, education, medical, and transportation. They are not cave dwellers, if they wish to remain in the darkness of ignorance, let them be, but let the willing people have their furniture made by fine woods and most of all, let Dinesh have his money.
When he passed out in bed drinking peg after peg of the foreign liquor he opened specially for tonight, probably he forgot to shut the door or the wind was too strong for the weak tent door as he woke up in the middle of the night from the cracking sound of thunder.
At first, it was pitch dark, but then the lightning brought a flash of light through the door. What Dinesh saw in the door startled him at first, but then he was rather happy.
In the doorway, the girl from the morning stood firmly, flashing from the constant lightning was drawing the blue outline of the silhouette over her fantastic curve, light shines over her wet naked body to paint her in silver.
She was completely nude.
Dinesh was still drunk; his head was spinning from being hungover but he was aroused. The thought of her walking nude between the coolie quarters was kinky, and he likes that. In the heavy rain and thunderstorm, most likely nobody could notice her, but even then it was provoking enough to ride on senses of Dinesh.
Without any word she directly came into the bed with him.
The ancient act of procreation was turned into a playful acrobatic endeavor, their bodies rise up and sank down like ships in a sea, together, in harmony. The smell of whisky and sweat in the room was soon overpowered by the strong smell of wild flowers, the girl pinned down Dinesh to ride on top.
She was having motion like a seesaw, and with every thrust, she rode deeper and harder over Dinesh’s manhood, strands of her hair swinging like a poisonous serpent, he was having the joy of his lifetime, the extreme sense of ecstasy made him mad with lust, he tried to grab her breast, but couldn’t lift his hand to reach it. She must have pinned him down too strongly or the effect of alcohol finally made his muscle strength numb, too numb to move.
At least it is not numb where it matters, Dinesh thought. With the last drop of orgasm, he lost his senses and falls asleep with her on top.
The next morning Dinesh opened his eyes to the sound of people shouting, running in terror. The light was too bright to see at first, but slowly his eyes adjusted. Then he saw it.
Laborers were afraid, they were running for their lives. The whole campsite turned into a warzone, all the quarters were destroyed, someone or something tore the steel hands of gigantic machines in half as if they were made of cardboard, and all the logs and planks they accumulated since the beginning of the work were flooded to render them useless, people were in a hurry to left the place.
“ What the hell happened to my tent? What happened here? Did the storm do this?” Dinesh tried to leave his bed, but he couldn’t.
Someone tied him to the ground, Dinesh squirmed like a fish without water and looked at his side.
Someone or something did tie him down, but not with any rope, but the roots from the ground were raising slowly over his body to drag him down, into the earth.
Dinesh looked with terror in his eyes to witness shoots of white root slowly ascending from the ground like slithering worms to cover up his body, with every circle around they were tightening their grip to bury him down in the ground.
With every air left in his lungs, Dinesh cried for overseer. The wounded overseer witnessed the last descent of his master as he was buried alive in the ground, till the last moment the overseer could see his eyes, full of terror and helplessness.
After the destruction of the camp, the whole project was abandoned. And soon after, the Kaluha tribe was declared under special protection by the government of India and UNESCO, so the land and the forest became untouchable for common people. ”
Raghu finished his story. The jungle was still silent, and I too for a minute or two. My logical brain did calculate all the possibilities and eventuality behind the description of the event, but another half of my brain screamed for the supernatural phenomenon.
“So that was the last viewing of Gaia in this part?” My throat was all dried, but I still asked Raghu.
“ How can it be sir, human greed is endless, so people still enter here to exploit her riches, and Gaia is still doing her work. Look at you sir, even though the forest is protected, you still managed to venture here using your connection with the upper level, though I hope it is not with malicious intentions, but even then we should be careful.”
I shook my head in fear, I have no bad intention, I am just here to witness the glory of nature, untouched like it was meant to be.
“Tomorrow we will pass through the campsite, Saab, you will see with your own eyes the dance of the destruction, you will understand that no storm could tear an iron bulldozer in half, you will witness the true might of Gaia, the spirit of the forest.”
Raghu told, but I was not very sure whether I should continue with my journey or not, so I asked Raghu with a trembling voice,
“And what happened to the dead body of the mafia? It was recovered or not?”
“They never recovered any dead body, they never tried hard for it, I am not sure even if Dinesh is dead or not. some nights, if you are observant, you could still listen to the cry for help, in a faint husky voice, coming from the deep underground. I think Gaia kept Dinesh alive to torment him even more, to be her plaything, still today.
Anyway, Saab, we should now go to sleep, we have to proceed with the first light, a long way ahead.”
Raghu tucked himself down in the blanket and went to sleep, but I could never sleep that night. With every sound of falling leaves, and every step of wild deer or maybe a rabbit, I was startled throughout. I felt the presence of Gaia all around us, ever watching with her thousand eyes. She was everywhere.
The End
