The Cold Night at Kinnaur

It was a very cold night! I was shivering under the supposed warmth of my blanket as the wind howled on the tin sheets of the humble abode of my grannie.

But the slight discomfort made me think, I liked being with my grannie, the simplicity of Kinnaur, a tiny settlement 250 kilometers from Simla, always made me want to come back to it, when I was tired mentally with the mechanical monotony that had set into my life, ever since I had started working.

This place had always been special ! Kinnaur had always been "my" place. I had so many memories linked with this place, so many emotions, that the place never stopped to fascinate me. I remember, as a child pestering my city dwelling parents to let me off to this sleepy yet exotically pretty place. Nestled in a valley surrounded by imposingly rugged hills and blessed with a wildlife Darwin would have died to witness, Kinnaur could have been an ideal tourist spot, yet the inclemencies of weather, combined by the inhospitable landscape, it had mercifully been spared of the commercialization wave that sweeps through previously unexplored cities and kills their very character, making them homogenous extensions of the city behemoths.

Tonight as I lay curled down, re-living every summer holiday I had spent here, something stirred within me. It was a strange feeling. Its was like one of those feelings that initially, one can't place, but there presence is discomforting. The feeling kept growing.

I suddenly felt scared for my old grannie. Off late she hadn't been keeping well. Though she never complained,yet I knew she wasnt , what she used to be. The rosiness that had earlier adorned her cheeks had now considerably reduced. She used to get tired very easily and what I feared the most was the growing loneliness in her life. Ever since she had lost my grandfather a year ago, she felt alone. I suppose this is what one felt when a relationship that spans close to six decades comes to an end. Though initially my parents had cajoled her to come down to the city and be with them, yet she chose to live in the house , where she had walked in as a demure bride some 62 years ago.

To mentally satisfy myself I walked upto the adjacent roomm where she lay asleep, close the almost extinguished fire in the fire place. The feeling subsided , marginally yet it had not gone off completely.

I decided to go and calm my unsteady nerves by going outside. I left the relative warmth of the house to be greeted by the howling winds and a bone chilling cold. Yet the iciness that greeted me was welcoming. I left the once very well manicured garden of the house and decided to follow the brook that passed close by  uphill.

The brook had been my constant ally. I had forgotten the number of times I followed it uphill , through the stony and weedy path till it disappeared under a rock formation. The path was rocky yet I loved it. One of the memories that I had of this path was , of me as a sixth grader sitting by the brook and reading about lizards and turning around to see the most unusual specimen of the same right beside me. It was nothing like what I had ever seen, the reptile was beautiful. As a kid I had been afraid of the fauna , but my grandfather's enthusiasm for the flora and fauna had travelled 2 generations down to me.From him I had learnt and imbibed that "no animal attacks unless it feels threatened. As log as you dont challenge its existence it wont challenge yours."  "Golden words they were ",I thought and they had always stood the test of time from that point  of time to now ,when I was a  qualified marine biologist .I today, never was afraid of any animal of any shape or size and that is why the brook was such a beautiful place-I had seen many animals by it, both big and small that strayed by the brook and gave me an unparalled opportunity to appreciate and marvel at their magnificence.

Today as I travelled up, the brook I heard a faint whimper, I wasnt sure  so I travelled up even further, even though the walk had been meant to be short. The whimper grew louder and it was beginning to sound as if someone was in distress.I quickened my pace as the sound became louder and louder. I was almost reaching the point where the brooks always bent and bid a farewell to me and right there, perched on a high stone was a girl barely 11. Under the perfect moonlight, I could see her small structure and as my eyes travelled from her to the immediate surrounding, I saw that right below the rock she was perched on was a 'bhadeeya'- a local variant of the jackal, found in abundance in Kinnaur.

The poor creature seemed petrified. As she saw me, we almost connected, at the first sight I knew that there was a purpose behind this a more central design! 

I gesticulated to the girl to be where she was and I stepped out on the path where
the 'bhadeeya ' stood growling periodically.  "Dont challenge his existence" - the golden words rang again! The advice had worked when I had worked on a research paper on pirahanas. If it didnt go wrong there, it wont do so now. I just stood in front of the animal. Eye contact I had learnt to believe,  works better with animals than human beings.

As I stood in front of the animal, I looked straight into his eyes. They were beautiful-dark brown marbles against a perfect white. Beautiful! As my gaze met his, the animal stopped the growling. I dont know why but animals always seemed to love me, so did fish. Why I dont know, maybe because I loved them. Maybe because they sensed that I was there not to challenge their existence. Maybe they realized that I appreciate and value their presence. Maybe simply because I was my grandfather's granddaughter and I genetically was engineered to have a way with them as he did!
The effect of the eye contact led the animal to curiously wander upto me. I kept looking. I knew I had broken the wall of defence, it was a matter of time before he was mine.
He sniffed me and gradually disappeared into the darkness.

The girl could have given a joyous shout had she been able to gather her courage again. But she did come tearing down to hug me. This was seven years ago..........

Since then Sia, has been a constant compaion to my grandmother, my protege and guess what she has a way with animals too!!!