Wild Rumours On The Safari Express

By Yogesh Chandratre

A journey beyond wild imagination through the most enchanting wilderness on Earth. Hear man speak all the wild of his belief, faith, knowledge, experience and imagination. Explore the -sychic triangle of man-earth-beasts. Study the environment within this triangle and experience the evolution of myth &knowledge, legend & wisdom... ‘It happens all the time’, said the Zulu driver in his ever stern and unblinking gaze. Some miss the train. Some miss the whole point.’ He was a believer in Truth. Even if it was wild. I had this strong feeling he knew my doubts over all that was talked. ‘Fifteen months! Over world! And still he doubts! Calls Truth ‘Rumours’. Calls travellers ‘Wind’. Who knows what he calls this Zulu? Don’t know want... He grumbled his way back to the engine room. Here I was, back home feeling a bit lost. Bit unsure. Fortunately, in this part of the world I am certain of one thing. There would be many t0 share my doubts over these wild rumours.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716893728

Book preview

Life

Wild Rumours About Snow Leopards

Innocent Inheritor

Rumoured in the blissful Himalayan Mountain Range, India

‘In the Himalayas, no mountain is without life and legend,’ said a British traveller who first visited the world’s tallest range in 1985 to fulfil her grandfather’s last wish of having his ashes submerged in the Holy Ganga.

A pandit (Hindu priest) was flown to London first to perform the last rites as per the Hindu religion. ‘He had gone there as a British soldier ordered to ensure it’s hold over the land. It only took four years for the land to get a hold over him.’ She was only nineteen when she saw her father release the ashes from the urn. At that very moment she felt as if she belonged to the land. ‘Aate rehna,’ a Naga sadhu bathing in the waters nearby raised his hand as if in blessing. ‘What’s he saying?’ she asked the pandit. ‘He says keep coming. You are a very lucky child. Not many are destined to come to these sacred mountains.’ Tears filled her eyes. It was as sign that the land had adopted her, and what she had just felt in heart was not without a reason.

‘It’s my twenty second Indian summer,’ she gleamed modestly. And it would be her twenty-second visit to the holy Nanda Devi mountain revered as the very manifestation of the Hindu Goddess Parvati. Nanda spoke Hindi very well and I realized she was particularly at ease when talking to men in military uniforms, especially those who platooned what was once the British Empire’s tallest mountain after which her grandfather had fondly named her.

It was my first summer break since being posted in the region. I wanted to visit Mata (Mother) & seek her blessings before heading home. In Nanda I found an unexpected and unusual company who had more to tell about the mountains than a military man who had spent ten months in the valley. As the camp halted for a tea break Nanda showed me some picturesque snaps of her Himalayan wanderings. My hands froze as the screen of her digi-cam exposed a very large mammal. Snow leopards were a more common sight here than anywhere else in the world. I myself had come across one on a couple of occasions. But surely none had come across one as large as this one was. It was almost the size of an adult yak. ‘You haven’t seen it before, have you? ‘ She whispered her ask, not wanting to attract attention from others busy rejoicing their nice hot tea & biscuits. It wasn’t the first time she had seen it. Every time she visited the mountains of Nanda Devi she saw it watching her from a distance. A wandering sadhu Nanda had met on her trip a few years ago said it was related to one of the eight Bhairavs (manifestations or avatars of Lord Shiva) who guarded the eight directions. Being very fond of the beast, this Bhairav regularly fed it with his urine that was pure water containing rich minerals. Unknowing to the beast, and to the Bhairav, who was purified each time he drinked the primeval waters flowing from Shiva’s head, his urine contained rich deposits of his ego and ambition to rule and conquer all the directions. While the Bhairav was being pured, his impurities were being passed unknowingly into the snow leopard that had grown large in size, large in strength, large in knowledge & also large in ambition.

Nanda’s words were too large to contain in the simple and humble recesses of my mind. But as I looked at the holy mountain before us, its largeness somehow seemed to concur with every word the lady had spoken. Whatever the truth, a day would come for certain when these mountains would no longer be big enough to sustain the creature of this mammoth size. It would seek to expand its territories in order suffice it’s growing hunger and thirst, even as prey became less and less in the region. That day might well be the day when the beast who lords over the mountains may just go on a rampage and conqueror all of earth. ‘Bhairav,’ Nanda had christened it.

Wild Rumours About Snow Leopards

Leopard Mound

Rumoured amidst the Mounds of Dead, Ukok Highlands, Russia

A Soviet jeep patrolling the Ukok Highlands of the Altai Mountains chain on the Russian frontier bordering China & Kazakhstan lost control and dashed into a large mound of stone & earth. Luckily no one was injured, but the jeep was badly damaged. The patrol conveyed its status to the check post over the wireless. As it was difficult to send aid in the night and neither was it of utmost essential, the rangers were requested to stay at site with the jeep until day break when aid would be sent to pick them up and the vehicle. So the rangers lit themselves a warm fire and grilled a couple of squirrels hunted from a nearby tree burrow. Flames incensed the air with a strong scent of cooked meat.

But soon, despite the flames, the air dropped its warmth. The gentle breeze gathered an eerie behaviour. Only the leaves of nearby trees and plants rustled. Beyond them, all remained as still as dead. Quickly, the flames mellowed wrestling with the mysterious overpowering breeze that soon put them to sleep. Very swiftly a pair of hands pulled back the pistol trigger, while another hand was quick in drawing a knife out of its leather scab. Heads remained still but eyes lurked around trying to catch hold of any unseen movement. Then, as spookily the breeze had come alive it went dead. The air chilled further.

The mound besides them made a sound. The patrol heard a tumble. Immediately a torch beamed to trace a fist-sized rock on its way down the mound. The beam followed the lone stone down its path until it came to still by the size twelve shoes of the ranger who held the beam. ‘Told you... the Mounds of the Dead. They smell the meat.’ He whispered. His nervous breath could be heard in the eerie silence that had come to haunt.

‘Stay shut soldier. The mountains are infested with bears and leopards, if you have the eyes to see them.’ The sergeant was never keen of hearing his men speak vague words.

Moments of some more silence and still passed. ‘It’s ok.’ The sergeant’s call sent the tense hands to rest their weapons. ‘Some one light the god damn wood,’ he ordered. The patrol eased back in their sit. Flames were lit once again. They began grilling the barbeque. And again, the breeze picked up... the leafs rustled... air chilled... and flames died. This time none stood to their feet. The chill had entered their spine. No one spoke or moved. More than a single stone on the Mound of Dead rumbled and fell. Yet none moved. They remained seated even as the stones rolled and stilled on the ground before them.

‘When something happens without showing good reason, it must be questioned. And when something happens twice without showing good reason, it must be accepted.’ The sergeant said staring down at the stone that had stilled by his feet. His head rose slowly to look at his soldier who had uttered the Mounds of the Dead. The soldier nodded and rised to obey his sergeant’s order. But the fast in his motion was more to fulfil the need of the Dead than obey his order. A knife came out and cut the raw portion of the meat hanging over the grill. He stood before the mound, hesitant in his stance. Looking back at his sergeant and commarades he gathered courage to step over the Mound of Dead. Behind him, the sergeant murmured a prayer holding to the cross round his neck.

The soldier reached atop the mound and peeped through the gap caused by the stones that had fallen off. He let the raw meat to fall deep in. It rumbled again. The soldier hesitated, unsure whether to get off the mound or to observe what lay beneath it.

Before he could decide, a torched flashed from besides him. The sergeant had climbed to his soldier’s side in case he faced any threat. His gun held aimed just below the torch. Their feet still felt the tremors that had grown faint. The light in sergeant’s hand dimmed. Like the flame, it too went down quickly. ‘Damn it!’ The sergeant tapped its head. But the torch did not respond.

Suddenly the stones of the Mound of Dead glowed. Not all but at least half of them. A mellow yellow. Soft and translucent. Amidst it the other stones lay dark as ever. ‘Get off the stones!’ called a soldier beneath the mound. Without a question, both the sergeant and his accomplice leapt off. Touching zero they quickly turned to look at the golden-black spotted mound that had a soft hazy aura to it. Two bluish white stones glowed like eyes. Then, as suddenly as the glow had come it slept leaving the men in complete dark.

The wood burst softly into flames, taking the men by alarm. To their dismay, the remaining meat left over the grill had disappeared. ‘The leopard’s mound.’ Uttered a stunned soldier who had never left his ground. ‘Let’s get out of here’, the sergeant ordered his men. They abandoned the vehicle and walked through the dark night of Altai. It was almost dawn when they reached the check post. The story of Leopard’s Mound spread up and down the ranks. A local Pazyryk who had joined the military told the sergeant of his barbaric Scythian ancestors that sleep beneath the mounds. ‘It is still their land, their mountains, and their rivers... Not just this land... all lands, all mountains, all rivers. Their age would return.’

The Scythian World as it was once called will resurrect, lead by the one who drinked blood from skull of the snow leopard and took it to his grave where the barbaric desire had united with wild ambition. ‘After many years the skull has been filled with blood. After many years blood has been tasted. It has gained the strength to rise. And so it shall without a doubt. Its thirst will not be quenched until it drinks every drop of blood on earth,’ said the Pazyryk lieutenant.

Today, most regions of the Golden Mountains of Altai remain closed to general public. Only researchers and military personnel have access to the mountains of Ukok Highlands. What goes on within the mountains remains classified.

Wild Rumours About Snow Leopards

Brave

Rumoured near Giewont Mountain, Tatra Mountain Range bordering Poland & Solvakia

September 2, 1939. A day before World War II broke out, German troops invaded Poland and captured the Jablunka Pass in Tatra Mountains. Many Polish soldiers fighting against the invading Germans went missing.

In an altercation with the German troops, a young Polish soldier managed to escape in the mountains of Tatra. Lost and nearly overcome by hunger and exhaustion, the soldier wandered his way into a cave. There he slept deep without a bother to the bears and wolves that inhabited such caves.

He slept until the sound of hoofs took him by alert. To his utter dismay he saw not soldiers in uniform and caps but those dressed in armours & helmets. Holding not guns but swords & shields. There was a leader amongst them. One who wore that thick black moustache. He looked kingly in demeanour.

‘You fight for my land, soldier. And so you shall live to fight a few more battles.’ He said in Polish tongue. ‘Hunger has weakened you greatly. Eat well & rest here for two more days. It snows outside and the enemy keeps vigil. Do not leave until the third sun has risen. Till then we will guard the frontiers. The Brave One will guard the cave and serve food as well.’

They seemed in a hurry. The horses turned and galloped out of the cave that grew in silence. But soon the silence was intruded by a nimble approach that could barely be heard. A snow leopard