Falling Off The Map

Beyond the Tall Grass: Kaziranga National Park

2009-04-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

By Kalyani Candade. This article was originally published in the New Indian Express, Chennai on Sunday March 29th 2009.He tossed his head vigorously and pawed the earth, twice. Then, magnificent horns arced inward in a wide curve, nostrils flaring, he took one tentative step towards us. Again, he drank deeply of the fresh morning air, breathing in every new message the wind brought. It was early,

Elephant Sense

2009-02-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

He froze, trunk poised in mid-air, and looked straight at me. I turned around to see what had disturbed him. Nothing, except a mahout leaning lazily against the wall with a slight smile playing on his face. I turned back in time to see the brilliant shot I had just missed – molten afternoon light playing with the cloud of dust that the magnificent tusker had just sprayed over his back.

Rainforest Moments

2009-02-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

It came in a dark brown, almost black bamboo wrapping that was a work of art in itself, and for that reason alone it stayed unpacked for over a year. A long slim cylinder of bamboo sheath in which, my intrepid trekker husband told me, was an exquisite tribal tea that had been smoked over the fire for god knows how many moons. The top was crossed over