wandering in the FRI campus..

Am late meeting up with M and A at the FRI. Racing to Shatabdi gate via the Garhi canal road route.. canal road indeed - there are no canals visible in Doon any more –a town once criss-crossed by these delicate green arteries.. first to go underground was the East Canal- then this Kaulagarh one and the other day, on canal road parallel to Rajpur road (the one ‘nak-katti’ Rani Karnawati is supposed to have built), one saw workers closing it up and the ancient pump house before the pul on the new IT Park road lay unroofed/exposed. There’s the end of a whole chunk of childhood. Remember the East Canal – in spring, racing paper boats in the green waters; summer, feeling like jumping in (many did.. others just fell in and had to be rescued!); monsoons, watching the wildly rushing muddy flow, awestruck and mesmerized; winter, walking along it in the sun with friends- its languid trickle threading a whole lot of chat together. And always, always, the sound of water..

At Shatabdi gate we decide to follow our instincts and find ourselves parking near the Botanical Gardens. This is a stunningly beautiful campus. Why couldn’t anyone in the family have joined the forest service? A says she knows some people here and they crib about being away from heart of town, etcetera. We guess the grass is just greener. Then we hear it - a canal! Sure enough along the left, beyond the overgrown embankment, hidden by the grass is bachpan.

Click, click we try to capture it for keeps. Then M spots a giant black and yellow spider. Then she spots another one, then another and hey, another- oh there are a whole lot of them! The Common Giant Wood Spider informs A. Sometimes the webs span several meters.

Then we’re at the gate of the Botanical Gardens. The rest of the afternoon is spent in paradise.

Later, we walk out of the BG as the sun is setting. A spots the Great Indian Flameback on a dead tree ahead. While M studies through the glasses, a flock of parakeets noisily wings southwards. When the gorgeous woodpecker flies, a young hornbill takes its place. Then you catch your breath. Blomfield’s amazingly beautiful building and its environs look like a sepia print in the setting sun.

Tips: Go on a weekday, take repellent, wear full sleeves, take a tree book…but then you can do without all these.