Straight from Papa's mouth - The Gum Boots

I have sometimes wondered how I came to possess a fervent imagination, one which is constantly itching to get down to business. The answer perhaps lies in the fact that I was born to parents who placed a high premium on good reading, listening and regaling skills. I grew up hearing Papa narrate comical incidents from his own childhood with such merry abandon and animated gesticulations that no matter how many times they were repeated, these tales of mischief would always manage to gather an avid audience. Mummy ‘s bed time tales from Aesop’s Fables, Grimms Brothers’ Fairy Tales and Mahabharata were also recounted with such aplomb that it was difficult not to picture the quixotic characters and places. Enraptured, I would listen to both sets of stories, building corresponding images in my mind while dreaming of someday being able to recapitulate with just as much gusto.

This is my first attempt to put on paper these tit-bits from the past and I hope that you enjoy reading them as much as I have enjoyed listening to them.

It was one of those late December evenings in Gwalior when merciless gusts of cold wind threatened to freeze those who dared to venture out and cups of hot masala chai (masala tea) and pakoras were handed out to those ensconced in the warmth of Buaji’s house. Three generations of family huddled around an old heater which barely managed to spout enough hot air to warm ice cold fingers and toes. Enveloped in sweaters, scarves and shawls, we braved the sub zero temperature that night with chai, pakoras, a rickety heater and an inevitable round of storytelling. Fuelled by the sweet gingery kick of chai, anecdotes and real life incidents soon started flowing in copious amounts. Several stories branched out, multiplying like neutrons in a nuclear fission reaction.

4 brothers (my father being one of them) – the biggest mischief makers of their time- figured in more than one tale. A story of one of these brothers, brother number 3 to be precise, who will be referred to as P (a respected doctor in today’s day and age) left everyone laughing so hard that tears trickled down most cheeks. Here goes……. Summer vacations had begun and the first day dawned bright and sunny - simply perfect for all the tomfoolery already mushrooming in his head. With much effort P shook off the drowsiness which lay heavy on his eyelids and looked around to check if he was the last one to get up. As conscientious as ever, his oldest brother S was sitting at his study deeply immersed in a book while brother number 2, R was nowhere to be seen. His youngest brother, brother number 4, also known as my Dad or D, sat on his bed fiddling around in general.

‘Let’s play Hide and Seek today!!!’ exclaimed P jumping out of bed in one quick leap and landing right in front of S. Keeping his book aside, S appraised him from top to bottom and replied with great disdain ‘At least brush your teeth and drink your milk before you begin hatching plans for the day’. P turned a questioning gaze towards D who was already nodding excitedly, giving his consent for a game of Hide and Seek. Within minutes all 4 brothers were outside in the courtyard along with their friends from the neighborhood all set to kick off the vacations in style. With a whole lot of cheating and some luck P managed to avoid being the Seeker and couldn’t help making fun of his poor slob of a friend who was conned into being one. As the Seeker turned his back to the rest of the boys and began counting, the group scattered in an instant. A few crouched behind nearby stone pillars while others slinked into the recesses between houses.

P took off as quickly as his legs could take him, determined to find the most ingenious place to hide. Soon he found himself standing at a road construction site a little further away from home. The place was littered with empty cylindrical cans of coal tar (dambar in Hindi) which were almost as tall as P himself. But crouching behind one of these cans seemed too clichéd to P. Just as he was about to take off once again in search of a perfect hiding place a glimmer of an idea lit up in his head bringing a broad smile to his face. He checked the can in front of him and found it devoid of its usual content: molten coal tar. Having checked a few more cans he was convinced that all the cans were empty and would serve as an ideal hiding place.

With great dexterity P hauled himself over the can kept at the far end of the construction site and swiftly lowered himself inside. All this while, he did not take his eyes off the road as he knew that by now the Seeker would be roaming around like a wild animal searching for his prey. When he had almost sunk to the bottom of the can he happened to look down at his body inside the can and couldn’t believe his eyes. His lower body, beyond the waist, was submerged in a shiny jet black viscous solution of coal tar! ‘How could this happen?’ he thought in dismay. In his hurry, he had not checked all the cans and had assumed after looking into a few that the rest were empty as well. A little shred of panic wriggled its way into P’s heart as he sank deeper into the quick sand like coal tar. ‘This is no time to panic’, he told himself sternly. The gears in his brain started creaking and grunting as he mulled over plans to get out of his predicament

A few hours of struggle later an exhausted P heaved himself out of the can. Huffing and panting he stood on the road now but his troubles had not ended just as yet. His legs were covered in a thick layer of coal tar and it appeared as if he was wearing knee length dark black gum boots which stuck to the hot road as if they had adhesive on their soles. Slowly he inched back home as each step felt like a mile. ‘Maybe this is how it feels when one is walking on an iron road wearing magnetic shoes’ he imagined. Thoughts of super heroes swooping in and carrying him back home crossed his mind along with images of his favorite halwa-poori which painfully tantalized his fast building hunger.

Needless to say, P reached home and was received by a stunned group of brothers and friends. Not wanting to look like a complete fool in front of everyone, P began boasting about his adventures and clowning around showing off his coal tar boots. I can only imagine what must have transpired between him and his mother (my Dadiji) when she found out what had happened but I am cent percent sure that he wasn’t rewarded with halwa-poori. I am told that it took all of her patience and a gallon or more of kerosene oil to peel off the adventures of the day. In that moment all characters of this story must have been unaware of the number of times this incident was to be recounted in years to come and the generations ahead who were going to hear about it on cold winter nights drinking chai and devouring pakoras.

Yellowstone Diaries

There are dozens of places on this planet which stake claim to the coveted appellation ‘Heaven on Earth’. We even have one in the midst of the so called squalor in India – Kashmir.  But this is not a sonnet praising the beauty and serenity of Kashmir; it is a humble offering to the majestic Yellowstone national park which has all the qualities to secure a top notch spot in the aforementioned list of contenders. Spread across almost the entire state of Wyoming in North America, it is the world's first ever National Park.

Truth be told, being a greenhorn at National Park adventures, at the outset I did not know what to expect. My over- fertile imagination fabricated disturbing images of a zoo-like edifice minus the cages, dangerous wild animals cavorting unattended in the open, creepy crawly creatures slithering up my bed post in the middle of the night and mucky hike trails just waiting to spew unimaginable filth.  Pushing these dark thoughts into the deepest recesses of my mind I wore a happy smile and rallied on. My perseverance was rewarded instantly as after a rather onerous journey we walked into a beautiful condominium which was to be ours for the next few days.

Nestling in a valley surrounded by towering peaks, our abode was a little piece of paradise in itself. The fact that it was located in Paradise Valley further corroborated my analogy. As the spindly golden thread like rays of the morning sun filtered through our windows, we prepared ourselves for the quest that lay ahead. At first glance Paradise valley looked ethereal doused in a golden shimmer of tenuous sunshine. We drove past green and yellow meadows, catching our first glimpse of herds of bison chomping grass in languid contentment. As each one of us reached for the camera little did we know that this was going to be the most frequent sight during our 5 day long trip and by the end of it we were going to care two hoots for these humungous albeit misshapen creatures.

Our first stop was the visitor center at Mammoth hot springs. This was also destined to be the setting for our next wild animal sighting. An elk lounged peacefully on the grass patch in front of the visitor center, seemingly unaware of the excitement that its presence had incited. Once in a while, not unlike a movie star, it would daintily turn its tiny head adorned by a massive tiara of horns towards the excited mob of tourists as if to oblige them by posing for their cameras. What completed the pretty picture was the play of colors. The red tiled roof of the visitor center stood in sharp contrast against a cloudless blue sky and the grass in varying shades of green and yellow complemented the brown hues of the surrounding mountains. It was as if Mother Nature had used every crayon she could find in her box.

Elk sighting

A short walk brought us face to face with the pristine white Mammoth Hot Springs. The structure loomed in front of us like a giant tiered stage made of limestone. The steam rising from its belly brought memories of a colossal Hindi movie set ready for a Sridevi or a Madhuri Dixit to break into a dance sequence. The hike up the Mammoth Terrace Mountain was arduous but the view from up above was every bit worth the pain. From here we witnessed white puffy clouds shaping footprints in the form of shadows on neighboring peaks. It truly felt as if we had reached out and managed to caress the doors of heaven with our fingertips. On all four sides sharp peaks stood like strong sentinels guarding the flora and fauna ensconced in the valley’s womb.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot springs was simply the beginning, a gateway of sorts to an adventure of epic proportions which was beginning to unfold in front of us. Over the next few days we explored one geyser basin after the other, each a tad bit different from the previous. One of these was the Norris geyser basin which is a vast barren expanse of white limestone with blackened dead trees dotting it. I shuddered as I took in the view because this is perhaps how our planet would look if the sleeping giant of a volcano on which the beautiful Yellowstone Park sits finally decides to unleash its fury and erupt once again after nearly 60,000 years. Every now and then we would come across a bubbling puddle of scalding hot water and mineral deposits. A strong pungent smell of hydrogen sulphide combined with the white vapor rising from these puddles made the geyser basin look like nature’s very own chemistry laboratory.

Norris geyser basin

Thankfully, next on our itinerary- the West Thumb geyser basin- did not paint a picture of doomsday. With the indigo blue water of the Yellowstone Lake as backdrop, the vivid hot water vents looked like a result of the endemic eccentricity of a painter. It was as if with bold strokes of his brush the maestro had painted dazzling, iridescent pools in an attempt to add a certain mystical vibrancy to his painting. One vent amidst many caught both my eye and my imagination. It looked like it had been outlined by thick red paint which was in reality iron ore deposit. As my gaze roved from the periphery to the center of the pool, I saw its red outline dissolve into a bright yellow lent by sulphur deposits which further melted into emerald green and clear blue right in the middle. The sheer brilliance of the colors which are attributed to both the mineral deposits as well as microorganisms called thermophiles breeding in these puddles stirred poetic sentiments within.

The colourful pool at West Thumb

I was wrong in believing that the upper limit of nature’s creativity had been exhibited at The West Thumb. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is art of another kind. It is a deep dent on the face of earth through which the Yellowstone River flows. With great panache the river drops down a steep face of the canyon and snakes its way through the carved volcanic red and white stone. By now a dark patina of dusk was slowly inching over the walls of the canyon as the waning sunlight faded into oblivion. Yet again my imagination went into overdrive as to me it appeared as if God was spreading a warm blanket of love and lulling his brood to sleep. Heading back we encountered a couple of fractious black bears who refused to obediently go to bed and much to the delight of camera toting tourists like us preferred gallivanting in the woods instead.  We clicked away to glory till they retreated into the forest.

Sunset at Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

We had so far seen the beauty and ingenuity of nature but we were still to experience its punctuality. Our destination for the day was The Old Faithful geyser which is named so to honor the promptness that it has been demonstrating since very many years. Like clockwork every 90 minutes the geyser explodes up to a height of 180 feet in the air. People crowd expectantly around the vent and are almost never disappointed. We watched agape as the natural fountain sent a burst of scorching water and steam high up right on schedule. It was abundantly clear to us what the river of hot magma flowing merely 4 miles below the surface of this great park is capable of doing.

Old Faithful

A bit of souvenir shopping, a motor boat expedition up the Yellowstone River, a lazy morning spent playing Ludo with the family, cups of hot chocolate, a moose walking into our backyard to say howdy, a scary moment which left our hearts pounding when our car almost went turtle, a forest fire turning one of the peaks crimson and many more exciting experiences woven together made for an unforgettable vacation. Once back home, immersed in mundane chores, I happened to hear Belinda Carlisle on the radio crooning “Oooh Heaven is a place on earth” and I floated back to Yellowstone. I couldn’t agree with her more. Heaven is most certainly a place on earth, I have seen it.