Up here now.
It is May 1999, and I’m in the jungles of Kerala on holiday from college. I have borrowed a little film point-and-shoot from my parents and it jams as we’re floating between drowned trees on the Periyar lake, with mahseer that we would later fish, and a herd of elephants swimming towards a miniature island. I would have jumped over if I wasn’t scared the animals would get me before I hit the bottom.
Nine years later, I’m eyeballing an elephant at the other extremity of India, with a lens that would flick open its lashes. How I had dreamt of this moment. But wildlife photography and long lenses hold little interest for me now. Instead, after a few romps in the forest, I start focusing on the people: the sisters who shared their homework with me, Rupen Rava, the mahoot who became a forest guard, Binita Kumar, who weaves chadors for 300 rupees, and Rabin Saikia who sold beetel nuts to pay for college.
But all I have are scribbles in a notebook, not stories, and Kaziranga and other trips through Assam, with pictures and no words, are failures. The next one will be better.
8 Comments
May 1999 – ten years back…
This nice angle shot!
Thanks. I shot this in 2008.
The eyelashes! interesting.
Thanks, Aisha. See you soon? I have some interesting material for you.
What is a mahoot? And this beautiful shot of the eye reminds me of someone.Thanks for the ride.
A mahoot is an elephant driver/rider/handler/little guy who sits on the neck and tugs on the ears, occasionally pokes the animal with a metal rod, whacks him on the head. After all that effort at evolution this is the best the elephant could hope for from us.
I’m sure the elephant will never forget you taking this shot
I have never smelt an elephant. I am wondering how it smells this huge non hairy mammifère. How would it be to touch its skin? And imagine having his nose close to mine…. That has to be something. It is interesting to see an eye so close because from my perspective it is impossible to look so deep inside an elephant eyes. The eyelashes ….. a dream.