The forest fire

I so wished to join Abhisekh in his trip to Calcutta! I badly wanted to go to Dakshineshwar and Belur Math with him! But nature has its own ways of making up for a loss as well. While it did not allow me to spend a lovely evening sitting beside the Bhagirathi-Hooghly in the serenity of the Math enjoying the fragrance of the special agarbatti found only in Belur and nowhere else on earth (Abhisekh thinks that agarbatti can be polluting as well, and he actually had a cough because of the smell! God! he is so susceptible!), nature balanced itself by presenting to me an eye-capturing illustration! That of a forest fire! It was there for me to witness, and only me!
I had always asked people in IITBombay why at some point of time in the year the Sameer Hill becomes absolutely carbon-black. But all used to say that someone might have lit up dried leaves and branches. Today I could know who it was.
My Prof’s room gives a scenic view of the Sameer Hill. The window is strategically located I must say. It cuts away the unnecessary concrete edifices, which would have otherwise engulfed the view, and allows only the garnishing of the hill by the trees from sides to be seen. I had to take a supplementary test of fluid mechanics for a BTech guy, who missed the earlier scheduled test. It so happens that I love everything about IITBombay somehow. No wonder it pulled me back within 3 months of leaving it. “Jhank-er koi jhank-e firechhe” as my mother puts it (the lone fish has found and gone back to her people and place!).
The test started in the afternoon. I looked outside, and started thinking (or ‘day-dreaming about nothing’ as a more sensible person might describe). With thoughts of long-forgotten songs or long-cherished special moments thronging my mind, the Sameer Hill outside the window served as the out-of-focus yet visible backdrop. A little portion on the top of the hill was black. I started reading a bit, and yet again immersed myself in my day-dreaming. As if I am missing something, or someone. After 10 mins, I could get back into my consciousness! What the hell! What am I doing? I have developed all signs of an idle mind! Is there anything by which I can stop it from being a devil’s workshop?
Thoughts start coming back to the present moment and the focus returns to the not so visible backdrop- the Sameer Hill. Is that some kind of smoke I see? Is it that someone has actually lit up the dried leaves and branches? That too, in simultaneous places? Holy spirit! Half of the hill is now black within 10 minutes! How is it ever possible for someone to stimulate such a large scale fire in such a short time?
Within few moments, I could make out it is forest fire! I could see the orange flames going desperate by the windy breezes. One portion of the hill catches fire, scorches, emit fumes as the burning gets completed, while the fire moves on searching for its next victim, the neighboring portion! Wildness expressed in its most crude form!
I could see a flock of black birds! Why are there so many birds in the middle of the fire and smoke? Is it that they will readily get dead worms and insects for a lunch, without too much effort?
O hello! This is a forest fire! Is anyone even watching? Shall I run to Sameer Hill right now? Why don’t I have a binocular? (interestingly, I wished for a binocular, and not a camera!!)
Out of excitement, I told the Btech student, “Have you ever seen a forest fire?” Well, a venturimeter and a forest fire do not go quite hand in hand really! He gave me a glare! I knew I disturbed him! “No”, and he went back into solving the paper!
I have never seen something like this! I muttered to myself! This is not a beautiful picture, not a soothing one either. Not something to be proud of. Certainly not a mesmerizing experience! But I was so overwhelmed! Something that is there for the first time! Something that I had never ever witnessed before! It was a magic! And I saw it through the window, and not in the Discovery or National Geographic channel!
And it was there for me. Only for me! In a very ordinary October afternoon, when the entire IIT was busy doing academic activities, eating or sleeping, or escaping from the scorching sunlight, I was presented an excitement! An urge to just look at my window and not do or think anything else for 30 minutes! My window to the wild!