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This morning I woke up recalling, for no apparent reason, a quote of Jim Corbett that stuck in the recesses of my memory for 40 odd years. And I picked up my ancient Peacock Paperback covered with a thick transparency sheet and the head of an eminently whiskered tiger on its cover page. The pages have turned brown but not yet brittle and within a few minutes I could locate the quote and the passage that follows:
"If the greatest happiness one can experience is the sudden cessation of great pain, then the second greatest happiness is undoubtedly the sudden cessation of great fear. One short hour previously it would have taken wild elephants to have dragged from their homes and camps the men who now, singing and shouting, were converging in every direction, singly and in groups, on the path leading to Thak. Some of the men of this rapidly growing crowd went up the path to help carry in the tigress, while others accompanied me on my way to camp, and would have carried me had I permitted them. Progress was slow, for frequent halts had to be made to allow each group of new arrivals to express their gratitude in their own particular way. This gave the party carrying the tigress time to catch us up, and we entered the village together. I will not attempt to describe the welcome my men and I received, or the scenes I witnessed at Chuka that night, for having lived the greater part of my life in the jungles I have not the ability to paint word-pictures."
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Look at that..just look at that modesty...Jim Corbett saying: "I have not the ability to paint word-pictures"
Well, Jimmy doesn't need my testimonial. But here is an incident I remember after 30 years.
My wife grew up in the household of her granpa who was an Executive Engineer during the British Rule and was associated with the Tungabhadra Dam Project...a grand old gentleman of 75 when I saw him first. He not only educated my wife through her MBBS and MD at Tirupati, but was solely responsible for getting her married to an unknown chap from an unknown place called IIT KGP.
One evening a few months after our marriage he had this terrific urge to travel to KGP and see for himself how his fond granddaughter was being treated by her husband. He packed up his tooth brush and sat in the general compartment of the next available train (Janata Express) from TPT to KGP, all alone...a journey of 36 hours and more. And bribed the TTE to get a 3-tier berth on the way. And like a good boy I received him at KGP station past midnight, made arrangements for his rest in the very nice Retiring Room there, and in general wore my best behavior mask...much was at stake because he brought along with him an Application Form for the Post of Lady Medical Officer in a god-forsaken place in remote AP...filled in by him and waiting to be signed by his granddaughter.
His stay was supposed to be for a week but it got extended by another week because he very much liked our nest (Qrs C1-97) and the Central Library which was the first place I showed him off at KGP. Within a couple of days of arriving, he tore off the Application Form he brought along with him telling me that he had lost his wife when he was 36...and doesn't want to separate me from my wife whom I married when I was 36...
And during his stay there he asked me if I have any good books to beguile his ample leisure. I opened my wardrobe-cum-book-case and asked him to help himself. And I was watching him read half a dozen books that caught his eye. And while leaving, he asked me if he could borrow another half dozen books and take them with him to TPT promising he wouldn't lose them nor lend them nor soil them. I demurred but agreed.
And was watching with interest which books he picked up and found, among the RKN's and Sherlock Holmes' and Wodehouses, the lone Jim Corbett book: Man-Eaters of Kumaon. And I said:
“But I have seen you reading Corbett's book here”
“Well, I read it twice but want to read it a couple more times”
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This morning I woke up recalling, for no apparent reason, a quote of Jim Corbett that stuck in the recesses of my memory for 40 odd years. And I picked up my ancient Peacock Paperback covered with a thick transparency sheet and the head of an eminently whiskered tiger on its cover page. The pages have turned brown but not yet brittle and within a few minutes I could locate the quote and the passage that follows:
"If the greatest happiness one can experience is the sudden cessation of great pain, then the second greatest happiness is undoubtedly the sudden cessation of great fear. One short hour previously it would have taken wild elephants to have dragged from their homes and camps the men who now, singing and shouting, were converging in every direction, singly and in groups, on the path leading to Thak. Some of the men of this rapidly growing crowd went up the path to help carry in the tigress, while others accompanied me on my way to camp, and would have carried me had I permitted them. Progress was slow, for frequent halts had to be made to allow each group of new arrivals to express their gratitude in their own particular way. This gave the party carrying the tigress time to catch us up, and we entered the village together. I will not attempt to describe the welcome my men and I received, or the scenes I witnessed at Chuka that night, for having lived the greater part of my life in the jungles I have not the ability to paint word-pictures."
********************************************************************************************************
Look at that..just look at that modesty...Jim Corbett saying: "I have not the ability to paint word-pictures"
Well, Jimmy doesn't need my testimonial. But here is an incident I remember after 30 years.
My wife grew up in the household of her granpa who was an Executive Engineer during the British Rule and was associated with the Tungabhadra Dam Project...a grand old gentleman of 75 when I saw him first. He not only educated my wife through her MBBS and MD at Tirupati, but was solely responsible for getting her married to an unknown chap from an unknown place called IIT KGP.
One evening a few months after our marriage he had this terrific urge to travel to KGP and see for himself how his fond granddaughter was being treated by her husband. He packed up his tooth brush and sat in the general compartment of the next available train (Janata Express) from TPT to KGP, all alone...a journey of 36 hours and more. And bribed the TTE to get a 3-tier berth on the way. And like a good boy I received him at KGP station past midnight, made arrangements for his rest in the very nice Retiring Room there, and in general wore my best behavior mask...much was at stake because he brought along with him an Application Form for the Post of Lady Medical Officer in a god-forsaken place in remote AP...filled in by him and waiting to be signed by his granddaughter.
His stay was supposed to be for a week but it got extended by another week because he very much liked our nest (Qrs C1-97) and the Central Library which was the first place I showed him off at KGP. Within a couple of days of arriving, he tore off the Application Form he brought along with him telling me that he had lost his wife when he was 36...and doesn't want to separate me from my wife whom I married when I was 36...
And during his stay there he asked me if I have any good books to beguile his ample leisure. I opened my wardrobe-cum-book-case and asked him to help himself. And I was watching him read half a dozen books that caught his eye. And while leaving, he asked me if he could borrow another half dozen books and take them with him to TPT promising he wouldn't lose them nor lend them nor soil them. I demurred but agreed.
And was watching with interest which books he picked up and found, among the RKN's and Sherlock Holmes' and Wodehouses, the lone Jim Corbett book: Man-Eaters of Kumaon. And I said:
“But I have seen you reading Corbett's book here”
“Well, I read it twice but want to read it a couple more times”
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