Well,it was completely unplanned for me!When Guru asked me to accompany him to Shivamogga, it was basically for the periodic check up of mother and an overdue consultation with doctor! Well, that got over on schedule and a change in dosage and medication with more emphasis on exercise and input control(which was excellent), what set in store for the next day was not dreamt also!! Next morning, he said we will go to mavinagundi to meet shri Ashok Hegde, and discuss the setting up of a portable weather station just imported!! And he had casually mentioned going around to nearby places!! Not in the habit to ask details, I sat in navigator's side, and the brothers conversation in that trip would have made the dialogue writers job easier for main stream cinema/media!! We reached Kathlekaan in about an hour or so!! What lay in store in the deceptively simple woody/jungle surrounding was unravelled in an excellent fashion by that person who knows it like the back of his hand!! He is doing research in that area for close to around 17 years now and I can say with certainty each individual tree/ shrub and the habitat talks to him!! Courtesy of his leading the way, he got a tick or two embedded in him!! And as he had done the recce, I was neither sprung the coils of vipers or the inoculation of ticks!! The myristica swamp which unravelled in front of us is a treasure trove of natural history and ecology!! Though guru was giving me the scientific name of the trees which have adapted themselves to the marshy nature of the area, I was awestruck at the sudden cool ambience with clear stream flowing and the roots in various shapes and sizes spread across that sacred zone!! He showed once more plant used for making natural yellow dye!! And roots of some of the plants were like the one in kannada or a reverse U!! In between i have missed out on these plants,which somehow reminded of the Avataar movie and we strangers were encroaching on their lung space!! So, having spent nearly an hour in that place and filled lungs with enough oxygen to last for next visit, and the placard showing the incremental growth recordngs of forest trees by that englishman used even to this day by researchers and students alike!!
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