From My Notebooks In 1977: Brahmaputra by Elephant
6th April 2025 |
Still stuck in Gauhati doing battle with the police and the bureaucracy.
An Ahom temple in Assam. The Ahom, a Thai tribe, established a late mediaeval kingdom in the Brahmaputra valley which lasted six hundred years until 1826
January 18th
On Tuesday morning we sought out the District Commissioner. who expressed impatience with red tape and authorised us to make an application which I wrote out in his office, very comprehensively. So far so good. All he needed he said was a note from the police that they had no objection – but soon we were back with Das, and Goswamy (his sidekick) and they felt unable to make a decision. Nor could their boss be found. At last, after lunch, I returned to the Special Branch office where they said once again that the District Commissioner could not issue these permits, and we would have to go to Dispur. More in interest than expectation I pursued the DC. again, found him at his bungalow about to have lunch. 45 minutes later we were both back there with our application and the Supt.’s notes. The DC was evidently bewildered to find his path blocked but had the sense to tell us to go to Dispur after all. He would telephone there on our behalf. Finally then, after further persuasion we were seen by the secretary of the passport office.
Here was a most polished young man behind a large desk.
“This is a restricted area,” he explained, “and the words do, after all, have a meaning. They mean that foreigners are not allowed here, with certain exceptions. You may be the exceptions,” and he beamed at us.
“We have to consider each case on its merits. We may have reasons for refusing permission to some individuals and not to others. And of course we will not tell you what our reasons are.”
Two Germans were there, seeking permits for Derange only.
With his fingertips together before a conspiratorial smile, he said “Now this I’m afraid, may be rather difficult.“
In exasperation the German woman said, ”I’m sorry, I can’t deal with this ‘Maybe -Perhaps – It will be difficult.’ Just tell us please whether it will be possible . . . or impossible.”
His smile became even more egregious.
“Let me put it then, that in the case of Derange it will prove actually to be . . . impossible.”
He could hardly utter the word ¬ but seemed pleased to have got it out. Nevertheless, behind the extreme unctuousness, he delivered a plain message. All our complaints and inconveniences were nothing to him. They would deal with us as they pleased, regardless of PR considerations, or the tourist trade.
It was a breath of fresh air, though a depressing prospect. Assam had become most desirable to us both, and with the difficulties grew our ambitions. He invited us to call him next morning for news about our applications.
On our way back to town we stopped at the Lucas office and fell on our feet. Happily received by the resident manager, Sanithanan, a Tamil Brahmin, we also met shortly afterwards Raj Pande, the Calcutta boss on a tour of Assam. He was most friendly. Flattered us both with his attention. Invited us to eat with him at the Bellevue (we had just thought of going there for a beer.)
We went back to the lodge first to let Carol change. Snow White hovered there anxiously. He knew that our permits had expired. I dealt with it in an offhand manner, but I knew that if the Passport Office didn’t approve at least our stay in Gauhati, we’d be in more trouble next day.
The evening with Pande went very well. He is charming, intelligent and capable of listening. Spent seven years in Birmingham, where he took an external degree. Then Amritsar, Delhi and Calcutta (also Jaipur I think). Gave a spirited description of four levels of Indian business. He says they are efficient at the lowest and highest levels. Not in between. (The man who employs apprentices and pays only in roti and dahl, can produce accurate facsimiles of auto parts at a fraction of the price. If an armature breaks down, say, he will say give it back and take another, and he can be relied on to do this. NOT fly-by-night.)
Next day, Wednesday, I’m told our permits will be ready in the afternoon for some of the places we wanted. Jubilation. At two thirty we get them. Stop for chat with Sanithanan. Then very late go to university on spec and find Dr. B.M.Das just leaving. He invites us to visit his home at 6.30. We visit Karmak (?) temple on hill overlooking the river. Good view. A Hindu protests that we should be allowed into the temple. Apologises for the custodians of his faith. “God is the same everywhere.”
The visit to Das is an overwhelming success. [He gave us introductions and advice on places to visit and what to look for.]
Back at the Lodge – Snow White is satisfied. We are ready to penetrate Assam.
Thursday, 20th January
A slow and cumbersome start of packing, marketing, post office, bank. Tried to draw a bank-draft but the queue defeated me.
We get to the park after dark, having stopped earlier at an Inspection Bungalow which seemed inhospitable. Decided to continue to next place and as soon as darkness fell the road entered a winding hill area where it rapidly deteriorated. I joked that it would soon turn to dirt. Almost immediately, it did, and we travelled through several miles of road building. The predictability of this kind of coincidence is astonishing. Worst conditions of light, weather, road, coincide towards end of ride, particularly when a choice has been made to continue,
Overwhelmed by impact of bureaucracy on our otherwise simple lifestyle.
A curse – but mixed with some blessings. What is the price of a streamlined bureaucracy? Is it a consumer society? Probably – because only the demands of commerce can defeat the sloth of the bureaucrat. Meanwhile we have the remarkable testimony of Chaudry, the head of Geological Survey, met in Kaziranga, who tells how he and his sea-green incorruptible colleagues stand in the way of corruption and pollution. The British Tradition he calls it. His story concerns the use of high Sulphur coal in Rajasthan. The SO2 will kill saplings that ensure regeneration of forest. But it was on quite different grounds that he stopped the danger – an Act of Parliament to do with conservation of Silver, Indium and Mercury.
Transferred to Assam to thwart him, but he continued his campaign by mail.
Friday, January 21st
The elephant ride is off because of fog. At Tourist Lodge we are seduced into 20-rupee room and are very pleased by it. Book an elephant ride for following afternoon. The only disappointment here is food. The four Yankees are also here, but we see little of them.
Saturday, 22nd
Lovely morning and lunch. Then to Baguri. Walked across river with the elephant, where she knelt down and a short ladder was given us to mount by.
We plodded softly down the road and very soon after discovered a wild elephant among bushes and trees just off the road. Then through tracts of very high thatching grass and out into a swampy area with a lake in it. Beyond the lake were several rhino, like light grey boulders in the grass. We got round to them eventually and the Mahout brought us face to face with one that wanted to charge us.
He made an attempt to approach but the elephant advanced on him, and he backed down and fled. This, it turns out, is fairly predictable, but not knowing it I felt distinctly nervous of the outcome. The rhino was scarred and bleeding from a fight – (it’s the mating season) – and actually ran off to one of the big rhino dung heaps to have a shit. So it couldn’t have been all that worried.
[I was told later that the rhino is the only animal that can hope to defeat an elephant, by getting under it and thrusting it horn up into the elephant’s belly]
The white rhino came close to attacking us
There were other small animals and the ride was very pleasant. But expensive, and we didn’t much like being asked for a tip at the end. But took several pics.
In the evening I got slightly euphoric and continued a silly attempt to familiarise Carol with Saint Privat – which turned out very badly as Jo figured ever larger in the story, until the thing finished in sterile abstractions, tears, incriminations, and remorse.
Sunday, 23rd
Walked to shops on main road patching up the previous night’s damage. Bought duck eggs and walking back up saw the helicopters which had disturbed us the night before. Walked across grass where they were parked, as a young Indian pilot in overalls was about to warm up for a journey. We talked to him – Capt. Vijay Trehan – and within minutes we were in the machine and up for the first time. Magic. He invited us to stay with him in Gauhati.
Breakfast splendid. Then I played with ideas about the book, trying to isolate some view of the world that had simple relevance. Tried to make something of custom and prejudice but didn’t get it.
Carol went to Ag-research station and Miki village. Lunch was fairly boring. The jeep ride we had booked for the afternoon did not thrill me in anticipation. I thought it would be a waste of money. We were to share with others, and there was a silly scene over Carol’s student card reduction. But the other passengers turned out to be the grandparents of the barman – 80 & 65 years old – and their first time in the sanctuary. That felt much better.
We saw the usual things – going to the Brahmaputra – rhino, buffalo, deer, boar – and admired the sandy desolation of the river bed. And its bubbling water. Then stopped by the forest rest house, where a beautiful marshy pond lay among rushes, with fish jumping, kingfishers, and a gull-type bird diving. Heron, egret, ducks, hawks and waterfowl played. A plump bird with speckled brown outer plumage and white underneath sat ornamentally on a bush. The sun set on the grasses, reflected in the water and it was altogether beautiful. By then I was well-satisfied, so what came soon after was as electrifying as it was unexpected.
The jeep slammed to a halt amid shouts, and I shot up from my seat through the roof frame to see a tiger – a big bright Royal Bengal tiger shining in its magnificent colours in the grass 100 feet way. The reality of it was breath-taking and it stayed long enough to fill me with awe. Not even the lion can compete with it. A sight of a lifetime. The quarry too could be heard in the grass, and we probably came just too soon for the kill – but what a bonus. All of us were very happy. And a sort of intimacy grew up just around the event.
Not much later a black leopard also made an appearance, and monkeys scattered in high branches. The skyline was a splendid black on red, and stars began to appear in a sky that was African in its grandeur. In the lodge everyone congratulated us on our good fortune. We went to the bar and, after a gloomy start, got deliciously drunk with three bottles of beer.
A conversation with the manager of ITDC Travellers’ Lodges, and then the Geological Survey Director who was loquaciously tipsy.
Afterwards in the dining room, the geologist Chaudrey, talked on about how scientists formed a fraternal conspiracy to maintain a balance of power in the world, ignoring national and political pressures to do so.
Not since the late forties have I heard such a roseately optimistic version of scientific idealism. He was full of stuff about the British tradition of doing one’s duty regardless of personal gain – and spoke highly of the British geologists who had turned over every page of their observations and results to India. He had seen the reports.
[The only useful map of India I had been able to find since my arrival six months earlier was a map with some detail of roads and cities produced by the Geological Survey. It was printed as I recall on two sheets of plain paper, and difficult to keep intact.]