Meeting George Monbiot..& the Dodo in Oxford

Oxford Daze


Actually, only one glorious day, November 19, 2014. Here is a very brief account.

My day started with a perfect cup of coffee in a cafe (Zappi’s Bike Café) that my brother, would love (Jaspreet is a biker-and used to bike to office -a mere 35 kms--on the roads and Highways in Delhi & Gurgaon. Yeah, you heard me right. Right there with the trucks et al. 

Till i told him, that his attempt to do good to himself -and the planet-was not doing me, or my blood pressure any good.

Anyway, back to Oxford.

There are many things to do in Oxford. See the university, the umpteen museums, the gardens, the river. Shopping.

I, however, had a simple agenda.

The first was a meeting with George Monbiot. Who is he? You couldn't be reading me, and asking that. Columnist with The Guardian, bestselling author, environmentalist, Fellow with universities such as Oxford, Bristol-to name a few. And much more. If you haven't read him, you have a treat awaiting you. Go, right now, and get yourself Feral (and then work your way down his other books-i am still scouting around for some of the others).

I met him for about an hour, maybe less.  We talked nature, forests, politics, the rise of right-wing politics, ecological crimes, social injustice, extinction--and rewildling. 

Sample this: “The world lives within us, we live within the world. By damaging the living planet we have diminished our existence.”

Did I say we talked? Let me correct that. I kept grilling the brilliant Mr Monbiot, and he graciously answered each one of my queries, clarified doubts, explained concepts...while I never gave the poor man a chance to have his say.

My only excuse is that I was fascinated…

I do hope I did not appear like a floozy meeting with Amitabh Bachchan or a George Clooney, as the case may be.

Read Monbiot’s latest article here: http://www.bbc.com/earth/bespoke/story/20141203-back-to-nature/index.html

And await my piece on him!

Necessity they say is the mother of invention.

And Oxford is where (& when) I learnt to click selfies.

Yeah. After the whole world and their brother does it, after a whole industry runs on it (selfie phones is just one example).

Makes me a dinosaur? Not that i care. 

And fitting, don’t you think for a conservationist, and one who would rather reside in a forest, then the madness of the urban jungle.

Anyway, here is the first ever selfie of yours truly.  Right outside that mecca called the Oxford University, and the Natural History Museum. 

Aah, the sheer joy of being at a place of such history.  This is the Natural History Museum, where the worthies debated Charles Darwin's theory of Origin of Species.

Befitting that with the day starting with thinking, discussing extinction (and rewildling) is also the day that I see the Dodo, that famous symbol of creatures extinct. The large, ungainly flightless and foolishly trustworthy bird beaten-and eaten to extinction within years of its discovery from the lovely island of Mauritius.

The painting  of the dodo (at the Oxford Natural History Museum) is an original, dating back to 1651 by the Flemish artist, Jan Savery.

And though the dodo appears fat here  (in the painting), the bird would like to say in its defence that it is not fat, but much slimmer, while not really a size zero. Really, science says so too. This fat depiction was just artistic license. 

The museum also has some ‘remains’ of the dodo. Bones of a bird long gone.

I cannot describe the emotions that overcame when I ‘met’ the dodo. Such intense  shame and regret that we, humans, caused this creature to go extinct. That we were responsible for wiping them of the face of the earth.

How do we live down this fact? How do we look it in the eye, and still continue to do the same, merrily knocking off species and fellow creatures on the path to self-destruction.

How can you say you are sorry, for you know that you are still at , and with renewed vigour?

(this one is at Jersy, at the Durrell wildlife Conservation Trust-a super place i visited. a must-do. and yes, i will write on this too.)

There was more to do at Oxford. But I didn’t 'do'.  Didn't knock off things of my list. 

I merely wandered around, coming across this beautiful wall of colour.

and another...

I went and sat on a bench (lovely, thing to do) in one of the college gardens (beautiful, and ablaze with colours of autumn)and had a sandwich. Then I thought. And pondered on extinction and despair, life and hope…and there is. As long as nature thrives and paints her colours...

PS: if you want to read something i wrote on extinction read:http://prernabindra.com/2009/05/14/extinction/

London, i am gonna miss you......and till we meet again!

It's my very last day, so i am not going to 'waste' it on writing my blog-this one will be updated later.

But here is what i am really going to miss:

I will miss King's, and i will miss being a student.

And i am since now King's alumni, one fine day, my pic will be up there with the greats (ha ha:-)

Walking, walking, walking. This is will miss like hell. I walked in London all the time. Because one enjoyed it , and because noone cares if you are a Woman (and tries to paw you), and they don't give a damn that you are alone.
Because there is respect for pedestians.
And because it is fun. Good stuff to see (London is such a lovely city) and discover as you walked along...

But most important, i walked because i could...

Which you can't do in India.
Because how do you walk here. I cannot imagine taking to the streets of Gurgaon.
Because there are no paths to walk. Because is not safe.


Part II of this blog, later.

Now, I am off for a walk...

Meeting Muir in Scotland

I was in Edinburgh last month -well, actually end September, and promise to write later about these very delightful, beautiful capital of Scotland at a later date.
What i must, must tell you all about is this wonderful, unexpected encounter i had with one of my 'heroes' during this trip (thank you Chevening & King's college).

I had done little homework (on things to do) before i came to Edinburgh..i kind of thought i would go with the flow. After all i barely had a weekend, one of which was taken up with a day-tour (avoidable, unless you like regimented sight-seeing). 
What i learnt during this tour (yeah, i was surfing the net, when Google uncle informed me that John Muir was born in Scotland. Did i hear you say: John Muir who?
Well, if you don't know who, you don't know me....

But in the interest of not losing all my friends, John Muir was one of the world's greatest naturalists. He was in the words of the Seira Club (which he founded in 1892): a farmer, inventor, sheepherder, naturalist, explorer, writer, and conservationist.

To me, he was the man who was the 'father of National Parks', that great visionary who thought of keeping wilderness, wild; of safegaurding our natural heritage for future generations. 
He was the man who said, "“The mountains are calling and I must go.” (this echoes in my heart…)
I also love this one: “The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts.”  

(Looking up at John Muir's statue in his birthplace, Dunbar, Scotland....i have been doing this as far as i remember, since i knew of him, read him--tho i have read only a few)


Significantly, Muir was a key influence on President Theodore Roosevelt, who--and few know this--was a great naturalist and conservationist, and put this issue high on the national agenda. (Where are you, Roosevelt, we need you so!). As the story goes, Roosevelt read Muir’s work 'Our National Parks', and visited him in 1903, in Yosemite. And there, together, beneath the trees, they laid the foundation of Roosevelt's innovative and notable conservation programs.

How I wonder at such a leader, how I long for such wisdom in our leadership, how I wish I was born at that time…when governments led the conservation, when you did not fight governments to protect environment.

So when I learnt that Muir’s birthplace was here, in Dunbar, in Scotland…I simply had to go.

And I scurried over to Mike, the enthusiastic, chatty driver of our tour, and asked him how I could get to Dunbar.
Just an hour away, he said, to my immense delight. 

But why on earth do you want to go to Dunbar (just a tiny little place, ‘dead’ though beautiful , since it is on the coast, he said). Later, i learnt of another prime attraction, a run-down, ruined fort! and a very pretty, old church, which to the sorrow of the pastor was too 'new', built as recent as the 17th century! Well, it IS all relative, isn't it?

I told Mike about Muir, and he racked his brains, and thought, and pondered, before nodding his head. “Yeah, he said, there is a museum there. He is something to do with nature, right?  But few people know about him, even , here in Scotland….”

Yes, few do. Sad, that while we lionise our warriors, we pay scant regard to those who battle and struggle to preserve the earth, and life around us.

Muir (1838-1914)  had left Dunbar for America as a child, and was America's most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist.
It is only in recent years that his home country has made efforts to conserve Muir’s legacy, and his birthplace-and home in Dunbar is now a museum (http://www.jmbt.org.uk/content/). And I was determined to go.

Even though we were to leave the next day, Sunday.

God bless my long-suffering friends Suman Sahoo and Shefali Juneja, both senior bureaucrats and my colleagues in the Chevening programme –who had no clue who (the hell) this Muir was. But in the face of my passion ate determination (I could see they were foxed!), dropped their plans for the day to accompany me. And off we went..
I, light of heart, giddy with anticipation—and somewhat guilty at dragging ‘em along, especially when we landed in this very sleepy (it was noon and everyone was asleep—or so it appeared. the market, cafes, everything was closed!
Including Muir’s museum. 
Learnt it would open at one, giving me the grand total of five minutes to visit in, if we were to catch the bus to Edinburgh, to get back to London.

Well, to cut a long story short, it was a short-short visit, but I am so very glad I went..it is always so inspiring to be in the company of great men (and women), even if only in spirit.
Being there...reading him, reinforced to me the Power of One.  
One man can change the world. Gandhiji 's life was that message.
And there are others. 
Muir is one such man.

“Everybody needs beauty...places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul alike.” 
― John Muir

Finding the National Bird...

Ok..you get three guesses where this pix is from..and i bet you are not going to get it. Even if the title of the blog is a bit of a give away....

Well, this was at the the garden of the UN headquarters at Geneva!

He wasn't the odd one out..he had company. And he wasn't a gentleman either, brazenly helping himself to some goodies off a table at the UN cafe, while the women of the household made-do with normal, everyday stuff like worms etc at the gardens..

 

Truth be told, while it was nice to meet up with a denizen of our forests (and such a spectacular one at that!), i would much rather see them there..in the forest, and living off the land!

(Part II of my Swiss sojourn tomorrow..stay tuned)

My tryst with Darwin

I have not been keeping up with the blog, and there is much, much to write, and frankly i don't know where to begin..and so, i will start at the very beginning...with the Origin of Species.

Mystified?

 Well, i am being a wee bit dramatic, but this was such a super exciting event in my London Calender: to hear great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, Randal Keynes OBE, FLS is a British conservationist, author, scholar.  He spoke about  Darwin's apes, and how this one young orangutan in the London Zoo played a part in shaping his evolution theory. Darwin, apparently, was keen to 'compare' and observe a young ape to a child--how they grow, emote, feel, think; but one gathered it wasn't the polite to do so with one's offspring. So, it was with some relief when Darwin had a young daughter, who unwillingly--was enlisted for the great cause of science.

 
Randal Keynes also spoke passionatly about the natural world, the imperative to conserve, apes..all music to my ears, followed by another brief talk on conserving apes and other species by the zoo director. 
This is part of a super initiative by Ruth Padel and ZSL, who organised a series of 'Writers Talks on Endangered Species

 The day before i had gone on frantic hunt for books-- Randall Keynes', Charles Darwin's, and of course Ruth Padel's (who had kindly invited me, and whose writing i love and enjoy)---well,i did not get the books, but i did come across this delightful bookshop 'Any Amount of Books'. News books,second hand books,bargain books, collector's editions...this little shop has them al.

This is in the heart of London's hip theater district, and quite close to Charring Cross, are some of the finest sellers of old books: First editions, and collector's editions kinds. Not for the likes of you and me, but lovey to stroll by and perhaps browse in..there is other interesting stuff too: military antiques, and Charles and Diana wedding coins! 

 

To get back to Darwin, the next day i had a wonderful evening with Ruth Padel, her brother, anthropologist Felix Padel who has deep  ties with India, and works with tribes  in Orissa. He also wrote  the book 'Out of the Earth, : East India Adivasis and the Aluminum Cartel.
I discovered another talent of Felix: Cooking. He fed us a simple but utterly delicious meal of well, a khichdi of sorts: Rice, dal, vegetables, herbs spices..yummmmm, and downed with heavenly wine from Portugal.
We talked politics, people, environment, the fate of India's tigers, elephants, the tigers vs tribals debate, the environment 'vs' development debate, the absolute exploition of natural resources..all cheerful dinnertime conversation!

It was a super evening, another highlight being Ruth reading one of her yet unpublished poems on water. I am frankly an ignoramus, do not really read poetry but was so moved, and enchanted by Ruth's writings on water..wish i could narrate an extract, but it's not mine to do so, but here, given below is an extract of her poem published in 'The New Yorker'.



Every choice is a loss. The past is not where you left it.
That corridor you didn’t follow, the gate to unknown
woods, shadow grin of a winding stair, the door you never
found time to open—they whirl within, cracking the floor.

Incidentally, if you haven't red her Tigers in Red Weather, pick it up, like right now..


and here i am, back where i started, with THE Charles Darwin..

This is at London's Natural History Museum, I haven't even started to explore it, was there for a mere two hours, and this franks demands days...it is the finest, i have been to. a must must go.
I will take that up later..but just as a teaser, even its absolute  magnificent building is etched and carved with creatures from the animal kingdom.

Tomorrow, i take you on a different track...keep reading!