Artists camp at Sasangir

Sonatina and I were invited to an artists' camp at Sasangir and spent six days exploring the beautiful forests of the Sasangir Wildlife sanctuary. Although the main attraction of this sanctuary is the fact that it is the last home of the Asiatic lion, which is down to only 411 lions, the specialness of the experience came from spending time discovering all the wonderful flora and fauna that thrives in the forest. There is absolute truth in the statement that Nature is the ultimate teacher, because in the six days of observing the changing patterns of trees and learning about the adaptation abilities and behaviour of the animals, I felt that we as humans do little with our intellect  to live our lives to its maximum potential and are often embroiled in trivialities that are of no consequence to our role in the larger context of the earth we inhabit.  

The images of tender leaves shooting on dry teak trees, the white lilies in full bloom in an otherwise arid surrounding, the call of the deer warning the forest that danger lurks near, the song of the Indian Pitta as it hops from a rock to a branch and the quiet yawn of the lion  that seems to keep everything at a balance- all this continues to play in my mind as I traverse through the cacophony of traffic in a concrete jungle.

Malavika Rajnarayan