[Reader-list] Sunderban Diaries

[Jeebesh]

dear All,

I am posting a text by a 10 years old. He is a friend's son. I liked  
this dairy. The weird thing is that all that he sees and shares is  
totally under threat. Maybe 20 to 25 years down the line the tiger  
would have disappeared and water polo may not be a joke anymore.

Sometimes the simple innocence can make us wonder what we are bring  
into our world.

love
jeebes

Sunderban Diaries

  25th May, 2008: Came to the Sunderbans today. At Goshaba Ghat, we  
took a launch that took us to the resort where we were staying. We  
were staying in a hut thatched with straw. We had lunch, fish curry  
and rice (I hate fish but my father said we must eat what we were  
given) and took another launch again to see a river. I saw an osprey  
feasting on a snake. But sadly there were no crocodiles to be seen. I  
stayed on the launch till 5 p.m. Then returned to the resort, had  
dinner and went off to sleep.

  26th May: I woke up in the morning at 6. We carried our breakfast to  
the launch. I saw people fishing for little tiger prawns. There were  
no crocodiles because it was too hot for them. Our guide told us that  
in winter, the crocodiles came and sat on the banks in the sunlight.  
Suddenly, a fin came out of the water. My father shouted, ‘Look a  
Gangetic Dolphin.’ I was so excited that I almost fell into the water.  
At six, we returned to the resort. We saw tiger palms where tigers  
hide in the daytime. The trees have similar colours as the tiger skin  
and they camouflage the animals. But alas, no tiger!

  27th May: Today we decided to take the launch right into the  
interiors of Sundarbans. There I saw the famous mangroves, the sundari  
trees that give Sunderban its name. Mangroves are trees that breathe  
with their roots, which go underground but come up again. They just  
look like steel spikes except that they don’t come out of concrete but  
mud! Some trees were standing in the middle of the water. I had  
already seen the picture of a delta in a map but now for the first  
time, I saw one in real life.

Later, on a forest reserve base camp I saw a green tree snake…hissss!  
We also saw some deer swimming and crossing the river. I saw a  
crocodile at last! It was at least ten feet long and it was half  
hidden in the water. It had big yellow eyes with slits. This place is  
called Sudhanyakhali. Behind an embankment, some boys were playing  
football. My father said when the embankments break, they will be  
playing water polo.

I remembered watching the water as our launch moved: it was covered  
with oil and grease left behind by passing launches like ours. The  
water was greenish brown and during low tide the silt caked our feet.



Ritwik Saha

Std VI, Springdales School, Pusa Road, Delhi.

Age: 10 years 7 months.