A Date With CHILIKA-Day Two: We Walked On Water: Mar. 9, 2005
04/05/2005 09:28 p.m.


PINK AND WHITE FLAMINGOS
(orissatourism.org and chilika.com)




The ferry is there but it isn’t. It simply does not fit into my image of a ferry. So, while waiting for this convoy to appear I ask my driver, “Where’s the ferry?” He points to a small vessel tied to the dock, and I begin to wonder how this boat can possibly be called a ferry, let alone accommodate our car? For not only is our car traveling on this boat, but so is a bus with all of its passengers occupying their seats, apart from many more on foot, bicycles, and motorcycles. After the bus drives onto the ferry, our driver squeezes us in directly behind it as Rula and I sit anxiously in the back seat. We watch as the ferry operators calmly adjust the back of the craft by leaving the sluice gate open since, after having the bus on board, there is hardly any space for the car. Needless to say, the rear of our car is placed on the chained sluice gate rather than on board, though the crew do us the favor of raising the sluice gate an inch so that the car does not roll back into the lake with me and Rula inside it! (Hahahaha)


Our ever-positive and loyal driver smiling on the ferry after he parks our car behind the bus


Our rendezvous with CHILIKA is not yet over. After spending three hours on that makeshift motorboat (an uninstalled small engine left loose on one end of the boat attached to a submerged fan through a long rod which makes the fan rotate. This is a simple indigenous device that propels the boat. The boatman just moves the rod towards the desired direction in order to direct the boat to its desired destination. Yes, this is almost like a 2000 BC boat and mind it, the boatman too belongs to the same era in both appearance and behavior Hahahaha) and having spent some time in that museum exhibiting CHILIKA’S ways and lives, we are to take this ferry to a place which is 10 miles on the other side of the lagoon where we are booked for the night. In the beginning, we remain seated in the car despite that we are on the ferry. My reason for remaining seated is simple as there is hardly any space on my side of the ferry to open the door without facing the risk of practically falling into the lake. But Rula is a courageous woman. She not only manipulates her small frame out of the car on the ferry, but she also starts taking pictures. Her courage encourages me to get down from the car and enjoy this one hour ride in the ferry which goes without saying, is an experience in and of itself.


Don't look down...

Ashok sitting in the car contemplating his position as the back tires hang by the sluice gate chain since the gate cannot be properly closed



I assume that we are on a 30 to 45 minute drive from this side of Chilika lagoon to our hotel based on the information we receive after disembarking the ferry, yet this is not so. The road conditions make this 70 mile drive seem more like 700. I remember joking with Rula while I was driving on such a road on way to KANHA, the famous wild life sanctuary, that I could beat her husband in a car race (I intentionally replaced Schumacher with her husband) any time I want on these roads (her husband is fond of car racing). Well, we arrive at 8.30, have our dinner together, and retire a bit early to our respective rooms.



Ashok in front of the government owned and run hotel we stay at in Orissa


We have one more date with CHILIKA on that beautiful day-to-be, the 9th day of March, 2005. We hire a boat from the hotel guide (to my surprise it is a 21st century motorboat) to a destination that is to become a lifetime experience for both Rula and I. Apparently, we are to visit the famous migratory bird sanctuary situated 10 miles off the coast on an island known as Nalban.



Ashok waiting at the dock outside our hotel for the motorboat that will take us to Nalban Island, otherwise known as, the Bird Sanctuary


An Island is what we are told this bird sanctuary will occupy, and an island is what we look for. But thirty minutes into our ride in the motorboat, watching occasional water birds with our eyes and through binoculars, the boat comes to a halt in what seems to be the middle of the lake. What a scene to behold! We can see miles of green, carpeted lakebed (unlike the muddy waters we had seen the previous day) and rows and rows of ducks, flamingos and a huge lonely pelican. By the way, 948 hundred thousand migratory birds visit this very place this year. The ducks are from Siberia, the flamingos from Australia, and among them that lonely native pelican. The Australian flamingos are almost four feet tall, but in these clear waters their reflections make them appear almost double their height as we watch in amazement from a three furlong distance away. But where is the island? “How far is the island?” I ask the boatman. ”This IS the island,” he replies to us laughing. Then, to our surprise, he points to the great expanse and tells us to get into the water and take a walk. Walk? Walk where, I wonder? Walk in the middle of this vast expanse of water? The question does not arise. At least, not in that marshy lake that is almost part of the sea. In any case, the boatman is considerate and my driver amiable and courageous. The boatman tells his assistant to walk through the water and make those white and pink big flamingo’s fly so that we may take a few good pictures. The assistant boatman, along with my car driver, fold up their pants, get down from the boat, and start strolling towards the birds as if they are walking on the surface of the lake! “Be careful!” is all I can think to say to them and this is precisely what I yell out.



Hundreds and hundreds of pink and white flamingos, the last flocks to leave Chilika and head home for the summer, walk on the water all along the horizon


Four-foot flamingos seem eight feet tall as their reflections glisten under the sun against the lagoon’s surface


Our driver bravely steps out onto the surface of the water


But to my surprise and increasing adrenaline, I find this courageous woman Rula shin folding her pants up. Oh no! I think, but helplessly I too roll up my pants. What else can I do? I cannot leave her to walk in those waters all alone! So, hand in hand we get down from the boat in the middle of this marshy nowhere in the middle of this vast expanse of water, and commence walking towards the migratory birds. This reminds me of Jesus walking on water when his disciples thought he was a ghost. We both recollect this biblical episode and laugh. But we do walk like Jesus, though there is not one disciple of ours to pronounce us the children of the God. So, we remained children of men though walking on the water in the middle of that vast lake the span of which is 1100 plus kilometers. By the way, it isn’t just us watching the migratory birds, but the birds too are watching us and begin walking away from us, step in step at the same pace we are walking towards them. But our crew, my driver, and the assistant boatman, do succeed in making them fly and Rula is lucky to capture with her camera these beautiful white and pink flamingos in the open sky over this green lakebed. This experience of ours is most beautiful I can ever recall up to that moment. This was a lifetime experience for us both.


This is the middle of the lake and how the water and marsh look beneath our feet


Ashok and the driver walking on water


Rula and Ashok braving to walk on water and enjoying every moment


We wash our feet before getting back into our motorboat and heading back to our hotel




PS: I came across a poem titled, “Jesus Walking on Water”


While apostles were out fishing
A storm rose on the sea
We're told within the Bible
'Twas the sea of Galilee.

Christ stood by the seashore
He talked to apostles too
He went walking on the water
He showed them what He could do.

He bade one out to dress himself
And meet Him on the sea
The apostle was so fearful
On this sea of Galilee.

Christ saw him as he was sinking
He needed more faith we know
Just like we are of today
While through perilous times we go.

Look up toward the heavens
And make your burdens known
He'll give more faith if one will,
For Jesus knows His own.
............


Yes, Rula showed what she could do. Hats off to her.