Shimla

This weekend I traveled with Ramesh to Shimla, the state capital of Himachal Pradesh, to receive my fieldwork permit and attend a meeting on captive breeding of Western tragopans. The tragopan is one of my study species and an extremely endangered bird (less than 5,000 individuals in the wild, and GHNP is one of two national parks in the world that supports these pheasants). Ramesh is a top researcher in Indian pheasants (and an adviser for my project!) and a member of the World Pheasant Association, whose meeting we attended. Since I needed to pick up my permit in Shimla, and Ramesh was heading that way for the meeting, I tagged along for the ride (literally).

And what a ride it was. Seven hours in the backseat of a white taxi, speeding around cows and buses and motorcycles…all with no seatbelts to hold us down. My hand was sore by the end of the trip from gripping the door handle for stability. Fortunately, we took several chai breaks, which gave me one more reason to appreciate how much the Indians love their tea.

At 2pm we checked into our 5-star (think American standards) hotel, ate lunch in the hotel restaurant (I had pasta primavera…mmm), rested, and headed to the meeting. I met all 20 attendees, all of whom are older Indian men and many of whom worked for the Indian Forestry Department. I also met Sanjeeva Pandey (previous director of GHNP), Dr. Harsh Mitter (current director GHNP) and Mr. Vinay Tandon (Chief of Forestry Department and GHNP), who I have been emailing with to coordinate my project over the last year. As I met them, I felt the mystery behind my ambiguous Fulbright project melt away and in its place came expectations…loads of expectations!

The meeting.

After the 4-hour meeting we gathered in a dinning room for drinks, appetizers and conversation. Though small talk, I learned that Indians don’t have many wineries, since most people lack both refined taste in wine and money (no one liked the one red wine that was served). I also met a real Indian prince of royal heritage, who was middle-aged and recited several love poetry to me (a little odd, but an honor just the same).

The highlight of the evening was that for no apparent reason, I grew light-headed and fainted, much to the attention and embarrassment of all. Way to make a good impression, eh? They led me to a chair, and gave me water, food and company (thus the love poetry). No injuries, except to my pride, but nonetheless I retired to my room early for the night.

Me standing on "The Mall" (a stretch of shops) with Shimla behind me.

Saturday we visited a bird zoo and I saw my first glimpse of the Himalayan monal! He took my breath away, he was so beautiful. I cannot wait to see him in the wild! I also saw other Himalayan pheasants, including the cheer pheasant (brown with red eye patches) and the jungle fowl (a gorgeous wild chicken). Then I met with Mr. Tandon to “receive my permit” (he made some notes and said, “Ok, I’ll fax it to you” – 7 hours and 2 days of effort for a fax!), ate lunch, and headed home to Dehradun.

Check out these Jungle Fowl!

The trip not only gave me a better understanding of my study species and further organization of my project plans, but it also strengthened my friendship with Ramesh. He has an amazing life story that entailed excelling in school in order to leave his small rural town in southern India, then moving to WII for his Masters and PhD, during which time he strengthened his English, taught himself to speak Hindi (his mother tongue is Tamil), and learned how to interact as an academic and an intellectual…all while becoming one of the leading pheasant researchers in India. More importantly, Ramesh has a strong set of morals that predominantly features equality, respect and humility, which allows us to get along very well. We had insightful conversations about many aspects of Indian and American culture during our trip and I appreciate him greatly for his ability to objectively examine his own culture.

All in all, a productive yet enriching weekend in Shimla.