In Absentia

Picture taken at Upper Siang, Arunachal. One of the few reasons that led to PFA and subsequently HIT 

After what seems to be an interminable pause, this blog is finally back. What do I have to say in my defense ? Let me try, but before that listen to this :

The best part about procrastination is that you are never bored, because you have all kinds of things that you should be doing.

Lest you start getting any ideas from the above statement, let me assure you that I have been suffering from two very serious forms of psychosomatic disorders that have prevented me from discharging my duties to the fullest. One may be familiar to my fellow ecologists as PFA (Post Fieldwork Angst). It may also be referred to, in a casual and disparaging tone as PFFT (Post Fieldwork Full Tension) by those ecologists who are not affected by it. This disorder is brought about by the return of the affected persons to large cities after a prolonged stay in remote forests, mountains, islands and other such exotic locations. This condition has known to be more pronounced if the individual has been in a place where taxes on alcohol are extremely low. However this point has not been established completely. This may not be the appropriate forum for a discussion on the detailed prognosis and treatment of the disorder, however it is accompanied by extreme sensitivity to loud sounds, pollution, reports, meetings and most socially accepted forms of ‘work’.

After spending the greater part of the first two months of this year in some of the most beautiful parts of Arunachal Pradesh, and returning to Bangalore to experience the worst summer in many years. There was no way I could have escaped.

The second disorder is of a much more general nature and may be familiar to most people in my age group (please note how I did not say ‘your age group’). The condition is known as ANUS.

Actually not. I just made that up. ANUS stands for American Nihilistic Underground Society. No kidding. Check out their website here.

What was (is?) affecting me is known as HIT (Hyper Introspection Trauma). As a person recovering from a HIT, I am unable to introspect much on this disorder and I am sure you can understand that. You are free, however to form your own interpretations, but please be kind to me.

The good news is that its all behind me now. I will surely try to live up to the regular nonsensical quality of this blog and provide you valuable information on useless stuff that you wont find anywhere else.

I’ll be back!

To all of you who have almost given up on this blog because of the long inactivity, let me tell you what happened.

Only three letters.

PhD.

Yep, I finally got into a PhD program and am stuck with this thing called ‘coursework’ down south in Bangalore away from my favourite Northeast India. The last few months have been spent far, far away from the field. Thus was the full-time biologist torn apart from his intermittent notes in the field.

But I’ll be back. Or as that joke about Arnold Schwarzenegger goes.. (all the action heroes in Hollywood were asked which classical composer they wanted to play in a new movie. Stallone and Bruce Willis chose Mozart and Beethoven respectively. Schwarzenegger made the obvious choice. “I’ll be Bach” he says.)

The only trip in the last few months was to Agumbe in the Western Ghats. It lived up to its reputation of being one the wettest places in Karnataka. Here’s a picture from the view point in Agumbe after a night of rains. You can almost see the Arabian sea and the city of Udupi in the distance!