c u on top - satyabrata dam

Sandy sashays in one evening, planting a light tap on my head as I try to focus my Nikon on a green tipped sunbird; ‘Game for a game count!’ She states, ‘This Sunday at the Nairobi National Park.’ I nod my consent without taking my eye from the view-finder though I don’t have the foggiest idea what she is babbling about. When Sandy suggests something, she usually means that that’s what I got to do; and I trust her judgment to the ‘T’. ‘Do carry extra battery and memory card for your camera.’ Sandy parts with a parting shot. Sound advice, if I know of one, I mumble and wrap up the day with few quick shots of the moribund sun. Sunday dawns and Sandy and I wake up with the dawn, in the twilight. We jump into a 1950 Buick (or whatever it is that rattles and puffs from every joint) and cut through the morning chill towards Nairobi National Park. It’s still dark when we reach the gate and find that we are the only soul around. The gates are shut, the office is shut, the guardroom is empty an...

Matatu is synonymous to Kenya as the lions. The country is unthinkable without either. If I had the power, I would put a lion inside a matatu as Kenya’s national emblem. Every guidebook worth its misguided notions recommend a visitor to stay as far as possible from one while all my well meaning friends, both original born Kenyans (surprisingly) and expatriates and those working in the country for a while, vociferously united in their anti-matatu campaign and tried their best to dissuade me (even to the point of making it scary) from ever riding into one. What more an excuse did I need to decree that come what may, hail or hurricane, a matatu ride has to be an integral and absolute part of my Kenya package! Now most of you might be wondering what exactly am I referring to! Those who have been to Kenya would upturn their nose and declare – ha, we know it all, while those who haven’t might head for Google. But I would request you both to indulge me a bit and learn it from the latest fan a...

For once the rapidity of the incidents unfolding around me has by far out maneuvered and outwitted my mental agility (many of you my staunch supporters would perhaps say, that is always the case) and consequently I am bit incoherent, confused and short on verbosity in this fine evening as I sit under a dark canopy of twinkling stars in the remote town of Wamba in Samboro Region. Very soon the moon would be up and would bereft of my soliloquy with the stars. Therefore, let me begin with a quiz that is an answer in itself; so no prizes if you get it right. Prize might come your way if you don’t get the answer actually. And don’t even ask me why should my first story from Kenya come with the above title. I hope you would understand it by the time you reach the end. So here goes! Q. Where on earth can you accomplish and successfully achieve all of the following within the span of the first 24 hrs of arrival: - Cross the Equator twice Gaze at the two highest peaks of a single continent Shak...