u/HumbleMolasses1

“Dung beetles follow the Milky Way; the Cataglyphis desert ant dead-reckons by counting its paces; monarch butterflies, on their thousand-mile, multigenerational flight from Mexico to the Rocky Mountains, calculate due north using the position of the sun, which requires accounting for the time of day, the day of the year, and latitude; honeybees, newts, spiny lobsters, sea turtles, and many others read magnetic fields.” - Kim Tingley, The Secrets of the Wave Pilots

The aerial distance from my spot to the hills is a staggering 49 kilometres.

Enroute Bali Pass trek; the location is at the base of Mt. Kalanag (6327 mtrs. / 20955 ft.).

Best season is May-June and September-October. During these months, the weather is pleasant, the trails are clear of deep snow, and the meadows are vibrant. Winter brings heavy snowfall, and the monsoon poses high risks of landslides.

There’re many pretty campsites to pitch tent, subject to permit from Uttarakhand forest department. The clearings are scenes to behold.

Carry along tinned food from basecamp - either Kotgaon or Sankri. Himalayan black bears are aplenty. Avoid Indian monsoon and winter months at all costs.

I am not going to blur the image of the rogue or name of their property.

This happened on 4th cross road, adjacent to Kanakapura Road at Raghuvanahalli. I was out with my father in the evening. The shop we were heading to had no parking of theirs, and the main road already had vehicles parked. As I didn’t want to contribute to the parking chaos (there was a No Parking board there), I drove in to the 4th Cross where there were empty spots. As we were about to exit the vehicle after parking at an empty place, out comes rushing this man pointing his finger straight towards us and behaving as if he’s some kind of landlord of the entire locality. There are two PGs there opposite to each other and some shop. The shop had its shutters down.

I politely asked him, what’s his concern if I park the vehicle there, and that it wouldn’t take more than 10 minutes for me to return. And he goes ballistic. He claimed, the space till the surface of the road is his area. That, anything outside his “compound walls” is his place. I try to reason with him stating that can’t be true as he’s claiming public space to be his.

The entire time I was talking with him in Kannada. He kept on raising his voice. Few heads start popping up. A couple of guys come out of one of the PGs. I start recording the saga. My father panics; he’s 70+. I decide not to continue it any longer for his health reasons and ask him to get inside the car. Seeing me getting ready to move, he comes next to the window and asks me to “talk to his lawyer on his phone”. I just laugh and shrug him off. I also told him that this is going on social media.

It is despicable seeing the level of impunity with which these rogues behave. This isn't just a one-off incident and same pattern happens everywhere in the city and outskirts. There are certain pockets where people tie empty bottles to strings and hang between trees and poles, and demarcate the areas outside their residence and commercial spaces. And the city’s civic authorities don’t fine them.

We hear that there’s an upcoming bill vide which parking at office buildings will attract a fee. And then there are these self-entitled baboons who are ready to jump on you because they have largely remained untouched irrespective of their encroachments and daily breaking of other civic laws.

While driving out, my father, visibly shocked, asks me how I stay here and drive around! Sometimes, I ask myself the same questions.