A 29 km ride on the road leads to Nal Sarovar. A quiet, majestic lake around 20 kms in diameter, 140 kms from Anand. After taking a diversion from the main road we enter a narrow , arterial road tucked on both the sides with small hamlets. There the life of the city doesn’t trouble the populace. An almost quiescent, stoic charm marks the villages. Women are busy with the usual chores. Children left to the care of Nature are busy jumping around.
Kaha Jane Ka? Suche? Kai Jaaroche? The cries of the village folk who mob us with offers of their boat and horse rides appear intrusive. But what makes them plead, pester repeatedly? Only they know the Sarovar, its depths and shallows, legend, flora and fauna, beautiful little islands; the entire thing being an archipelago. The lake is an expanse of bluish green water, crystal clear in the middle with hydrophyte plants floating here and there. The boatmen being clever, the rhythmic movement of the oar is very quick in the up trip. A raft of black ducks sitting on the waters take flight as the boat approaches them.
We had resigned ourselves to not seeing any birds and only wanted to travel in the boats for an hour and get back. But fortunately the boatmen would not leave us so soon. They took us around the tiny islands. There was one particular instance when they took the boat through the slushy swamp of yellow reeds hanging down with sheer weight. They stopped the boat, asked us to keep mum as they went and clapped to make the great, aerial creatures fly. It was an almost Jurassic park feeling. We were reaching out, trying to make contact with another, entirely new world – those of us who could climb to the edge of the boat did so lifting our vision over and above the reeds to see the great Pelicans happily, contentedly having their meal.
The Geography teacher who was with us was explaining how the lake could have originated; the lack of porousness in the soil making the water stagnant. We were the visitors into this enchanting, delightful sphere. The ecosystem of the Sarovar, a cycle of existence was present all the time ; Even as we were ecstatic about the beautiful scenes and sights around, a sea gull and a stork were scanning the waters in desperate search for food. A tin of puris was passed around the two boats. The journey being long some had slept in spite of the mid afternoon sun.
Later in the return trip we made a short stop at Lothal, the mound of the dead. I was struck by the magnificent civilization that existed around 2000 B.C. In the excavated houses and structures I felt the Universal soul ticking in me sending forth echoes of life past and present. It was a privilege to be in the ruins of an ancient city, the people of which thought, felt and lived better than us. The quaint mood matched the shadows. I looked at myself; my long shadow silhouetted across the Harappan bricks and I felt transported to a more than real society : a society of the mind, the spectral and the imaginary.