Aarti; a tribute by Jungle Belles & Foresters!

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22 Dec 76 – 10 April 25

Aarti, Queen of her Life!

“The jungle knows neither mercy nor malice”… Jim Corbett

Surprisingly the author of this quote, the great Jim Corbett also took his last breath in the very same month on 19^th of April but seventy years back, i.e. 1955. I have extensively used Jim’s quotes for many of my sharing’ about wildlife but never thought I would get to use this one for something where the above philosophy of wildlife is involved. Though Jim was a British citizen yet he was more Desi (Indian) than any of so-called today’s Dehbhaktas & one proof is, he used to mention always Jungle & not Forest in his books as well talks! The reason I have to used practical (many will feel cruel) philosophy of forests in Jim’s words is, Aarti Karve’s, one of the founders of Jungle Belles (www.junglebelles.in) & our dear friend too, demise! That way Aarti is/was my latest friend as I bumped her via Hemangi, another founder & friend of Jungle Belles, exactly just ten years (April 2015) back on Corbett trip itself, in this very month & she left also in the same month, weird connection with April, Aaarti & Corbett, rather true bond of wildlife as for me Jim Corbett has played big role in my wildlife fascination (read as madness)!

Well, that way everyday somebody takes birth & somebody pass away in everybody’s life that’s what Jungle has taught me as everything there moves around one word, survival but may be that’s difference between jungle & our so-called civilization that with knowledge & intelligence we have disconnected ourselves from reality of life & that’s why when something bad happens suddenly we take time to recover from the incidence & Aarti’s demise is one such for us! I. adhering to forest laws have never been much emotional or took pride of looking at life with practicality, a characteristic which definitely has not made me popular amongst my close ones but that’s the way it is, yet Aarti leaving this world made me sink in way which I am not used to! The whole thing of friendship with her started when Hemangi told the foresters (a group of five frds visiting forests) that this Corbett trip my very close friend has moved to India from the USA & she would like to join us on the trip, we said OK! Aaarti's native place is Satara, a town in comparison to Pune (well, I am from Vidarbha) & usually students from small towns in Pune are but shy or say has inferiority complex while dealing with Punekars (no wonder) but then not Aarti. Like a tigress whichever forest, you keep her, knows only one thing & that is, to rule, so was Aarti. And we (me) got first zalak, as when we know she is coming with us for trip, send her friend request on FB (insta wasn’t here then) & she didn’t accept it for six months & only let me through after the Corbett trip, that’s attitude, I must say! And this is why at first go outsiders used to feel is a snob but once you are in then you realize how wonderful a human being she is. Maybe she has deliberately built that Tathbandi(wall) around the fortress of herself so that any Tom, Dxxk & Harry (plz google) should not waste her time by approaching her! Post that trip needless to say, Aarti became an inherent part of Foresters & from that formed Jungle Belles with Hemangi of which I too am a little support part.

After spending eight wonderful years here in which many forest trips we did & parties & programs we attended, two years back for family reasons she again moved back to the USA though her heart was very much here. Her last trip was merely four months back & she & me share same birth week in December, we celebrated that too & she left with a promise of joining for next forest trip. As well, her invitation for celebrating her 50th Bday in USA was so strong that two of our group’s members were forced to get USA visas because of her persistence for the same, something which she was very good at i.e. to make people behave as per her wish! And then in February I come to know she has been detected with illness which we call cancer yet she was positive that she will overcome it & we also know her fighting spirit & were sure she will win this war too but 10^th April Anirudhh’s (her husband (dear friend of mine) popped from her cell number on our group, “Aarti has left for better place”, I, with my all super practicality exposure of forests was numb with the harshness of life! Why she, why so early, how can this happen to her with her fitness, how so fast, what was her fault, & many such questions, of which I know have no logic & answers, kept haunting me & that is why the quote of Jim is not for the readers but for myself! Life is forest, mercy, malice (cruelty) are terminologies which we have created to soothe our clouded minds as in reality it’s just life or death & it can be anybody’s on any day, is what forest tells us! The strongest & most beautiful deer can be prey to a tiger while the weak & ugly ones may escape from the hunter just because it wasn’t their day that day, that simple! At the same time the tiger itself can get hurt on very same day by fighting with another tiger or get injured in the hunt to such an extent that it can die because of hunger which comes due to inability to hunt, this also happens in the forest! In simple words, life is to be lived in the best possible way till you are living & Aarti lived that way & went away with that realization, though I have yet to come to terms with this philosophy! And she was a great mother & wife as well as wonderful house-lady too, this is also important as to play all the roles while you live by your rules, is not something many can achieve! 

Aarti was a great believer of living life to the fullest & that’s not something one learns as one just is born with that attitude which she was! Rarely anybody has seen her down or sad for longer time though apart from JB or forest trips there is no common circle of her yet whatever we used to exchange over WhatsApp in the group, I can easily judge as you don’t have to be a poet to admire a rainbow when you see one, so was aarti, when it’s about living the life! And she hated the idea of getting old & she used to speak about it in our parties, but I didn’t know she would live by herself to the extent that she would go away from the world without she herself or the world would see her ageing physically! I hate (and hated) sad movies where the hero of the movie dies & didn’t watch Anand as Rajesh Khanna dies because of cancer. Yet the dialogue (I do admire as I am fan of movies), “Babu Moshay, jindgi lambi nahi badi honi chahiye,” I remembered today. This dialogue I didn’t understand then as what's the difference between lambi & badi (long & large), isn’t both mean the same when applied to life! Well, living with friends like Aarti has made me understood that difference & it’s in such cruel way sometimes you get to learn practical lesson of life as if these words reach to Aarti then she must be smiling from wherever she is, & saying Sanjay Moshay, at least now you understood the difference between Lambi Jindgi & Badi Jindgi (Long Life & Large Life)! Aarti, all I can say is, you were & will be larger than the life itself always, & I won’t wish anything for you as one, you always knew way to live & second, I know there also you won’t live by other’s wish but your own; so be it our friend, I have  no grief as I know you won’t like we mourning over your departure but will be happy if we celebrate it, that will be best tribute to you, which we will always!

Sanjay, Hemangi, Saleel, Sangeeta & Shilpa i.e. Foresters.