Meet Namrata..and the slow loris

A wisp of a girl, deceptive..in the sense, that she camouflages her compassionate heart with  bubbly jumpy tomboyish mannerisms. A bit like ..ah Yes..Jim Carrey.  The first time I set eyes on her was  on the day we went to Flame University for my son’s admission to the liberal education and management course. We sat with her parents, with the same aspirations and hopes for our children.  From then I’ve been hearing about Namrata from my son Sanyanth.  How she used to be roped in for either teams, boys or girls, when one player was missing. How she loved dogs and how she made all the children smuggle food from the dining rooms to feed the strays
. Then once when his friends came to stay with us, Namrata couldn’t make it. When I told the other kids how I wish she was here..I was met with “Oh aunty, you  she is like a monkey..can never sit still”..next I met her the day they were graduating..she was galloping toward the stage to receive “The best student award". After the graduation, we were set to move out and for dinner, we met her parents, and I just casually asked whether they will be heading back with Namrata the next day,..to which she replied” OH No Namrata  can’t come , as she has to find homes for the strays as the management wants them out of the campus”. Later I heard from Sanyanth  that she made the management come round and accept them..but she did work on it a helluvalot.

Once when I was in Bangalore when Sany(my Son)  was there, she came to meet him, and Boy..what a life she chose for herself. She was doing her thesis on International Animal Rescue after her masters in  Animal Welfare and Animal Behavior from Edinburgh. Then again after a span of three to four years met her again, happened to be in Bangalore when Sany and she were in town, and there she is..chirping and twittering..after the hugs and whoas, I was impatient to see what she was doing..  and lo, she was in the Indonesian Jungles working to protect the endangered slow loris, a nocturnal primate. Her life, believe me..seems to have been inspired by Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey.

A month back Sanyanth called me and said “Amma give one of your Mysore house keys to Namrata. She is doing a course  in Yoga from our neighborhood” so there she is again.  She is a vegan, and learnt a few vegan recipes from her..life can be so simple. Breakfast is instant oats, which needs no cooking,  banana, nuts blended in soya milk.   Lunch is provided from there..for dinner.. veggies cooked together with salt and pepper.  And multi grain bread to dip in. Sometimes rice cooked with sauteed basil, which I found in my bedroom veranda..in a coconut husk, and boiled  veggies .. simple and rustic.

She had a tattoo of the story of the forest art by the Iban tribe, on her calf, it looked like a dainty piece of jewellery on her slim legs. . She showed me the root of the forest, the heart of the forest and the eye of the forest ..looked like a whole epic engraved on her. She had to be  at the yoga class  by six, and she is back for this quickie breakfast and then  she is back only at eight at night. Nevertheless, caught her at night and ..she had a story to tell..a tale of poachers, hunters, greed, cruelty, and of compassion too., of people who risk their lives to save animals.

Here is our own Namrata, on a great and lofty mission..a road less traveled it is. Namrata is from Coorg, a thoroughbred Bangalore girl. It is from Flame College Pune that it was re-established that her life has to be with animals who needed help. So off to University of Edinburgh to do her Masters in Animal Behavior and Welfare. There she was in touch with similar people, and opportunities to help. I asked her for pictures..in this age of selfies,and mobile cameras...she did not have a single picture to flaunt.."Aunty shall give you the link to my pics..you can go through them". I expected a thousand pictures..but these are all I could find.

a quick vegan breakfast

Dark forests and lonely hilltops held no terrors for her. Bats overhead and leeches on her legs, and all those creepy crawlies  do not bother her. Forest bushes as toilet spaces are part of experiences. She was working towards a specific goal, that was all that mattered.  It was only when she was in the market-town, jostled by the crowds in the bazaar, that she felt rather nervous and lost. The town, five miles from the village and after two or three weeks in the jungle, they drive down to the village for essentials and a nice  shower. I asked her..whether she misses Bangalore..pat came the reply..”Oh no..I am not myself here..am a free soul in the jungle..feel a bit lost when I am in Bangalore,  and I yearn for the dark and dense jungles, and of course..my poor lorises. 

Now..I have never heard of the slow loris before..so for the likes of me..here it is..they are a nocturnal primates on the brink of extinction, due to  avarice and greed of the human race. They look like a  monkey and bat rolled into one. Wikipedia states that slow lorises are a group of several species of nocturnal strepsirrhine primates that make up the genus Nycticebus. There are five recognised species of slow lorises (belonging to and these primates range from North Eastern India to Indonesia.  Lorises are arboreal and nocturnal, curling up to sleep by day; as they are primates, they are closely related to lemurs, tarsiers, monkeys, apes and humans as well. 
 
They do not make good pets, for one..they are nocturnal and work during the night and hence it is terrible for them to stay awake when we are, and do not like sunlight. Their diet is complex, and it is a combination of insects and wild fruit and tree sap.

They have a toxic bite..when they bite, venom is secreted (in a gland on the inner side of their arms and comes out through the teeth. This is then licked by the animal and upon reaction with saliva, the secretion turns toxic. The lorises then lick their teeth with it before biting as a defense mechanism. I must say it is harmful for humans..and so the pet owners clip their teeth..and that too..rip it off leaving them bruised and bleeding beyond repair..so inhumane. Lastly…equally important..they use urine to mark their territory..makes it a definite no as a pet.

Now..what does she do? She works with a team that helps create awareness, that lorises are not to be used as pets and who provide Medical care and rehabilitation for the lorises who are found with their teeth extracted, or left off in the open when they find that they are not good as pets. 

her team..in the dense jungles.

a roof above their heads

However, she is more involved in getting the fit lorises back into the forests, collaring and reintroducing into their natural habitat. She tells me that the feeling she gets when she holds a loris to let go,  it is akin to leaving your kid at boarding school..a she prays that it lives a good life.. a safe life.

medical care

Currently she is on holiday, but she will be off to do a survey in Jim Corbett tiger reserve in Uttarakhand, doing a survey on high altitude tigers, on their invitation. So join me in wishing her all the best and let the lorises thrive and multiply under her genuine aspirations. Here is a  link to the Tedex talk she had in Flame University

 //www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZW0uoAFHqo