6 days at Nagzira Wildlife Reserve; day 5
Feb 21st, 2008 by andrew skeoch
Precisely on 5.30am Satish and Radisham appear at our door, wrapped in blankets and holding a lantern; “Ready sir!!”. We’re touched, they are genuinely going out of their way to make up for things. We gather our equipment and head down to the car. However Radisham is standing by the car, shaking his head slowly and muttering one of the few English words he knows; “Problem”. We have a flat tyre. Why do we suspect this is not going to be an ordinary ‘change it quickly and get going’ flat tyre?
Satish is under the rear of the vehicle attempting to release the spare. At this point I should point out that Satish’s appearence is usually immaculate, with starched shirts, a comb ever ready in case of a stray hair, and a ring on every finger. So he’s not enjoying wrestling with the completely rusted bolt holding the spare tyre in place. I have a look myself; the spare is beyond bald, with strips of radial ply steel showing through in places. It doesn’t look like we should risk going anywhere on it. Satish emerges defeated, his hands covered in grime. To cap it off he’s scraped his finger slightly and holds it up for Sarah’s sympathy. “Injury” he says.
Radisham comes to the rescue with a plan. They’ll remove the flat tyre, borrow a motorcycle, and together ride into the nearest town to get it repaired and be back “in an hour”. We know it is an hour into the nearest town alone, so we are already kissing another morning goodbye. As they happily depart, laughing like kids and rolling the dead tyre along with a stick, we are struck by an association – who do they remind us of? We amuse ourselves by concluding that they are like an Indian Mr Bean or Jim Carrey duo, who have not the slightest realisation of the havoc they cheerfully wreak on those around them. By the time they return four hours later, it is too late for any safari.
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