Meet Kakki

I met Kakki few days back on the trail of dense forest of Western Ghats. Western ghat is a biodiversity hot spot with an amazing variety of flora and fauna that are threatened to extinction. It was while waiting for infrequent transport that I encountered Kakki. I found him laughing and pendulate his head as if he knew that I would have to interact with him, maybe he was used to people asking about timing of next bus to town and so on. Aware of this I maintained a stoic distance and a stance of “well you got it wrong this time”. Minutes passed and every time my eyes explored the surrounding, he was very much in the frame with expectation and some amusement. I took out my pocket diary to scribble something I had observed and now recollect, in the circumstance it also served an assertion on my part. Kakki took few steps and sat next “so you are coming from far?”. My first reaction was to avoid him with non committal disinterested “yes” and maintained with myself. I could hear a chuckle then he too relapsed into silence. His initial excitement mellowed or most likely he was taken aback by my rudeness. Spending too much time in cities tends to take away spontaneity in interaction with strangers, mistrust being an overriding emotion, not entirely misplaced but yes that may not be defining in all context or situations. Kakki was facing the brunt of it but he came out amazingly tolerant. Kakki lived in a world where it was normal for people to interact with anyone they met, and so he insisted being normal “you came two days back didn’t you?. I saw you walking all around the place”. This agitated me: so I am being observed, no privacy, some backward people these. The fact though was outsiders are an anomy in remote places and so a source of curiosity. “What is there to see in jungles?” he giggled.

“What’s your name?” I finally condescended, unable to ignore him.

“Kakki”

“Kakki that is an interesting name” I try to patronize, it comes naturally.

“Well you can call me kakki or nakki, it doesn’t matter” he retorted and to soften it immediately followed with a loud guffaw (nakki in Malayalam means sucker).

“So what do you do?” I asked the mandatory question. His answer startled me, in his accented Malayalam (that had strong hint of Tamil) he said “kaat adikunnu, mazha peyunnu, angne pokunnu” meaning “wind blows, it rains, going on”. Kakki may have never heard about haikus but what he spoke was poetry, also in a subtle way he was pointing to the absurdity of my query. Later though he did tell that he works as a casual labor in one the plantations.

Kakki stayed inside the forest, he invited me but to go there I needed permit from forest department, so I declined. He belonged to karumba tribe “the lowest of low in tribal community” he said. “So you also have hierarchy?” I asked. “Sure we learned” he laughed insane. When I took the camera to take his pic Kakki insisted that I need to tell before I clicked he wanted to give serious expression he said and made sure it came correctly!.