Flames in a barren forest

Tall, dry, slim trunks supporting orangy-crimson blooms dominated our way to Jaitwara. Our airconditioned Innova sped through the narrow stretch of road between Gupt-Godavari Caves, where we had spent our morning, and Jaitwara. This town, close to Satna, is a small bauxite mining center in Madhya Pradesh. Our van filled with girly screams of 'papa!' to slow down. Papa momentarily acceded to decelerating, but couldn't resist the surprisingly smooth roads. Speeding past us were a few motorcyclists covered in colours. Despite a fleeting glimpse, I could not miss the distinct vermillion tilaks with random rice grains on their forheads. This was a day after Holi and people seemed to have forgotten the cardinal rule of rest after Dhulendi. A group of faceless village boys intending to have 'fun' tried to stop our speeding luxury. They were fully drenched and covered in colours, so dark and indiscriminate that I wondered if Holi was a festival of colour or muck. Our experienced driver, the 'papa' to four of our wonderful companions, deftly tried swerving the car to a 'no-danger' point from the boys. But those boys quickly remaneouvered: they motioned to let us by then hurled a bucket full of cow dung on the van, turning the rear glass opaque. The backview-less van rushed through a gorgeous landscape of brown-yellow hills, spreading trees, golden wheat farms, flowering mango orchards, dry plateaus, and valleys covered in old and new leaves. Now writing a month later, I may say that it was fun speeding through those valleys to Jaitwara. It could also be that this journey ended with a short visit to a wonderfully warm family. I must send the family a postcard soon. Their house and in fact their entire town was covered in a fine red dust. As they satisified my curiosity about the cause of the distinctive dust, I thought to myself that my Class X chemistry teacher must have never seen the metals described in Chapter 1 of our textbook. He never told us that before it becomes aluminum, bauxite is red.


But what is certain is that my class X Physics teacher knew nothing about Chapter 1 ( Metals and Non- Metals). He never told us that bauxite is red in colour.