Monday, December 19, 2022

Ramki Sreenivasan - A tribute

There are times when the world instantly becomes a poorer place. With Ramki's passing, this is infinitely and painfully true. There is no balm for this pain, no recovery from this loss. It is a void, a chasm that is impossible to fathom, let alone try and fill.

I have known Ramki in many avatars; as a young marketer wearing his heart on his sleeve, a fantastic business and organization builder, then a mentor to many who dream of building their own successful business. But most of all as a wildlife photographer par excellence, conservation warrior, friend and constant well-wisher. And, specially to me, one of my wildlife gurus.

My brother and Ramki are my wildlife inspirations and my teachers. If my brother inculcated the love of wildlife in me and brought alive the magic of the tiger, it was Ramki who opened the world of birding to me. I was a (happy) tiger tourist on a wildlife sabbatical when he pushed me (in his own non-intrusive way) to add Tal Chhapar to that list - and that opened a gateway to paradise for me. Without him, Namdapha and Nameri, Grandala and Gurudongmar, Hume and Hodgson would have remained strangers, not intimate friends. Birding and bird photography, which is an extension of my being today, would have lain undiscovered. And for that, I will always owe him a huge debt. I've told him this many times, but he's always brushed it off. But still, one more time, thanks da! 

I've now lost both my wildlife gurus, and they cannot be replaced.

How does one even begin to describe his contributions to India's wildernesses, as a traveller/explorer, photographer and conservationist? Thinking about it, and the word that comes to mind is 'Skulker'. At first instance, it may sound unflattering to say the least, but allow me to explain, within a birding context. For any birder, especially those with their hearts in India's North-East (like Ramki's firmly was) these are the most prized birds, quietly going about making their contribution hidden in the undergrowth, shying away from the spotlight, unmindful of their rightful place in the pantheon.

Ramki was a skulker in the purest sense of the word. With his marketing and business acumen, he could have easily become one of the poster-boys of Indian wildlife (photography and conservation) Instead, he chose to see value in being the one who created the poster, not featuring on it. He mostly stayed in the background, bringing his inherent skills and acumen to a field that sorely lacked (and needed) it - from launching Conservation India to shepherding the Amur Falcon Conservation Programme to so many more, he went about it like a marketer/business leader, knowing the importance of messaging, communication and execution above pure intent. There is no one else like him, there can be no one else. And I'm sure he was called up early to solve a conservation crisis in the heavens that no one else could fathom.

So as you head to the great birding gig in the sky, I wish you peace and light, brother. Every time I eat your favourite Vada Pav or visit Prakash, I shall do that in your honour. Every birding trip I make will be in your memory, with a dram of your favourite whisky.

And to use one of your own chosen words to describe you - you were, are and will always be - Legend.