Would I rather be in a desert or a salt flat?

Interesting question. Both are deserts really. What is a desert? A desert is an area that receives extremely low rainfall. In fact, in many deserts, the water evaporated is more or faster than the amount of rainfall leading to arid areas which do not support the growth of plants or provide a habitat for animals. Well, not unless they are extremely adapted to those conditions and are truly hardy, able to survive in the unforgiving and harsh conditions. Negligible cloud cover, the sun’s rays beats down with relentless intensity, scorching the surface. And almost the moment the sun sets, bone numbing cold sets in. The difference in day and night temperatures in the desert can be nearly 50 degrees Celsius. Considering that only a fourth of the Earth’s surface is land, almost a fifth of that land mass comprises desert. Of course these include the polar deserts and the high mountains. So the chances of an adventurer finding himself or herself lost in either a desert or a salt flats is quite high.

Where I would rather be lost and find myself struggling to survive? Let us first look at what the two geographies have to offer.

The desert has almost no vegetation, almost no trees, some scrubs and bushes, intense temperatures, and most importantly, almost no water. The two things that kill in the desert are the intense heat and the lack of water. You can die in about a day, lost in the desert. The trick is to conserve your body fluids and internal moisture content, hunker down in a shade throughout the day, not move, not eat, and do all the walking and navigating at night when the weather is a lot cooler and the brain is not getting fried. It might still kill you though, the desert is unforgiving, almost with a vengeance.

Now if this was not harsh enough, what does a salt flat have in store? Everything that the desert has ... and more. Lesser vegetation than one can find in the desert for one. Which means no shade to talk about to sit and rest under. Sit? It is a salt flat. Meaning that the ground is full of salt. And most salt flats are wet and soggy. Which means trying to find a dry spot to sit becomes so much more, well, impossible. And even though the ground is wet, the water is not good to drink. You can die of dehydration faster by drinking salt water than not drinking any water at all. It takes two litres of fresh water to dilute one litre of salt water.

But compared to the desert, water is available ... salt water. And you can make a solar still to purify some drinking water to be able to stay hydrated. Inland salt lakes are often fed by fresh water rivers. If you know where you are lost and know the geography of the area, you might be able to head towards the river ... and rescue. In a salt lake fed by the sea, this option is not there.

The problem will be to find a place to rest and to find natural material to make a shelter. You will probably have to dig out some waterproof material from your pack to sit/lie on, and pull out some more stuff like a tarp sheet to build a roof to cut out the direct rays of the sun.

Both in the desert and in the salt flat, there is almost nothing to navigate to aid your journey forward, no distant trees to head for, or a hill or a lake or a pond or vegetation, nothing. The desert might have an undulating terrain, the salt flats none at all.

It is as difficult to walk on sand as it is to walk on slushy salt lake beds.

Suffice it to say, both are natural born killers, waiting like a spider for the fly to come into its parlour! But given a choice, where would I rather be lost? Tough question. Considering that water is life and even a cup of drinking water can mean one more night trying to get out of the problem, I think I would choose the salt flat.

But before I head anywhere near a salt flat, I will ensure that I am extremely well prepared in case I get into a survival situation. I will gear myself up with the tools that will help keep me alive. A couple of tarp sheets, a small tent, water containers, water purifying tablets, sun hat, goggles, good boots ... and a map of the area – printed as well as loaded on to my GPS.

Remember the 7 Ps of wilderness survival – Proper Planning Preparation and Practice prevents Possible problems. And when one is heading out consciously into a problem terrain, every grain of sand and every grain of dissolved salt, is a potential killer. Be prepared.

(The most famous of salt lakes/flats in India is the Rann of Kutch. A lesser known one is about 60 km northwest of Jaipur, the Sambhar Lake)

A Tribute to the first Indian 'Rambo' - my father!

Born in one dusty village called Usthi in the interiors of the then largest district of undivided Bengal, then travelling to the bustling city of Mymensingh and then to the big bad city of Calcutta to complete his schooling, Malay Lahiri went on to join the National Defense Academy and passed out with a silver medal. While still in NDA, a bunch of teenagers comprising the NDA football team created history by reaching the finals of the Durand Cup in 1953. They lost to a team that boasted of more than half a dozen players representing India at that time.

Malay Lahiri went on to join the Gurkha Regiment, represented India in many an international football tournament and then by some cruel quirk of fate missed out on being selected for the 1960 Olympic football team. Demoralised, he kicked a football around for a few more years before putting his all into his career in the Indian Army.

In 1963 he was selected to attend the Rangers Course in Fort Bragg, North Carolina and a few months later after passing out from there, became the first India Green Beret, a la Rambo. He then went on to start the Commando Wing for the Indian Army.

Many years later, when he was a Brigadier, he commanded the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, that is today a premier institution for the training of soldiers for counter insurgency and jungle warfare, getting soldiers from the world over.

I had the privilege of participating in a few of the jungle treks and other maneuvers while he was the Commandant.

I think the jungles, the mountains, the outback, the bush, the inhospitable terrain away from the comforts of city life was something that grew in me through my association with my Father, whose shoes are so big that attempting to fill them is an exercise in futility. But I do try and walk in his shadow, try and follow his footsteps, hope that he is not too disappointed with the way his first born turned out.

The OTA Survival School is a humble effort on my part to prove myself to be a worthy son to an illustrious father. Two days ago he would have celebrated his 80th birthday. Sadly it was not to be as he passed away prematurely to cancer 15 years ago.

I miss you dad.

I need some sanitary napkins

Yes, I am a guy. And no, don't get any ideas. But I do really need some sanitary napkins. Something I picked up from a very close friend the other evening. He got me thinking (yeah, he is a guy too) and now I cannot do without a packet of sanitary napkins in my pack.

Before you start getting any ideas, let me put your mind at rest before it goes into overdrive thinking of a million perverted reasons why I would want to keep sanitary napkins and what's my sudden obsession with them.

Well, as you probably know I run a wilderness survival school. Also urban survival training and first aid training. And that is where I learned of this wonderful new usage for sanitary napkins. I wonder why I did not think of it before. In fact, I was speaking to my daughter the other day and telling her to try and open her mind to look at things differently, to find new ways to use existing things. For all my talk, I failed to see the obvious use of sanitary napkins.

IT IS A WONDERFUL PIECE OF FIRST AID EQUIPMENT TO STOP BLEEDING.

An arterial wound can kill you. The blood will spurt out thick and fast and you lose a lot of blood very very quickly. A loss of one liter can put the body in shock, a loss of two liters and you are in extreme danger. Three liters of blood less in your body and you are dead. So the bleeding has to be stopped with whatever means possible.

One way to stop bleeding and that is what we have been doing for so long is to use cotton or gauze. But an arterial wound requires a lot of rolls of cotton to stem the bleeding. Soon the cotton will be wet and soggy, requiring more and more cotton.

A sanitary napkin is designed to absorb blood. And if the advertisements are to be believed, they can absorb blood indefinitely and copious amounts of it. The blood will not seep, I think it gels inside the napkin. And when we are talking of arterial bleeding we are talking of a lot of blood. Apart from what the manufacturers and inventors designed it for, how best can we use a sanitary napkin for? So the bleeding is not from the area that it was made for. So what. A sanitary napkin in my first aid will do the job of maybe half a dozen cotton rolls.

Survival is about improvisation. It is about being open to ideas. It is a taking decisions probably not listed in any book. One needs to survive and one needs to do the best possible, with the given resources. A sanitary napkin in my first aid kit is a boon. Another lesson learned.

This example just goes to show that there is no end to learning. The definite book on survival is yet to be written. Every log, every branch, every brook, pond and river, every grain of sand in the harsh desert landscape can and will continue to teach us newer and better ways to survive. The effort and the learnings continue.

So, till such time as someone does not invent a better blood absorbent, dump a pack of sanitary napkins into your first aid kit. I hope you never ever have to put it to the test in a real life emergency situation though. Have a safe life in the wilderness.

To eat or not to eat!!!

Hmmm, I have been struggling with this question for some time now. And no, I am not dieting or controlling obesity, far from it. The question has repeatedly burrowed out from the deep hole in the mind I had buried it in and refuses to lay in peace. OK, let me tell you what my worry is. It is about the OTA Survival School courses.

These are wilderness survival courses and participants need to have a survival experience. Meaning the course needs to be simulated to the extent that the participants actually feel they have survived the duration of the course and finally reached the safety and comfort of home. And it is only for two or three days in any case. My original plan was to provide major sleep, food and water deprivation to give them a feel of what it feels like to be sleepy, to be hungry, to be thirsty. A situation where they would go hungry if they could not catch food, thirsty if there was no way to purify the water they had found.

But then I figured that most people are so strung up for the week that to be paying to get screwed would have led to possible mutiny ... and then we could really have a survival situation with guns blazing, knives flashing and people out to strangle the guy who was found to be hiding a bar of chocolate in his backpack.

Modification to the curriculum. Participants might be offered frugal food through the course. MIGHT being the operative word. Bread, eggs, butter, potatoes, etc. Maybe even a juice. Just so that they know what it is like to be hungry in a survival situation but with a more controlled degree of difficulty and an easier level of tolerance. Feed them before they go berserk and instead of happy participants sending me more clients, a bunch of angry humans swearing to blacklist the course from here to eternity and back again.

Curriculum modified again. As of a little while ago, the plan is to offer three squares a day, but a lunatic that I am, three squares with a twist. All the meals are cooked over a campfire. And they are cooked by the participants themselves. No one to cook the food, no one to serve it, no one to blame if the salt is too less ... is there is any salt at all. Give them the ingredients, whatever they want ... chicken, mutton, fish, prawns, rabbits, steaks, whatever. Even veggies and spices. Get the guys to cook their food.

This is the plan as of a little while ago. I think the decision is made ... TO EAT. Not to eat is not an option any more. I need to sleep on it a little more and if it still sounds good a few hours later, this is the way it will be. But who knows the fickleness of the human mind. Maybe there will be a cook after all. But I will resist it with all the power at my disposal (and that is not saying too much). I have already given a yard away by agreeing to offer food, haven't I?

There is still the question of where to sleep and where to crap. Basic comforts demanded by city folk, even if they happen to be in the middle of a jungle participating in a survival course. But that is another question, to be addressed another day. My mind at the moment is simmering with the wafting aroma of a rabbit being grilled over an open flame, with all the anxious eyes and salivating tongues of the participants, knives at the ready, waiting to fight for the largest piece.

So, to eat it is.

Delhi Bomb Blasts – Lessons to be Learned

India was once again rocked with the devastating effect of an exploding terrorist bomb. As of writing this, eleven people are confirmed dead and 76 others are injured, in various stages of criticality. I am sure there are others who have fortuitously escaped with minor physical injuries, but the mental anguish of witnessing and being so close to an act like this can have a more long lasting and devastating effect.

The media has dusted off the old files and old tapes and are repeating the same old conversations and debates about what we as a Nation need to do to tackle terror. The people in power and the people who oppose them are voicing the same old platitudes. Fortunately, and probably because this is not Bombay, we are not hearing about the celebrated resilience of the people of India. Some people are voicing what they have been voicing so often, “Enough is enough.”

I am sure there are things that need to be done and that there are people to do them. If the current people are incompetent or unable, I am sure some day a more competent bunch of people will be found to do the job that needs to be done.
I do not have the knowledge or the intelligence to begin to presume that I might have the answers on how to tackle the menace of terrorism that has made Bombay as fearful a city to live in as Kabul and Karachi. Far from being presumptuous about so delicate and important a matter, I want to delve into a more mundane issue – the issue of healthcare.

Eleven people dead, scores injured. Eye witness accounts state that when they looked around in the immediate aftermath of the blast, they saw people with their lower limbs missing. I wonder if there is any published data of how many of the eleven people lost their lives through the blast itself, and how many lost their lives through blood loss. Losing a limb ... or two ... and that too the lower limbs means an inordinate amount of blood loss from the femoral artery, one of the most difficult arteries to contain in case of a severe external wound that is bleeding in the lower limbs.

Like in any other emergency, there were a lot of good Samaritans who were picking up these people, loading them onto whichever passing vehicle was willing to lend a helping hand to take them to the nearest medical facility. I wonder if any of them knew how to contain the severe blood loss. Excessive loss of arterial blood, particularly from the femoral artery can result in a very quick death. If only the Samaritans did their bit and put pressure on the femoral arteries, maybe the death toll could have been less than eleven. Like I said, I wonder how many of these people died from blood loss.

There would have been other injuries, superficial and deep. Cases of bleeding resulting from shrapnel injury would have been present. I wish more people knew the basics of first aid.

I am sure there was shock. Could people have been treated for shock, by lay people, before being attended to by a qualified medical practitioner? Shock can lead to a cardiac arrest. How many people in the vicinity of the Delhi High Court knew how to administer a cardio pulmonary resuscitation or CPR? If they knew and even if ONE person has died or has suffered from a cardiac arrest, that person could have been saved.

I wonder why we do not take it upon ourselves to learn the basics of first aid. We can save people’s lives. We can take control of emergency situations and become better citizens. These things do not always “happen to other people”. The “other people” could be us next, or people who are dear to us. If only we take control of our own destiny!

Let the Government do its job in tackling terror. Why can’t we learn to tackle the terror in the person’s eyes who sees his or her legs blown off? This is terror we can tackle and we do not require the Police or the Army or the Government or Barack Obama or Asif Ali Zardari to help us do that. Let us pledge to learn the basics of first aid – for us, for our children and for our fellow citizens. Otherwise many more people will die needlessly. Maybe some will learn, but I worry that maybe many will not.

One can take a basic course at a lot of places. The Indian Red Cross Society comes immediately to mind. For my part, I can offer the OTA Survival School (http://OTASurvivalSchool.com) to impart training in basic first aid.

PS: By the way, as a double whammy, just as I was penning this piece I felt a train rumbling at great speed through my house. An earthquake hit Delhi. A terrorist attack and an earthquake, both on the same day. Talk of lack of preparedness. It is not always the disaster management mechanism that will come to our aid. They will, soon, but till then we have to take care of ourselves and take control of our own destiny.