Hidden India – A New Book By Two Gutsy Women Is An Ode To All Things Wild

Latika Nath

“Travel takes me home. Our country has such unbelievable canvases that we are just not aware of,” says Shloka Nath. A Senior Programme Manager for Sustainability at Tata, Shloka, unlike most other children, spent most of her vacations in the forests – trips that have shaped her life in many ways and are now beginning to inspire many others as well. “It is not the places but the spaces between places where the hidden stories lie. Stories that change something within you,” she adds. These are exactly the stories that Shloka pens down in her debut book - ‘Hidden India- A Journey To Where the Wild Things Are’.

Written as a series of autobiographical essays, Hidden India is a book of trespass – an unearthing of some of the planet’s most fabled panoramas by journeying through mountains, deserts and forests. The result is an intriguing amalgam of personal memoir, philosophical speculation, nature lore, and conservation history that explores a variety of themes on nature and how they have influenced Shloka’s life, which itself has been an interesting journey.

“My mother calls me the jack of all trades, master of none,” Shloka chuckles talking about the myriad of jobs she has shuffled through her career. From being a national news anchor for BBC London and NDTV to being part of the launch team for Forbes India, on to being the campaign manager for Meera Sanyal for AAP after having done her Masters in Policy from Harvard, to having her own impact fund for gender equality, and finally becoming the Senior Program Manager, Sustainability, at the Tata Trusts – she says that she has come a full circle. “I have a family full of wildlife enthusiasts, conservationists and travellers. I learned to fish before anything else,” she laughs. Through all these years, her love for travel and passion for sustainability has been one constant. The result of which is the emotive stories in Hidden India, each of which is a ‘stimulating voyage of discovery.’

Shloka Nath

These stories are intimate and link to larger themes,” Shloka explains stating examples of how she elaborates the struggles of her own family during the time of partition in context of the migration of birds. “I remember how a tiger once looked so intently at me. Its gaze served as a perfect metaphor for how we look at our past and future.” Describing another moment, she says, “when I looked at the raw, rugged yet magnificent landscape of Ladakh, everything felt timeless. We’re small, we’re nothing and that thought is actually very liberating,” she reminisces about that magical moment. Dealing with other personal themes of love, loss and memory, Shloka’s words effectively convey that the animal kingdom isn’t much different than ours. Hidden India goes beyond just picturesque documentation of Shloka’s travels to a critical analysis of humans’ relationship with nature. “We are all sharing the same planet. We need to co-exist peacefully and not strip the nature of its resources,” she says. Her sentiment is well evident in the book as most stories end with statistics, figures and facts about conservation.

Shloka’s words are complemented by her cousin Latika Nath’s all-consuming photographs. An ardent traveller, the first woman wildlife biologist in India and one of the very few people in the world with a doctorate in tigers, Latika’s images give us a peek into an unknown world while making startling revelations and connections. Interwoven between the pages of Hidden India are photographs of fleet-footed snow leopards in the weathered, snow-clad mountains of the Himalayas, majestic, toothy, tigers in the lush, dense jungles of Madhya Pradesh, centuries-old bridges grown from tangled roots in Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, the great Indian one-horn rhino of Kaziranga, the blue depths of the Andaman waters, the raw desolate beauty of Ladakh and much more. Each picture is a visual treat and puts the largeness of the natural world into context, taking us arm-chair travelling through the expansive landscapes of India.

A terrifying gaze. Photographed by Latika Nath

Hidden India merits the vast experience of two eminent women in their fields of nature and sustainability. The book took 8 months to put together, capturing journeys from across the country that Shloka and Latika undertook over many years - some together and some separately. It not just captures the diverse ecological environment in India in all its raw, natural charm but also sheds light on the bitter realities of it. Today, there are many policies and initiatives for conservation, resource management, and such, but as Shloka puts it, “we really still have a long way to go. But at least we have begun. This world holds more beauty than a human heart can ever hold. We don’t realise just how poorer we would be, without it.”

Travelling has been the most fulfilling part of Sloka’s life. It has not only grounded her but also put so many things into perspective. “Honestly, travelling has saved me,” Shloka states further explaining how this book is not just an ode to that but is also a personal journey of two dynamic women with different lives brought together through not just through familial ties but a mutual love to explore, document and be aware. Both Shloka and Latika have dedicated the book to their brother, a conservationist who they lost five years ago. All its proceeds will go to Wildlife SOS for the rehabilitation of elephants. With Hidden India, they aim to re-energize people’s love for nature and prove to them just how important it is for us to not only preserve but to fall in love with the world around us.