Backstory: Hope and Tragedy

I took this week off from posting out-takes of my forthcoming book to revive my languishing podcast, Backstory with Ben East.

In addition to discussing birds, bustards, and silver linings, I wanted to advance my effort to publish some fun and serious long-form nonfiction.

There were no takers in magazine-land over the last few years, but if you like what you see below and want to read more, reach out.

I’ll send the full article.

Hope and Tragedy in the Thar

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

-Emily Dickinson

I set out for India’s Thar Desert to observe two species in their natural habitat.

First the Great Indian Bustard, which fascinated me as a tragic figure. The name alone qualified it for the part, rejected by India for National Bird partly out of concern that a misspelling of “bustard” would bring dishonor to the country.

Add to that the indignity of finishing second in the contest for world’s heaviest flying bird, just behind the Kori Bustard, its African cousin.

Lastly came the pair of fatal flaws that threatened the GIB with extinction. Tastier than other game birds, it proved popular with hunters in the last century; in the present one, the bird’s narrow vision rendered it prone to deadly collision with windmills and power lines. Between this and other human-related threats, the Critically Endangered GIB had been reduced to its last 150 individuals.

The second species—birders in general, one specimen in particular—fascinated me for another reason. I enjoy absurdity, and birders seemed the oddest of hobbyists, at once passive and idling, while also neurotic and manic.

Yet unlike the GIB, the birder population was flourishing, with 96 million adherents in the United States alone. What drew so many to this pastime?

My chance to find out came when a Big Lister friend suggested I join him on a journey to check the GIB off what he called his “life list.” In the process, I’d observe the characteristics that give birders an edge in their pursuit, and come to recognize similar traits—mindfulness, total presence, and obsessive-compulsive behavior—that absorb many writers in their craft.

Here was a plan hatched on the Arabian Sea during a workplace retreat, Big Lister a birder in search of a new Life Bird, Rock Pigeon a writer in search of a story. What could go wrong?

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