The Game

How a passion for hunting determined the course of a Dalit life

This book is a trek through the time when hunting was a way of life in India. It’s a book about the Himalayas, about old lovely rifles like the .315 and drinking sessions of local fermented rice wine. Above all, this book is about exploring layers of interactions, as narrated through the protagonist Dil Das, a Dalit, hunter, survivor and an adventurer.

The primary merit of the book is the author’s ability to bring a hunt alive. The writing is so skilled and the narratives so real, it feels as if one were crouching and hunting alongside the protagonist on the slopes overlooking the cantonment of Landour. The craggy turns, the descending fog, the towering deodars and the rolling moss are all obscured by the sudden appearance of the two twitching ears of the Goral (mountain goat), just within rifle range. What follows is the pressing of the trigger and a loud thud as the lifeless animal falls into a deep gorge. This is blood sport at its best. This book is not politically correct, but it brings out the instinct of the hunter in Dil Das and how that passion allowed him to lead a different life.

From the lower Himalayas, the scene shifts dramatically as the hunting exploits of Dil Das blossom from an aside in his life. There are haunting descriptions of the ridges above Kullu. The hunt for the Ibex here is a different ballgame. They are fast runners, and the trick, as the author points out, is to outflank them on rock ledges, a dangerous endeavour where a single misstep means spiralling hundreds of feet into the Kullu valley to almost certain death. 

The most difficult to hunt, of course, is the leopard, the ghost of the forest, whose stealthy moves are second guessed at great risk by Dil Das, often just off the road from Landour. For anyone interested in the feel of the forest and the thrill of the hunt, these are exhilarating chapters. In the case of Dil Das, an illiterate man of the mountains, it is amazing how technical finesse and fine art meet at the sound of his gun’s thunderous report.

The book is also about people, such as John Copeman, the  boss of Coca-Cola, South Asia, and founder of Tiger Tops, the legendary lodge in the Nepal Himalayas. There is an impressive chapter on Jim Corbett and how his hunting exploits were not just stories of the jungle, but a commentary on colonialism and the relentless intrusion of modernity into our fragile forests. 

Get this book to know what Landour—now a refuge for the rich—was like only 30 years ago, to understand the magic of the Himalayan terrain and the enduring spell of its fragile wildlife.

About The Author

Ninad D. Sheth