Jungle Book- Season 32

It had been a ‘hard day’s night’, starting with the waking up at 4.00am, taking the 6.00am flight to Bangalore and then a six-hour long drive to Bandipur, and finally, setting off on a three-hour jungle safari as soon as we reached Jungle Lodges & Resorts. So, at the end of it all, we hit the bed early, putting a 5.00am alarm for the next day. Was sleeping soundly, when I was woken up by someone trying to talk…

Hello…looking for me?

It was pitch dark and I looked at my watch to see the time…2.30am….

Who’s that…I asked.

It’s me…Rani.

Rani who?

Arrey idiot, I am Sundari, the tigress and the queen of the forest!

I am happy with my queen, the Royal Bengal Tigress, my partner for the last thirty two years. I am not looking for another queen to add to my harem.

You fool, today when you went out for the evening safari, who were you looking for….did you not want to see the tiger in the forest? Did you see one today? Tell me what you saw.

We went and sat comfortably in the jeep, there were two people who had cameras which looked more like bazookas. My better half and me were slightly ashamed in their presence to bring out our not so latest mobile phones….I am sure they would have said to themselves….Ha ha…jungle safari shoot with iPhones….only Jobs would have said ‘good job’. And then there was this family with a young boy who would make requests every once in a while to let him step down from the vehicle to take a leak. Goma, our naturalist cum driver, flatly refused stating he would lose his job if he allowed people to step out of the jeeps in the tiger territory. But once faced with the dire threat of the father that the son may do it in his pants and everyone else will be inconvenienced, Goma allowed the boy to relieve himself. 

We, however, saw the brown fish owl, the elephants, the gaurs, the deer, the peacocks and peahens and the crested hawk eagle, but we didn’t get a glimpse of what we all came out for…seeing a tiger in the wild. One of the big camera-walas even said that he had done three hundred safaris at Kabini but had not been fortunate to spot the tiger there. We felt happy having seen so much in one ride but deep in our hearts prayed for a glimpse of the animal with the fearful symmetry, immortalized by William Blake.

I am impressed with the sincerity of your prayers and assure you that your wish will come true tomorrow. I am a bit busy with my hunt tomorrow but will make sure some of my kind do show up and say hello to you.

Please ask them to come close enough for us to take the pictures on our cell phones. 

Sure…that will be done. Now sleep tight and wait for your big day to break.

Next morning, we woke up at 5.00am to get ready for the 6.00am safari. I kept the conversation of the night to myself. No one would ever believe me anyway and even if they did, what if no sightings were to happen? I am sure the safari folks would make such fun of me that my picture would be shared with all the tiger reserves in the country with a Red Corner Notice never ever to allow me entry.

Our jeep entered the Bandipur Tiger Reserve and within the first ten minutes, we saw a few jeeps stopping in their tracks. As we neared, we were told a tiger had been sighted. The two experienced photographers set their huge lenses in place while D and Me brought out our phones from our pockets. 

Some distance away we got glimpses of the stealthy striped hunter moving in the bushes and at one point we even saw his face staring out. A little ahead there was the prey, a giant gaur, who was limping and possibly had marks of injury on his right hind leg. This was a real hunt happening before our eyes!

The gaur staggered ahead, turning back to see the hunter. The tiger slowly crept ahead, closing in on the gaur, while expertly hiding behind the tall bushes. Whenever it moved, we could get clear view of the majestic creature. We were told that this was, possibly, a two year old male cub. A tigress with her male and female cubs had been spotted a few times in that territory. We were all terribly excited, and waited with hushed breaths and focused lenses to witness the action of a lifetime. The gaur now saw that the tiger had come very close, smartly ran across to the other side of the track hoping that the presence of humans in jeeps will throw the tiger off its plan. The tiger, however, was not deterred and it too crossed over to the other side. The gaur and tiger were now facing each other, eye to eye. Goma whispered that the tiger was a novice, for no experienced tiger would ever attack a gaur head-on, fearing the deadly horns that could do irreparable damage to the hunter…the attack had to be from behind.

Just when we thought the fight would commence, one of the drivers of the jeeps started  the engine in order to take a vantage position, the tiger flinched, just for a second, enough to give the gaur an opening to pounce across another part of the track and disappear into the thick bushes. The tiger, too, went off the radar. We waited and waited… hoping the action would start again soon, but it was not to be. As our dropped jaws returned to position, heartbeats slowed down from a gallop to a trot and the jeep started its journey back, the sight of a tiger stalking its prey was more than anyone could have imagined. Sundari had kept her word, I thought,but partially. I did get some snaps, zooming in frantically on the beasts zooming past us… the pictures of the tiger were faint and not of the best kind but the shots were vivid in our minds.

After breakfast, we were taken to a temple built more than seven hundred years ago, up in the hills by the Hoysalas, the Sri Himavad Gopalaswamy Temple, installed by Rishi Agastya and dedicated to Lord Krishna. Here a six foot tall Krishna is seen in a dancing posture with the big left toe resting on the right one and a flute in hand. We saw two priests with wooden staffs in hand, chanting some prayers and once in a while rubbing the staff on the heads of the devotees. My better half said let us also go and take their blessings and so we stood in a queue. When our turn came, the priest asked us to hold our hands together and handed us a very heavy Bal Gopal made of pure silver to hold. Not that we understood much of his chants but what we could possibly understand, seeing people before us, was that most of them had come seeking the birth of a child in their families. Having seen what happened to Neena Gupta and Gajraj Rao in Badhai Ho, I quickly told the priest, that we already had a child and we wanted their blessings for the well -being of her and others in the family. 

Post lunch we once again moved for round three of the safari and saw faintly at a distance, deep hidden behind high foliage,  a tiger taking an afternoon siesta. Most possibly the mother and her cubs had made a good kill of the gaur and the family had had a good feast and were now resting. Apart from this brief sighting, the rest of the ride was pretty dry until we saw a tusker, with tusks almost as big as its trunk. As we were nearing the end of the ride, Goma got some message and started driving fast, if Need for Speed had a jungle version, this was probably it. We were wondering what made him drive so fast. We saw a huge sambar stag with immense horns and some more animals and birds enroute but Goma paid no heed, never to stop, never to brake…with a foot pressed with all his strength on the accelerator, he drove through the mud tracks and then we saw why. Two brothers were sitting under trees close to our path. We promptly took out our phones and possibly took hundreds of pictures of the two tigers relaxing and enjoying watching us humans craning out of the vehicles with eyes popping out. The Queen had truly kept her word and it reminded me of one of the songs that M would often play at home and in the car..

Animals and Children tell the truth, they never lie,

Which one is more human, that’s a thought now you decide…

 

We were overjoyed, to say the least, and so for the last safari next morning, we really did not have any more expectations and yet, there it was, royal and proud, gliding out of the bushes before disappearing without a trace, teasing us, and leaving us hungry for more. With four sightings in two days, we had already started planning for the next visit to the other tiger reserves in the country.

Our big camera friends and nature lovers Suman and Manohar had shared some of their better, professionally taken pictures and now, we too felt that we needed the Nikons and the Canons for attending to the call of the wild. But while the chips in phone and cameras can run out of space, we will play the reel in our memories, over and over again. Sadly, the only thing missing is Sundari, for she doesn’t come to wake me up at nights anymore.

MSD