shut up and stop complaining

The contrast could not have been starker. From the wild jungles to a gilded cage. Last week I was on a trip to the north east. I have always wanted to someday got o Kaziranga. The last refuge of the one horned rhino. It has been a desire since I was a young boy. Assam always had this mystical aura around it. Heavy rains, tribals, long really long grass; so long they call it elephant grass. And of course the mighty grass chomping rhino. My wish was fulfilled and I hope Jispa was also richer for the experience. We went to two places. Nameri and Kaziranga, both quite nice and pretty and so far – almost unspoilt.
Here’s the Nameri tent!


The Bharatpur trip that we as a family made a few years ago was the turning point in our lives. That exposed us to the scores of birds around us and we began to take an extraordinary interest in the birds around us. Suddenly then a national park comes to life. If you are normally in the hunt for mammals then you tend to get disappointed at these parks. You can go from one point to another rushing and driving just in a bid to see the elusive tiger or bear or another wild mammal. You will miss the beauty of the barbet clattering or the lovely elegant hornbill flying. Such elegant life. They have their own ecosystem. It is a lovely thing to see birds along with animals.
Nameri was a different experience altogether. A jungle where you are supposed to walk through. That itself is rare. We walked through the woods and the tall swampy grass in a bid to catch the white wood duck. I had no clue how endangered it was and how rare a sighting was over there. But to merely reciprocate the enthusiasm of the guide and the forest guard was worth the entire walk! Kaziranga too was alive thanks to the birds more than the lazy chomping rhino.
Coming back to Mumbai I came to this new office of ours. The big shiny new office with the shiny new cube. I have always coveted I guess the cabin but on getting it I am first to admit – it is kind of too large for my taste. Really large. And it blocks me out from all the buzz that is happening in the office. In office the bigger you get the more caged you become. Offices look like botanical gardens. With the simple common species that could be found everywhere but really large wild cats will be found in the cages which commensurate with their size. So here I am in this cage, large cage which thankfully has a window right near my computer. I was lucky to be around when it was getting built this helped me choose the right cage of the three options. One had no windows, the other had a lot of windows but also had a pillar and the third was just right. Not too enamoured by vaastu I just choose the one I thought whose window will be nice and bright and just the right size. Nice to have light filtering through in the morning.
I can also see some greenery around here. The best of all, one of my favourite city birds, the coppersmith barbet makes it tonk tonk sound all day long. What more can I ask for. And today as I am writing this post I almost jumped in joy. I spotted the lovely bird from my window. Wow. Nice. It put me in a good mood. This cage is not so bad after all. Besides the gilded trimmings it also has a view. And I can see a barbet from it.
A week back I was happy to be in the free and open, watching the blue throated barbet making its chattering sound and now I am here watching the coppersmith. How we amuse ourselves. How we look at our situation and find joy in it. What must be the animals at the zoo thinking. The pelican must be happy to get his dose of fish served to him. I too must remain happy thus. Every month end I get my cheese delivered to me in my bank account. For that all I must endure is this cage. It’s got carpeting, it’s got a small personal TV, air-conditioning and a view to the tree. What more should one ask for? Why do cribpots complain? Who said man is free to roam around and explore the wild. It is for him to be happy like a lion is in the zoo. He is the star attraction and he is kept happy, vaccinated and fed. It seems (I was reading somewhere) that animals in the zoos might enjoy a longer life than in the wild. Here they are free from disease and hunger. Most importantly they are free from predators.
So all those who believe that man is essentially meant to be in the wild, take your theory and stuff it down your..... *&^%. Be happy in the zoo. You will be well fed and your fat around your belly is just a sign of prosperity. Sure you might get a few illnesses thanks to fat and overwork, but you rather get ill than be eaten by predators, right? All you have to do, like any other zoo, is keep the performance up. Keep fluttering your feathers and shine your mane. The peacock who keeps showing his feathers no matter if it rains or not, is always the pride of the zoo. Similarly here. Keep the act up and you will be well fed, you cage will get bigger. You might get more toys in your cage, better seating area. The big guys are even allowed to eat in their cages and the really big ones have opaque cages so that they can get their mate in them and enjoy moments of privacy. Haven’t you been to a zoo? The big cats always have an ante room in their enclosure, where they can catch a few private moments. It’s the same here.
Oh come on, don’t get too cynical about these things. Unlike the zoos, here you have a door in which you can you walk out anytime. There is no one holding you back in it. No one. Go... shooo... you crib pot.
here's my cage, opps cabin. two views of it. u like it?



oh hell I just realised. It also faces the east tying in with my desire to see the east! wow. yaaaa

the jungle

Hiya…. Back after a one week break. Had been to kanha national park. The best place in India to see the tiger. The tiger is a magnificent animal. He walks with a grace that is unseen and a disdain for the tourists in the open jeeps. The fear and the excitement is palpable when a bunch of jeeps come face to face with the tiger. The tiger cares two hoots about your presence as he goes about lazing in eth sun or scratching his claws, peeing in the sand or even as we saw him licking sand.

But going to a national park to see the tiger is missing the point. I hate the safaris that run in search of the tiger. The only aim is to take you from point A to point B as fast as possible so as to get you to see the tiger. The jungle has many splendours to show the willing senses. There is so much to hear, see, smell and feel. A simple case in point – seeing a tiger is one thing but we had the opportunity to hear the calss before we could spot it. We heard calls and then saw the spotted deers with their tails up, erect, looking in a particular direction. This gave us the direction of the tiger. But is still only half the point, or a smaller fraction thereof. Kanha is such a lovely jungle. Going into the jungle in your open jeeps early in the morning with mist all around was unforgettable. I am pretty weird, of all that I saw I will remember the mist and the sunlight falling through the trees, leaves and the tall bamboo grass. The mist was doing the job of the haze machines, which spread smoke in concerts so that you see the light effects.

Jasmine and I have over time learnt the perils of mammal spotting. Contract that with the beautiful abundance of bird life in all their form, colour and crests. Rarely do we return unhappy from a jungle. We love seeing the jungle for all that it is. We love seeing the spider webs, the gigantic ones that spread from one tree to another and the tiny ones that are on the floor and catch trap the morning mist in the form of dew in its web. We loved spotting the red headed vulture gliding above in the sky with its huge wings outstretched. We love the interpretation zone where a lot of the jungle is explained with exhibits and details.

One thing that pleases me no end is the fact that Jispa has developed a love for museums. So she wanted to go through the interpretation zone the second time as well and see and absorb the exhibits. You can’t hurry her through this. She like to wait, see, understand before moving on.

Jasmine and I can see the birds for hours on end. Stopping to soak in the scenery and jungle. This experience was in marked contrast to the one we had at Ranthambore where the bloody canter drove like a maniac for the entire trip across the jungle in an attempt to catch the elusive tiger. We learnt nothing about the jungle, nothing about the trees, birds and felt nothing for the environment. the guide was also quite pathetic and knew nothing. The best naturalists / guides we had so far encountered were in Bharatpur bird park. Kanha also had their fair share of trained naturalists. Guys who could reel of bird names, tree names, their latin names, and most important… they would enthral us with stories about the wildlife behaviour, the plant characteristics and even jungle life (including Jim Corbet stories). When you are in a safari the excitement is not linear, there are spurts followed by lulls. It here that a good guide with his stories makes an impact. After enough of India bashing, these experiences come as fresh air. These guys are trained by the forest officials and the tourism department. They are eager minds who learn from their tourists as well.

As most good guides tell you that a lot is learnt purely interacting with tourists as some come with books, some with some knowledge and some are clear experts who teach them while looking around. A mutually benefiting interaction in the jungle. What more can I ask for?

For the record we saw the tiger in three of our five safaris. A fantastic stroke of luck aided by good tiger density and lovely expanse of grasslands. Also for the record we saw a bird that eluded jasmine and me for some time – the greater racquet tail Drongo. Supposedly fairly available even in borivili national park but this one has eluded us for long. The bird becomes even more special as we see its quite boring cousin the black drongo on almost every wire stretching alongside the length of India.

And one more amongst my favourite is the yellow footed green pigeon. Invariably found as groups on dead barren trees basking in the morning and evening sun. They make a pretty sight in the lovely yellow light, contrasting against a clear blue sky. I remember taking some nice photos of them in Gir. They might there in the one TB of storage that we have at home.

Another big experience was not having the camera with me. I have learnt that the best thing to do on trips is not to carry any sort of camera. It takes away from the trip. What is the point of seeing a beautiful sunset through the viewfinder or the tiger through a LCD screen. Why should I fiddle with the moment. I happily stopped taking photos. I had carried my camera because Jispa wanted to but then I gave it to some another person who wanted the thrill of clicking away. The first day I clicked a few really bad shots of the tiger. The next day after I gave it away, I saw the tiger entirely with my own eyes. NO VIEWFINDER. I might remember that moment better. Ok I might not. But I lived it better for sure.

Last note – I now understand what inspired Rudyard to write the jungle book. It seems it is set in Kanha.