Case Vignette

Series
Well, where should I start? And the less generous ones would say, why start at all?
But start I must because I have been still too long. And I have moved a lot, in different worlds and places. More good and bad. I have seen my son growing up every week and I feel sorry that it is not every day.
It all restarted one morning in a bus. And that was after a few tiring days of walking about in the hills. And lack of sleep and lack of peace. I got up very early in the morning and after the usual half-hearted efforts got out of home and made my way to the bus stop. It was till dark, and there was a bit of a nip in the air.
As the bus moved, I remembered the previous night when I had felt some of the same anxiety and worry. I had brushed it aside knowing or maybe not knowing better.
And all of a sudden it came on to me. Kind of met me rushing up the road as I moved south to Delhi. It was physical, visceral, terrifying and kind of so terrifying that I did not initially know what it was. It was just there. Anxiety. Here I am in this bus, hurtling along not fast enough. My mouth is dry, and my heart feels like it will pop out of my chest, beating away faster than the bus does. If it chewed up the kilometers on the road, I would be in Delhi in no time. A few thoughts crossed my mind, should I get off or continue, and as stingy as I am, I decided to stay on and take my chances with death. I have been conditioned to worry, knowing that people in my family die early in the morning with symptoms just like mine. And they think that they are not going to die until they are already dead. Leaving behind everyone more surprised than shocked and in sorrow. And it continued longer than it should. It was very bad. What can I say, dear reader. It was very bad. I think of my son, and if maybe he will grow up without me or worse still, grow up even without a memory of me. And now I am thinking of options, that happens all the time. I wonder what I can do, and tick off each as I consider it inappropriate or inopportune. I have already decided against getting down. So, I try to palpate my pulse, and through the racket the engine is making, I detect a certain Mr Tachycardia. He feels and looks like my boss. The good thing however is that I don't seem to be getting worse (what happens if I do). Strangely enough, I seem to feel sleepy. And that even to me, is strange. I wonder is that feeling faint or am I slipping into unconsciousness? And again i do some attention and concentration tests to myself, and decide that I am pretty fine as far as that goes. And finally after a few agonizing minutes, I decide that it is better to go to sleep and take my chances than to live through this terror. So i sleep for some comforting minutes.

Course Correction

Tiger in the Meadow
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

My laptop is now missing an occasional 'I' so if there is some word sans i, please fill it up yourself.
After much running around, and some initiative, I finally made it back to Bandhavgarh (BG) and am now convinced that there are somoe handsome tigers there. I was lucky enough to see five of them on different occasions.
Lessons learnt are much the same as the last blog post on the same subject. However, one thing that I would advice all wannabe tiger watchers is to not make the tiger the sole purpose. If you are there for photography for instance, and all you see are deer, then aim to get the best deer picture you can ever make.

Egyptian Vulture: Back from the dead

Egyptian Vulture
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I saw this guy today from top of the Dera Bassi overbridge.
Hadn't seen an Egyptian vulture in years and this one pops out all of a sudden. Made my day.

A Not So Fine Balance

I was reading this book, A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry. Its good, its great. ANd was compelled to write a short note about it.
What I could not fathom is how every, and I mean every character is screwed up in life in the book.
I mean, the only somewhat cheerful person was a man who made a living by going around with a couple of performing monkeys and a dog. It so happens that the dog kills and eats up the two monkeys, the man kills the dog in grief and finally ends up with neither the dog nor the monkeys.
Kind of hitting below the belt.... But Such is life.

Chandigarh Administration 2010 Calendar- No Credits.

Ferris Wheel-2
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I went to a Chandigarh Admn office today for some work and I was pretty surprised to see this picture among others on the calendar.
Well, I had given this picture as a JPEG file in the Rose Festival photography competition (where it did not win anything!!) and the terms and conditions specified that the picture could be used by the Chandigarh Admn. What I did not know is that they would not have the decency to inform me of the fact that this was being used, have the decency to offer me a copy of that calendar and most of all not have the decency of attributing or giving credit to the photographer on the calendar!! And I am not even talking money here.

Engineering skills

Well, I AI-ed a non-AI 300mm 4.5 manual nikkor lens to go with my Nikon D200. Well, not completely succesful but it works and nothing got broken.

A Happy New Ear

A new pair of ears actually. Along with hands, legs, and the rest of the body. I dont know if my brand new son is happy or not but I am. So that was my happy new ear.
As usual as the clock struck midnight and fireworks went off in the distance, I was tucked into a quilt, trying to make some sense of the corrections asked for my some moronic idiot of a reviewer for some paper had almost forgotten about. So I stopped, poured myself a large measure of Jack Daniel's whiskey in a large steel tumbler, broke of some ice from the fridge and made myself a nice stiff drink. I went back into the warmth of bed, saw my wife and son sleeping, and thought well, its just another day. Nursed my drink for a few minutes. Then finished it in a gulp.
Soon I was warm, and a little later fast asleep.

Portrait of an articulated skeleton on a bentwood chair

Portrait of an articulated skeleton on a bentwood chair
Originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection

waiting for dinner to be served

Some thoughts on Bandhavgarh National Park

Chital Stag
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I have just returned from 3 days spent in the Bandhavgarh National Park as a part of a solitary backpacking trip across some destinations in Madhya Pradesh. I believe people look for info as I certainly did and maybe what I write now maybe of some use to others.
I reached Umaria railway station at about 4 am, it was dark and cold and there was certainly no way to get to Tala which is the town that is the main entry point to Bandhavgarh. I could wait for a couple of hours until about 6.30 am when the first bus to Tala starts from Umaria (right opposite the Railway station) or help myself and make it in time for the morning safari.
I decided on the latter and hired an auto to take me the 32 kms to Tala. It cost me 300rs after some bargaining and after driving through the darkness in the forest, passing a run over jackal and disturbing some feeding deer, I made it to Tala at about 5AM.
I had already called up someone at the Gitanjali lodge which is like the cheapest place in Tala. Others in the same category are KUMKUM lodge. The tariff charged from me was 250 rs per day which really is quite decent. So I reached Gitanjali and found the caretaker and he gave me a room with a rather stinky toilet. I decided not to worry about that for the moment. I then saw 5 boys who had hired a single room, bottles of whisky were lting around and I asked them if they would take me, they had some more bottles of whisky ready for the safari and were reluctant to do so, so I left them alone and rather thankfully at that.
I asked the care taker the best option, so he advised me to walk to the main gate into the forest which is about a kilometer away from the guest house. So I left my backpack and took my camera to the gate. It was a nice long walk, I was joined by a young boy who was probably as nervous as I was at walking through a forest with the possibility of a hungry tiger in the wait. I also passed a freezing stream flowing across the road. I made it to the gate just as dawn was breaking.
The price for solitary wildlife travellers is fairly steep in bandhavgarh. For instance, for an Indian, a safari would cost a minimum of Rs 1680/- per trip. This would include Rs 1000/- for the gypsy and Rs 680/- that includes the entry cost and the guide charges. The guide incidentally is a figure of some confusion. Some people tend to think that the guide is indispensable for a good sighting, and others tend to think that the guide is just a person on the safari. My own impression is that a guide is useful if he is good, but a guide in no way ensures that you will see a tiger. But you have to have a guide so I guess its not too good an idea to run after a guide with a reputation.

Anyway, reaching the gate, I saw all these gypsies lining up and soon it resembled Delhi rush hour. I am told it was worse earlier. Now, a maximum of 45 vehicles are allowed inside the Tala zone, they have definite routes allotted to them, and the tiger show or the elephant ride to the stationary tiger that made Bandhavgarh the most sought after par for tiger viewing has been stopped in the Tala zone. There are other zones where it still goes on but people do not visit those zones, apparently the sightings are not as good as in Tala and the cost for hiring the gypsy is Rs 1500/-.

So I decided to start asking people to take me along for a cut in the total cost. After some people refused, I finally met two guys from Bangalore who decided to take me along. Eventually I had most of my safaris including a trip to the fort (which is not to be missed) along with them. I paid them 1/3rd of whatever they were paying for the particular safari. I think it suited all of us as we had a fairly good time.

Coming to the safaris themselves, as i have said before, the guides do not matter as much as they should. The forest, well. I have been to Sariska, Corbett, Bandipur, Nagarhole, Sariska and some others. I had also partly gone to Bandhavgarh due to the reputation the place enjoys. And I must say that I was slightly disppointed. Maybe it was due to the weather, but it was quiet, there was no movement, a few alarm calls and most of the times, it did not feel like we were going to run into a tiger anytime soon. The vaunted density of tigers in Bandhavgarh is probably lower than it is claimed. I was told by some people that at least 4 tigers had been poached in the past couple of years, 2 had been trapped for sending to other places and hence the population was lower than stated. In fact during one of the safaris, I was surprised to realize that I was discussing milk production in Karnataka with one of my companions.

For the record, I did see a tigress and on another occassion, a cub of the same tigress but other than that nothing. Other people have seen a lot more, so maybe I just dont have the tiger luck.

In total, I took 7 safaris, and most of the times, that is just the way it was. A driver told me that a group had recently taken 20 safaris without spotting a tiger. So all those who say that Bandhavgarh is a place for definite tiger sightings is pulling a fast one or doesnt know better . The tiger sightings were mostly due to the elephant tiger shows and because the gypsies had a free run of the park which is no longer the case.

Soon it was time to be back, I hired a taxi to Katni railway station. The drop cost me Rs 1400/- and I boarded a train back to Lucknow.

2 states-Chetan Bhagat

A short review-
DDLJ meets national integration meets 5 point someone. But for 95 bucks, has to be total paisa vasool.