Thursday 22 March 2012

Oh Tiger...Where art Thou??


They say that the lessons of life are best learnt the hard way... And our trip to Ranthambore churned out more learnings than we were prepared to handle.

Having had our fill of the mountains we decided to head towards the sandy forests of Ranthambore in search of the elusive Tiger. I am not a big fan of the desert but was motivated by the experience of an acquaintance who met Sher Singh up close. I got the heebie jeebies just recalling his experience and it seemed too tempting to resist.

The First Mistake

 Having missed a couple of opportunities for getaways on long weekends me and the Mrs decided that we couldn't miss the holi opportunity. Having never tried travelling on holi and having spent the last 6 odd years in the South of the country where holi is (almost) irrelevant I wasn't really prepared for what awaited us. We were warned upfront by people (my dad will be nodding furiously if/when he reads this) but the bookings had been done and we had decided to start our journey at the unearthly hour of 4 am in order to avoid any incidents. 

We felt safe and had an uneventful journey till around 10 am after which the fun started. As soon as we crossed one of the toll plazas on the state highway we found a roadblock manned by a team of youngsters armed with flimsy looking sticks. Since I had never experienced something like this earlier and was accompanied by 2 ladies, I was alarmed and decided to turn back to the toll booth 500 mtrs in the opposite direction where I had noticed a police jeep. 

The cops were unhelpful and/or in cahoots with the Holi mafia and we were asked to register a complaint with the area police station who would then send another jeep. They too were kind enough to remind me of the mistake of venturing out on Holi (Dad! stop shaking your head). After waiting for a 10 minute eternity we were met by another Sikh couple who were travelling to Ranthambore with their 3 teen-aged daughters (and you thought I had it bad). There were other folks who were travelling on that day as well but they were the only ones who cared enough to stop. The couple and their caravan were coming from Jaipur and told us that they had crossed many such Holi toll booths along the way and a mere 20 bucks will get us through them. That gave us confidence and we followed them all the way to our destination crossing roughly 30 such Holi toll booths.
It was the Sikh gentleman's calm and tactful behavior while dealing with these groups that comforted us and honestly speaking this was something I can definitely learn and implement.

Lesson learnt: In the end we got to our destination safely, however given the mood of the folks on the roadblocks and my short-tempered nature anything could have happen. This is a mistake I am not likely to repeat in a hurry.

The Second Mistake

This happened on the way back from Ranthambore when we were speeding down a empty stretch of the highway and noticed a mini traffic jam at a distance. A bit of questioning informed us that there had been an accident and the villagers had blocked the road. Since the jam seems a little ominous we followed a person who seemed to know a parallel road running through the fields. The road was one of those very narrow lanes which separates one farm from another and are mostly (or only) meant for tractors. Anyway everything seemed to be going smoothly when a moments lapse of concentration (I was trying to see the traffic buildup on the highway) led the entire left side of the car into a mini ditch. 

It wasn't a totally lost cause since we were going really slowly on a really bumpy road but my Precious was stuck deep and I was nearly on the verge of tears. The partial saving grace was that we went down in front of a villager's house and he was able to summon a group of 10-12 youngsters who actually lifted the not so light Swift dzire from the ditch and onto the so called road. The real sigh of relief came when the car started and moved ahead without any signs of damage to the axel. 

One set of villagers lead us into the ditch (I played my part in it as well) and another set of villagers got us out. We offered them money in return for their help but they furiously refused to accept. By the time we negotiated the rest of the village road and got back onto tarred roads the highway had been cleared but the thought of being the idiot in that village had not quite cleared.

Lesson learnt: Stay on the ROAD and Keep your eyes on it at all times.


Dude!! but where is the friggin Tiger in all of this. I guess if you have been reading till now that is exactly what you are thinking.... aren't you? Well we did see the Tiger and we did have a relaxing time while we were there. 


The Place - Rantambore National park is located about 15 kms from the small town of Sawai Madhopur. The city area has nothing much to offer and seems pretty backward even though there are quite a few foreigners who come to catch a glimpse of he sun and Sher Singh. Mostly locals tend to stare at you as if you have landed from a different planet. 




The Hotel - We stayed at Raj palace resorts which is located at the outskirts of Sawai Madhopur. The hotel had a very nice garden and the rooms were really classy for the 1600 a night that we paid. The hotel has a decent sized swimming pool as well and being a water baby I was really thrilled. The crowd was a good mixture of families like ours from Delhi and other neighboring cities with a generous helpings of foreigners. The only sore point of the hotel was the food they only serve buffets for all meals which are (very) excessively priced. We had most of our meals outside the restaurant since we as usual wanted to enjoy the local cuisine of dal baati churma etc. 


The Safari - We took the early morning safari and weren't really prepared for the biting cold that was waiting for us. So if you decide to go in the winters then...... All the best. Living in concrete jungles we city dwellers generally get really fascinated by even the most common of animals or birds. And the park has a large amount of peacocks, wild boar, spotted deers, sambhar etc.


Among the more exotic kinds we saw the kingfisher, herons, blue bull, crocodiles, and baby crocodiles. The tiger was elusive during the safari, although we came close to crossing paths on a couple of occasions. We did see the tiger that afternoon when we visited the Rantambore fort, the road to the fort goes from within the park and that is when Sheru was kind enough to show us his posterior. He was lazing below a bush just 10 feet away from the road and as a consequence there was a sizeable queue of paparazzi's trying to get a piece of the action, apparently Sheru's behind was as popular as JLO's. 

The Route - We referred the blog from Ghumakkar and used route 1 on our way there and route 2 on our way back. Its a little difficult to catch route 2 on your way out of Delhi unless you know your way around Daruheda. Our experience on route 2 was marginally better due to lesser traffic and better roads. For details on the routes refer the blog.

In conclusion, the travelling spirit was shaken but still lived on to travel another day.

The Adventures of Deputy Dawg

Courtesy: www.hilarious-pictures.com
I met Deputy Dawg on the metro headed towards connaught place. I did not notice him enter but could not miss his sprawled body on the floor of the ladies compartment. He was a shepherd from Germany recruited by the CISF to sniff out the baddies. 

As I noticed him lying there I wondered if his passing out had anything to do with the frequent and deadly flatulence by metro commuters. I mean he was OUT!

He was accompanied by a human colleague and once the train reached CS (one of the busier stations) a swift command from the human and Deputy Dawg literally jumped to his feet quicker than Usain Bolt taking off for the 100 mtr dash. (hahaha) Sorry can't control myself when I am reminded of the reactions that his sudden awakening elicited from the already petrified women.

Not only had deputy Dawg woken up but was keen and raring to go at the first hint of a command from the lesser human. Once the train moved from the station the human barked another command and Deputy sprawled himself on the ground as swiftly as he had woken up. He fell close to the feet of the women occupying the 2 seaters next to the door, their expressions seemed to suggest that they soiled themselves a wee bit.
I bid adieu to Deputy Dawg after a couple of stops but wasn't able to forget the discipline, obedience, agility and enthusiasm that he displayed. This blog is a very small tribute to all you Deputy Dawg's out there (sniff sniff bow wow).

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Too cool for hockey ....

You know that feeling when there is so much you have to say that you just don't know where to start..... I guess it may be better if I just started from the beginning.

My first encounter (per my hard drive) with hockey was when I was around 8 years old and when Pargat Singh and Jagbir Singh (the hockey player from yesteryears....not me) used to don the Indian colors. We kids used to gather at the park of our army flats and go all out for each others shins, we were in the age group of 7 to 15 what else do you expect. This lasted for 3 years and once dad got posted out I have had the opportunity to play hockey only in our front yard with my brother and cousins. I guess its worth mentioning that even those couple of yrs we played hockey it was only used to fill in the gap from soccer, swimming, cricket, and a failed attempt at horse riding. 


Given all of that (i.e. my limited exposure to the game) I find it difficult to explain this love and passion that resides deep inside. The passion that I struggle to control when I see a forward dribbling the ball past defenders, or when I hold a hockey stick in my hands, or when I feel the crack of a meaty strike, or from the sense of achievement from trapping a ball hit at you with lightening speed (well it feels like lightening speed anyway).

It may not be the beautiful game or one for the gentlemen but once you've experienced it you wouldn't want to turn back. I was lucky enough to have experienced it but unfortunate not to have played for longer. It was always so hard to convince people to play the game, cricket or soccer always seemed more attractive given that Indians in general hate to run and are too afraid to walk away from the field with a couple of bruises (or atleast their parents are).


In my view hockey's latest avatar is even better than soccer given that they've done away with the offside rule and made it super fast and exciting.  However, I am a little more than disturbed to see people around me totally ignorant to hockey and the action packed 70 minutes it provides. Ofcourse I know that in India cricket rules the lazy masses but I also know that there are a sizeable bunch of Indians who passionately follow the English Premier League teams like they belong to their own respective neighbourhoods. Its time you people poured half of that passion into your hockey teams... Why?? Well coz its fast, its exciting, filled with goals and your own city/state has a team vying for the silverware.


This brings us to the World Series Hockey and the lukewarm response its getting as compared to the IPL or EPL. My suggestion to all the Indians out there is to give the game a fighting chance, I assure you it won't disappoint you. The venues are cleaner and better than any cricket stadium in the country, the tickets are dirt cheap, the dhol beats are invigorating and the excitement is unlimited. 

I have a lot more to say on this but would leave it for another day. In the meantime why don't you Just Catch the match.