My World of Food and Travel

“…and then a low growl was heard in the bushes. Our vehicle crept a bit closer and suddenly who should leap out of it but a monstrous tiger!” I made the action of a leaping tiger, my hands raised above my head menacingly, as my son squealed in delight. “And then?” he asked, his big doe eyes looking at me expectantly. “And then? The beast began charging at us, roaring with all its might. The driver reversed the jeep as fast as he could. Our hearts were frozen with fright but we kept on clicking away our camera. It was the experience of a lifetime, after all. Finally, after chasing us for almost a kilometer, the tiger gave up and disappeared amidst the shrubbery.” “And then?” the little boy was relentless with his query. “And then, we came back to the resort,” I said with a sigh. “Story over. Go to sleep, now.” As I tucked him into the blanket, the husband who was pretending to be asleep for fear of being made to tell a story, gave me a wry look and snor...

It’s time for another jungle tale from my dad’s repertoire. Or rather, my recollections of the stories I heard. I had nearly forgotten this one when a casual conversation regarding tigers attacking elephants brought it back.  The story begins on an autumn afternoon when Deta (my dad) was touring the jungle on elephant back with another member of his staff. Co-incidentally, it was the same time of the year as today, ie. February end.  Now, let me share some jungle trivia with you. Forests like Manas, where this story takes place, have tall wild grasses which have to be burned down when they become dry during the non-monsoon season. Why do they have to be burned? Because, the accumulation of dried grasses become a danger to sporadic jungle fires and also obstructs new plants from coming up. That ‘burning’ is a controlled procedure. Parts of the jungle are singled out in installments and the grasses burned down under supervision. After the fires are put out, all...

Part 1 here We had decided against going for the elephant safari the next morning. One had to traverse around 40 kms from Agoratoli to Baguri range to embark on the safari. It was too cold to wake up at 4.30 am to be able to take the elephant safari which started at 5.00 am, although there were subsequent trips at 6.00 am and 7.00 am. Mainly, we worried that the baby might throw tantrums atop an elephant. We were not sure how we could handle the situation then! So, the next morning we went on another Jeep safari at 8.00 am. Since the forest office was located just opposite the resort, not much time was wasted in completing the safari formalities. This time there were four more vehicles with us, comprising the other tourists. I wondered if that was a good idea, as not all of us may be equally enthusiastic about birds and animals.    Sohola Beel The Jeep took the same route as in the previous trip and our first stop was Sohola Beel. Here we caught si...