It's strange how I await my birthday as the the single most important annual event when it's actually on other occasions when I'm totally unprepared, that the grey cells multiply to mark my mental growth. I've finally identified a pattern in this behaviour, and come to the conclusion that it's when I travel that this metamorphosis hits me out of nowhere and transforms me.
It took a recent journey into the wild for me to grow up a notch more. Determined to see Corbett, I set off for a tryst with India's first wildlife park ever. If not from the very beginning, I could feel a wave of difference washing over me the minute we entered the Sal forests. The two-hour drive to Dhikala in the heart of the jungle was so bumpy and so beautiful that it sure shook me.
Early next morning, I mounted on Pawan Pari's back to catch the sunrise by the river side. Riding into the dense thicket of elephant grass and wet greenery, I realised how different it was from my last visit to a tiger reserve. A year back at Ranthambhore, I hadn't learnt my lesson in the ways of the wild and had sulked and sulked till I spotted the big cats. Silently appreciating everything from a jungle fowl to a lone tusker, I heard others whisper murmers of disappointment. I couldn't help but feel a mix of contempt and anger rising in me at the ungrateful attitude that made them oblivious to the sudden start of a barking deer or the flutter of a spotted dove's wings. But then again, I wasn't entitled to feel that way since I had, in many ways, once been there. Gazing at the female elephant carefully nestling her 10 day baby between her legs simultaneously as she walked, it dawned on me that I had new found respect and understanding for the animal kingdom.
A visit to a sanctuary requires an open-mindedness that has finally come to me. I definitely don't expect to see animals the way I did in zoos as a child, but instead where they truly belong, in the wilderness. I'm glad I've grown up.
About Me
- fidgety feet
- Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~Mark Twain
6 comments:
Animals in a zoo are about as much in place as a polar bear in sahara. Some people feel zoos are good for animals as they are safe there. I think percentage wise animals have a much better chance surviving in the wild than in a zoo. god knows how many of them have perished in zoo due to the physical and mental torture they are subjected to by the visitors and the tons of plastic they are fed by them.
Shikha, your blog brought a strong sense of deja vu...Last december I had the good fortune of visiting bandhavgarh and pench tiger reserves...somewhat similar to your mental condition when you visited ranthambore...I was ecstatic when i saw the big cats, my focus partly clouded, since i HAD to get a big cat on camera for my travel show...but when I visited corbett this year in march with family and importantly...no TV camera, I could actually sink into the whole WILD ecosystem and appreciate everyone from the mahseers to the ghadials, to the hornbills and the zillion peacocks...
About Zoos...i agree that they are what you may say unethical surroundings, but trust me...or so i'd like to believe, the survival rate of most animals is maximized in zoos as against the wild. Because, they get timely meals, as against the wild, where they have to HUNT (a tiger typically makes 20-25 attempts at a prey before he actually hunts one down), they have routine health check-ups and vaccinations to keep them healthy and its a safe haven from natural disasters...What the animals lose in mental health n freedom, they make up in a healthier and longer life in zoos...
Hello there. Nice blog.
I guess I shall be reading this space more often. Oftener?
Very Nice .
Ever Seen the Movie Madagascar ??
Animal's Love the Zoo , I mean its Quite Literally a Life Million's of Humans Dream of - 24 Hour Security , Your Favourite Food everyday , Complete Health Check Ups For Free , Always the Center of Attraction , Never have to Work or Over Exercise , No Cause of Stress , No Starvation Deaths .
Hello Anonymous.
Im glad uve chosen 'anonymous' else would have tracked and hammered you for those views!!
I do agree to all you say,since I thought the same way. But that's exactly why my blog is about growing up coz these were my thoughts when I was much younger and blissfully ignorant.
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