B(rr)R Hills again

Bili Giri Rangana betta...

Had a hard time explaining the meaning of this explanation to Ron, an American colleague who accompanied us (me and a few colleagues of mine)...Turned out to be quite a reveler he did, out there in the woods, hanging onto the side of the jeep in the safari with one hand and a trademark, touristy point-n-shoot in the other, unable to get enough of eneething, be it the suddenly surprised herd of deer or the spicy Indian cuisine! Kudos to ur spirit Ron!


Sharath was my ride for the jaunt...During the trip, we happened to encounter a stretch of muddy roads, on which he tried to do this. He's this kind of a silent, non pompous kinda ass who thinks he can do anything and mostly get away with it...Well, he succeeded in drifting twice over the loose gravel and the 3rd or 4th time it got away from him...the dumbstruck passenger remembers just two moments of the near fatal final drift :

1. Thinking 'wow this is NOT the right speed for THIS curve...he's way too high'.
2. Thinking 'Yep we're gonna fall into that ditch there...yes...what shud i do? will the car be on its wheels or ulta? will it be my neck that gets broken or what?'

Eerily, the 2nd one didn't happen and the callous driver lives on to drift his ass again...Don't get me wrong, he's a good driver, who's "insane" about driving and knows and knows all the geeky stuff (specs of cars, watching shows/movies related to racing...the typical 'auto geek')...In fact, I also caught myself wanting in on the fun, exciting world of cars, something that I haven't been really attracted to or gotten "into"...wanting to be like him a bit more...

But after this incident, I'm glad I'm me...Cos if this is what its gonna do to u, then I ATLEAST don't wanna be him...Not saying that the world of cars and automobiles isn't for me, but I don't wanna be him or anything like him anymore...He IS human after all, broke down completely after the near fatal incident, in shock for a while...But still...

The other bad thing about this trip was my stupid infection...woke up with an itchy throat on the morning of our departure, which developed into a cold en route, and caused occasional spells of fever...

INSPITE of this mural the puttar had loads of fun...He was right in the middle of one of Nature's most resplendent exhibitions, and no ailment could keep him from savouring it down to the last dew drop!

B4 I 4get...For those of you who haven't been there, mark ur calendars for next March/April for THAT is peak BR Hills season...Since it is summer time, most animals will come "out" to get their share of water at some well known water sources, which ur safari jeep will jussssssst pass by!

we got there by lunch time, and after that we'd a coupla hours to kill before the jeep ride through the jungle...Spent that time on the hammock and inside the machaan talking to Ron about this n that...the others were spotting monkeys and taking photos etc. Had a nice time in the Machaan, getting to the vantage point some 20ft above the ground itself a challenge, cos a few rungs of the ladder were broken!

The safari was swalpa disappointin I guess, cos a few of the parties who'd been on the ride in the past few days, had spotted leopards and tigers n stuff....and we didn't! Tons of different types of Deer most inquisitive of them being The Barking Deer, (They get their name cos they actually emit a sound which is a mixture of a bray and a bark! This they do, when either they're faced with an adversary or while they're excreting cos they're afraid of the sound of their own excreta!) the Sambhar and the Spotted Deer...A herd of wild gaur (Indian Bison)...and a "cute" lil elephant and a huge mama elephant...The lil one wasn't pleased with our appearance...it kept trying to intimidate us by charging at us and stopping short of our jeep...

Some rare sightings which we ran across was a beautiful Serpent Eagle, a pair of Giant Squirrels (huge!) and a woodpecker which disappeared quickly...But the whole crowd had their eyes and ears wiiiiiide open during the whole time, and this was the highlight I guess...taking in the forest, being in the wild...awesome stuff !

We were supposed to play a game that night, but we ended up spending most of the night on NOT SO hilarious jokes and idle banter in general...coupla photo wizards (including the drifter!) made complicated arrangements to capture the night sky, and in general got busy with their cameras (hi fi lenses, tripods, and DSLRs! oooo mama)

For Ron n I, the night was about the fireflies though...You see, at B R Hills, the lights go off at 10.30 pm, and u are left with a starry starry night and the fireflies...Its only the human dread of the unknown that causes some to switch on their torches now n then, but they can be forgiven...While we were sitting atop the machaan, I'd told Ron how I'd realized the last time I'd been here, that one of the best ways to experience this place was to be a silent absorb/observ er...Jokingly he'd asked me 'So is that ur cue for me to shut up??'...Well, shut up we did for a while, as it hit us in waves: the beautifully lit sky, the crickets and mellifluous insects and birds, the fireflies arranging quite an ensemble!

The next morning, I was in a dilemma whether to attend round two of a jeep safari ride (the hope of catching sight of a leopard!!!) or to explore the jungles on foot...Turns out, the latter wasn't a popular option as I found only one other nature enthusiast awaiting the guide for a trek...Undeterred, we set out on foot, me, Pradeep and Guide...This is something I hadn't done the last time around, and boy am I glad I did it this time! Unless somebody gives it to u in writing that there're gonna be hordes of wild animals parading for u inthe morning, don't miss the morning trek!! We saw leopard paw marks, angry scratches, made only the previous night...We saw atleast 15 different types of birds, the providers of the background score for our 6 km journey...we saw an overturned, dead skeletal remains of a bison's head, which had been devoured by a tiger 3 months ago! The dental and respiratory structure of a bison is vividly imprinted in my mind beleev me!! What was mesmerizing was, I woke up with a rather congested nose and lungs, but the moment i started walking through the jungle all the mists cleared inside a me also! I just love that place!

Nothing much to report on the way back...rather tired because of the adventures and the cold n stuff, I came back home a relieved, yet enormously satiated fella!

Cheers
Cheers
Cheers
2 BR Hills!!!