My fascination for the big cat crept upon me very quietly and
unexpectedly as I was painting one day. I suddenly found them enchanting ...
all that sienna and orange swirling with the stripes.....and I kept my eyes
open for pictures I liked so that I could recreate them on canvas.
That said, I had never expected to see a real tiger in the
wild.
I had, of course, visited Calcutta zoo as a child and had known
that the stinky area was where the tigers were. The section was usually very
crowded and I was never too keen on it, crowds have never been my forte. I remember seeing an excellent specimen
of the animal in Duisburg zoo but that was a very touristy thing to do when you
were travelling with kids. Back home in Calcutta, one winter I took the girls
to the zoo. It was crowded. A tiger sat resting with its back to us, the
cage was rather small for him. Sadly, or maybe it was my imagination, he
looked thin and unhappy and the crowds milling about outside the cage and
calling out did not help. I came away sad..and swore never to visit the zoo
again.
But nothing prepared me for the sight of a Panthera Tigris in the
jungle.
Having visited a good many national parks in India, ranging from
Bandhavgarh to Kanha to Kaziranga to Chitwan to the Sunderbans and not having
seen much more than a few chitals, monkeys, rhinos and the like, I was quite
indifferent to the idea of visiting Tadoba when the spouse suggested it. My
cousins were coming down from Scotland and we wanted to go on a holiday
together. After much deliberation, everyone agreed on Tadoba.
"When
the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see
did he who made the Lamb make thee?"
It was dawn. The sun could not be seen behind the trees but morning had
stretched a finger into the forest when we saw her: our first sight of a tiger
that walked regally ahead of our vehicles. It was a sight to be seen, one that
I will never forget: accompanied by the click click of cameras and fumbling for the zoom...
The lady was unperturbed. And indifferent. She turned as if
to survey us and with one haughty shake of her head, strode back into the forest.
She owns the forest and she made sure we knew it.
We then found out that this particular tigress, P1, also known as
"Chota Tara" as in "Small star", had two cubs, one male and
one female. Over our three day visit we would see the male cub and catch
a glimpse of the female. We also saw P1 again as in the evening she
condescended to make an appearance as we waited, still and quiet in our jeeps.
We also saw another tigress (P2 or Maya), a beautiful leopard as it climbed
onto a tree, we saw sloth-bears, crocodiles, chital deer, sambar deer, bison, wild boar, langurs
and birds of every imaginable size and colour.
But this is not a checklist of the animals and wildlife we
saw....or the resort we stayed in or the food we ate or the people we met.
This is about
that first sight of a tiger. In the wild. A utterly stunning image and experience that I will
cherish forever.
"Tyger, tyger burning bright
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry." (William Blake)
