Tiger toffs

Some would say that the real action at Ranthambore begins only after sundown. We had gathered over tea and scones at Sher Baug, a lovely ten...

Some would say that the real action at Ranthambore begins only after sundown. We had gathered over tea and scones at Sher Baug, a lovely tent hotel, after two hard rides in the forest. The world here was divided into two camps: Those who had seen the Tiger and those who had not. You may ask me why I use the capital 8216;T8217; when I refer to the tiger? All I can say is that you haven8217;t seen a Tiger at Ranthambore, or you too would be using a capital 8216;T8217;.

After the two rides I was in the silent majority: The group which hadn8217;t seen a Tiger even after two dusty three-hour rides through the forest and it was unbearable listening to the fat lady from Bombay with henna in her hair who was showing off about seeing a tigress and two fully grown cubs in a nallah for a period of 15 minutes. 8220;It seemed like an hour,8221; she gushed. 8220;They were so sleek and seemed to get along so well.8221; She spoke as if she were describing a social get-together. Then she lost her train of thought.

She turned to me, looked at my sad eyes, and said, 8220;Did you see any Tigers in the forest?8221; I wanted to snap, where else would one see Tigers if not in a forest but I was too weighed down by the burden of the non-sighting to misbehave. So I said, 8220;No, but I saw a leopard which, as you are aware, is rarer than the Tiger and the only dhole wild dog in the forest.8221; But she dismissed it with a flick of her hand and said, 8220;But you did not see any Tigers.8221; I protested rather weakly, 8220;But, I have seen a pride of 11 lions at night in Sabi Sabi in South Africa.8221; She shot back, 8220;It is the Tiger that is the king of the jungle.8221; Frankly I couldn8217;t come back on that.

Today she was gone. But my mood was buoyant. After spending two and a half hours in the forest seeing very little 8212; an occasional nilgai, some sambar, Tiger spoor and what were the pugmarks of a Tiger, I was feeling quite frustrated. Then, at around 5.30 pm, the guide heard the warning call of a cheetal and spotted a sambar with its ears pinned back, looking back in alarm. He immediately said there was a Tiger around. We waited for an half hour and nothing happened.

Then the sambar also dropped guard. The Tiger has stopped moving, said the guide. We moved on. Half a kilometre ahead, my wife suddenly said, 8220;Let8217;s go back. He may be there.8221; So we went back. There was no sambar now. Just an empty forest. I told the guide to go a little further. And presto! There, in a nook to the left of the road was the most handsome creature known to man.

The Tiger had crossed the road when our jeep left and was now seated in that nook. The first impression was the largeness of its head. The second, its sheer majesty. The third, the deep brown of its skin. We watched with awe and Blake, as always, popped into mind. 8220;Tiger, Tiger burning bright/in the forests of the night8221;.

That evening it was my turn to ask, as I sipped camomile tea, 8220;Did you see any Tigers?8221; to a tall Kashmiri lad. And frankly I could not hide the feeling of satisfaction when he said he did not. I told him not to worry, that he may spot at least a leopard or a dhole the next time he went into the forest.