[jkrishnakj]

Part 1:

19th March, 11.10 am.

Sir - mooru savara nooru ipath aidhu. Cash aa card na? That question woke me up from my thoughts - what am I doing and how I manage to pull such things off? I quietly handover my card to the bunk attendant and I’m happy that my Crysta has its belly full of diesel. 200+ km to go - I make a mental note.

Flashback: 18th, Thursday evening.
A long day of calls. An escalation that is on a country president’s table. Yes. A long day indeed. I’m thinking that the year 2021 thus far has seen me work more in the last three months than all of last year. Of course, that’s how I feel each quarter. The last call is done, coffee is down and I am happy and eager. Eager to change clothes and hit the tennis court.

The shots are landing well. The ball is going where I want it to. Feeling good. The partner is playing equally well. Winning. Wow! The fun of whacking and smacking the tennis balls after a hard day’s work is something else I tell you.

I do a beautiful serve, the opponent struggles to pick it and somehow lands it back. My partner volleys the ball, with less power. The other side whacks it hard into the my right corner. I lob it back. My partner is near the net. The opponent allows this to pitch, and twists his arms at the last second, gives it a hard hit down the line and that takes me off guard just that wee bit. Recovering quick and a quicker diagonal run, I gauge the bounce of the ball. I see my opponent coming into the net. I’m thinking I need to pass him before he runs in. I see the bounce again and, with one smooth right arm motion, I give it such a lovely curvy hit that the ball crossed just inches above the net and passes by the backhand of the opponent, who only manages a lame touch to the ball. All the execution happens in the brain in micro seconds. Man- do I love tennis or what. The point is won and I hear my partner say - wow kJ, great shot and that’s when I drop my racket.

A grimacing pain in my wrist and I had to stop playing. A small bulge comes up and I feel the pain. I sit out and pick up my phone to call my wife asking her to keep an ice pack ready. The phone is busy. I habitually go through WA and then Telegram, only to see my wife ask a question to the fellow residents asking for any ortho references. I don’t believe this. Just moment back, I injure my wrist and my wife knows this already? This is what being married for 23 years mean. I look up at the sky with disbelief and smile to myself. Not bad at all, I think.

Reaching home with a heavy right hand wrist, I struggle to get my shoes and socks off. The wifey opens the door and with all smiles I was about to ask her how she knows about my wrist and before that, she’s all paranoid in her face. I sensed something is wrong and that’s when I see my son limping on one leg. Football did to him. Football did his ankle and knee. Wow! Now I know why she asked for an ortho. Well - it’s not the 23 years of marriage, I mutter to myself.

Anyways, the son is now a priority. The ice pack is on his knees and a crepe bandage in place. He feels a bit better. I had a wrist crepe done for myself. I start feeling better after the Ice treatment. The wife brings about an Ayurvedic oil to massage my sons feet.

I tell you what, if you’re a vegetarian and your neighbor happens to fry fish on a lazy Sunday noon, you’ll run to shut down the door and windows and that ceiling fan will run faster. The best way to get back at this neighbor will be for you to use this Ayurvedic oil. Trust me, your neighbor has run a mile already. We sleep. I’m not sure if I’ll see my neighbor soon, but we all sleep off.

Friday , 8 am:
I realise the son is not gone to school. He’s walking better than yesterday. And the swollen ankle and knee looks much better in the morning. I wonder how he managed to convince the mom about not going to school. Class 11 and importance and criticality and focus are the words that he hears from the mother these days.

Wifey : What do you guys want for breakfast

Son : his sudden interest in ‘States of Matter’ in physics is unexplained. His standard response that gets my wife irritated is ‘I just need some food’ but he utters nothing.

And I try to read Surya Kumar Yadav’s exploits yet again on Times of India, given I exhausted the rest of the newspaper. I have been through this question a million times in the past and I know where it heads. So, my turn this time - and as always, never giving an answer, but I ask a counter question.

Why don’t we do a good brunch types?

So, thinking I’ve out-smarted her and going back to the paper, I hear another familiar tone that borders on anger and rudeness that calls the boys at home something that equals ‘useless’.

The son knows the silence is deafening and says - Thatte Idly at Bidadi. I jump at it. Wifey says no. I propose Murugan idly at Krishnagiri. I get a stare back and only I know what it means. Now I know what 23 years of marriage does to you. You understand different versions of stares and silence.

So, clearly, in my house, the question of the preference of breakfast means a decision of where to go and eat a good breakfast. I know this very well indeed.

The critical variable in the decision making process is speed. The reason being, the son is not in school today, and since the class 11 pre-board exams start soon, we are at no liberty to waste time and he’s to be reading his lessons for the rest of the day. The son says he’ll sit from 9 am and do P/C/M till 1. And he’ll study from 3pm till 9 pm. I struggle not to laugh when my son says such things. He knows that I know that he says this to keep the lady quiet. We exchange glances, and typical boys, we understand the ‘ Boys code’.

Anyways - where were we- ya, speed. With that, the closest was a small and lovely place near my home that serves hot Thatte Idiy and Vada and Dosas. We head there and settle down in the plastic chairs set under the mango trees. We Polish off half a dozen idly and vadas and down those with a strong filter coffee. I forgot to tell him about the sugar, and the generosity showed in the coffee. Just when I’m about to pay, the son gets his legs up in a reflex. The wife looks down and give out a small shriek. It was a small cat chasing a hen from the woods, and they both managed to find their way underneath our tables. I see that and say that for all the money spent on sighting a big cat in the jungle, we don’t even see what we just saw now. And I add, how I wish it was a big cat chasing a jungle fowl in the wild.

Friday 9 am:
I could sense 4 eyes on me. I sort of understand what the thought process is. I’m like - are they thinking what I’m thinking. YES. They both said that it’s been a while since we hit the highways. Been a while since we spent money with the hope of sighting a tiger. What else would I need to hear- I say that we shall try what’s available from an accommodation point of view. Options were from Kabini to K Gudi to Bandipur. The network was bad and I thought I’ll check once Home.

I must say- the drive home was lovely. I’m telling them that we got not more than 90 minutes to start. We need to book the place, shower, pack and leave. I’m thinking what if we don’t get an acco. I’m giving options of Shimoga and Sakleshpur and Chikmagalur and but are nodding with approvals. I’m now all set in the head.

Friday : 9.30 am.
We get home, and I’m checking Google to get to the websites of JLR and my son runs to his room. He’s calling out to me to get his mom’s cell phone, which I oblige. He screams in joy that JLR has availability for tonight and the next night and gives out another scream that he’s secured the booking. Now, this explained why he wanted his mom’s phone. The credit card OTP. I’m so proud of my son- he choose to use his moms card and not mine. The next second, I’m feeling so foolish about myself, when it dawns on me that regardless of which card, I end up paying the Bill.

I’ve never seen him so responsible in his studies, but he’s demonstrating it in booking rooms, charging the drone battery and the camera battery. He picks up his clothes for two days and packs it in 6 minutes. Shower done and by 10.00 am, he’s ready and is posing questions to me and my wife.

9.45 am
For all those married men, we know it best that when it comes to a list of day time priorities for a home manager, the ‘Maid’ trumps everyone and moves to the top of the list. I am packing my clothes and yell out to the lady to pull her stuff out so that I can pack. I notice she’s busy working the phone and I could hear her broken Kannada and realized she’s urging the maid to skip a few houses and visit us now. Magically, she succeeds in getting the maid home in the next few minutes.

I’m telling my wife and son that we need to get going no later than 10.45 if we need to be on time for the evening Safari. My son gives a shrug, and why not, he’s ready to go. The wife is giving instructions to the maid. She suddenly asks me in the most lovely tone if I care for a black coffee. We are a house that sees both coffee and tea for the mornings and evenings. The wife is an out and out ‘chai’ person and I’m the coffee person. She rations the coffee for me, keeps a count of the number of cups I down and makes it obvious to me that each cup of coffee I get is a favour. So, i know it all the better when I get asked in a lovely tone for a coffee. I cut the bs and ask her straight what she wanted from me. A big grin is what I get first, what I get next is two tops/and T's of hers to iron.

10.15 am
I’m pressing her two tops. I see the maid doing the dance with the broom. In the corner of the eye, I see my wife walk up to me and I tell her that we have exactly half hour to get going. She shoves a few more clothes in my hand and says that I better hurry up or we’ll all be delayed because of me. The maid gives me a look, and I’m thinking she’s about to tell me that she probably goes through this - it’s always one or two last vessels to wash and that one or two becomes a dozen. No, I did not risk giving that understanding smile to the maid and let her be. So, two tops had now become 2 more tops, two jeans and 3 T-Shirts of my son. There are many moments where I am lost for words, and this was one.

11.00 am and I finally get to shower. Thankfully, the maid is gone, packing is done. The snacks, cookies, fruits on the dining table find their way into a bag. Two bottles of water in the same bag. Home locked. I insert keys and the engine comes to life, and the DTE shows 25 km. So, I get to the usual fuel pump to tank get up.

Sir - mooru savara nooru ipath aidhu. Cash aa card na?

Part 2

I come back to my thoughts and swipe my card for the 3125/- that the petrol bunk attendant wants. I am a happy man when my Crysta has its tummy full.

From past experience, I know that the Safari at Bandipur starts sharp at 3 pm, and having paid so much for 2 nights, I didn't want to take any breaks to ensure we reach before 3 pm. I check the clock and its 11.15 and google tells me that I got 198 KM to destination and ETA of 3.30 PM. From experience I also know that I can expect a call from the JLR folks anytime, checking for time of arrival, lunch preferences etc..and they did. I was urged to reach before 3 and they confidently tell me that the evening safari is going to be super good, because of the various sightings of the week. We get excited, but I a careful enough on the roads with the right speeds.

Route taken is : Kanakpura road - Kanakpura Town - Harohalli - Malvalli - Bannur - Nanjangud - Gundlupet - Bandipur.

The one toll near Nanjangud eats away precious time. There was one lane that was going quick and the rest of the lanes were super slow. It was a wait of 5 minutes + for just two trucks ahead of us.

For a friday noon, the traffic is sparse. I make good time, cruise at decent speeds. With a non-stop drive, we make it to the resort at 2.15 in time for lunch. Check-in and lunch was done real quick, and I meet one of my friends and is family, who are total wild life enthusiast check out. They just get me jealous showing me pictures of the Leopard, Tiger and a Black Panther. Encouraging words from him that its raining tigers at Bandipur gets me all excited.

Winding Roads

Red and Green Hues

And some Yellow too

JLR standard lunch fare

Part 3 - The safari's

For all those expecting glam pictures of tigers and leopards, I wanted to give a heads up that we saw None. No Cats. This is yet another journey into the wilds where we go back not sighting the wild cats. We have had several occasions where we were lucky with the cats and even those Wild Dogs, which isn't easy to spot, but this time was one of those times - 4 safari's into the jungle, 14 hours inside the jungle and we were not that lucky.

Well - The Wild safari isn't always about just the cats. For us as a family, it is about the jungle sounds, the experience, the chill, the wild calls that create excitement, the deer that glances with a lovable look, the Langur that watches you with a lot of interest and so on so forth. The sheer experience of spending hours in the wild makes up for it. We will surely be visiting the jungles again during May and try our luck, but the dampner of not sighting a cat never dilutes our jungle visit spirits.

The evening Safari starts on the dot at 3 pm. The Drive into the jungles is beautiful. Our Bolero saw a couple who both were equipped with kits that were metres long. I remember that there used to be a sense of conversations with fellow safari people in the vehicle those days, but not anymore. Covid is changing our social interactions.

We quickly enter the core areas and our excitement builds up. We see the usuals.

The Deer Stare

Two of them

A colourful beauty

A Private Dance show

I love its shoes

We were crawling in our Bolero, when we hear a lot of noise, as though a million twigs is being shattered. We knew it was Elephants. We were lucky to spot two families of elephants that emerged out from the bushes rather majestically.

The family

With a cute baby elephant

My junior got super busy, oblivous to the surroundings.


The sun was setting and we enjoyed some brilliant light and sound show, that only nature can produce.

We pass by the Wild Cat's favourite watering hole and we half there for a few minutes.


We continue ahead, we spot the paw marks on the sand, we are all excited.

We hardly moved about half a KM from the watering hole, when we heard the rumbling noise again. Thinking that it may be another elephant family, we wait there. What we see is a Lone Tusker that emerged like a king.


All of us are excited, and we also know that a lone tusker can be quite a dangerous proposition. The vehicle goes in reverse to ensure there is adequate distance.

What we heard next is something that is hard to describe. A lone tusker belching out its trumpet. I mean, its hard to describe. One needs to hear it in the wild. You don't quite know or sure of what next. This tusker entertains us with one more even louder trumpet. Wow! It was something we had never heard before.


Just when we thought that we had our share of fulfillment for the evening, that lone tusker treated us to some more.

Tree here

And gone in a few seconds

The sight of the tusker, its noise, the way it destroyed a fully grown tree in the wild is something we won't forget in a long time.

We wind up and retreat back to the resort. Standard fare of dinner and sleep, and we were up at 5 am for the next morning safari.

The morning drive was very cold. We probably sighted nothing other than a few birds. The evening was the standard fare of Elephants, and Sambar and Langur and Gaur and deer. We did catch the giant malabar squirrel.

The next day morning was perhaps the longest we spent inside the jungle, an went across all corners and watering holes and the Tiger and the Leopards decided to not show up.

Some Random Pictures

We check out on sunday noon. The comfortable stay and food and the safari's gave us a good break from normal. We check out and head back home. We make it home through the same route and make it home in exactly 3 hours.

A trip and time well spent. Who would have thought that a good Tennis shot of mine or a good football game of my son can lead to a lovely 2 day break.

Thanks for reading friends.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues section. Thanks for sharing!

Will be going to our homepage

[vinodrkn]

Cool... nice post ! We were in Bandipur as well on the same weekend on 20th night. Absolutely lovely place to go to, and just spend time in the jungle - the anticipation of meeting a cat keeps the excitement on. That weekend, there was hardly any sighting, except on 21st morning, when a few people saw a tiger briefly. We missed it by 2 minutes. But the whole experience is well worth it, and the drive from Nanjangud to Bandipur is smooth, with lazily winding roads that are thoroughly enjoyable.

[FlashMustang]

Wow! Wonderful write-up and a wonderful travelogue!
That's really nice to put together a trip in such a short time-frame!

The write-up style was unique and thoroughly entertaining! The flash-back style, the little interactions within the family, and those typical situations at homes! I was at splits at multiple places while reading it.
Nice sightings! That picture of the baby elephant is so cute!

Thanks for sharing a wonderful travelogue!

[Satish Pari]

Very well written travelogue. Bandipur always has a special place for me and my family. My trips to Bandipur started around some 13 years back when I was a part of an NGO and we frequently conducted awareness programs at Kekanahalla checkpost (just after TN border). My role in this campaign, lasted for around 2 years. Will never forget the moment where I witnessed a total of 5 tigers (one female and her four sub-adult cubs) during a night drive as part of the campaign. The worst part was that despite having camera's in the car, none of us took pictures as we were totally awestruck.

With regards to safari's from Bandipur, have managed to see a few cats (1 tiger, 4 leopards) but the whole experience in amazing. Especially for us driving all the way from Chennai via Mysore. The whole jungle is mesmerising and one cannot predict what you will run into at the next corner. During one trip with my son, witnessed a tusker in musth happily walking on the safari track without any worries. Our jeep had to go in reverse for quite some distance till he decided to go into the forest. The smell of musth was so strong and that was a sighting that I'll never forget.

[DEEPSAM]

Wow, wonderful post with a great sense of humour, I’ll add Bandipur to my target list for this year, been there many years ago, but with COVID cases rising in KA not sure if folks from other states will be let in ��

[Arun_S]

Wonderful writeup with great sense of humor.

We visited Bandipur in Jan-21, it was a good trip, took 2 back to back safari's to catch as many viewings, saw lots of tuskers, and couple of leopards.

Highlight of the trip was, on the way from Ooty to Bandipur, a tusker started running towards my car. It was truly a awesome experience.

[dhanushmenon]

Amazing write up jkrishnakj.
I admit to the fact that what lured me into your thread was the 'Bandipur' and 'Safari' tags. However, what got me glued was your free flowing script! Thoroughly enjoyed reading through and was quite a great starter for the day.

Thanks for sharing. Keep up the good work and keep giving us such stupendous threads.

[ant_vas]

We all know how safari at Bandipur can be boring with same usually Deer, Bison, langur and Elephants but no Leopard or Tiger sightings, but your thread has enough family masala in it to keep a reader glued.

Lovely photos of the Deer, Bison and Elephant tusker!

[jkrishnakj]

Originally Posted by vinodrkn

Cool... nice post ! We were in Bandipur as well on the same weekend on 20th night. Absolutely lovely place to go to, and just spend time in the jungle - the anticipation of meeting a cat keeps the excitement on. That weekend, there was hardly any sighting, except on 21st morning, when a few people saw a tiger briefly. We missed it by 2 minutes. But the whole experience is well worth it, and the drive from Nanjangud to Bandipur is smooth, with lazily winding roads that are thoroughly enjoyable.

Thank you.
Oh, how I wish we had interacted there. Would have been fun to meet u with a fellow BHP'ian there.

Originally Posted by FlashMustang

Wow! Wonderful write-up and a wonderful travelogue!
That's really nice to put together a trip in such a short time-frame!

The write-up style was unique and thoroughly entertaining! The flash-back style, the little interactions within the family, and those typical situations at homes! I was at splits at multiple places while reading it.
Nice sightings! That picture of the baby elephant is so cute!

Thanks for sharing a wonderful travelogue!

Thank you Flash. I appreciate your thoughts. Our home is a riot most times and the silence at home speaks volumes often

Originally Posted by Satish Pari

Very well written travelogue. Bandipur always has a special place for me and my family. My trips to Bandipur started around some 13 years back when I was a part of an NGO and we frequently conducted awareness programs at Kekanahalla checkpost (just after TN border). My role in this campaign, lasted for around 2 years. Will never forget the moment where I witnessed a total of 5 tigers (one female and her four sub-adult cubs) during a night drive as part of the campaign. The worst part was that despite having camera's in the car, none of us took pictures as we were totally awestruck.

.

Thank you Satish. I envy that you had to be working in the jungles. The best memory would be the one that you didn't shoot with the camera.

Originally Posted by DEEPSAM

Wow, wonderful post with a great sense of humour, I’ll add Bandipur to my target list for this year, been there many years ago, but with COVID cases rising in KA not sure if folks from other states will be let in ��

Thank you Deepsam. Its a beautiful place to spend 2 nights and do 4 safari's.
As for KA entry, the new norm is that you need a negative test report, that isn't older than 72 hours.

Originally Posted by Arun_S

Wonderful writeup with great sense of humor.

We visited Bandipur in Jan-21, it was a good trip, took 2 back to back safari's to catch as many viewings, saw lots of tuskers, and couple of leopards.

Highlight of the trip was, on the way from Ooty to Bandipur, a tusker started running towards my car. It was truly a awesome experience.

Wow!. That must be something!. We have had a bunch of elephants rush towards us once, near the highway. We were parked and clicking. This was at Dhimbam. The closer they came, the farther we went. That is the picture in my handle here at tbhp.

Originally Posted by dhanushmenon

Amazing write up jkrishnakj.
I admit to the fact that what lured me into your thread was the 'Bandipur' and 'Safari' tags. However, what got me glued was your free flowing script! Thoroughly enjoyed reading through and was quite a great starter for the day.

Thanks for sharing. Keep up the good work and keep giving us such stupendous threads.

Thanks for reading Dhanush. I must write more. I am not even lazy, but its the work that takes away priority.

Originally Posted by ant_vas

We all know how safari at Bandipur can be boring with same usually Deer, Bison, langur and Elephants but no Leopard or Tiger sightings, but your thread has enough family masala in it to keep a reader glued.

Lovely photos of the Deer, Bison and Elephant tusker!

Oh yes. Its boring when you hit the third safari and you have new people in the Vehicle and the naturalist will explain the Sambar and Spotted Deer and the Malabar Squirrel and the Gaur's to them, and I was almost indifferent.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

A trip and time well spent.

Excellent travelogue to my most favourite place on Earth! Indeed time well spent. I know what you mean about a safari not being only about sighting cats. I've had many safaris with no cat sightings at all. But all the other inhabitants make up for that.

[jkrishnakj]

Fully agree Stryker. My next trip is to Kabini on the 13th and 14th. Lets see what I find there.

Just this noon, I caught your Kabini log. Lovely pictures. Beautiful scarface pics. Loved it.

[haisaikat]

Wonderful writeup Krishna, thoroughly enjoyed the reading of the flashback at the beginning.

During our last trip to Bandipura back in 2016, the only thing we could spot was Elephants and Deers. Seems you are lucky this time to have spotted more. But why is there no picture of the man's machine, I mean the Crysta?