no lions..just silhouettes !~

this, dear everyone, could be fairly long. There's just so much going in the head, and it's all churning out there.

I just came back from Gir and it was an experience worth telling. Not the most satisfying trips but 'yeh nahin kiya to kya kiya'. There were let-downs but it was fun, rising above those.
there were no lions in the Gir to be spotted. no luck with the lionesses either. Route six, however, allowed some of us a distant silhouette of a leopard. But nevermind that.
Safaris are great fun. Especially the Gir Safari. A large stretch of natural habitat, with 359 (in number) lions. Many thousands spotted deer and a wide variety of beautiful, exotic birds such as the 'night-jug' and the 'owl'. The owl, with its eyes open in the day. i believe they sleep with their eyes open.

Anyhow, PK, Juggy and Aunaunya and PK's friend were great company to have. For PK, lions mean everything. Everytime she heard something remotely sounding as 'lions', she would feel a surge of disappointment for not having to encounter one.

Anyhow, but like the great ones say about the journey being important and all that, I truly believe it's the safari, the sambhars and the spotted deer and not the lions and leopards that are coveted. The forests were barren and the hope was overwhelming. The ride was bumpy and the heat immense. But maybe I'll need to go a third time to be able to spot anything, because the probability in any case is 1/3rd, and I should have known that second visit was merely a formality.

Money-wise, it burnt a bit of a hole. But i never knew this is how foreign nationals are charged. I mean, i probably had known that these government run, touristy places do manage to charge foreign nationals more, but because we had such an immediate reason to worry for PK's German friend was with us, I never cared maybe. However it is, he is going back with an impression that Indians=Greedy, immoral bunch of conmen. My guess is that when he mentioned something about Indians being this way or that, he was never talking about us. This makes me believe that the touristy image of Indians still holds. Anyhow, for me, I will try to economize elsewhere.

There were all kinds of auto-rickshaws that we tried. And it was all great fun. And it was all very tiring also. And it was a little unbelievable. Because our place of stay was a little shady, some farmhouse, with little trace of much more civilization. In fact, very close to the sanctuary itself. We had the dainties food, cooked food, along with chutneys and pickles and freshly-made butter. Stomach-upset was a fear but in the many experiments, why should this be compromised.

There were some fresh realizations. Sometimes PK hums and I sing. I saw the whole stretch of a train. The WHOLE stretch in one glance, I mean without having to proceed it. I get used to a place and the loo in a much shorter time. When you try to wrap a wet towel around your jeans, for it to dry, the jeans soak the wet up before the sun dries it up. Sometimes head spins like crazy, making me afraid to close my eyes. I can see the sky change colours, when I'm playing tennis or sitting in the near-by tall tanki. It's vivid. Like a fast-foward film that shows day to night. I, sometimes make mental notes of the things I write about. And I lose the notes ever so often. I get inordinately excited and fascinated with all these small villages that I cross while travelling. The distance and the fact that I will never be able to visit that house, in which that frame hangs add to the enchantment. And ofcourse I like Prawns. They are a yummy thing.

Anyhow, there's lots happening with the people around me. My parents, Zoo, they are all going through huge dilemmas. I have no idea what I think about these dilemmas or how I think about them. But they are there for resolve.

There are other egos, how I have no idea become a little insurmountable. I have seen myself talking to people about how it's just about that big leap and being able to start talking, but it's difficult I would say but it's not one of those impossible things.


These days, people let their status messages talk no end. While MICA comes to an end, reading status messages and their count-downs are very interesting. I might take a while before my status message or my status become, one of nostalgia. I might take a while before I take that leap i was talking about. But before that there are soaked clothes to be washed, final matches to be won or lost and some nice food to be eaten. Till then.

Later