I go with a heart full of hope (and greed, yes…everyone ELSE has seen the SIT)…to Bandipur, and of course, how many SIT’s do I see (remember, saw 5 once)...how many? Think of a number, subtract it from itself, and that will be the answer....

Focus doesn’t help. Nothing ever helps.

But what DOESN’T help at all is helpful phone calls every now and then, full of suppressed (and not-too suppressed) glee, asking, “Saw any tigers?” “What happened?” “Seen anything?” and so on…Amogh meeting me at 4.30pm and saying, “Well, I might as well go home now, there are going to be no more tiger sightings now that you are here”, swiftly-hidden smiles from all and sundari…I have taken to grunting now instead of replying! :)

I may not be the only one never to have seen an SIT (er, that’s south Indian Tiger, if anyone has not yet known of My Quest), but I am certainly the funniest one. Even Swarna Venkat, who had never seen one, came over last week, and sighted one…

Oh well. But everything ELSE in Bandipur is ALWAYS awesome. And speaking of grunting….. here’s a lovely conversation I saw happening between two WILD BOAR:

“Hist! hist! You heard the latest? It seems Piggy and Porky were…..”

“Hmmm…wait…sniff-sniff-sniff….”

“You STINK!! you rotten PIG!!!!Just stay AWAY from me!”

“Hmm…this solitude is WILDly BOARing…..”

and to end this post on a beautiful note (there will be more posts about the other birds and mammals, never fear!)…here’s another portrait:

More to follow, but off now to take care of other stuff….!