Corbett - The Amazing Jungle

Place : Corbett
Date : 2nd April to 5th April.

And the journey/adventure continues :-)

The trip was planned a month back. When my friend Mohit, sent a message saying that he was planning the trip to Corbett on the 2nd april weekend. And how could i not react to that? :-)

And that's when the adventure begin,in city terms the strugle for me started right then (m used to it by now, nothing comes easy to me) :-) Well a week after that, got a call from Mohit saying some MLA's family coming in on those weekends so the forest guys have cancelled our booking at the guest house in Sarapduli and so if i was ok with pushing the trip.

That's when, my boss's faces flashed in front of me and the mail from the other boss which said - NO LEAVES TILL JUNE END (this mail was sent to us 5 times, once every week.Eeeks!!!) I think they both suffer from some manuposal thing - HYPER TO THE CORE. Both of them could come to the conclusion of deciding the sex of the child even before the child is born ....anyways...why discuss them, they are poor stressted out souls, who will burn out very sooooon :-)

Haan toh coming back to my trip - well, so i told Mohit - "No can do. I have to go 2nd April wala weekend" . And like moi - most of my friends are jugado (kya karen, that's the only way u can survive).

So Mohit, got back with the news, that there is one room available with another friend of ours - Joy (again a jungle boy) who is making his house, and 3 cottages on one side of the hill that he has bought. :-) so there yuppiee we are on again. Now came the question of train bookings, it was showing waitlisted. So Jugadu no.2 comes in - Moi. I knew i could get 3 tickets done from bhaiya (sshhh he is in railways) :-)

Now the D day comes in - we were to leave on 1st night @22:40 hours. And 18:30 hours, bhai calls to say - sorry, some MLA's letter has come.

And i was like some - MLA!!!!!!!! i was just hopin isee this MLA in the jungle - i would have thrown him into the river where the Crocs are .....%@#$%#$% - ek toh mere tax money par aish kar raha hai, aur upar se buger got my guest house bookin cancelled and now the train!!!!

Anyways, i told myself- Focus Anshu. Focus. The goal is to reach your jungle, the path doesn't matter.... so the back-up plan comes into effect. We take Highway Haseena (Mohit's Scorpio) drive down.

So 23:00 hours we set off and reach Corbett by 4:00 am, sayin helo to lots of jungle friends on the way. And then it was 3 days of heaven, calm, bliss and action. 3 days we had no track of time be it in terms of date or hours.

Took d trip with Mohit - D Jungle boy who knows Corbett like u would know your house :-). Stayed with Joy - another jungle boy who has made his home there. N wat an experience it was. Realized that there is so much more 2d jungle then just d Tiger. All d amazing birds n other animals. D jungle has so much to offer. Action 24x7, yet a sense of calm n peace :-) When we were sleeping in the gypsy in the jungle one afternoon - i realized that from one side i could hear d sound of d wind, from d other side, d sound of a bird calling, from d third side d sound of d monkey n sambar calling, it was like a surround sound effect :-)

Realized that just like d jungle in life too everything is about timing n to see things differently. In d jungle – I was trying hard to look for a tiger n d harder i tired -my vision was blank. Then I just decided to look at things differently. look at d way that monkey is reacting - its so different from d way they react when they r in d city. N that's when i started looking around n saw so many amazing things - birds, reptiles, all of it. Saw a monitor lizard n d way it walked saw how a herd of deer had so beautifully camouflaged itself. N then as d gypsy was goin ahead - joy's gypsy came next to us n said - follow us fast - we have got d tiger. So there i got to see d tiger as well. Not that i had given up on d tiger...its just that i had stopped looking so hard for it. If not d leopard i saw d leopard cat, if not d tiger - i saw d tiger butterfly. N ultimately i realized that what was important to me was - being out there in d wild, d feel of freedom. Suddenly remembered d lines from d song by Savage Garden - "I wanna run through d jungle, d wind in my hair n d and at my feet" :-)


D feeling of seeing d TIGER was more driven by d fact that - people would ask - did u see a tiger n trust me that exactly how it was, d moment i reached Delhi n got to office thy asked me - did u c d tiger. Idiots. cause for them its d cliché thing of jungle = tiger. Got to learn so much from Rashi, Joy n Mo. their passion just rubs on to you. :-) Adding some of Mohit's pics here for those of you who wouldn't have seen them on FB. N also d fact that he had a great camera which could reach everywhere. :-)

Hope to see you guys with me on my next trip. Till than, have fun, enjoy life - it has so much more to offer :-) Good bless you all.