Tryst With The Wild- Memoirs Of The Trip to The Bandhavgarh National Park

Law school does take its toll on the the students. Regular studies, moots, articles and exams- this is all what we have to talk about, confined within the 40 acres of NLIU campus. People look for a way out of all this. Some find solace in their laptops, some in socializing, while some often spend their time searching for it. No wonder when it was first decided to take a trip to the Bandhavgarh National Park, the tough part was not looking for people, but restricting it to a respectable number. After much planning, deliberation upon alternatives, ticketing woes et all, the trip was finally ON.

Day 1- To The Station And The Train Journey

 
I would pretty much remember the first day of the trip by two things- Jaiby's leg getting worsened, and Bhatta's window getting broken. After reaching the station over an hour early, there was not much to do except probably useless talks, and clicking pics. But amidst all the fun, Jaiby had already started experiencing pain in his legs. If we had known that it'll only get worse, a ride back to the hostel to drop him off would have been the best utilization of the remaining time.

The train journey to Umaria was for most purposes uneventful, except for an event which would have probably disturbed the whole trip for those who don't go ahead when a cat has crossed their path, and do not leave on a trip without eating sauf. The event was the train window getting shattered, right at the start of the trip. Thankfully, none of us fitted into the above mentioned description, and even if any of us did, they were better off quiet :D And so, the journey went on ..

Day 2- The Check In, And The Interpretation Center

After a night's sleep with half a dozen breaks due to unexpected cold weather in the sleeper class, the last thing we wanted was a bad ride from Umaria to Bandhavgarh. Thankfully, the bus/mini-bus/matador sent by the resort people was comfortable, and so was the single lane road to Bandhavgarh. The comfortable journey was supplemented by a preview of what was about to come- monkeys, dense forests, peaceful environment, and yes, more monkeys.

On reaching the resort, we were greeted by the manager who showed us the rooms. The rooms were perfect. It was as if a whole block was given to us. A completely private block, with rooms close enough to keep the group well connected, and also enough rooms to give privacy to both the sexes. On the expected lines, a good part of the initial few hours were spent fighting over who will be getting which room, and again on the expected lines, the guys won :P

Come evening, everybody was excited to explore this small town. And for the definite nature of our trip, we chose to visit the Interpretation Center. I would recommend anybody planning to visit Bandhavgarh to pay a visit to this center, before entering into the actual national park. It gave us a much needed introduction to everything we were about to experience in the next few days. We came to know about the caves, the Gaur, about the alarm calls given by the monkeys (which help the guides in confirming the presence of a tiger), the fire prevention system used in the national park, the Bandhavgarh Fort, the baghin chauraha etc. Some of the pleasing experiences inside the center included a big replica of the Fort, the sound recording of some of the species of birds living inside the sanctuary, the video recording of a tiger hunting down a deer (not particularly pleasing, but fascinating nonetheless!). The Interpretation Center did give us enough food for thought, at the same time raising certain questions to which we sought answers over the next two days.

A large part of the first night was spent playing this game called 'Mafia'. It took me more than a few minutes to explain the game to everyone, but it was all worth it! The game is so intense that it can carry on for hours without you noticing it. Being a moderator was a tough job, for variety of reasons. But all in all, the game did entertain us enough to end the day on a good note. The safari trip next day was to begin at 6, and nobody wanted sleep deprivation to play as a spoilsport, and thus it was considered safe to sleep off early. Thus, zzzz.z.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... followed!

 Day 3- The Safari Trip. (Tala Zone)

A wake up call at 5:15 (by Nishit, even before the official wake up call by the resort people), a bad tea to start the day with, rainfall when you're least prepared, and a good half an hour wait just outside the park gate (wow! that rhymed :P), are all good enough to spoil your day! But on experiencing what these woes led to, it all became worth it. The moment our jeep entered the gate of the park, there was a sudden change in the air. We were greeted by a group of monkeys just ahead of the entrance. The first warning call we heard was after half an hour, through a monkey. A silent and watchful 10 minutes wait yielded nothing except, to our dismay, the start of drizzling. The next two hours saw us watching intently at monkeys, smiling at the cuteness of sambhar deer (which runs when the tiger comes, and after a while turns back to check if it is still there, only to get killed!), "awwwwwwwww... ing" at the sight of wild chicken, taking random pics of trees etc. The closest we got to watching the tiger on the first day was the sight of pug marks on the land and trees just after the meeting point, which was an experience in itself. The 'King's' pug marks were as long as a feet whose size cannot be probably less than 15, and as broad as atleast 4 human legs kept side-by-side! We reached the resort back by 10, without any regret or anger of not seeing a tiger, but with the satisfaction and joy of the experience of last 4 hours.

The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful amidst watching the inaugural match of India, a long power cut, and a short walk to nowhere! The post dinner hours were well spent playing Killer-Detective, watching Roadies, Item Bomb (:D), and yes, taking Jaiby's case where we apparently were called as bak****, kameene, and non-bechare! And thus, all three of us (Uttu, Bhatta and me) could not get a good nights' sleep as we were just turning from one side to other all night, crying and consoling each other :P

Final Day- Second Jeep Safari (Magadhi Zone) and The Train Journey Back

The beginning to the second day of safari wasn't any different from the first day. In fact, it was worse! We woke up half an hour early, reached the gate half an hour early, spent AN EXTRA HALF AN HOUR AT THE GATE, reaching the gate pretty early than the firangees, only to watch them enter the gate (all of them) in front of us! We entered the Magadhi Zone around 7, greeted again by similar sights as the previous day. We were spotting elephants, deers, eagles, vultures, peacock, peahens at regular intervals. Even though we had seen all of them the previous day, it was still a pleasurable sight to see all of them again. The meeting point was not as good as the earlier one, but was ideal for taking some memorable pics. Just after we left the meeting point, a bomb was thrown by the guide of a jeep carrying a couple, who said that a tiger was spotted very near to that place around 10 minutes ago. Some rash driving followed! But the purported place was already filled with many other jeeps waiting to catch a glimpse of the tiger. After a good 20 minutes wait, and some more pics in the midst of  total silence, we gave up to continue with the safari. And yet another long wait came to nothing :(

 And then came the moment when every wait, the before-sunrise wake-ups, the two safari trips and everything else even remotely related to the trip became worth the trouble. The first sight of the King! When we were the least prepared. Right in front of us. Crossing the road. Silently. Peacefully. Right from the moment we saw him, our heartbeat took an upward plunge. And for the next 2 minutes, he seemed to be the only living thing around whose heart was still beating! Now we knew why only he is called the King of the forest. There was a sense of pride and authority in every step he took. Which definitely came from his immense size and strength (luckily we didn't get to see any live demonstration of the latter). After a couple of minutes of deafening silence, the King disappeared into the bushes, leaving us stunned, but content!  

 

This remained as the topic of discussion for the rest of the safari, which ended around 10:30. There wasn't much to do except pack and head back towards the station. The ride back to the station was equally comfortable, though our sleep (lack of it!) got the better of us. On reaching the station it was found that we're in again for another long wait, as the train was late (woww.. it rhymed again!). Expectantly, a good part of the initial one hour of the train journey was spent over seating difficulties (handled well by Nishit and Bhatta). The only highlight of the return journey was Nain getting off for the first time in her life at a station during a train journey, and Jabalpur got the honours. While going off to the bed (berth) for the last time on the trip, everyone was aware of another early morning wake up call, but this time there was no excitement of another safari trip, another tiger sighting, or another day in the wild. But there was a sense of satisfaction, and blissfulness, and a feeling of time well spent! :)

 P.S- Some words/sentences we probably over-used (but they were still fresh the last time we used them)

- Magic dikhau Magic

- Awwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!


- Yayyy!! Now my hands are free of 99.99% of the germs.

- What's up?

- I believe in 'Sharing is Caring'

 Some scenes and images to remember the trip from- 

- Narrowly missing the tiger, twice

- The first, and the only encounter with the tiger

- All the Mafia games

- While playing Killer-Detective, when

      - Nain identifying me as the Killer, when i was already dead!

      - Ritika and Jaiby telling each other that they are Killer, and Detective respectively.

Images Courtesy-  Nain and Priyam

Fun Courtesy- Nain, Priyam, Bhatta, Uttu, Jaiby, Kritika, Ritika and Nishit!