Ranthambore - Safaris that disappoint

Ranthambore probably has between 28 and 57 tigers, depending on who you talk to. The process of booking a safari is more organised with a fair and transparent online booking system. But in reality, for a solo traveller it isn't too clear where to go and how to go once you actually arrive at Ranthambore. I was lucky that my hotel owner, Aditya Resorts, spoke to the right people and for a reasonable fee I was picked up and dropped off at the hotel for the safaris I'd booked.

RANTHAMBORE. Day 1. Zone 2. Atop a canter, not the best situation to get pictures of any quality. But still a productive day. Saw T-60 feeding on a fresh sambhar kill. Her 11-month cub was nearby, but because of the distance and the poor light in the forest, couldn't get the cub's picture.

Zone 2 is reportedly the best part of the park for a good chance of spotting a tiger and it did prove so. As a bird lover, I was delighted to spot a serpent eagle by a stream, a kingfisher and a partridge. The obsession with the tiger means that the guide, the driver and fellow-safari guests rarely want to pause to capture or observe other fauna.

T-60 at her sambhar kill

T-60 feeding 

T-60, her cub (not in the picture) was nearby - disturbed by the noise from the safari gypsies and canters (at one stage 8 vehicles were watching her), gave up feeding and lay down in the grass. 

A sambhar

A serpent eagle

A female sambhar

 RANTHAMBORE. Day Two. Zones 2 and 6. Just a wisp of a tiger in the morning, difficult to capture on the camera. However, a productive day overall with some good pictures of other fauna this huge wildlife sanctuary has to offer.

The morning safari experience was marred by a very mercantilist guide and driver who were more bent on extracting hefty tips rather than any genuine interest in wildlife or the safari guests. They assume their tips depend on tiger spottings and hung around for two hours at the same sambhar kill I had viewed the previous afternoon and then rushed through opportunities to view other fauna.

The afternoon safari in Zone 6 was better with fellow safari guests interested in avian life as well. The guide was very helpful and stopped for us to take pictures of scops owls, mongoose, deer, some magnificent male sambhar stags and blue buck.

A jungle path

A black stork

A pair of scops owls

A blue buck(nilgai)

A male sambhar

Jousting young male stags(sambhar)

A female blue buck

Female blue buck

A cheetal fawn(spotted deer)

I was disappointed with the extensive human interference and activities inside the park. Little of it can boast of being pristine. There are temples, regular visitors, road building, encroachments by hotels and resorts, entry of cows and villagers collecting firewood. It's a miracle how the tiger continues to survive despite such adverse circumstances and habitat destruction. The prey base appears robust on the surface with plenty of deer, sambhar and blue buck.

Jaipur Literature Festival - Overhyped Leftist Brouhaha!

DAY 3 of The Jaipur Lit Fest. I had the immensely enjoyable experience of sitting through a talk by Nicholas Coleridge, the just retired President of Condé Nast International. An amazingly gifted raconteur he kept the large audience in splits while talking about his publishing years, and regaled us with anecdotes, including an uproarious one involving Lady Diana, from his recently published memoirs, The Glossy Years. I intend to read it soon

Book Launch: Diya Kumari of the Royal Family of Jaipur on the left, the author Francesca Cartier Brickell on the right 

Colours of Rajasthan brightened up the venue. 

Diggi Palace Durbar Hall - one of six venues in the heritage palace and its expansive grounds

Shobha Dé and Amit Khanna ad lib in the absence of the missing moderator. The moderator, Kaveri Bamzee, shrill and pompous was a needless distraction. 

The main thoroughfare inside the festival grounds was a popular selfie point.

Day 4 of the JLF. The highlight for me so far has been William Dalrymple who spoke about his book 'Anarchy- The East India Company Corporate Violence and Pillage of an Empire'. The overall experience for me has been marred by left-wing intellectuals and moderators who dominate most of the discussions and find opportunities to create overt political overtones

Between sessions I took the opportunity to check out the old city - this is Tripolia - the three door entrance to the City Palace

The exteriors of the lovely Hawa Mahal, Old City.

DAY FIVE, Jaipur LitFest, closing day. Really engaging sessions by Jung Chang, author of 'Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister', a boring one on 'Doodles of Leadership' by two talking business heads, an interesting biased one by Stephen Frederic Dale on 'Babur: The First Mughal'. The highlight for me has to be a very engaging, honest talk by the Bollywood stylist-cum-designer Manish Malhotra. In a sea of pompous leftist farts, his was a voice of humility and level-headedness that totally charmed the audience. The low has to be the very vulgar Suketu Mehta, author of 'This Land is our Land: The Gujarati Experience of Migration at Home and Abroad' who gratuitously injected contemporary politics into his very boring address. I came to Jaipur specifically for the LitFest. Sometimes things appear larger and more glamorous from afar much like Bombay does in movies. It's always best to experience things oneself rather than rely on secondhand or mediated information. Would I come again - NEVER.

Manish Malhotra-Bollywood royalty: down-to-earth, humble, engaging,  poised and very articulate, totally charmed the large audience. Best session of the 5-day sometimes very political, hate-filled and boring festival with expensive food. 

The artist is at work behind this completed work. One of the few charming things in a very political event. 

Hallie Rubenhold talking on her book 'The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper'

Yes, they're self-congratulatory events paid for by corporate money cleverly raised in the name of a literary cause at which the same set of people meet again and again. Yes, self-serving and incestuous are good words. They're exclusive events at which only the people on the inside are paid and benefit from the prestige and connections. A lot of idealistic and young people moved by the glamour needlessly devote their time gratis to aid this selfish enterprise.

Beauty and Reality!

REFLECTIONS💕 Char Dham - four holy spots - done, to the best of my ability, the season and accessibility. Yamunotri (5 kms  short, most accessible but a bad knee and black ice in patches made it risky); Gangotri (24kms short, snowbound); Kedarnath (16kms short, snowbound); Badrinath (42 kms short, snowbound). After 20 days of travelling in the mountains I feel tourism in these parts is not sustainable. The pollution of the rivers now begins at its very source. 5 kms from Yamunotri, the purported source of the Yamuna, the river bank is littered with all sorts of trash. Most of the roads have huge   stretches prone to landslides and rockslides. The constant road building is devastating the forests and the river valleys. There is major urbanisation up in the mountains to service the pilgrim trade and most of it is unplanned and ugly. You may throw your garbage in the dustbin but that dustbin is emptied on a hillside out of town into the very river you've come to worship!😣 The beautiful pictures you see isn't the whole story.

Joshimath in Northern Garhwal, Uttarakhand

Auli, ski destination in Uttarakhand

Skiers at Auli, Uttarakhand

A Himalayan bulbul in a wild berry tree, Joshimath, Uttarakhand

Auli, Uttarakhand

Swiss style chalets, Auli, Uttarakhand

Temple at Mukhwa, Bhagirathi Valley, 2650 m, 25 kms from Gangotri

A porter in the snow at Janki Chatti, 2600m.

Snow-capped mountains near Harshil, 2650m, 24kms from Gangotri, Uttarakhand

Village of Kharsali, on the banks of the Yamuna near Janki Chatti. 

Snow covered terraces