My perch in the tree-house creaked. I sat heavily on my feeble rump, feeling in every breath the pangs of a bereaved man. “Old Hag knows the cause of your melancholy,” said Old Hag, who, turning around I noticed, was seated legs folded, roughly two feet off the floor in thin ether. “But let me…
Tag: Mirchani Cub
Crucified for No Crime?
Let a hundred guilty go scot-free, but not one innocent should be punished” says the Law. Unfortunately tigers don’t seem to be eligible for such penal largesse as they continue to pay the ultimate price for human avarice and callousness. Cornered, squeezed out of their decimated homes and slaughtered for their beauty, they find scarce…
Cry Baby
On 24 April 2011, evidence was presented that the only thing big about an adolescent male tiger is his body. Deep inside, he’s still a toddler, really. A little after half past five, M2, another handsome product of the Mirchahni School of Superstardom, crossed over to the grassland from the woods of Andhiyari. We thought…
Reverie at Tea
“Chug chug” rumbles the train. “Cluck cluck” protest the rails as the heavy wheels roll on them. “Right-ho, Jeeves” lies open beside. All is dark. There is a gentle zephyr. Restful. Nice, cool. There is a lull. Then there is light. Not bright, dim. Soothing, not intrusive. Somewhere in a forest. A bunch of stripes…
Entrée
The ride was penultimate, the time was short and my dubious record of having not made for my library even one image of a tiger crossing a clear jeep track scorned at me with a perfectly detestable air of surety about its continued reign on my haplessness. Mukesh’s intuitive style of work was my only…
Laissez-faire
Miss Mirchani Female Cub – an ardent ambassador of laissez-faire She saw, she came and she sat. Doesn’t exactly sound like a world-domineering conqueror’s magic trio of words, but that is exactly what makes cats, the equitable monarchs, so very special; they conquer the heart by merely being. After this Mirchani female cub’s initial enthusiasm…
Less Equal than Others?
This Republic Day, I wish that we can offer our magnificent felines, the symbol of our natural treasure, the same liberty and protection that we, the simian citizens of this country, enjoy, so that, amongst other things, they can cross roads without the fear of being mowed down by mindless juggernauts. Happy Republic Day!
Chutzpah
When the genetics of an intrepid warrior and an insouciant mother are spliced, the engendered bundle of joy is likely a carrier of much unbridled chutzpah who steps on the ‘crossing roads’ with the authority of a sheriff, the panache of a beauty pageant contestant, and the combined effect of an asphalt-laying machine:…
Leap Year
The Mirchani female cub at Patpar Naala, January 2010 At the threshold of the Chinese Year of the Tiger, a cub leaps in play on an island of isolated wilderness, a small relic from a glorious past, which has somehow escaped the ravages of man, slipping out of his damning grasp. The much-hyped turn of…
Kallu Can’t Dance…
But he most certainly can look adorable and arrest the watcher’s attention like an unputdownable novella. With shyness he is sparsely endowed, and of charisma he has plenty. Of the crowds he is a cynosure, and of photographers a dream. He is aged like an adult cat but looks and behaves like a cub whose…
TIGGA TALES 