Punching Pench

The week was threatening to be one of those usual ones with people, programming and politics etc. However landed up here, Saturday morning on his way to Pench and I after some hesitation decided to tag along for a day. We (myself, Aasim and Kallu) started early afternoon and Swati was game enough to join us in the night. Pench is just 90kms from Nagpur and yet we had never visited the place before this….

I was not expecting to see much wild life but I was pleasantly surprised. The carnivore population of the place is nowhere as high as Kanha but as lovers of all wildlife we never run after the tiger like most of the others visiting the place. In fact I really pity the people who say they did not see anything just because they did not manage to spot a tiger – folks open your eyes please!!!

Rightly guessed we did not see a tiger either but I got some good pictures of Jackals and the Blue Bull (it actually is an antelope), a rare full frame of a Cheetal suckling a fawn. I say rare because the Cheetal mothers usually bolt as soon as they see a vehicle stop, specially while they are feeding… but this girl let me fire at least half a dozen shots before she decided that she had posed enough. We saw vultures both white-back and long-billed am thrilled to say that Pench is supporting a population of at least 60+ Kallu got, according to him, his first decent shots of Yellow Wattled lapwing and I am sure over a period of next two days he will surely spot the tigress….

On the work front – Two new programmers joined in today, last week one of the new girls quit for a weird reason – she wanted to go to Pune give an interview for experience, she was emphatic that she wants to work with SANIsoft for at least an year but she wanted to give this call center interview for experience. I really can’t understand what this with interview experience?

We declined the leave and she choose to quit instead. Today morning she calls up and says she wants to continue – I would be damned… Well, too late, we already have replacements in place.

Lastly, as a remedy to Aasim’s boredom we have employed him as a part time summer trainee at SANIsoft his job entails finish learning logo and ensuring that all the M$ Windows machines are duly up to date. He got smart to the idea and even negotiated a stipend from his mother and a 5 day week.

P.S. Pictures will take some time to be processed – too much work today 🙁

[Update]
The pench pictures are HERE
[/update]

Wild Week!

Whew! The first three days of the week were dominated by construction related activity but a lot got done – finally the layout is complete, bore well has been dug and a three phase electricity meter has been installed and connected. Swati’s birthday passed in a whirl in the middle and then we decided to escape to Kanha.

This time we took our own car – Swati drove very well (for the uninformed I am not allowed to drive ;) ) and we had with us Aasim’s grandparents, yeah they *are* Swati’s parents but when Aasim is around they are more his than ours – that paints the picture very aptly.

Kanha as usual did not disappoint us – Tiger sightings were poor by the usual standards but that was enough for grandma and grandpa. The most heartening news was that all the 4 cubs of Indrani have survived and in fact most of the litter from last year has survived and there are at least about 20 young tigers romping about, in deed this is the time (15 to 18 months of age) when they get into fights and also are targeted by poachers but they have come this far and I have hope!

Oh yes! for the earlier part of the week we hand another wild guest with us – may be Swati will write about it some time later….

Alcazar Cabaret at Pattaya, Thailand

At first glance you may not know that the picture is any different from what you think it to be… but do read on!

The Alcazar Cabaret of Pattaya, Thailand is one of the major tourist attractions, whenever we returned from Pattaya we were questioned “Did you see the show?”. So this time we took time out to watch the 75 min sound and light extravaganza!

Started by the Phettrakul Family more than 20 years ago Alcazar Cabaret, which is located on Pattaya 2nd Road, originally, was a small theatre of 350 seats with 40 employees. It is said that the show was not well received in the early days however the owners persevered and today Alcazar features a theatre with a capacity of 1,200 seats & 440 employees. The theatre is equipped with state of art light & sound system featuring the ultra high tech “Circle surround sound DTS system” & the most modern computer technology. Today, the Alcazar Cabaret is World Class!.

This show stands apart in one more aspect all the beautiful dancers are transvestites or were men!

Indeed Swati’s remark at the end was true in more than one sense – this was so much like our Bollywood :))

Well judge for yourself – see the album with 47 pictures.

Long Live the Queen!!

She is Indrani the resident Queen of Indri, Kanha. Named by Uncle Denzel Stephens after the region where she reigns and the English news reader from Radio Sri Lanka of the same name. Seen in the picture are two of the young prince born barely 6 weeks ago!

She embodies in her the resilience to survive despite all odds and the majestic beauty of Indian wildlife at its best. We were fortunate enough to be granted attendance to her court for the royal viewing on Saturday morning, 11th June 2005

So as the Prime Ministers Task Force for Tiger conservation bumbles, stumbles and mumbles along giving importance to everything but the Tigers, the Tigers themselves are doing a great job, Indrani is just one of the three tigresses with a litter in the park. Currently including Indrani’s 4 there are a total of 10 cubs recorded more or less the same age but sadly, lament the conservationist and the naturalist, that it is almost sure that by the age of 15 to 18 months all of them would be dead – mostly gunned down by poachers and listed in records as being killed by other male tigers!!

Aasim has very innocently named the strongest cub “Rex” and hopes that he will see him as the King – I really doubt that he comprehends the irony of his naming of the cub but I do pray that the fate of these cubs is different

Amen