in Camera

At Ranthambore, the tiger reserve in Rajasthan, the high point of the visit is catching a glimpse of the tiger. For a first-timer like me the experience is unforgettable. The atmosphere and feel of the air changes if a tiger is in the vicinity. The nearby waterhole, a place for all varieties of animals to gather, clears immediately. Monkeys scatter, one of them acts as a look out and climbs to the top of a tree, deer and sambhar give warning calls -- a distinct sharp explosion of sound that carries far -- even the birds leave the place. You get a real life sample of what Jim Corbett describes in his books on hunting man-eaters. Then if you are lucky the tiger shows itself.