Fear factor

The heard began to pound harder. The breathing became irregular. I suddenly froze in my seat. I had a great chance to observe the primal instinct called fear. Other than these physical reactions, there was nothing more to fear, which was a breather. Thank God for fear, for it's a survival mechanism developed over the ages. A huge beast of the jungle weighing several tonnes stood right in front of me. One step & it could have ended my life treating me like a mere twig. How fragile is human life in such uncontrolled situations!

Luckily I wasn't alone. My friends & I were in a jeep in the jungle of Bandipur on a safari. The able driver knew at once what he had to do in such a situation. The elephant herd had been watched by us for a while. But this was sudden, a part of the fight or flight mechanism when threatened. In the jungle, live by the law of the wild. It would've been obvious we had no chance, but the driver bravely revved up the engine & stood his ground without backing out. The standoff continued a while, before the mammoth suddenly realized we're not going to give in. It beat a hasty retreat & without looking back, we raced ahead for 10 minutes. The driver, a forest official later told us that had he reversed, the animal would've taken that as a sign of bowing down & would've chased us...that would be much worse, traveling in reverse gear, chased at high speeds!! But really, all this was not as gory as I describe. In fact, I'd been wishing since that morning for such an experience. Once again, a wish come true & no regrets for wishing either! Moral here - be careful what you wish for, cause it just might come true!

Having started off on the trip without booking any accommodation or making any concrete plans, a bunch of us went on this totally disorganized trip to Bandipur national park. Refusing to shell out 2000 bucks for a single day's stay at one of the luxurious cottages, we scouted around helplessly. A forest guard took mercy on us & decided to make a quick buck. Promising us of a comfortable stay at a forest guest house up on Himavad Gopalaswamy hill, he took a bribe from us & hopped onto our taxi. Going all the way up, we were amazed at the seclusion & scenic beauty up there. The lodging was not worth being called by that name! But being nature freaks, we decided to stay there. He conned us into thinking there's no food available there, so we had to come down & pack a dinner. Meanwhile, this bugger gets totally tipsy as he's unable to make up his mind between arrack & whisky! Late at night, with nowhere to go & nobody to guide us to this lodge with no light, we're torn between dreams of a romantic stay up the hill & comfort of a decent roof on the other! Finally, the feeble minded weaklings amongst us persuade us to choose the latter & we give in. It was amazing to what lengths corruption has pervaded people's psyche in India. Lure of money & booze ruled this guy's mind & he capitalized justly on our dire needs as well. Moral here - money rules & dictates lives of most people!

All in all, the trip turned out great fun as usual. Despite total lack of planning events fell in place quite well. Adventure quotient was very high due to this lack of order. As for me, I'm still unable to make up my mind whether advance booking & such tame activities are preferable on trips! I cannot resist comparing this with life itself. I'm still not fully convinced that I need to plan ahead in life, cause mostly things fall in place as long as a general direction is maintained & some fundamentals are adhered to. After all, plans have a mind of their own :-)