Never seen a free tiger…

This blogger has been to most of the wild life sanctuaries in this country but has never seen tigers in wild. Recently there have been reports of further dwindling of tiger population making it difficult to see this elusive animal. Seeing these majestic animals in zoo is saddening, they look so defeated (at least Bannerghatta Park provides enough space from them to roam. I recommend this to anyone visiting Bangalore. They have done fairly good job. At least in this safari you are assured to see some tigers unlike tiger reserves- in particular Corbett). About a decade back I suddenly start making lots of money so was adamant about seeing a tiger in wild. Spend a fortune but hard luck (this pic of blogger taken a decade back at one of the w

ildlife sanctuary. Clearly it is not recommended to get out of vehicle in wild. But then when you are younger you tend to be easily stupid, not to mention equally enlightening company!!. In retrospect I think this blogger should have been punished. Any violation of rules in wildlife sanctuary should be dealt seriously. It is dangerous and shouldn’t be encouraged. Most wild life sanctuaries now have safer vehicles). Recently the standards of zoo keeping have also improved a lot.

TV Channels that show wildlife programs are spectacular to say the least. They bring out such spectacular footage that you cannot see in your lifetime in real life. Some of these programs needs months of hard work. Wildlife filming is quite under rated; it needs lots of deft handling. This blogger also had the opportunity to attend documentary festivals on wildlife.

What a show !!

This blogger is ecstatic about performance of girls in Civil service exams. I always thought bureaucracy needs more representation of women, and yes I strongly support reservation for women in bureaucracy (definitely not in parliament it is dangerous and some manipulative people can easily usurp the benefits. Exams are about merit/competence and not manipulations and squatting the power centers). I recall there were some very motivated girls at Maharajas College study circle, some even came to Delhi but dropped out as they found food, weather and other problems related to staying tough to handle.

Bureaucracy is an agency that interacts directly with public and women in authority can be significant in patriarchal society. I recall being very concerned about gender insensitivity in Police force (immediate reason was some of the cases of rape victims and the way they were handled). I thought their should be a member in the interview panel in the selection process to check the gender issues (as also corruption) to the higher level of bureaucracy. Infact one of the first things I did on reaching Delhi was to go to NCW. I recall Mohini Giri was the chairperson, didn’t knew she would be having IAS officer as secretary. He listened to whatever I had to say, wasn’t enthusiastic. That’s about it. I liked those dabhas at ITO. Rajma-Chawal for 10Rs was value for money. It can go wrong one in five that is a good strike rate!!