When Elephants Fight… A memorable sight of two elephants clashing! We witnessed this when we were on a boat safari on the Kabini River, near Mysore, Karnataka. Kabini river banks are a land of elephants. The recent census of elephants there stated: that there are approximately 6000 elephants in the forests on both sides of the river. These forests are home to tigers too, but they are very low in number. We were sure whether we spotted any tigers or not, we would surely get to see elephants. As the boat advanced north of the river, we did see elephants moving around in herds. There were seventeen in one of them. As we neared the elephants, it seemed to us that those tiny silhouettes of elephants gained their real size. Our guide suddenly drew our attention to two elephants who were preparing themselves to charge at each other. I could not understand how he said so because they looked very normal to me. Something inside me told me to believe his words and I positioned myself armed with my zoom lens and Camera set in sports mode. Just in case he was right I didn’t want to miss the golden opportunity. The boat kept advancing towards the (maybe) battlefield, I was happy the sightings were more clear. And then it happened. It happened. A head-on collision between two elephants… a mammoth collision. I was reminded of the African proverb: When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Well in this case we would be the grass, because by now our boat was quite close and in their enthusiasm of fight what if they rolled over the bank, both the elephants would be ‘plonk’ on us. The common interpretation of this saying in today’s political discussions is “the suffering of a feeble or helpless country when two superpowers engage in warfare or ally themselves”. Think about the political scenario in the world today in general, there is turmoil and strife everywhere. It is the common man who suffers the brunt ultimately, it is their life that gets disturbed, and families get uprooted and are forced to flee the land that was their home for centuries. Lifestyles change abruptly and think more deeply it is the children who silently suffer. Any solution to this? Back to the elephantine fight, I have this to tell to your delight or dismay, they parted soon. It looked like a friendly collision between the two. It was over in moments. Some of us were like “Oh! No!” and some were like “Thank God!” I was happy I could capture the collision; probably a filmmaker would have been disappointed. Humanity rules … We were driving down to Vittal, a tiny town near Mangalore. The darkness had set in and the rains were coming down in sheets minimising the visibility on the single carriage road. Had my face stuck to the windshield to ensure I stayed on the road. A slight misjudgment would get us off the shoulders and leave us hanging like in the last scene of ‘Italian Job’. The oncoming truckers could not care less. They were the self-styled monarchs of the road and proclaimed it on their truck behinds in so many ways. The other way they did it was to beam up their headlights straight into the eyes of any motorist who erred in using the same road. It was blinding. Had managed to outmaneuver most of them but our luck did not last long. Barely 8kms from our destination the inevitable happened. A slight misjudgment. The front wheel slipped off the shoulder as the trucker passed me by with a mocking roar. Our car could not move unless the front wheel was lifted and put back on the road. Just then saw an autorickshaw approaching. Hailed him and apprised him of the situation. He gave me one look and reassured me of getting back on the road in a minute. He walked back 10 meters where there were a couple of guys gossiping over a bidi. Had not noticed them earlier. Strange. Our savior went to them, spoke to them, and brought them to get us out of our predicament. We were told to stand out while one of them got in and started the car and the other two lifted the car holding the bumper, and Bingo! The car was back on the road. The driver went around and examined the underside at the wheel well and gave the thumbs-up sign! I approached our savior and offered him monetary compensation for the job done. He laughed and refused to say it was no big deal. We thanked them profusely as they all got into his autorickshaw and puttered off.
This experience was the best so far in my thousands of kilometers of road crunching.
Traveling leads to sharing – Take a look at some travel experiences
You just can’t imagine traveling to the most beautiful places and not sharing it with your loved ones. Well, we thought of building a platform, through which everyone can share their unique travel experiences with anyone on this planet. Here are some of the travel experiences shared by some travelers.(Or holidayers as we call them) :- When Elephants Fight… A memorable sight of two elephants clashing! We witnessed this when we were on a boat safari on the Kabini River, near Mysore, Karnataka. Kabini river banks are a land of elephants. The recent census of elephants there stated: that there are approximately 6000 elephants in the forests on both sides of the river. These forests are home to tigers too, but they are very low in number. We were sure whether we spotted any tigers or not, we would surely get to see elephants. As the boat advanced north of the river, we did see elephants moving around in herds. There were seventeen in one of them. As we neared the elephants, it seemed to us that those tiny silhouettes of elephants gained their real size. Our guide suddenly drew our attention to two elephants who were preparing themselves to charge at each other. I could not understand how he said so because they looked very normal to me. Something inside me told me to believe his words and I positioned myself armed with my zoom lens and Camera set in sports mode. Just in case he was right I didn’t want to miss the golden opportunity. The boat kept advancing towards the (maybe) battlefield, I was happy the sightings were more clear. And then it happened. It happened. A head-on collision between two elephants… a mammoth collision. I was reminded of the African proverb: When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Well in this case we would be the grass, because by now our boat was quite close and in their enthusiasm of fight what if they rolled over the bank, both the elephants would be ‘plonk’ on us. The common interpretation of this saying in today’s political discussions is “the suffering of a feeble or helpless country when two superpowers engage in warfare or ally themselves”. Think about the political scenario in the world today in general, there is turmoil and strife everywhere. It is the common man who suffers the brunt ultimately, it is their life that gets disturbed, and families get uprooted and are forced to flee the land that was their home for centuries. Lifestyles change abruptly and think more deeply it is the children who silently suffer. Any solution to this? Back to the elephantine fight, I have this to tell to your delight or dismay, they parted soon. It looked like a friendly collision between the two. It was over in moments. Some of us were like “Oh! No!” and some were like “Thank God!” I was happy I could capture the collision; probably a filmmaker would have been disappointed. Humanity rules … We were driving down to Vittal, a tiny town near Mangalore. The darkness had set in and the rains were coming down in sheets minimising the visibility on the single carriage road. Had my face stuck to the windshield to ensure I stayed on the road. A slight misjudgment would get us off the shoulders and leave us hanging like in the last scene of ‘Italian Job’. The oncoming truckers could not care less. They were the self-styled monarchs of the road and proclaimed it on their truck behinds in so many ways. The other way they did it was to beam up their headlights straight into the eyes of any motorist who erred in using the same road. It was blinding. Had managed to outmaneuver most of them but our luck did not last long. Barely 8kms from our destination the inevitable happened. A slight misjudgment. The front wheel slipped off the shoulder as the trucker passed me by with a mocking roar. Our car could not move unless the front wheel was lifted and put back on the road. Just then saw an autorickshaw approaching. Hailed him and apprised him of the situation. He gave me one look and reassured me of getting back on the road in a minute. He walked back 10 meters where there were a couple of guys gossiping over a bidi. Had not noticed them earlier. Strange. Our savior went to them, spoke to them, and brought them to get us out of our predicament. We were told to stand out while one of them got in and started the car and the other two lifted the car holding the bumper, and Bingo! The car was back on the road. The driver went around and examined the underside at the wheel well and gave the thumbs-up sign! I approached our savior and offered him monetary compensation for the job done. He laughed and refused to say it was no big deal. We thanked them profusely as they all got into his autorickshaw and puttered off.
This experience was the best so far in my thousands of kilometers of road crunching.
When Elephants Fight… A memorable sight of two elephants clashing! We witnessed this when we were on a boat safari on the Kabini River, near Mysore, Karnataka. Kabini river banks are a land of elephants. The recent census of elephants there stated: that there are approximately 6000 elephants in the forests on both sides of the river. These forests are home to tigers too, but they are very low in number. We were sure whether we spotted any tigers or not, we would surely get to see elephants. As the boat advanced north of the river, we did see elephants moving around in herds. There were seventeen in one of them. As we neared the elephants, it seemed to us that those tiny silhouettes of elephants gained their real size. Our guide suddenly drew our attention to two elephants who were preparing themselves to charge at each other. I could not understand how he said so because they looked very normal to me. Something inside me told me to believe his words and I positioned myself armed with my zoom lens and Camera set in sports mode. Just in case he was right I didn’t want to miss the golden opportunity. The boat kept advancing towards the (maybe) battlefield, I was happy the sightings were more clear. And then it happened. It happened. A head-on collision between two elephants… a mammoth collision. I was reminded of the African proverb: When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Well in this case we would be the grass, because by now our boat was quite close and in their enthusiasm of fight what if they rolled over the bank, both the elephants would be ‘plonk’ on us. The common interpretation of this saying in today’s political discussions is “the suffering of a feeble or helpless country when two superpowers engage in warfare or ally themselves”. Think about the political scenario in the world today in general, there is turmoil and strife everywhere. It is the common man who suffers the brunt ultimately, it is their life that gets disturbed, and families get uprooted and are forced to flee the land that was their home for centuries. Lifestyles change abruptly and think more deeply it is the children who silently suffer. Any solution to this? Back to the elephantine fight, I have this to tell to your delight or dismay, they parted soon. It looked like a friendly collision between the two. It was over in moments. Some of us were like “Oh! No!” and some were like “Thank God!” I was happy I could capture the collision; probably a filmmaker would have been disappointed. Humanity rules … We were driving down to Vittal, a tiny town near Mangalore. The darkness had set in and the rains were coming down in sheets minimising the visibility on the single carriage road. Had my face stuck to the windshield to ensure I stayed on the road. A slight misjudgment would get us off the shoulders and leave us hanging like in the last scene of ‘Italian Job’. The oncoming truckers could not care less. They were the self-styled monarchs of the road and proclaimed it on their truck behinds in so many ways. The other way they did it was to beam up their headlights straight into the eyes of any motorist who erred in using the same road. It was blinding. Had managed to outmaneuver most of them but our luck did not last long. Barely 8kms from our destination the inevitable happened. A slight misjudgment. The front wheel slipped off the shoulder as the trucker passed me by with a mocking roar. Our car could not move unless the front wheel was lifted and put back on the road. Just then saw an autorickshaw approaching. Hailed him and apprised him of the situation. He gave me one look and reassured me of getting back on the road in a minute. He walked back 10 meters where there were a couple of guys gossiping over a bidi. Had not noticed them earlier. Strange. Our savior went to them, spoke to them, and brought them to get us out of our predicament. We were told to stand out while one of them got in and started the car and the other two lifted the car holding the bumper, and Bingo! The car was back on the road. The driver went around and examined the underside at the wheel well and gave the thumbs-up sign! I approached our savior and offered him monetary compensation for the job done. He laughed and refused to say it was no big deal. We thanked them profusely as they all got into his autorickshaw and puttered off.
This experience was the best so far in my thousands of kilometers of road crunching.
