A little bit of luck

Every regular wildlife watcher is superstitious - whether he admits it or not. Every safari starts with a quick check of all the clothing and accessories that should or should not be present - to try and find some guarantee of a rare experience. A rare experience is, well, rare - and to find it you do need to have a little bit of luck!

An old favourite movie of mine, has this little song sequence, which more or less summarizes the dozens of tourists as they step into their jeeps heading for a safari each day...

Lucky beginnings are always rare - my very first encounter with a full fledged jungle was years ago in Mudhumalai. This trip turned out to be stupendously lucky - two leopard sightings, wild dogs, even a jungle cat! This was most certainly beginners luck - because very many trips followed without even a whisker of a wild cat in sight.

Well I am glad to say, the fast is over - but I have burnt my fingers, and wouldn't take luck for granted. I try a few small tricks to help things go my way, that includes keeping my sunglasses on the top of my head, wearing or not wearing my watch, wearing my favourite Taurus pendant or not (the one I spoke about a few posts ago). There is nothing to prove that any of this works, but like I said - all wildlife watchers are certainly superstitious.

While writing this post, I think very specifically of people I know, who are terribly confident of their luck, and are just a few steps away from trying to make some money off it! Some of them are cocky and arrogant, and go so far to think that they part-own the forest (I have heard one of them famously pointing out to a bunch of green proclaiming it to be "mah forest, mah forest").

Others cant believe that they could have a bad day, and will take any measure to get rid of the unlucky charm. I have heard a story of a guide, who was really exasperated that he couldn't show his group of guests a tiger. Finally, he got rid of one "unlucky" member of the group, by pushing him on to the back of an elephant promising him an unforgettable experience. Unforgettable indeed, because the rest of the group watched a tiger for twenty minutes from the comfort of their jeep - while the poor man was scanning the horizon from his awkward mount, wondering when the ordeal would come to an end.

And then there are those, who pretend not to even acknowledge the luck they have - "Luck has nothing to do with it", they say, while they strut around with the luck of the devil with them. These are the crafty little ones, putting money* where their mouths are, and there are a million eager newbies, waiting to take part in the lucky moments with them at any cost (*thats the money I was talking about).

The good thing about having such characters around, is that a wildlife experience can rarely get boring. A serious wildlife watcher would say that the jungle can never get boring. There always are the birds and butterflies and tiny little insects all over the place, a little bit of observation would be all that is needed to have the rare and lucky wildlife moment. I have to agree - although these little human quirks can always add some laughter into the wonderful jungle memories.