The lion (panthera leo) belongs to genus Panthera which in turn belongs to the family Felidae. It includes cats of all types with differing perspectives towards humans as either masters or food. There exist only two subspecies of lion now: the African lion and the Asiatic lion. The African lion has a fuller mane while Asiatic lion has a sparse one and also is smaller in size compared to the former. Some other subspecies of lions became extinct over the ages succumbing to climate changes, poaching and loss of habitat. I could barely contain my eagerness to watch these magnificent creatures before either of us got extinct. Gir National Park, established in 1965 for conservation of Asiatic lions spread over 1500 acres and had 300 odd lions calling it home in 2005.
All the members had to reach on their own to the Gir guest house; Zubin and I boarded the train to Rajkot from Mumbai Central station and the journey was a breeze. The kids on the opposite berth kept us entertained and some other kids(and elders too) asking for alms kept Zubin busy. Zubin with his fair, glowing skin resembled a foreigner and a better prospect than me to get some reward. I was reaping the benefit of racism and enjoying the way Zubin squirmed every time they touched him. The beggars in train come knocking at your door in a hard-to-miss way. They double check by touching just in case you have not received the memo. Just ignoring the ignorance. Some finally fail the patience test like my friend did. I scoffed at him for encouraging those kids. Zubin calmly replied “I was so touched”. The pun was spontaneous and evoked sympathy. We reached Rajkot around 3.00 am in the morning. The family in our cabin offered to drop us at the bus station but we had switched the adventure mode on and politely declined them. Zubin had made a 180 degrees’ flip from the one at BNHS office, just like that.
We walked the streets of an unknown city at an unearthly hour with zeal and trepidation. If something untoward happened, the thought of company of someone better looking and richer looking made me feel safe and guilty. Are you judging me? The bus from Rajkot would take us to Junagadh and another bus change from there would finally get us to our destination. The journeys in rickety, stuffed buses promised lions of at least two grumpy guests in the morning safari.
We reached the guest house around 5.30 am in the morning. The guest house was majestic and exuded an old world charm. The rows of guest rooms ran parallel and the central block for administrative use was located at opposite end at a certain elevation. The cordial staff showed us our room and we were told we were the last in our group to reach the guest house. We changed and hurried towards the dining room for breakfast, the morning safari was scheduled to start before sunrise. As we reached for our plates, a voice interrupted
“Good morning Relationship Manager. How was the journey”. I turned around to see Jaya walking towards us, she still remembered after almost a year! I introduced Zubin to her, briefly narrated our previous night heroics and parted ways to meet up soon for the briefing. It was all so normal and I had unnecessarily judged her because of my own prejudice. We ate hurriedly and went to the open space in the center of guest house where all other members had already gathered. Jaya made a few pointers: carry enough water, caps to protect from harsh sun ,to not make noise , to not get out of the gypsy unless the ranger deems fit, to sit still and avoid eye contact if the lions wander too close to the vehicle and to avoid bright clothing. The last one was peculiar, it can’t be as if lions were finicky about their dish being temptingly garnished for hunger to be induced. After Jaya briefed everybody, we all walked towards the gypsies. Few of us made a run, looking like a walk, for it. There were 6 gypsies and the first gypsy in the queue is the most coveted one. I checked my company for next 3 days. We introduced ourselves to each other. There was Farooq from Hyderabad, a wildlife photographer always with his cap. There was Leslie from Mumbai, the man with Zebra T shirt (we realized later he had multiple of them) and black shorts. Looking at him, I envisaged a zebra who had lost his bottom half stripes while bathing . There was colorfully dressed Ajay and his father from Delhi, cleanliness freak Zubin and an adjective-less me to complete the team. In the front seat was the forest ranger,a senior gentleman Patelji , who had a wooden stick we all knew as baby latth. We wondered how much that baby latth would come in handy if a lion decided to test its strength. Patelji was all relaxed and self-assured. The biggest surprise awaited us in driver’s seat. An African was seated there. Wasn’t Gir too interior for someone from outside to find livelihood. How did he land up here? Was he an ex-poacher turned good man? I upped my cool quotient and started the conversation
“ Yo bruh,My name is Avinash, A..vee…naaash. Whots yuah name bruh?”
“ Cool bro, Umm Taylor from Nuhgerria” or something like that , I was expecting.
“Namaste Avinas bhai, maaro naam Dixon chhe” he replied with a smile. I was blinded, both by his dazzling pearlies and sizzling Gujarati. He now had the attention of all six of us. He could speak broken Hindi as well.
Patelji explained us that Britishers had brought Africans from Zanzibar and other African nations two hundred years ago for manual labour. These descendants called Siddis never went back and assimilated with the local culture. So cool!!
The safari started on time. We were asked to be quiet, lest we disturbed the peace and drove away any wild animal. Other than lions, the jungle was home to chital, sambar, nilgai, wild boar, leopard and peacock among other creatures, we were told. The lions eluded us and leopard spotting was counted as a miracle, which did not happen. There was a peculiar issue with our gypsy. Ajay had a weak bladder and he had to get down every twenty minutes to relieve himself. His father told us that he had suffered a trauma to his pelvis that had caused this condition. Ajay, being a sport, said that all the alphas were going to conduct a ceasefire meeting in the jungle tonight to take care of the new one in the town marking his territory left, right and centre. Zubin was the conductor and hygiene in charge of the gypsy. Leslie behaved way less than his age and all of us found that amusing. Farooq was all business and focus.
Our first safari ended with the disappointment of not having seen the alpha but the company in gypsy made up for that. Patelji had interesting anecdotes for us and Dixon was just Dixon.
It was in the afternoon safari that we first spotted the lion, rather lioness and her cub. She lay on a flat land over a slope some 30-40 feet away from us. Farooq was the first to get down and shoot the majestic creatures with his big camera. It was a sight to behold. She was at peace with herself, allowing casually, us blessed mortals to click her and the cub. We made our way back to the guest house, grateful and happy for having finally spotted what we had come for. Now, the next goal was the alpha with the mane……………..