T-5 and T-17

There it was! In fact, there SHE was. Not more than 10 feet away from our canter. She was not facing us though; her body was perpendicular to us and about forty degrees to our left. She never looked at us once. Only way she could have been so aloof to all the pandemonium around her was either by being deaf, or disinterested. Muffled gasps and screams could be heard all around. "Wow... aaah... sshhh.... quiet.... amazing..." Cameras that had come from all over the world started flashing in unison as if it were a Miss India sashaying down the ramp. People stood on their seats, shoving each other (albeit gently) out of the way to get that one glimpse which they would cherish for life. And then, like all significant things in life, the moment passed away in a blink. Engines roared back into action, canters and gypsies reversed in intersecting semicircles in a frenzy and sped away in all directions to position themselves for the next shot... the next shot of T-17. T-17 had a collar around her neck. You might begin to believe all big cats of Ranthambore would be wearing that. Not really. But more on that later; its not that important. What is important is that after seeing such a magnificent animal in its natural habitat from such close quarters, you feel you have just added some more significance to your otherwise meaningless urban life. One more thing happens after such a sight - differences dissolve! Cheap differences built upon the seven sins. People clap and congratulate each other in that shared moment of joy like kids. Yeah, T-17 does a lot of things apart from just killing deer.

Zoooooommmmmm...... Scrreeeeecccchhhhhhhh..... "WTF???" "what happened?"... "ssshhh... quiet quiet"... "oh look look there is two of them"... "what??"... "arre sir ji bachche hain".... "oh my God there are two cubs".... I got up, but I only saw HER again... crossing the road, right in front of the canter. Turned on the camera in good time to start shooting though. Turned around left at 45 degrees... oh yeah!! there they were... ooooo choo chweeett... she growled at them, maybe even pawed a few light slaps on their chubby cheeks behind that rock... few moments later she shot back into view, at 90 degrees , about 25 feet from us. And then THEY shot into view... not sure what they would be named... the guide said there were 32 at Ranthambore; since 9 new cubs were already announced, by the math these would be T-42 and T-43?? Whatever. But there they were. Not walking I must say, but almost rolling behind her. The single mom and her twin cubs then emerged on the road behind us and, after gracing us with a few glorious shots (oh yeah, the camera-flash encore to the missie and the babas!!) finally bid adieu. "Sir ji, yeh T-5 thi"... Am I dreaming? or am I really really dreaming? I saw two tigeresses and two tiger-cubs in Ranthambore in the span of less than 8 hours. Am I lucky? You tell me.

The MakeMyTrip team