Just About Everything

Our Ancentral house in Nazirpur, Malda This was one nostalgic trip for me. Most of our summer vacations, when we were at school, were spent in our ancestral home in a village by the name of Nazirpur in Malda,West Bengal.It used to be great fun! Meeting up cousins, chatting whole night long, getting spoilt by my grandmother, long walks to the mango orchards...Malda is best known for its mangoes, during summers, I remember surviving mostly on mangoes  (did not want to dilute that pleasure with any other substitute!) I have not been to the village in ages. After my grandmother passed away, there was no one to visit, and slowly our visits stopped. My father who feels the vacuum the most, visits now and then. But he is now getting on in years and can't make these trips that often. The house is no longer lived in and it now stands desolate, badly in need of repairs, and in need of love and care. (it is easily over hundred years!) We took an overnight train...

Male tiger at Kanha National Park, India My sister, Soma, recently went for a trip to Kanha National Park and Pench in Madhyapradesh. And guess what...she sighted not one ...not two ...not even three...but seven tigers! She is so lucky, she sighted tigers in both the national parks she visited, Kanha and Pench. At Kancha National park, the chances of sighting a tiger is very high. Though in her case she spotted the maximum number of tigers in Pench! Soma tells me that she had given up any hopes of sighting a tiger, when all of a sudden, during one of her last safari trips (fifth safari), she sighted a male tiger in Kanha for over fifteen minutes! Kanha National Park is located in Madhya Pradesh. The nearest airport is at Jabalpur (175 km). Soma and her group flew to Nagpur from Kolkata, and then hired a transport to take her to Kancha. Kanha has a rich habitat of many otehr animals like the Sloth bear, leopard, striped hyena, spotted dear, wild boar, jungle cat, jackal and a va...