Sunday 5 June 2016

The Secret Life of Tigers


The summer days are taxing for the tigers,
Cubs clamber trees, make marks and play,
While the mother conserves her energy.
The period is exhausting, waters evacuated,
The rare sight is visible near the dried ravine.
Playful cubs, watchful mother, careful father,
The family rules the burning grounds here.
Indian deserts, central territory bears pug marks,
Battles fought and won, the family survives,
Not any intruder dare touch their lives,
For the intruder finds death in the claws.
A rarity, for never a grown male comes in,
To the family he heads, and stays to protect.
Secret life of the tigers go on to sing its tale.

21 comments:

  1. When it comes to tigers, nobody can beat you! :D it's beautiful, ma'am.:)

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    1. Thank you. Go to a jungle and fall in love with this beast, and words will flow down from your mind as well.

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    2. Maybe, if I come back alive from the jungle. :D

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    3. Don't worry, you shall live to tell the tale!

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  2. Tiger seems to me as the most beautiful creation ever. Your lines pay apt tribute.

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    1. The heart roars in grandeur, the mighty soul walks the earth, the radiant fire is stacked in the eyes and with boundless courage the stripes rule our imagination.
      Thank you, Sir, for the encouraging words!

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  3. Thanks for sharing. I am not sure if you like what I am penning here. I am reminded of the works of Jim Corbett, R.K. Narayan's (Tiger of Malgudi) describing the wonderful, beautiful beast. Read after long time words describing tiger. Had a split of second fortune to see the beast in Sahyadri range.Your words aptly describe the tiger.

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    1. Wishing you a happy Environment Day Sir! Off late, I've been reading a lot on tigers, written by Jim Corbett, Valmik Thapar, Fateh Singh Rathore, Geoffrey C. Ward, Kenneth Anderson, Billy Arjan Singh and Ullas Karanth. Some of them were hunters and they become conservationists later. It is a sad situation to see how India was once a home to nearly 40,000 tigers, and the survey has devastatingly dropped down to mere 2,000 and odd. Your generation and my generation had the privilege of looking at tigers in real, but I seriously doubt if the future generations can see this magnificent being in real. We are never too far from the day when we get to hear that tigers have become an extinct specie.
      Blake, in his poem, "The Tyger", describes the gorgeousness of this beast and goes to the extent commenting on God: "Did he smile his work to see?/Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" While years later, Gordon J.L. Ramel, in his parody on Blake's poem, "Tiger Tiger Revisited", notes, "and can he smile our work to see/as we who killed the lamb kill thee." We have ravaged the beauty of our home, the earth, and we deserve to be punished cruelly.
      If my writing can somewhere trigger the element of sensitivity, then I've been successful in doing something constructive.

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    2. Thank you and wish you the same on Environment Day. I am sure the list you mentioned and their later efforts to conserve and see tigers are protected worth looking at. Each one of us in our own way do things is important. What I learnt is optimism, hope your words do such wonders and motivate people. We don't realise immediately but do they impact.

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    3. Optimism has sure become a passing word for many, unless people like you who practice it and spread it in your circles and beyond.

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  4. Time waits for none yet it does wait
    Intentions clear in the eye of the storm, I
    Gear up for one day and another, living
    Entertain thoughts of grandeur .. For woe..
    Remain the striped being an enigma to savour?

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    1. To savour, I say, the beast, nay,
      The tan and black striped being.
      Vulnerable to its kind yet nightmare
      To us mortals, it lives in glory -
      We exist, it lives and survives,
      All laurels are rightfully theirs, we -
      None but complete admirers of the claws.

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    2. I would never have noticed the "T.I.G.E.R." framing if you hadn't told me! Dexter the boy genius!

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  5. Panda the teacher :) hence the word play

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    1. 7 years of learning and I look forward for more! Thank you Dexter!

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    2. No fair.. Am still trying to learn, despite your efforts learning slow little panda

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    3. Yeah, I am still slower a learner than you are Dexter. I had in mind to write a five-line verse in TIGER format, but your efforts cannot be matched! Thank you dear Dexter.

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  6. True, if you write it mine would just be a footnote.. Too kind u are to let lottle me to live a moment of glory

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    1. I have learnt writing from you, and how can I beat my teacher!

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    2. You always the teacher little panda

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    3. Let's stop this here, and let's write together, poem or story. Make your pick, and mail it to me.

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