Rule of Terror

My Dear Friends,
I am feeling very nostalgic today. Flashes and glitters of the most memorable phase of life are rushing into my brain faster than adrenaline. A little adventure into the nearest forest, a short trek into the Eastern Ghat mountains, studying an elephant's foot prints, messing with a gentlemanly crab in the solitary mountain stream...and sweating till the pants hearing about the terror of tigers...are just flashing by...  If life could be viewed from the other side of the telescope, I would do that at least twice every week...just to get a different perspective.
It was one of those days...I had finished reading Man-eaters of Kumaon for the fifth time...and I had got hold of my next prize...Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag.( I was in my study room and I was reading it by carefully hiding it in my social science book...just to save my hide from MOM.).

...It was quite late in the night...it was raining with the mighty rhythm of monsoon. And I was reading about the strict curfew the leopard had imposed from sun down for eight long years around Rudra Prayag and in an elliptical vicinity of around 100 miles and even more. I was so immersed in that...even a little noise out of the blue would have been enough to set me on fire.

If you would like to know more about what my situation was, let me narrate the specific incident for you. One of the instances of terror that the Man-eating Leopard was truly  infamous for is the incident of the Pahadi (people from the Himalayan Mountains) woman who took refuge at the local Pandit's open rest area to sleep at night.
...At sun down a group of worn out pilgrims came to the Pandit's place asking his permission to sleep in his open rest area. The Pandit could not persuade them to go elsewhere even after mentioning about the terror of the leopard. So the Pandit gave them their supplies and before he locked himself in his house for the night, the Pahadi woman, who was running late for her village, asked the Pandit's permission to join the pilgrims.The woman knew about the leopard and chose the most secure place to sleep. The place was so chosen that if the leopard came to kill, it had to cross over all the pilgrims before coming down to her. …So she was indeed at the safest place of all. Deep in the night a pilgrim woke up with a sharp pain thinking that she is being stung by a scorpion and saw a bit of blood in  her toe. Accusing her of spoiling the sleep of everyone and saying that scorpion bite does not cause bleeding, the pilgrims went off to sleep...

Corbett with the man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag (Source: Wikipedia)

When the pilgrims woke up next morning they were ready to resume their voyage and thankful for surviving the night without incident. But some wondered where the Pahadi woman was. Thinking that she might have left for her village early, the pilgrims were about to leave when someone saw a torn piece of the woman's saree in the nearby fence and a big spill of blood nearby. With the hauling around, the Pandit came out of his house and having understood  the situation in an instant, arranged for a search party. They found the sorrowful remains of the woman about three hundred yards from the Pandit's house.

What analyzing the ground and probing the pug marks revealed was beyond the pilgrims' imagination…The leopard came right after sunset; around the time the Pahadi woman got situated at the inner most portion of the rest shed. That portion of the shed extended a bit into a perpendicular hillock which provided a natural protection against the leopard… after everyone went off to sleep  the leopard came, walked over all the pilgrims without even touching any one of them...got a hold of the  Pahadi woman's throat in such a way that she could not make any noise even close to a whisper, lifted the woman whole in air and took off . And while the leopard was retreating with the Pahadi woman the poor pilgrim's toe was cut by the leopard's claws that everybody thought to be a scorpion sting.  (Let's stop for a moment, close our eyes, and imagine ourselves in that situation in a dark night in the year 1922.) The leopard killed the woman at the nearby fence, and then carried it for a good three hundred yards before having his human meal.

The leopard had killed 125 people (official record. Unofficially well over 400.) But, he got so infamous for his kills, that people had started believing that it was the embodiment of "Shaitan"(Satan among rest of the believers) before it was shot by Corbett. But, even now hearing these incidents blow a cold air on your spinal cord…making you wonder…if the leopard is still in the dark…lurking.

I am sure I'll get more opportunity to talk about some more incidents  later...may be I can convince you about the real rule of terror that the leopard had enforced at sun down for eight long years...But for now...if you visit Rudra Prayag, the confluence (Samskruta name Prayag) of Alakanada and Mandakini

Rudraprayag

and one of the holiest places for salvation seeking Hindus...please ask around some old Pahadi folks...they might still have reminiscences of the old days of terror...many may point out to some places that has a historical association with the Leopard...
Still ...when you are lying in your couch… deep in the night...fast asleep...the nocturnal scouting of a pair of feline eyes in your dreams...may frighten you...
Talk to you later...

Indian Leopard

A deep conversation with a Scorpion

Dear Jungle Lovers, Welcome back. I am going to speak about a conversation I had with a Big-Black Scorpion several years back.

Let me keep my liberty to call him Mr. Scorpion.

In the year 1997, I  was a student at Hyderabad Central University. In his introductory speech, our registrar had asked us to view the wild elements in the campus as respectable as gentlemen/ladies and treat them with due references (That's why Mr.Scor.).

It was almost 7 months past after that speech, I realized that Scorpions especially are more respectable than others in that huge campus. The campus was otherwise home to wild boars, deer and numerous sober snakes (not due to the wide presence of pea-fowls and Indian Grey Mongoose...they were indeed sober). The scorpions were so much used to come in front of us anywhere and anytime that they did command more respect as a species than the others...

Mr. Scorpion

 Well... I think I was not feeling very well that day... I was out on a walk toward the peacock lake and midway I was approached by Mr. Scorpion. Before even I could take my hat off and say good evening to him (Please don't ask me how I figured that out ) I guess he thought it was too late and I was not in the mood of greeting him...So he rose his tail straight and with the vengeance of a cougar he came straight to teach me some manners. I said sorry...very sorry...very very sorry...I apologize for my indisputably insolent attitude...but it was too late for everything...the attack seemed non-stoppable...I thought for a moment and an idea just struck me..."Oh, how about that?" I just remembered my grandfather...when I was a kid he emphatically told me that if a man uses his brain he is the most powerful even when he is in the most disadvantaged circumstances...that's it...I will not run away and I will use my brain...

Here is what I did. I pointed my finger at him in a way that he would think its easy to dunk me down by stinging the finger. I let him forget that I have a perfectly big body which can be targeted more conveniently otherwise. When he ran for my finger, I humbly begged for an apology and I started circling my finger around him. He ran for it in rounds and rounds to get my finger...I remember I told him once..."Sir, I am sorry for what I have done. But you can just cool off and let it go."...to no avail.
After circling in bigger circles, I now reduced my finger circling to smaller circles and even smaller but rapider. After facing huge heart beat to compete with the speed and blown completely off by the pressure to handle his anger...and exactly after 5 minutes and 38 seconds...I found Mr. Scorpion stuck at one place...with the tail straight erect ...I waited...no movements...45 seconds past no movement...I tapped my feet... no movements...well...I guess he is thinking....I thought its time for me to go...
I put my hat back on my head and walked off.

I returned after spending a good four hours in the lake and other rocky structures. I was not expecting Mr. Scorpion there. I took my hat off to say hi to him...still no response...I tapped my feet...clapped my hands...whistled...blew air from the mouth...still no movement...I was very sad...
Later, I came to a conclusion that his brain might have fused in the heavy tension and pressure he had to under go for a whole five minutes and thirty eight seconds...
I apologized again...said sorry again...I dragged my feet toward my next destination ...

That was my deepest conversation with Mr. Scorpion...

Talk to you later...