Our 'Quiet' Day
for the birds...
14.03.2019 - 14.03.2019 88 °F
We enjoyed our dinner last night--two deserts--followed by turndown chocolates
On the morning we could have slept in, our aviary alarm army had other thoughts. Around 6:15, birds began serious honking, bleating, chirping, singing, cawing and otherwise announcing that they were up and so should we be.
Our “tent” is a permanent structure in terms of plumbing, HVAC, floors, doors, windows and exterior walls. What makes it a tent is the ceiling or roof. Inside are two tent poles of about 18 feet in height propping up an interior canvas ceiling at its 15-foot point. Over that, outside, is a less decorative second layer of canvas propped up at the full 18-foot height which makes up the portion of the roof that is exposed to the elements. It did rain a bit yesterday afternoon and the sound of that is quite soothing and wonderful.
At the apex of the roof, between the outside canvas and the inside canvas is a section that is normally sealed off but, in the case of tent 203, has broken seams. Into a vacuum something always rushes; in this case it is pigeons.
We have one little fellow who wants in so badly that he or she knocks on our windows in succession, making two or more circuits of our tent reminding us at every window that entry is desired. It is, for the record, refused. Our pigeons are proponents of exercise and vocalizing. Inside that space they flap and tap and walk on tippy toes making scratching noises which are, from their canvas coop, amplified and transmitted directly downward. B4 attempted to nap day before yesterday during a meeting our pigeons held.
Sunrise is not for another twenty minutes (at 6:35) but that is a reprieve not observed. Thankfully, we are early risers and would probably be up soon anyway. The pigeons, awake by light or disturbance from the paying customers in their basement, arise at 7:05.
The sound of traffic and the early Muslim call to prayer, called Salat al-fajr (which always happens at dawn, before sunrise) also commenced. We have taken note that the Rambagh Palace and Vanyavilas both offer earplugs as standard nightstand amenities and that I assume, is why. In each case these resorts are surrounded by acres of buffer, but sound waves and prevailing wind know little about walls or other buffer zones.
B4, as she always does, arises in full-on B4 mode. I hear about proposed lease terms for a potential Arizona store, an outdoor lifestyle location, mother’s day creative (I am personally not a big fan of either option preferring an image of a delighted mom over an image of what delighted her), and a couple of personnel reviews—which she takes very seriously—yet to be polished and submitted. By 8:00, she is on the phone to Kansas City offering her opinions about decisions to be made.
Today is otherwise planned as a quiet morning.B4 has a 10:00am 90-minute hot-stone massage and we will repeat our game drive trek at 2:30. I plan to have another visit with resident elephant host Lakshmi who is on duty at the front gate beginning at noon. The brochure listing enrichment offerings reads thusly: “Indulge into a playful session with Lakshmi and learn how social interaction, training and structured play builds trust and rapport between the mahout and the elephant Enjoy rejuvenating activity of the elephant playing in the mud and taking a dip in a specially prepared mud pool for her. Get a chance to bathe and feed her and learn some very interesting facts about the behavior of our pet elephant Lakshmi.” Lest you be concerned about Lakshmi being exploited, it is clearly explained that she was rescued from a circus and had no hope of being returned to any sort of wild or natural existence.
Indian elephants are significantly smaller than their African relatives with smaller bodies and smaller ears. If you look closely, you might notice that African elephant ears are shaped like the African continent and Indian elephant ears are shaped like the outline of this country.
The Indian elephant, often tamed and capable of productive work—unlike the less-often tamed African elephant, holds a special meaning here.Hindu Lord Ganesh is the lord of good fortune and provides prosperity and good fortune to believers and places obstacles in the path of those who need to be restrained for bad acts. His image, omnipresent here, is the head of an elephant with an ample belly on a body with from four to sixteen arms. We are told that the goddess Parvati wished to bathe but needed someone to guard the door to her bath chamber so she created a boy for that purpose. When her husband, Shiva, returned from a battle, he decapitated the boy—an act which devastated Parvati. Making amends, Shiva sent his warriors to find and return with the head of the first dead creature they found. That turned out to be an elephant’s head. It was attached to the body of the boy who was thereby brought back to life.
I suppose that this story is difficult for non-believers to accept but then, there is much about most religions that non-believers find inexplicably illogical but believers accept on faith. Let him who is without doubt cast the first stone, however, and you will find yourself in the middle of a rock fight.
At breakfast, as at every meal, we were well fed and well entertained.The artist sports a ravanahatha, an ancestor of the violin, which is an ancient bowed, stringed instrument. The bow is augmented as you can see and hear with symbols. I would like to bring one of these home to my musical daughter Megan but, alas, there is no room as it is too large. But, I'd wager that if I could get it home, she could play it.
Certainly the question on most everyone's mind must be: "What do your hennaed hands look like today?" Here's the fresh and faded, side by side. As with us, not much fading yet.
Funny; I thought I would have nothing to write about today. I apologize for over contributing; if you, of course, were too bored you wouldn't have made it this far.
We had some time to kill so we decided to go to Lakshmi's House for bath time. I had a ball. For those of you who don't know it, elephants are my favorite non-human creatures. I have visited and photographed them in the wild, riden on their backs and watched them for hours on end but never have i scrubbed one. I feel good about making her feel good.
Soon after completing our elephant laundry it was time for a second game drive. We seek the elusive leopard. Instead, we find a rich opportunity to see more tigers. Four of them to be exact (bringing our total to seven for two drives) and we are again in tiger heaven. The habitat where we are, Ranthanbhore Zone Four, is remarkably different than Ranthanbhore Zone Three. B4 remarks that we had a tiger encounter yesterday and tiger sightings today. And good sightings they were.
We have been fortunate beyond our expectations on this pair of safari drives and we know it. Did we see the elusive leopard? No, we did not. Are we disappointed? No we are not. Is B4 a gigantic safari fan? No. But, she's a fan of mine so she takes great joy in the joy I am taking. As I write this, however, she is on a board call. It's 10:00pm on our final night at Vanyavilas. Her alarm is set for 2:15am when she has another telephone appointment. The work never ends. And she loves it. I am fortunate to be oversupplied with earplugs.
