Return to the Wild!

I had first set foot in Bandhavgarh around nineteen years ago. Dad, a lecturer of Orthopaedic Surgery then, had been just transferred to the Rewa Medical College from its counterpart in Raipur. As we adjusted to a new place, Bandhavgarh National Park being some hundred odd kilometers away from Rewa, soon became the preferred destination for most of our family outings. When relatives and friends visited us in Rewa, we invariably found ourselves making road trips to the tiger country.

Fortunately, my family’s love affair with this place survived Dad’s return to Raipur some time in the mid nineties. We continued coming to Bandhavgarh, though the place was now some four hundred odd kilometers away. The distance nevertheless reduced the frequency of those trips. We could now visit Bandhavgarh only during my summer and winter vacations. Later, as I got more and more occupied with studies, those visits to Bandhavgarh came to an abrupt end at the turn of the last century.

After finishing my first year at law school, I along with my brother and five cousins, finally came back to Bandhavgarh in the winter of 2004. It was an unparallel experience to relive those childhood visits we had made in the past. I had however, not started this blog then. And therefore, when mom and dad suggested early this month that we could make a trip to Bandhavgarh if I wanted to, the very thought of going back and sharing my experiences here, made me return from Delhi where I was in the middle of yet another internship.

Here’s an ode to the place in its own words,

P.S.:-

Life’s at crossroads again, and I hope not to go over the edge;
For I know, to salvage my soul, there would be no crane. :-)