PHOTOGRAPHY | WILDLIFE

The Marvel movie franchise garnered about $27B in collections. What are the traits of the marvel movies? Action, Adventure, Adrenaline rush? Hmm. Yes, we enjoy this genre — a fantasy world that takes us through this roller coaster ride.

How about some real-life action and adventure? That is what I experience when I embark on a jungle trip. Every year I earmark some days for getting this adrenaline rush.

It is not a tour, it is not a picnic, it is an adventure.

When I venture into the forest, not a manicured one, not a private game reserve — but into the real wild, I am in for an adventurous ride. Here the rules of the game are set by the forest, and by the animals. I and my fellow travellers don’t have any say.

We set out rolling on a path. Suddenly a herd of elephants may descend on our way blocking us. We don’t honk, we don’t scare them away. We watch them and see if they are going to give us a path to go forward. Else we retreat and find a new path to proceed. It is an adventure in every turn, in every curve. No one dares to predict what is up next after that curve.

That is my first A — Adventure

On a real-life adventure, I put a lot of effort to capitulate my senses to nature. This means eyes are not engaged in the screen scrolling on the phone, ears are not engaged in the streaming music from the ear pods, nor the mind is wandering into daydreams. If I have to enjoy this journey, I know, I have to be alert.

Eyes are out prying for the slightest movements, ears are sharp catching the slightest ruffling, noses are sensitive to changing scents of the forest.

Calm, but alert.

The jungle is a potpourri of colors, sounds, and camouflages. If all my five senses are not put into the journey what has to be an adventure will quickly become the most mundane and boring.

That would be my second A — Alert

Let me tell you this — I don’t know anything about how things work out in the forest. In this vast expanse of the forest, eclectic plants, trees, birds, and animals weave together a vast and complex ecosystem. Let me not pretend I know any damn thing about what is going on here.

When I do not know anything — the next best thing I can do is put my attention fully on it. Keen intent attention. Maybe that would open some doorway for making sense of what is going around.

Once on a trip we spotted a hawk eagle. Usually birds are perched on the tree branches. But this one was on the ground. Standing there unmoving.

We watched it for five minutes he didn’t move. We inched a little closer, he was not interested to fly off. Birds fly off in a jiffy, but he was different. We stayed on, he also stood his ground. I kept watching him. I was paying attention, not taking my eyes off him.

After some time things unraveled. He had a snake underneath his claws. He stood his ground to protect his meal. So he didn’t get intimidated by our presence.

May be he realised this guys are not going to go, he had enough of this waiting business. He then tore the snake with his beak and started eating it. We spent a lot of time waiting in the same spot watching him very closely and intently paying attention on him, if we had decided to move on after five minutes the whole adventure would have been missed.

This takes me to my third A — Attention

So here we are on an adventurous trip — fully alert and paying attention. This is where the magic ensues. We get to see a lot of action. All the players in the forest are in the game fully on for the action. A monkey jumping out from one tree to another, a herd of deers jetting off, peacocks strutting out, an elephant walking down with panache. It is one helluva of theatre of action, which I opine puts Marvel movies to shame.

Action — that is my fourth A.

Once there is action interlaced with adventure, can adrenaline be far off? In this grand scheme of the forest in those crafty moments when action elevates to the crescendo a surprise element can make an entry and set off things unwieldy to our imaginations.

That is the Aha moment. Our eyes pop and jaws drop.

Adrenaline rush that would be my last word.

It was a dream for a long — almost 15 years to spot a leopard in the wild. On our last trip, we got lucky finally! Can you imagine how it felt when we took that turn and voila up the tree we spotted that tail that eluded us forever?

No, it was not that of a langoor or a squirrel. That leopard’s tail — blew us away. No words can do justice to that Adrenalin rush I felt when my eyes met with the eyes of the spotted cat up the tree!

Adventure, Alert, Attention, Action and Adrenalin are my A’s from the forest.

Thanks to JoAnn Ryan for the wonderful and innovative prompt. This prompt has definitely led my creative juices flowing.