Vishal's Blog

  In the SPOTLIGHT 1) This picture is from the beautiful Tadoba WLS clicked in 2018. This guy is a celebrity cub and is known as Chota Matka. The name is derived from Matkasur, the tiger who fathered him.  2) This picture is of the beautiful Tigress Noor clicked in Ranthambhore in 2020 sighted on the fourth safari followed by three luckless trips on that weekend 3) This again is Noor. As I mentioned, she was sighted on our fourth safari and stayed with us for a good 45 minutes presenting infinite opportunities to go berserk with the camera 4) The below is the picture of a Tigress known as Devado - female. She was born in the vicinity of that village hence the name.  5) As you can make out, the tigress was a moving away from our vehicle but miraculously stopped for a second or two to pose for us. 

‘Dipa, will you perform the Produnova? The question was posed to Dipa Karmakar (the first Indian female gymnast to qualify for Olympics) by her coach Bishweshwar Nandi before the Common Wealth Games (CWG) to which she replied - ‘Yes, Sir. I am willing to even jump from the second floor of a building to win.’ While reading her biography (Dipa Karmakar – A small wonder), I stop for a while to open YouTube on my phone to watch the video of Rio 2016 when she performed the deadly Produnova vault. I had a distinct memory of the picture in which the young Indian gymnast was reaching out to embrace her emphatic coach after a superlative performance. The action begins with an elegant and graceful looking Dipa Karmakar approach the podium. She is cool under pressure which speaks volumes about the mindset and temperament of a young Indian in her mid-twenties. Having narrowly missed a podium finish in CWG 2010, she won a bronze at the CWG 2014 performing Produnova but her hand had inadve...