At Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh

We visited national parks in Madhya Pradesh during last winter. We started our trip on 19th Dec with some planning done before hand. Having enough time for this trip, we decided to travel by train both up & down.

It takes about 24hrs by train to reach Nagpur from Bangalore. But, our train Bagmati Super Fast Express took about 30hrs, stopping at many stations at will letting all passenger trains, local trains pass by. Shockingly, this long journey train doesn't even have a pantry car. They supply food only from few destined stations and only mineral water & jumpins fruit drink is available on train. So, any utterance of food items at any station immediately arouse our interest. At one time, there was a vendor selling Samosas at a station. The moment the train stopped, all of us in the boogie bought Samosas instantly. When another samosa vendor entered the train and saw us all munching samosas, he was surprised and said "Arey, train abhi roka tha, magar sabke hath me samosa hai!!" :)

From Nagpur, we took a local bus to reach Khawasa. We took our seats next to the driver to have a better look of Nagpur city. The city seemed to be pretty clean. Ofcourse, it is only based on the streets the bus took us through. From Khawasa, by Jeep we reached Heaven's Garden Resort, ~5Kms from Pench National Park gate.

Pench National Park (21st Dec)

In the shivering morning cold, we eagerly reached the park gate by 5:30, an hour ahead of the park opening timing. Early at the gate means you would be one of the first few vehicles to enter the park. Most often, the animals would get disturbed by the vehicle sound and slowly move away from the trail. So, it is always better to be one of the first few vehicles in any trail.

At 6:30 sharp, the gate opened and the vehicle started moving. With the moving wind, it became even colder and I started shivering. Sweater, Muffler, Jacket didn't protect me completely from cold. After few minutes, once we entered the thick jungle, I forgot the coldness and completely got indulged in the forest. Due to winter, the park had very many dry areas. The pench river which flows in the park, didn't have much water too. These changes didn't matter to me. I was ardent about meandering in the park. Of course, only by staying in the jeep. We are not allowed to step down from the jeep inside the forest perrmises.

While maundering in the jeep, I sighted some of the commonly seen animals like Chitals, Sambar, Wild boar & Bison. Though Chitals & Sambar are common, I can never become weary of watching them in the wild. At times, watching them being very casual & careless, eating the fallen leaves from the tree, sometimes observing them to be alert and noticing them taking every step ahead with great caution, excitedly listening to their alert calls which they call out loud when some danger or threat nears them, it can never be dreary. I forget the passing of time in their presence.


I had an exhilarating moment, when I saw a herd of deers suddenly fleeing into the forest and finding that a Jackal was the reason. The Jackal was approaching towards us. For every few steps it took, it looked at us and ensured that we are of no danger to it. It hurriedly crossed the trial and quickly vanished into the forest on the other side. Another really interesting moment was when we sighted the fresh kill of a deer by a predator. It was very close to the trail and I could clearly see that the spotted deer's intestine was torn apart and was missing. The guide mentioned that the deer is killed by Leopard - Leopard first eats the intestine of the prey. Our guide was repeatedly saying that the Leopard should be within 100-200 metres of its prey and this shy animal should have been disturbed by some vehicle sound. We quietly and patiently waited at this spot for sometime, but the adamant Leopard vehemently refused to come closer to its prey. It has all the day to guard its prey and eat it in the night. But, I have only 4 hrs of safari in the morning and 3 hrs in the evening :(

Moving on from Pench (Pench - Kanha)

Early in the morning, around 7:30 a.m, we left Pench. It took us about 6hrs by bus to reach Khatia gate, Kanha National Park. When choosing to take bus in Madhya Pradesh, it is a must to be aware that the road conditions could be terrible, as worse as not finding laid roads on some stretch of the travel. Also, the buses could lack suspension. The duo could do magic to your backs! So better be aware of this before taking up this mode of transportation. I was aware of these facts and the experience didn't come out as a surprise to me.

After a hard day travel, we had a relaxing evening in Kanha. I will post my Kanha experience in the next post.

For those who want to go to Pench, I have added details at How to reach & where to stay at Pench

Filmie Freaky

In the past few months, I came to know what a film freak I am. I always loved movies but never knew that I could watch any genre & any number. I have strong inclination towards english movies and have recently lost track of tamil movies. I started being a film maniac not because I didn't have anything to do, but more because I didn't want to do anything at times. I picked it from there and that is when I discovered that I can watch movies continuously without any hesitation.

I used to watch over 5 to 6 movies over the weekends & a movie on every week day. Of course, it varies at times, based on other things that I have to do in my life. Definitely, I have been on this routine for few weeks. With the membership in seventymm (online movie rental), I could easily get access to quality DVDs of many good films released over years.

I have written quick review of most of the movies that I have watched in the past few months. Of course, I have missed some and do not recollect them now.

Shawshank redemption
A movie set in the one of the toughest prison, Shawshank in America. It is about the HOPE of a prisoner (Tim Robbins) who is sentenced for life term and also how he turns his destiny in prison to a somewhat meaningful life. Morgan Freeman plays the role of a fixer in the prison. They both become very close friends and the dialogues between them are good. Freeman's performance is excellent.

Taxi Driver
Movie is about the life of a young lonely, depressed taxi driver Travis (Robert De Niro) settled in Manhattan. Great acting by Robert De Niro - I could really sense his depression and feel for it. Movie goes along the complex/weird thoughts of Travis and you end up following him. An interesting climax and a very good direction by Martin Scorsese

Se7en
Brilliant movie with superb climax. An intelligent plot with excellent performances by Kevin Spacey & Morgan Freeman - Boy, I can still exactly visualize some of the scenes acted by these brilliant performers.

Million Dollar baby
A simple movie depicting the hard life of three people - A boxing trainer, ex-boxer and the one who want to make career as a boxer. The relationship among these is very genuine and pure. Humor is well blended in the dialogues and are enjoyable. Very fine performances by Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman & Hillary Swank and very good direction from Eastwood. Knockout punches by Hillary Swank is just awesome to watch.

There will be blood
At the end of watching this movie, I was stunned and astonished at the subject of this movie. It is about a man Daniel Plainview played by Daniel Dey-Lewis who becomes a oil tycoon with his unsympathetic behaviors & ruthlessness. The impact of the character was very powerful on me and I got engulfed by it. The intensity of the character delivered by Daniel Dey-Lewis is simply superb and was totally touched by it. It is a 'bloody' brilliant movie.

Memento
A brilliant thriller which demands the audience to think at every scene to solve the puzzle Chirstopher Nolan throws. Highly unconventional and a very bold movie. I tag this as one of my favorite and have watched multiple times and became a big time fan of Christopher Nolan since then.

Ghajini (Hindi)
Inspired by Memento - Other than this, there is no brilliance of memento. I always wonder if general public can appreciate if the original movie is fully copied -I believe not. In that case, it is an intelligent masala mix of the original. Not much change from tamil movie Ghajini. Aamir Khan's acting is superb and Asin's performance deserves an applause.

Slumdog Millionarie
My thoughts on this at
http://rshanthi.blogspot.com/2009/02/slumdog-millionarie-at-oscars.html

Death proof
Chose to watch this movie for 2 reasons - One, it is from my favorite director Tarantino and two, the rating on IMDB is good. I needed to patiently watch the movie for 1.5 hrs to get Tarantino's great touch for 20mins. If you don't mind watching people generally yapping (of course with some good Tarantino style dialogues in between) without the story going anywhere, then you can watch this movie.

Dasvidaniya (Hindi)
Do svidaniya (duh svee-dah-nee-ye) in Russian means Good Bye and the movie is about a dying person (Vinay Pathak) saying good bye to the world and his friends. Once the character understands that the exit date from the world is only few days, he lists out 10 things he would like to do before his death and ends up doing them. Story line is fine, but the dialogues aren't great to hold you on. A decent movie, different from the main stream bollywood masala movies.

Before Sunrise
A lovely romantic storyline showing the connection between a very beautiful couple who meet on the train. I loved Celine's (Julie Delpy) performance but surely not Jesse (Ethan Hawke). I think he could have definetely made the intense passionate moments better. Her mention of "I like to feel his eyes on me, when I look away" and the series of dialogues then are really really romantic :)

Before Sunset
The lovely couple in Before Sunrise meet after 9 years and spend a day together in Paris. Fine performances by Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke. Julie Delpy is still adorable after 9 years. Definetely, I loved her more in Before Sunrise. Some of their conversations, especially the one in the car and she singing a song for Jesse are quite romantic.

Silence of the lambs
I feel the movie is over rated - May be it deserved its high rating in 1990's for its bone-chilling story line and for bagging 5 oscars. The movie is about a young FBI student trying to take help from a psychopathic serial killer Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins) to catch another serial killer. To me, the best part of the movie is the brilliant performance of Mr.Hopkins.

Glory Road
The movie is based on a true story where a coach named Don Haskins (played by Josh Lucas) led a all-black men based basket ball team to NCAA championship and creates history. The music & background score is good and a movie definitely worth watching. Josh Lucas, playing a tough coach was interesting to watch after his cute & sweet performance in "Sweet Home Alabama".

The Dark Knight
The best ever batman movie. The action is thrilling and the joker's (Heath Ledger) performance was terrific. A well deserved oscar for his performance. A must watch movie for action lovers and Christopher Nolan fans.

The Prestige
A Christopher Nolan movie - This should be sufficient to say that it is a well directed movie. The plot of the story is about two rival stage magicians (Hugh Jackman & Christian Bale) competing against each other in creating best illusion on stage. Also, it is about how far they push themselves in trying to achieve this. The movie has good twists & turns which makes it really interesting. According to me, this is another must watch from Christopher Nolan.

Die Hard 4.0
Live free or Die hard after 12 years from Bruce Willis. May be he is too old for the action(?), but the action in the movie is good. The story is not stitched well & has lot of loose ends - If you are looking only for action & the attitude of John Mcclane (only some though), then it is a fine watch.

Ratatouille (Animation)
The main character of this movie is a rat (Remy) who wants to became a chef and the movie is rightly named after a French dish Ratatouille which has "Rat" in its name :) One of the finest animation movie, with a simple story of Remy wanting to become a chef & how he does it. The composition of colors and the art sense is incredibly stunning. A pleasure to watch.

Sin City
A very inventive & artistic movie adapted from the comic graphic novel named Sin City written by Frank Miller. The coloring scheme is very unique, using black & white for most of the movie and highlighting specific objects with color. Superb, it is and the action is done with utmost grace & elegance.

Reservoir dogs
This is Quentin Tarantino's first direction and is one of the highly rated movies. The movie is about seven strangers planning to commit a robbery together. All they know about each other is their code named after a color. A set of dialogue where none of the macho guys want to take pink & arguing over their choice of color is funny. Tarantino embarked his style in his first movie and kept improvising and experimenting with it as he went along in his later movies. Note that the movie has brutal scenes and if you do not like that, then this movie may not be for you.

No country for old men
The story is about a cowboy who finds lot of money on a barren hunting land in Texas. Obviously, in reality no money comes for free and needs to be hard earned. So, to keep all the money for himself, he need to out smart a drug dealer gang. The action kicks off then, and the movie becomes fast paced and pushes you to the edge of the seat many times. However, I couldn't comprehend the end and it didn't matter to me.

Schindler's list
It is a true story based on a German man named Oskar Schindler who protected thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. It is a very fine movie directed by Steven Spielberg and received 7 Oscars. Schindler saves his Jewish employees with his money/jewelery and other material wealth. A significant number of Jews were saved by Schindler and with all respect to this great man, these Jews go by the name of Schindler's Jews. This story reminded me of how one man's good act can make a great difference in the society.

To Kill a Mockingbird
This all time classic movie is adaption of a novel of the same name. There are lots of lessons for us to learn from this movie and is thought provoking. From the movie - "Mockingbirds don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird". The story is based on this and is one of a fine drama.

12 Angry Men
A gripping, clever classic b&w film. The story is about a jury of 12 who needs to decide if a boy, charged for murder of his father, is guilty or innocent. But, the decision is not based on the majority, but on a unanimous yes or no from all the 12. At the beginning, all the jury members except for one believe that the boy is guilty and is ready to charge him for murder. The story is about whether the one person can change all their minds & how their argument goes on while trying to convince each other. A must watch classic.

The Great Escape
The story is about Prisoners Of War at Nazi camps during world war II, trying to escape. These fearless brave soldiers keep trying to escape from the prison and get caught many times. This movie is about the grand plan on their great escape and how they do it, and what happens then. The movie is long but interesting to watch.

Finding Nemo (Animation)
A very cute animation movie featuring father-son relationship of clown fish. The father fish Marlin is always protective of his son Nemo. The story is about the adventure Marlin goes through when he looses his son. On this adventure, Marlin meets a blue fish named Dory who suffers from short term memory loss. Dory's character is simply superb and she cracks too many good jokes. The movie is a delight to watch.

Fashion (Hindi)
A Madhur Bhandarkhar film. It does not come up to the mark of his other films Page-3 and Corporate. It is like Bhandarkhar has not done enough home work about Fashion Industry and has shown only about models being exploited by the influential and the models being drug addicts. Priyanka Chopra is the lead of the movie and it gives her a good opportunity to perform and she does it decently well. The movie is longer by 30 minutes and that makes it dragging and boring at times. Watch it only if you are serious about checking out Bhandarkhar's work & Priyanka's performance.

Big Fish
Big Fish is a movie adapted from a novel of the same name. The story is about a complicated father-son relationship. The father is a person who has his head in the cloud - His communication to people is through story telling and is a 'larger than life' kind of a man. The son is more fact oriented and realistic person. The son just can not accept his father's life as described by him, since they all were too unrealistic for him. When his father is dying, he thinks that he hardly knows the man and blames him for it. Finally, the son puts himself in his father's shoes and realizes what a man his father is. An extraordinarily imaginative story.

The Usual Suspects
The usual 5 suspects are arrested by police for questioning when a crime happens in New York, for which they are not responsible. So, they plan to take revenge for this and they all get involved in a crime. Only later, they realize that they were all exploited by a master mind and the story goes on to find who it is. The movie is an amazing crime thriller and the performance of Kevin Spacey is close to perfection.

Blood Diamond
Movie is based on a very serious subject. It is about smuggling of conflict diamonds from Africa to rest of the world. The diamonds are conflict 'coz they are the reason for the terrible wars within Africa. The movie tries to create awareness of buying authorized diamonds and also the situation in Africa. The subject is great, but not really well taken. The reality is not told well (exaggerated at some points). The journalist role played by Jennifer Connelly is irritating at times. Di Caprio's performance is brilliant.

21
The movie is based on a real-life story of 6 MIT nerds becoming expert in card counting and winning millions in Las Vegas casinos. The movie is a roller coaster ride of who beats whom. A general time pass.

The Edge
An outdoor adventure movie where a billionaire played by Anthony Hopkins (as Charles) and couple of his friends gets stranded in middle of nowhere when their plane crashes. The middle of nowhere is a very beautiful place and great to watch. Charles is a avid reader and has gathered tremendous theoretical knowledge. His knowledge comes very handy in their situation. A time pass action thriller.

Batman Begins
Chirstopher Nolan believes in story telling by establishing his characters first. The same is true here where Bruce Wayne, the batman played by Christian Bale is first introduced as a eight year old rich kid and what he goes through before he becomes a bat man to save Gotham. The thrill is slowly mounted and not right from the beginning, like lot other action movies. Building it up as every scene progresses, Nolan gives meaning to his character and the intensity of it.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
It is a fantasy movie with a curious case of reverse aging. As years progress, the child Benjamin grows younger. Somehow, I found that very many times, the movie was not focussed on the curious case, but on too many other stuff around. It is a very slow paced movie and I couldn't keep my attention at many points. The movie becomes interesting when the character Daisy played by Kate Blanchett is introduced and when a complicated love story develops between Daisy and Benjamin (Brat Pitt). The make up of the artists are really good - At some early part of the film, I couldn't recognize Brad Pitt. Watch it for its uniqueness.

Wall-E (Animation)
A creative concept of Robots falling in love. The mere thought of it itself is amazing. The film is about a simple love story of robots named Wall-E and Eve. Wall-E is an industrious robot working in an abandoned city with sky scrappers, but has no trace of people - A city believed not to support any form of life. Initial 30-40 mins of the movie goes on without any dialogue till Eve enters this world. At times, I got bored of the movie, without any dialogues. But, it is a unique movie and worth a watch for that.

Luck by chance (Hindi)
The movie is about wannabe actors (Farhan Akhtar & Konkana Sen) looking for a chance in the glamorous film industry. Out of these two, one gets lucky and becomes a star. The movie shows the dark side of the film industry, like how people exploit others, throw them once the need is over. It is not a heavy movie with only dark sides of the film industry. Director Zoya has taken care to mix some comedy at right places. A decent hindi movie released in the recent past.

Dostana (Hindi)
The movie is all about fun, glamour, more fun & more glamour. Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham pretend to be gay to get rooms for rent in Priyanka Chopra's apartment. As expected, all three becomes really close friends and what follows is a love story, with Priyanka falling in love with her boss, played by Bobby Deol. Humour saves the movie and do not expect you to think in any way. A general time pass.