My instinct helps me

The Daily Prompt: When’s the last time you followed your instinct despite not being sure it was the right thing to do? Did it end up being the right call?

Last week it happened again ! I followed my gut feeling which was so right. So far my sixth sense has saved me from unpleasant situations and taking wrong decisions which I would regret later on if I would have ignored my gut feeling.

Coming back to the latest incident which happened at Kanha National Park while we were desperately looking for the tiger. During tiger siting I learnt one thing that one has to be patient and the other thumb rule is tracking the pug marks. It was second day of our jungle safari, though there were some alarm calls made by birds, even jackals also made some noise but tigers could not be traced.

 A tigress had given birth to three cubs few days before, was seen thrice last week by staff members early in the morning near this not so dry drain or naala in local lingo. She was staying with her cubs inside the bushes and was coming out occasionally in search of prey. Therefore all the guides were bringing the tourists to this spot since morning, there were rumors of tigress sighting too. Guides and drivers were quite sure about their calculations. We kept on waiting, silent and hopeful.

Time passed by, there was no action, suddenly I had this instinct of moving  away from this place and proceeded to the other end of the road. I told Naren Malik, a naturalist by profession who was driving our gypsy,  to check other points where the tiger could be seen moving out from the dense jungle. As we moved ahead, he saw fresh pug marks on the right side of the road and stopped the gypsy. I knew my instinct seldom goes wrong but this time the scene was different.

I was ready with my camera, my son was not very hopeful, he sort of made fun of my gut feeling coz of which we have moved away from the location of probable sighting…….Lo and behold…..at that very instant a fully grown healthy male appeared from nowhere. He looked majestic.

Now it was my turn to smile at my son who went numb once he saw the tiger so near. Oblivious of our presence, the tiger gently walked on the road, looked at peace with himself and went inside the bushes after a short appearance. My instincts proved me right this time too. I followed my gut feeling which resulted in these pics that I’m sharing. Within no time all eleven gypsies of Chitvan Jungle Lodge came closer to let people enjoy the view. Now we knew what would be the topic of the discussion in the evening at Chitvan dining room.

By the time other vehicles followed us, it was late and the Jungle cat has vanished in the maze of jungle by then.