October 10, 2023

Tuesday, 10:30 PM

Ranthambore Regency,

Sawai Madhopur, 

Ranthambore, Rajasthan

I had thought of having a slightly relaxed day because the constant travel and shooting is getting tough and has to be brought into a sustainable rhythm because ATR is not a sprint but a marathon, which is going to a last a good six months. Shooting and editing while we are constantly traveling has been tough, not to mention the sluggish internet at most of these locations, which makes it hard to upload in time and also for the travelling ATR team to keep in smooth touch with its off-site members. But we are constantly working on improving our workflow to get the videos uploaded on time and the good news is that we are indeed getting better and faster at it. 

The day started with the morning safari, and we found the pugmarks of Riddhi early on, which brightened our day and deepened our hopes; so we kept moving around and waiting for Riddhi to make another appearance. We were told that she had been sighted just about fifteen minutes back. Riddhi has three cubs from her second litter, none of her babies from the first litter survived. I was very hopeful of finding Riddhi and clicking a few good pictures of her with her cubs, but it was not to be and after having waited and waited for long, we returned without seeing Riddhi. By the way, Riddhi is one of the two tigers here, the other being Siddhi, apparently, both named after Lord Ganesha’s twin wives by the same names (as per the mythology prevalent in North India). 

We returned to the hotel and decided to take the rest of the day easy because there was a lot of editing work pending, and we wanted today’s VLOG to go online in time. We also needed to better streamline our processes for better and speedier output, and we worked a bit on that, too. Finally, we managed have the VLOG uploaded in time for the first time since the beginning of ATR. But during the day, I also had a head-hurting video conference with some of the agencies involved in a promotional project I have been a part of recently, which brought to mind that ancient proverb about too many chefs spoiling the broth — only this was a little more serious, and a lot more infuriating; and left the aftertaste far fouler than a spoilt broth might. But then, there was this wonderful local couple that came visiting, bearing presents and, more importantly, loads of affection. It was great meeting and talking to them. Life’s simple pleasures are mighty delightful.