India England Test Series; Test of Self Belief!

 

 

--

--

“The beauty of Test cricket is all about playing an opponent in their backyard or defending home turf under challenging conditions over five days - dominating each session, dominating each day, picking 20 wickets to win a contest. That's historically been cricket's most fascinating gift”… Ravi Shastri.

‘Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, this series has taken away a lot from each of us, but in return it has gifted us something very important & that is character” ... KL Rahul.

“Battles are remembered not by their result but for the way warriors fought them”… Me.

Well, finally the five test match series between India-England ended yesterday & the words about them by two men, one is great critic as well a player by himself & other was part of that series & has lived it on the ground for twenty-five days of game & nearly forty days in that biosphere! And then my words which I used as my status for today about the series not just the last test match, such intense was the way it was fought, yes played will be a very mild word to describe the game! As in the fourth test Rishabh Pant batting with fractured right foot, barely able to stand & in the last minutes of final day of fifth test Chris Voalks with left shoulder dislocated & pain covering his face with every step he was taking yet deciding to play as his team needed him to bat, these images are not just game, its battle & yet full of sportsman spirit! Because the standing ovation which Pant got when his image appeared on the door of dressing room limping towards the crease or Volks coming out on ground after the ninth wicket fall & a hug given by Siraj to him after India won the last test, all these moments though are history but will be lingering in every sports lover’s mind for sure, even a diehard cricket hater’s too, such was the impact of this series!

Oh k, the sharing is about cricket & a record for myself as out of five test matches, four times I felt the urge to write about it & trust me I have been watching, following cricket for last forty years & I haven’t experienced (as seen or listened isn’t enough word) such series of games (matches) & I am not referring to records which have been made by breaking the age old records but the level of game & the commitment by every single player that too for all five matches, man oh man, it’s amazing, just amazing to feel! Fortunately, as the matches were being played in England, I could watch half part of the day’s play when I am back at home, again a rare thing for me. And all this when people were saying test match pattern of cricket is extinct! On fifth day of test match in the morning after our badminton game my friend who is Vaishali’s manager was discussing with me about probable outcome & I said we will win & I will give lunch to all the floor boys of Vaishali (sweepers, table cleaners) & one waiter who was listening he said, Sir knows, he need not have to give party, means we are not going to win is what he thought! In India, on three things anybody is allowed (and welcomed) to share his or her opinion, Politics, Movies & Cricket & this kind of series is very important to add on the popularity of not just cricket but entire sports at large, is what I personally feel! And of-late in the age of speed where interest of people is as paper thin as just 20-seconds (reels mania) making masses to sit for seven hours a day & for five days is a near impossible job but that also is possible, is what this test series has shown us!

Well, as I mentioned the series in the process of taking the game to battle level has broken many age-old records as well created new ones but more than that it helped many youngsters to discover themselves, & these are not my just observations but words of Captain of England team, who pushed himself to physical limits in making his team win & in the process has to sit out for the last test such tortured his body was! Before I share my take away from the test series one must know the level of excellence, individual as well team’s with which this series was played (read as fought) & here are few, I am deliberately not giving much importance to figures but achievements, so pardon me if some mathematical or parodical errors…

The total number of runs made by both teams jointly is second ranking.

The total numbers of hundreds as well fifties made by batsmen from both sides is also in tune with number one in table. And above are

The total number of balls played by the Indian team is maximum.

The victory margins by runs in the overseas is maximum for team India in the second test & so was with minimum margin in winning in the last test.

In recent times, this was the first five test series where all test matches went for five days.

Team India has never won the last match of five test series overseas.

For the first time Indian pace bowlers took five wicket hauls for five times in a test series.

These are a few of the team records made & broken & do mind we are referring to a nearly hundred plus years period here! On the front of individual records also this series was phenomenal as every team member stretched himself to limits, physical & mental & outcome is bound to be extraordinary on personal performance also!

Shubhan Gill as batsman has made place for himself in all time great performances with maximum individual runs in a series by Captain & in the process he has gone above, Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli & Sachin Tendulkar & these all are no less than Gods for Indian cricket! At the same time he has made his entry into a list which has names like Sir Don Bradman, Sir Garry Sobers, that too at the age of twenty five!

Jadeja became first batsman batting on number six position & aggregating more than five hundred runs against England in England.

Nearly five batsmen made their individual best in the overseas in one series.

Mohammad Siraj became the maximum wicket taking bowler in a single series in England, joining Bumrah at that position. And needless to tell, post this series, many of the Indian players have risen to their individual all time high positions in respective categories as per ICC rankings, that's a by-product of playing your heart out! BTW, all the names of the players, places mentioned in sharing you can google for them if want more information or introduction about them!

And, there are many more records, firsts', but I will skip that part as the sharing is not about records but about the attitude displayed by Indian team, again I am deliberately referring to Indian team’s attitude & character! That too because, one, we were visitors in a country where our track record is against us even with big players, two, the team was young, & three the opponent was not just experienced in every field but has proved themselves with Baz-ball way (plz google) & it was the Indian team who has to prove themselves as worthy to such opponent & last but not least, even before start of the series everybody has written this Indian team off from the series!  On all such backgrounds when the series gets tied, 2-2 & one draw then I must say, figures never justify the battle & its intensity, which was shown by team India. As had there been some more maturity & experience then this score would have been 3-1 & a draw or even 4-0 & a draw too in the favour of team India. Earlier many would have laughed at this statement but now after the series is over even the most critic of Indian teams also would join my opinion; I am sure & this is the biggest achievement of our team! And then, after the last match, the entire media not just the sports world, is buzzing with one word, “Believe” (now, trademark of M.Siraj) as that’s what this Indian team did & it can be the best motivation for entire nation’s frustrated souls who thinks, “yaha kuchh nahi badalnewala”! This shift of attitude from “hope” to “believe”, is the biggest & best outcome of India England test series & it’s not just for the players but for everybody associated with the game. Rather those who hate cricket should also watch its glimpses (thanks Jio Hot Star) as each of us has to face our hardest test which for some is bad luck & for the few is an opportunity to prove what we are capable of & those few are the champions! This young team India has nothing to lose actually, when they went for the team, even if they would have come defeated badly nobody would have blamed them & all just hoped that they will give some fight. But the team didn’t rely on hope, instead they believed in themselves & they delivered what nobody even hoped for, a series draw which is more than a win actually!! As KL Rahul very rightly said, this kind of battle takes away a lot from you but gifts you back your identity & character as that’s what is going to decide your fate forever! I don’t know about others yet even at my age which is on the other side of fifty, I learned a lot from this test series & it's definitely not how to play cricket but a lot more than that & that is, how to face the toughest of the challenges! Thanks, young team India for making me understand the meaning of “Believe” & its importance in fighting my battles, sure many more to come from you; keep fighting & keep growing with every battle, adios with this note!

(On a very personal note, the biggest satisfaction for me was watching two guys whose names are "Krishna & Mohammad", were pouring their hearts out, fighting shoulder to shoulder together to make the Indian Team win a battle which most must have thought lost already, and they did it together!! At Least now, all those fools who fight over religion & caste in this country must have realized what is the right way to victory, lets learn from this win!! Team Sanjeevani salutes Team India..!)

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Team India & the Art of Saving Test Match!

--

“Test Cricket teaches you patience, discipline and team work.”… Shakil Kamboh

“Cricket is such a sport that you get to learn something from someone every day”… Ravindra Jadeja

“The beauty of Test cricket is all about playing an opponent in their backyard or defending home turf under challenging conditions over five days - dominating each session, dominating each day, picking 20 wickets to win a contest. That's historically been cricket's most fascinating gift’… Ravi Shastri

This is amazing game test cricket & I am sure just the way few readers must frowning by the mention of Tadoba in my sharing same must be the feeling for mention of cricket, the only difference may be lesser numbers of frowning faces for cricket as in this country this game is loved beyond any boundaries of caste, gender & religion! And as I have repeatedly mentioned I love all games (ground games more) but I love test match format of cricket most as the fitness of mind & body it needs to pull yourself through grind of five days & when the series is of five test matches then one has to retain all his or her energies for span of nearly forty days at stretch! Tell me the name of any other game where one team has to go through such stress for such a long period! And when you are playing for a country with one fifty crores plus population which loves cricket more than their religion then add the burden of expectations of all these people (read as fans) in to the stresses & suddenly its no more just a match of a game, it’s a war of survival for you also as a player, as a human being! As this war, if can make you a hero overnight then it can make you worse than a zero also, we all have seen it happening to the young players & even to the senior players also. Best part of the game to watch as a balanced fan (self-proclaimed phrase) is, you learn everyday from every player by watching this war without bleeding by yourself!

Ok, leaving gyan.com aside for a while, India England test series is being played in England since last thirty days & is in deciding mode & there can be only two result possible, the series can be drawn or England will win & you will say what’s fun then as anyways India isn’t going to win & you are right! But if you are having such a question then you haven’t understood the game in the first place & you are a blind fan as every time winning is not everything, especially in the test match format of the game! Do you know why test match cricket is special or how this particular format of game is different from mostly all the games played in the history of sports? To my knowledge of sports test match cricket is the only sport where a match can  result in a draw meaning no team wins or loses, do you know any such game where the result can be a draw. There can be a tie in many games but there is a difference between a tie & a draw, as a tie is score equal & even in a tournament both teams of players get equal points but a draw is no team wins or necessarily has equal points or score, this is the funniest part of test match circlet & interesting by me! And on top of it, one of the team can actually fight to make the match draw i.e. without any result & needed to do herculean efforts even for that, this can happen only in test cricket & that’s why I like test cricket, not for just the game aspect of it but the grind & efforts needed to achieve the result like a draw!

So, out of four test matches which has been played till now between both teams, two has been won by England & one has been won by India & the fourth test was in such state that India would have lost it as per the most fans & that means series would have been already lost making fifth test match a formality! But team India fought hard to save the match from getting lost & succeeded in drawing the match, keeping their challenge alive as they can win the last match & draw the series & keep England away from winning the series! And while doing this many records were breaking as well Indian players showed unique displays of grit, dedication, toughness of character & fitness, & watching that display is my learning which is my subject of sharing! As, first of all, when this test series started nobody thought the series will be pulled up to the last test for the result, even if a draw series, which itself is a morale victory for this team India & the way every test match has been fought till now is also something the cricketing world (just like “wizarding world” in Harry Potter saga, plz google) is yet to believe, such was the show by team India! In this era of T20 cricket where most test matches are getting finished in three or four days, here is a series where every match till now has gone to the last day & to the last session, that’s what test cricket is supposed to be! The story doesn’t end here as test matches are not about winning or losing, they are about in the ability of drawing them too & that needs hail of determination, fitness & patience, is something which most of the cricketing world has forgotten, that art is revived or rewritten by this series, is something very special, is my subject of sharing! And after four matches i.e. twenty days of game when the fifth test is knocking at your door, the scene is nearly fifty percent of players are down with injuries, which includes the athletic captain of England team also, such was the grind of this series!

And what was most fascinating is rejuvenation of the famous, “Indian Art of Saving Test Match” as till few decades back when Indian team was not supposed to be a strong contender for winning then all our efforts were put in at least to draw the test match if not lose it & with batsmen like Sunil Gavaskar, Chetan Chauhan, Anshuman Gaikwad, Vijay Hajare, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ajit Wadekar, G. Vishwanath & many such it’s a battle which is for saving the match if not winning. What it meant is day long the batsmen used to bat patiently leaving the deliveries than playing it, tiring the bowlers & finally the time used to end & so dies the match! This is very easy on face as one will say what’s big deal as you don’t have to play the balls but leave them & this needs patience, determination & judgement of the bowling as well pitch, especially when you are playing on pitches of England & not your flat dead pitches. And this is why the Indian team's track record of playing in England is poor even in making the games draw! But, this time the scene was different, the fourth test match showed that India still has got that ability to draw a match & all what’s needed to achieve such a result. With nearly 350 plus runs lead to cover & then make England play in second innings (plz google for rules of test match game as I wont waste words & time on it) team India needed to play nearly 140 overs & two days to face pepped up English bowling attack & one of the star batsmen is injured means practically only five specialized batsmen were there, two all rounders & four bowlers! And in the first over you have lost two wickets for a duck & in such a situation all that is left is in how many overs we will be out of the battle! This is where team India stood for the challenge & the four batsmen tired the entire English attack by just not giving their wicket! Guys, we applaud fitness of tennis stars when a five-setter match is played but here it's nearly fourteen hours the players need to be on field & face bowling where a leather ball (not tennis ball) meets you at 140 km / hour relentlessly. Add sledging in it, (comments) by fielders surrounding you & you know your wicket means your team is one step near to defeat & you keep playing with a burden of 150 crore plus hopes to save the match as winning is not an option, such is the scoreboard!

And then this was a team with no legends in the squad except a bowler named Bummrah, rather for the first time a team has gone for five test match battle without any big name in batting for which team India was famous for & that’s why the way this battle has been played it has carved a special place in the entire Indian Cricket history & not just test match history! It was heartening the way KL Rahul, Gill, Jadeja & Washington played & needless to say when you put on such a show, the records do tumbles, history is rewritten & even a draw looks like a big victory, which did happen. In the process of drawing the match Shubhamn Gill has already made his place among names like Sunil Gavaskar, Garry Sobers & Don Bradman, a feat which even the biggest names of Indian cricket haven’t achieved! More than records what you earn out of such game is, self-confidence & respect, it’s such die-hard games which makes heroes out of boys, it makes super stars out of masses & it gives hope to your team & billions of fans & most importantly it sends positive vibes in the people’s mind that if we give our best then we can achieve anything, which this fourth drawn test match has given & my sharing is for that outcome! Go on team India, keep fighting with your best strength which is your determination & records will follow for sure & thanks for inspiring people like me who are lucky to witness the way you fight, adios with this note!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

 

Hotels, Traffic Chaos, Garbage & Hypocrisy

 

--

“For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.”
― Noam Chomsky

“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”
― Oscar Wilde

Avram Noam Chomsky, which may seem a Russian name yet is very much American, has been a professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy. And Oscar Wilde is a name which everybody who has even the slightest exposure with English literature knows, such is his work. And America is known for its critics who have brain & thinking power & courage to raise voice even against their own, when found wrong. I am deliberately saying wrong & not guilty as when the subject is about infrastructure & society, things can’t be judged to frame somebody guilty as that’s not the purpose, it's about right & wrong which remains the same irrespective of govt, laws, & society as well time! I have seriously given up writing about civic issues as many pens & mikes keep doing it & others says no use but somewhere deep within some hope is still alive in me & more than that when I came across reading such quotes from the greats, I remind myself, if I feel then I must express as that’s one sign of being alive! Problem is, today most people express (thanks to reel mania) whatever they want without thinking, just because they can express & those who seriously think they refrain themselves from expressing due to many aspects, one is fear of backlash about expression, especially expressing right things!

Ohk, sorry for deviation but subject is traffic of Pune & garbage & reason is two news stories (as usual) which caught my attention & made me keep aside my frustration & express or say share! First news was about answer by our State’s Hon CM in assembly session about a question asked by MLA & a petition by residents of Kalyani-Nagar, a decent suburb locality (plz google) about the traffic chaos they are facing due to illegal permit rooms, restaurants & bars in the locality. And another news was about covering citizen’s comments for PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) getting high ranking in the country for Swachh Abhiyan (Cleanliness drive) & PCMC (Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation) being top ranked in state for same i.e. on cleanliness index! Well, I am sure most people will stop reading here as they will say, we knew, these are routine things & nothing will happen & let’s spend our time doing something more important than this sharing (read as watching reels) & I don’t blame them! Because this, nothing will change, attitude is the real crux of both the news (and many such aspects but sometime next about it) as Hon CM, with figures & facts (well he was speaking in assembly) discarded the plea of Kalyani-Nagar residents saying, not a single pub or restaurant in the locality is illegal, even if they are being run in some bungalows, yet they are with all proper permissions & legal! And he produced a record of complaints about traffic chaos in this locality & they were below ten in numbers in the entire two years (again, on record he said), so no question arises about traffic jams being caused because of these eating joints is what Hon CM said, matter closed! Will take on garbage news later but first let’s look at facts & reply of Hon CM about traffic jams causing eateries first in Kalyani-Nagar & then all around the city!

Before going into the news & hon CM’s stand on the petition of Kalyani Nagar residents, lets see what was the scene, some fifteen / twenty years back here. Kalyani-Nagar was considered as one of the up-market areas with a mix of bungalows & few high end residential apartment buildings, it was a planned layout with cross lanes connecting the main road of Kalyani Nagar & Nagar Road which connects Pune to the north-east part of State & the country. And beyond this locality starts Chandan Nagar, Viman Nagar, Wagholi i.e. Outer Pune. Most affluent citizens preferred Kalyani Nagar as a calm, quiet, green suburb yet well-connected area to the main city especially Koregaon park & camp & airport.  And then areas beyond Kalyani Nagar started being developed as IT Hubs of East Pune i.e. Kharadi & industries also started growing in Ranjangaon which tough was some fifty kilometers away then & now has become part of Pune actually & all these developments started attracting not just rich, effluent, senior, well settled in life but younger genre who got job in all these commercial hubs & has money to spend but no outlets for that & here the trigger got pulled. In the last two decades Kalyani Nagar became the best target for all sorts of eating/ drinking outlets as connoisseurs were there for the same & in numbers & for all types of joints. The locality has ample road side parking places, bungalows with space for posh & semi posh food/ drink joints, the locality is connected to the city as well suburbs, what more you need to make a flourishing business out of all such set up, right? And today Kalyani Nagar offers probably the widest eating options to every segment of society & the problem started for the residents of Kalyani Nagar! Because, the missing thing is, the right urban planning to accommodate this floating crowd & right public transport, resulting in too many vehicles coming at a particular locality at same time; what else can you expect but traffic chaos? Add in that, the regular commuters through these main roads up & down (to & from), either to work or to home, making a perfect example of a traffic mess which no traffic police will be ever able to handle! And then thanks to our “free parking on roads policy” as in entire world in no other city public roads are considered as free parking the way its in Pune city, so all these hoteliers have to do is, employ some drivers for valet parking & then customers are happy just to handover the keys to the valet & enjoy the evening! There are gangs of valet parkers who work in synchronized pattern; these valet teams have two wheelers which they park in such fashion that other customers or people with four-wheeler driver can’t park in the free parking space on the roads & only when a valet driven car comes the two-wheeler guy removes his two-wheeler from the parking lot to accommodate valet gang’s car! This is a common scene around & though legally this can't be considered as crime but morally it is & the only way out is "No Free Parking" anywhere in the city on the roads which our dear govt doesn’t act on & nor the residents of this city demand it, this is why we are biggest hypocrites!

The real problem of Pune’s traffic is not just poor urban planning or public transport or wrong policies or policing, the real problem is our hypocritic attitude towards the traffic as everybody is interested in only their own convenience or comfort & blame others for any discomfort. Everyday morning when I go to my badminton game, on every signal if traffic police is not around then most vehicles don't obey red signals & jump over! And we blame traffic police for incapable policing but in no other country there exists a traffic police where signals are on because citizens respect signals which we don’t! And it's not just about jumping red signals, everyday we (read as citizens) park our vehicles under no parking board, on footpaths & we only oppose the Pay & Park policy. Agreed, our public transport is poor but we have no patience to wait at a signal for one minute, how can we be patient to wait even for ten minutes at a bus stop, right? Public transport will never be at our service at our will the way our two-wheeler or four-wheeler does but then if fifty lakh citizens think in this way then its fifty lakh vehicles on road to which no traffic management or road network can handle, that’s why we are hypocrites, is my point of sharing!  And then we blame hotels/ restaurants for traffic chaos but in my society every evening I see Zomato/ Swiggie delivery people getting parcels to the residents, do we ever think where these parcels are coming from! As we may not be going to eat out & to jam the roads but the parcel boys do it for us, this we conveniently forget! We want hotels, we want to eat outside & drink & have fun & we want free parking on the roads & we won’t follow traffic rules but we don’t want traffic created by them, who are we fooling, is my point of sharing! This doesn’t mean there won’t be any solution, what this means is, traffic chaos won’t be solved by just shutting few food joints but we need to execute the solution from all the ends in which each of us has a role to play & unless we as citizens won’t accept this till that time it will be just hypocritic blame game!

Now about the other news i.e. garbage or Swachh Abhiyan ranking of the city. Most of the cities have wet garbage processing vermicomposting yet in most of the societies it's non-functional & we blame govt for garbage overflowing on road. Leave vermi-composting, many societies don’t even segregate dry & wet garbage & just throw their garbage in garbage collecting vans by PMC & if one day it doesn’t come for any reason, the garbage of the society keeps laying at the entrance or in some duct & we expect the city to remain clean by its own! No society or commercial establishments allows garbage bins or public toilets near their entrance or in their vicinity & reason is PMC doesn’t keep it clean, agreed. We spend millions for our interiors but we don’t come together & collect money & maintain the public lavatory or garbage bin near our society clean, because we pay tax, right? And that’s why we are free to blame PMC or govt for incapability of keeping our city clean. I see everyday people throwing garbage at their will on the roads, in the river & wherever possible but don’t take any effort to segregate it & process in their society, & not just this we even don’t take any efforts to reduce the generation of the garbage itself & yet we expect our city to be clan & curse PMC/ PCMC for failing in their job, this is hypocrisy, is my point of sharing!

I know many of the readers will say, I am also part of such a lot & yes, I am but on a personal note, I try my best not to break any traffic rules & not to make more garbage by myself & try to make others aware, at least that much I can do! Friends, may it be traffic or garbage, if we want to solve the problem then we must accept our part in that problem, till then keep naming others & let the problem multiply, adios with this note (warning)!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Choti Tara, Maya & Deja Vu of Tadoba!

 

                                        

--

“Deja Vu confirms a faithful path worth taking.”
― T.F. Hodge

Hodge American born & stays in Los Angeles, & is writer of “From Within I Rise” named self-healing book! Why I used his above words, because that's what this sharing is about (oh yes, there is Tadoba in it, vaidhanik ishara) & that’s one word which I have been most intrigued, since long time & that is, Déjà Vu (not tadoba)! I love reading & I take pride in declaring most of life’s hour I have spent in reading & like a tiger in a forest, my reading has no boundaries as from Tintin to Zen to Sherlock Holms to Chacha Chaudhari to Sigmund Freud (plz google for all of these) I read anything & often I have encountered this Déjà vu thing, I always wondered the way google auto correct it as I can’t even type that thing! Though I have understood what it means at large as today you can get definition of any word & there are many assistants from Alexa to Google baba to Gemini & many such yet there are some terminologies which are not mere set of alphabets but is a phenomenon & this Déjà vu is sure one such, this much I have understood about it. In simple words Déjà vu is a scenario or situation where you can connect it with your past, something very similar about what you are living in present, its just flashing incidence & the similarity can be with place, with the persons, characters involved or set up of the place you are in. Something of the above or all of them makes you feel you have lived these very moments in very similar fashion, it’s not history repeating it’s your own life’s moments you are living again, type feel! 

It's said that every time you visit a forest it looks different, even the same spots with the same trees also gives you a different feel in a single day & Tadoba is no exception to this law of the wilds! Yet interestingly, you find similarity between the events as the place is the same, timing is the same, you are some but the characters may be different & in the back of your mind you keep thinking, you have lived these moments earlier, right here yet the excitement is the same, rather its more with every trip! As in forests few things don’t change such as some tree along the road which has witnessed so many incidences, the tree has stood over the markings of different tigers as average age of a tiger in the wild is fourteen to fifteen years & that too a tiger can keep a particular territory (read as defend the territory) hardly for six or seven years i.e. when its in prime age. As the tiger or tigress grow old, younger tigers take their respective place but the tree remains the same, witness of the transition & same is with a water body in that territory. The dusty paths are one more witness of tiger’s dynasties & all of these are part of our Déjà vu moments as they become the canvas of our stories! That's why we discussed the Deja Vu effect where you feel like you have experienced a set of incidents earlier also & this Tadoba trip gave me many of them, here are few of them!!

Cut 1:

Choti Tara sitting on Pandharpauni water hole road which was earlier territory of legendary Maya tigress & where I have clicked Maya with her cub nearly ten years back, in the same pose I saw Choti tara & her sub adult cub. Road was same, pose of sitting of maya was same, the cub walking towards her affectionately, was same; even two gypsies in the frame on the background, was same. The only difference was, it's Choti Tara this time & slight change of angle for clicking for me. When I saw Maya, she was facing me & the cub’s face was hidden behind, here Choti Tara’s face was hidden behind the cub but the entire setting was the same, a perfect Déjà vu!

Cut 2 :

At 97 No. water-hole I saw a young male Tiger lazing on a hot noon. This particular water hole is the favourite hanging spot of two/ three male tigers as mainly of-late Mowgli named tiger has made this place as his personal pool! At fir we thought its Mowgli only but when the tiger looked at us, we realized it's much younger eyes looking at us, these eyes lack hardness of stare which comes only by the battles you have to fight to survive for long in the forests, which Mowgli has & our guide said, Sir, ye naya male hai, young hai, isse Collerwala kahate hai!  I have clicked Mowgli just two years back & seems slowly the young male is trying his luck with the place as his territory & that’s how forest life moves on. Seems Mr Mowgli is also busy in expanding his territory but the look, the pose the way neck cocked up at the sound of alarm calls of & the rise from the water & the walk, for a movement except size everything was getting repeated & I have lived another Déjà vu moment in Tadoba!

Cut 3 :

It was a hot summer season ending noon, sky was cloudy yet mercury was up & forest was silent. I have agreed to come for this trip for only one reason, to watch Choti Tara grooming her sub adult female cubs & this might be her last litters as she is already nearly fifteen years old & both these cubs are females means when they will grow full then they only will take CT’s (choti tara’s nickname is CT) territory, pushing her in outer jungle where her survival will be very difficult considering age is not on her side now! This thought which does makes me sad, but it made me push aside my workload & I signed up for the trip. And CT didn’t disappoint me, giving us a full show which made me live multiple Déjà vu moments along. I have been clicking & watching Choti tara since last ten years, from her first cubs which includes today’s king of tadoba, Chota Mataka. And present two queens of Tadoba are also CT’s daughters i.e. Bijli & Roma. On the background of lush green grass cover around Pandharapuni water hole while CT walking towards our gipsy & the sub adult cub trailing, I relived the same scene nearly nine years back, with then the cub Chota Matka walking behind her, a perfect Déjà vu!

And then to get CT head on where she was looking in my camera, her eyes which were never glowing but warm (rather loving always), I remembered all those times when I have kept looking at her through the lens, while she walked  head-on towards me & I can see her as a young female, then as a matured lady & today, she is nearly age of a grannie (from tiger’s life span aspect), tired she is & fragile, yet the eyes carries same warmth & confidence! Guys, I have been visiting forests for more than three decades & forest has taught me the brutality of life or say practicality which has helped me in my own life back here in our concrete jungle! Yet this time when my eyes got locked with Choti Tara’s eyes & the look she gave me, like she was telling me, “are you happy now, after clicking me; I am ageing, I know I don’t look anymore the way you have seen me in my prime, now my skin is not shining & my muscles are loose & my bones are weak, my face isn’t beautiful the way it used to be, but my will to give my best is still the same. I will be leaving my legacy here forever in the form of these two girls of mine & they will carry on, take care of them, click them also with the same love & affection the way you have for me” & she disappeared in the woods crossing our gipsy! That was the ultimate Déjà vu of locking eyes with CT, & when I felt camera vision was blurred, I tried to wipe the lens & realized it was not lens problem but my eyes had become watery by the Déjà vu effect of Choti Tara. I wiped tears from my eyes & came out of forest praying for one more Déjà vu to live with CT though I know this is how the wildlife is yet as Mr Hodge has said, Déjà vu is a faithful path, so I am sure I will see CT once again! Apart from Déjà vu moments, I got to see (read as study) the way a tigress teaches her cubs to make their territory, going ahead first, selecting a right tree & then scratching it with nails & urinating for scent & making the cubs follow this! And all this when the mom knows that she will be the victim of this training, that’s what a tigress mom is!

Btw, if you are wondering with names like Mowgli, Collerwala, Maya, Charger, then these are not human characters but a lot more than that, these are tigers whose home is Tadoba & though forest dept doesn’t acknowledge or approve naming tigers but then, the Déjà vu can’t be with the numbers but only with the names & faces behind those names, so be it! Oh yes, needless to say, right from chinkara grazing in the fields along the Samrudhhi Highway to Pied King Fisher’s acrobatics in air to experiencing wonder full Father-Son relation among tigers (Charger & Veerappan), a lot of learnings were there too!

Here are some of the Deja Vu & other moments of Tadoba,

plz check the Flickr link along…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/coexistance_is_the_key/albums/72177720327613768/with/5466058964

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/