Tiger Tiger

Disclaimer : Major Philosophical Rant.

TIGER, tiger, burning bright  

In the forests of the night,  

What immortal hand or eye  

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?  

In what distant deeps or skies         

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  

On what wings dare he aspire?  

What the hand dare seize the fire?  

And what shoulder and what art  

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,  

What dread hand and what dread feet?  

What the hammer? what the chain?  

In what furnace was thy brain?  

What the anvil? What dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?  

When the stars threw down their spears,  

And water'd heaven with their tears,  

Did He smile His work to see?  

Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright  

In the forests of the night,  

What immortal hand or eye  

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

- William Blake

It is one of the most endangered species on earth. It is also the most royal ones. This was the 2nd time in my life that I have seen the tiger face to face in the wild - and both the times it has been in Ranthambore Wildlife Sanctuary - one of the few haunts left for the tiger. 

You can describe what you see. Take a few pictures in the gathering dusk. But you cannot share the feeling you get when you see the magnificent creature staring at you, as though looking into the depths of your soul. 

It was a transformational journey to the jungles of rajasthan and the chance meeting with the Tigers. You see, once you see them, you are left wondering what the heck am I doing ? Is the deskjob - where you spend the entire time of your life replying to emails - life ? Comeon, there has to be more into it. Its like the mist of gadgets, conversations, pressing demands lift, and you suddenly catch a glimpse of something beyond the mist, something you suddenly feel gives a larger meaning to life. 

Questions . Questions. Questions. 

Why do people poach the magnificent creature ? Cant they see anything beyond their greed ? 

Why do corporations and businesses want to denude and permanently destroy the jungles ? 

Why do we just keep doing our job without thinking of the bigger picture of life ? 

Questions that I have no answer for. But the seed of thought has been watered. Life is more than what we live in our apparently busy lives. Life is more than consumer greed and running after the next gadget. Life is happening all around us and we are ignoring it.