Tiger Hunting
Here I was, stuck in Dehra for my winter vacations. Not that I didn’t like this place, It was just that I was sick of my friends boasting about fancy countries they had visited for their vacations. I was greeted by the original winter party at home which was – grandpa, grandma, my wise cousin Ruskin and my no particular occupation uncle, Uncle Ken. When I arrived all I could hear was Uncle Ken whining and complaining about how his butterfly hunt was a fail. I was sad that I missed the fun but deep inside I knew that something would happen again and I wasn’t wrong. The next day he started planning his magnificent tiger hunt in the forest near the Timli Pass. I was excited, and so was Ruskin. My grandpa showed no particular emotion but my grandma was displeased. She kept nagging Uncle Ken saying “When are you going to give up on these absurd ideas Kenneth Clerk? You should set up an example for your niece and nephew” To which I replied, “Don’t worry granny we have better people to look up to.” Ruskin nodded in agreement and granny stopped
there to save Uncle Ken from getting embarrassed. The course was set, we were going to stay at a rest house near the Timli Pass and Uncle Ken was going to try out tiger hunting. Ruskin and I had naturally volunteered to help and grandpa was tagging along because of experience. Grandma preferred to stay back and do the usual things old ladies do. We set out at dawn and planned to come back at dusk. It was all fun and fine until Uncle Ken became delusional. He started imagining movement from the bushes. Now if he was a writer this was understandable but he would suddenly burst out making us sure that he belonged to a mental hospital. Then suddenly he yelled he saw a tiger and started running. We didn’t believe him and so didn’t bother looking around. Then I felt something moving in the bushes behind us. If it wasn’t for that gut feeling I don’t know what would have happened to us. But luckily for us, we got on to the jeep and sped away not knowing what was actually behind that bush.
- Eishra Manrao 7C
