Ever Fateful Motherhood…
Like waves of the ocean tide that crash upon the bay-
Our souls mingle to play the rhythm; of love & longing today.
Wet as we collide to become one; only forced upon by nature's sway
Diving into love is what it seems; underneath the sorrow's may.
Wet as we collide to become one; only forced upon by nature's sway
Diving into love is what it seems; underneath the sorrow's may.
Viciously savaged lives, this expectant mother astray;
By nature's own wanton will, her motherhood cast away...
- Raghavendran Kandaswami -
What dreams may come to see, may not be borne to reality - While onlookers who watched her saw this romantic moment as cupid’s strike; the reality of what was before us was far too distant from what the scene gave away. As this couple spent time together, many stories of longing and love emerged. Sightings of this queen of Tadoba range, Maya, spending time with the male, Matkasur, who had driven away the other suitors, played cupid in many hearts that captured these moments; to be presented as a representation of love between the dominant male & female of the Panderpauni meadows.
Yet, underneath what the optics presented was a sad story - Of an expectant mother to be, almost at the brink of full motherhood; shockingly now, mating with a male. The ones who knew were expecting her to go into hiding nursing her new little ones, before they emerge after sometime to ring out melodious alarm tunes in the grasslands of the panderpauni meadows. However, that was not to be.
The beautiful lady of Tadoba Lake was yet to raise a litter to full adult-hood - her first killed early by possibly a straying civet cat, her second separating early, her third killed by Matkasur male and sometime after this incident, her loss of female cubs to an intruding male. While she is a queen for humankind, epitomising the beauty of a fertile tigress, ruling prime territory; her incapacity is perhaps causing irreparable damage to her state of mind.
Was Maya or T-12's mating blues with Matkasur Male or T54, a conscious step due to natural loss of progeny; or a forced acceptance of what could be nature's law - power decides kinship, rulers shape history...
Only the lonely paths that humans can't stray into this beloved forest, could have stood testimony to what happened - now cast away into the unknown history of these deep woods.
07 Apr 2017, Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Chandrapur, Maharashtra