Tigers and Foxes in bureaucratic jungles!

It is not as if the jungles are bereft of tigers – met one in a bhawan today and another a couple of weeks earlier. It is just that in a "no watering hole" jungle full of sheep, monkeys, foxes and coconut trees, tigers have become a rare commodity, are therefore rarely visible and have apparently ceded territory to the wily foxes out of frustration. And such jungles therefore do not gel and make many wonder about authenticity and also whether it is real or just a make believe.

And the sheep, apparently simple and spineless creatures who can be lured by anyone in any direction throng the jungle in the hope that the wily fox in a rare display of compassion would throw some crumbs that they would be equally fast to grab. The sheep in the hope of crumbs are always eager to dump their fellow brethren at the altar of the wily fox at the slightest opportunity.  Unfortunately many of the sheep are actually hypnotized tigers who have forgotten their strength under the influence of the fox that is busy milking the jungle dry.

And the monkeys true to their nature always present a continuous display of jumping from one tree to the other and from one branch to the other mainly to create a ruckus and convey an impression of vibrancy in an otherwise dead environment.  

And the coconut trees, unable to provide even a semblance of shade to the weary complete the incompleteness of the jungle. The stark absence of watering holes completes the saga.  

And the jungle therefore fails to produce anything beyond what the nature automatically does. 

What a jungle – not even a remote cousin of Kanha or Bandhavgarh. In Bandhavgarh it is almost impossible to miss a tiger and in the jungles of Delhi – one bumps only into foxes or their all-pervading smell and influence unless of course one is lucky like I have been today to have bumped into a bubbly tiger raring to romp.  

A single tiger controls a jungle, provide he realizes his lineage. And if he does not then the fox shall rule – the most wily of them shall be the most vicious. The few tigers left in the jungle have to rise and put the jungle in order. They have to emerge from the wilderness and show the foxes their rightful place. Yes they can only if they decide to……..