So this time of the year i took the annual vacation time to visit Ranthambore and Bharatpur in Rajasthan. Ranthambore is famous for its tiger sanctuary and Bharatpur for its bird sanctuary. Both places are deep rooted in history and have many a tale to tell over the past few centuries. My family suggested i use the Club Mahindra facilities available and it turned out to be a good idea.
The flight from Mumbai to Jaipur lasts about 1.75 hours and if you are in the right seat for the 5:30am flight, you get to see a phenomenal sunrise. This was the view from my seat window...and it only got better with time.
The travel desk at Club Mahindra Ranthambore was kind enough to send me a vehicle at Jaipur airport which is about 3 hours from Ranthambore. The drive was smooth and we passed by a multitude of fields [sarso and guavas being grown in large numbers]. I must add that in perspective, folks crib about AI's hallucinations, but in correcting imagery i had a first hand experience while trying ChatGpt and Gemini. I was quite pleasantly surprised with this interaction with Generative AI as it was my first use of any AI tool to achieve a partial result for what i wanted.
For example, the below image is the original image from my otherwise outdated Canon EOS-550D with a Tamron 18-400mm lens attached. Yes, the world curses me for not switching to an upgraded camera and lens package...but i made a bigger blunder still while travelling... i didn't clean the fungus on my lens so some of the images have now dark grey smears on them...cardinal sin in the photography world but now that the mistake has been committed how to recover from it...enter AI...or more specifically Generative AI.
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ChatGpt Processed Image
Original Image
Google Gemini Processed Image
Another Original Image
Now to clear a common misconception... Rajasthan is considered to be a "desert" state due to the sand dunes etc...however the internals of the state thrive on agriculture thanks to the rivers, borewells and in many cases dug up pits for rain water harvesting.
So we reached Club Mahindra with an intermediate stop for a snack at this shop on the corner of the highway and offshoot to Sawai Madhopur...The owner was wearing a Columbia Sportswear jacket and i pointed it out to him that we are wearing jackets form the same company...he was amused...he offered me food and sweets [which i'm not supposed to eat] and the charge was really nominal...worth the small investment...and completely worth the little time i spent in his shop...then we were on our way again.
Upon reaching Club Mahindra they did the normal check-in process and had my bags sent to my room. One thing about Club Mahindra that I would like to add is that the rooms are spotless clean and they almost think of everything from the cutlery to the towels to the handwash to the dental kit and the shower gel etc. The room i was in had a full size window that i realized on day 1 was actually unlocked and being in tiger country i decided to promptly lock it not wanting to get eaten in the middle of the night by a hungry "kitten" :) [no fault of housekeeping to be honest]. We feel worried, however the tigers rarely leave the jungle to stray into people territory.
So on day 1 after reaching Club Mahindra, i decided to take a chance and visit the Ranthambore Fort which is on the border of the jungle safari check post and entry gate. To my luck we "met" the first tigress in the series of meetups in this trip. She had just given birth to two cubs and we think she was on her way to find some food. That one decision was the best way to start a vacation in tiger kingdom.
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ChatGpt Processed Image
ChatGpt Enhanced Image
My hands were shaking with excitement as she walked literally three feet from my vehicle window. The driver of my vehicle was quick to point out that i should lower my camera when she was close so that she didn't consider me a threat. This majestic creature was my first ever wild tiger sighting in life...! To add insult to injury for some folks who visit Ranthambore, folks have gone on 12 consecutive safaris and returned without a single sighting...i was soooo lucky to see this girl on my first by chance trip to the forest area...then there was a reason that made me smile...mother nature has always had my back :)
The forest area being a forest area, we will find a lot of other wild life...in particular one needs to be careful about the playfulness of the one below...they are very adept at "borrowing" food right out of your hands...needless to say your camera, wallet, cellphone etc. being easy targets if kept loose. Lucky for me the crowd was well behaved.
So there are essentially two safari options in a day...you can get the morning slot [7am-9:30am]...or you can get the afternoon slot [2pm-5:30pm]...timings may vary...however the trick is in booking these safaris way ahead of time...i had booked them three months in advance...there are slots that the forest team creates and people who interact with them can book on your behalf with any form of electronic identification that you can share...i had used my PAN card...funnily they actually verify identification at the entry gate to ensure that you are indeed who you say you are...but that's the job description so...!
Well so we reached the Fort...its well maintained given its history...and boy does it have a story associated with it...the lake looks nice in the sunlight if it is at the right angle...to my luck it was...i also tried to take a poke at the image using ChatGpt...see below.
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ChatGpt Processed Image
We got to see a few peacocks along the way...they seem to not be bothered by the monkeys...there is a unknown harmony amongst the jungle animals...the live and let live concept is truly amazing.
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ChatGpt Processed Image
Enter Day 2...we were in a Canter...which is like a bus that has its body kind of chopped off at the waist...this bus makes a lot of noise while in transit and i was almost dead sure that with all that racket we would never see another animal in listening range until the driver drove up behind the mountain placing the fort and turned off the engine...this beauty walks up toward us and boy was it a delight. I have to admit that my photography skills leave much to be desired...but while you have a moving target who is not going to wait for you to finish composing your photo, you are as good as a point and shoot at times...and the tall grass can often be your focus enemy.
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ChatGpt Processed Image
Original Image
ChatGpt Processed Image
Original Image
ChatGpt Processed Image
At this point i was so enamored by ChatGpt and its output that i showed my mom some of the images...and she was like nice...but stop using ChatGpt...!!! So the rest of the images are mostly from my camera as direct output.
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