Owl Out in 1 Year!
Had set out on a mission to cover and personally photograph every owl species found in Indian subcontinent (there are 38 of them) in a span of one year, and write a book on them. I started in mid Jan 2022 and completed before mid-Dec 2022 (i.e. less than 11 months!). Probably the first person to cover all the owls (and I took a lot of silent inspiration from @sarwandeep, @kamlesh mirkale, @chandramouli and others) , and certainly the first mad person to do so in one year! It was a race against myself primarily. But what is life after all without a bit of passion, miracle, and madness!
Was not easy by any means (especially when working full time as a CEO of a USD 1.5 billion group) but a lot of planning, physical and mental endurance; persistence, and a lot of luck and God’s blessings...and of course the support from family, friends, colleagues and guides helped in completing it! it (@rajesh panwar, @shubham, @shakti, @sanjay sharma, @ram ji, @jeeban, @saddam, @gourav, @atul, @amol, @avinash, @danish, @hem kumar, @ansar, @rigzin, @ved prakash, @ashok, @varun, @chandima, @dhanraj malik, @ashoka and many others I might be missing – a BIG THANK YOU!). I am also happy to state that collectively we tried to cause the minimal disturbance to the owls in this journey.
There have been so many memorable moments in this journey…taking 30 hours of night time in biting cold at North East to find an owl that normally takes 30 minutes (Himalayan Wood Owl)…travelling for more than 12 hours in a boat in Sunderbans delta to finally find the Buffy Fish Owl for 30 seconds…crossing a river at night in Assam on foot and starting to sink in the sand in the river while trying to find the Eastern Grass Owl…. missing the Short Eared Owl in 3 cities earlier in year and then finding it in 2 other cities…trying to find the Little Owl at 15k feet height in Ladakh amongst the wild barren mountains for more than 10 hours…sitting in unsafe forests area of Srinagar (in Kashmir) suburbs for 4-5 hours well into the darkness…braving a 3 hrs plus helicopter ride over ocean (which I am paranoid about) in turbulent weather to find the Nicobar Scops Owl…walking 8-9 hours with the heavy camera kit in scorching heat at Tansa to discover the Forest Owlet…taking heavily guarded forest guards for protection (from wild elephants who were killing people!) at night in forests of Assam to find the Oriental Bay Owl...finding the owls in Thattekad and Sri Lanka amidst cyclonic rain and literally 30-40 leeches at any time on body (and crawling up to unspeakable parts!), and of course keeping fears and encounters of leopards, bears, snakes aside at many of the locations etc etc – it has been a rollercoaster thrill and learning of a lifetime to say the least!
For a person who had never touched a camera till a year ago, and hardly knew any birds (leave aside any owls - and thank you Indian Birds group for a lot of learning), I count this amongst my top achievements ever, a true spiritual journey in a way, and the mental visualisation of the owls collage below kept me going! Many might wonder, what’s so great in finding these owls? Well, can’t explain! You have to do it to feel it (and those who do know it!). If there is a mountain to be climbed, we will climb; if there is an owl to be found, we will find! Borrowing from Aristotle, setting out to achieve something gives meaning to life, and this meaning gives happiness. And I am definitely more than happy about this! Yes no doubt that I have been physically, mentally and emotionally scarred and drained on many occasions during this journey – but at the end, it was all worth it! Is it wrong to set a target on a passion? Have wondered on this too over the year but one can debate it either way. Anyway for now, please enjoy the full collage below (and await my book on this exciting journey very shortly – the profits of which from my side will go completely for preservation and protection of owls).
