It was midday & the sun was very bright, we got out of my car sharp at 12 o clock. Yet, the freezing breeze gave a bumpy feeling even in that radiating neighboring. Within no time, we had to turn back to my car to fetch our jackets. We were just about to go to the counter to buy tickets; a man in clean suit stopped us know what ethnic group we belong to. We didn’t know how to respond to that question with another ‘Why do you want to know’ query, we simply answered we are Indians. I wonder what kind of Analytics they might derive from this survey – knowing the Nationality of the people who visit the zoo. Number of visitors, Number of Animals, total number of food courts, revenue generated per hour, number of staff, children visited, Number of senior citizens, and many other reports make sense to me but not ethnic group. Did the authorities wanted to know how many Italian’s visit that place so that they can have Pasta delights at every 100 yards. Whatever is the reason for this survey, we were baffled with that friendly question.

 

As soon as we entered the facility where wild animals are housed for exhibition, the first thing that encountered us was not the python but the pop-corn stalls, ice cream parlors and Coffee café. Well this is the best beginning a child can expect in any zoo isn’t it. Definite result of these stalls, the entrance was crowded.  I seriously wonder about human tendency to buy short eats wherever they go. You go to movies, you have to walk-in with pop-corn, Soda and Nachos with loads of tomato sauce, hot melted cheese (100% fat), and loads of spicy pickles. You wish that person sitting next to you holds the pop-corn pot and lets you to enjoy the movie without even causing little pain to your hands. You go to a park, you have to find a stall that sells tea and you have to drink that watery milk at any cost. You visit a supermarket, at any time of the day, just the sight of food, don’t know how well it is prepared, well- decorated though, and it pushes you want to taste everything on the display.  Obesity has become universal theme; in any part of the world, today Soda Cans, Pop-Corn, Ice Creams, Kebabs rule unanimously. They don’t have any competition whatsoever. Health talks, doctors’ advice, and dreams of having a thin waistline have taken the backseat.

 

For once we deiced against buying anything for the road and went on to see the Flamingoes, large pink web-footed wading bird, why do they have these birds at the entrance. Is it because, people in Dubai are used to seeing these birds daily and or is it because, flamingoes are easily available for display. After seeing the deers with short erect tails next to flamingoes, I didn’t quite get the soul principle of categorizing these animals. I’m accustomed to seeing birds at one side, Cats at another end. Here the entire image was distorted. I couldn’t map the logic behind having wild cats next to deers and red ass monkey’s next to these cats. We moved on admiring the wild grass, bamboo shoots and saw some wild goats, and red cherry trees. Pavements were beautifully laid out; rocks of same kind were arranged fighting fit and bright sun above made it look even better. Next two large cages were empty, not totally empty; a sign of life was there, except for the fact that it wasn’t breathing, a dead eagle was floating dead happily I guess. 

 

Our next stop was at Bengal Tigers courtyard.  Those tigers looked healthy, the wild spirit, the aggressiveness, were definitely not lingering in that courtyard.  They looked lethargic, given up & total submissive. Will we ever catch a tiger in its true nature, no idea? Just like tamed humans, it was also behaving to please the audience, once in while, yawning and showing its unused teeth.  I took close pictures and we moved on to see a bear, another interesting note, why a bear next to a tiger. The bear, habituated to getting bananas, peanuts, chocolate bars from the visitors; was standing in a ready position to get whatever has been thrown abundantly. There were two well fed bears, one was very active to get extra food and another was not bothered about the surroundings. It was not even bothered to tear the camera cover lying next to it. I don’t even want to discuss the genius ways the people take to get the attention of wild beasts. Black to yellowish colored, a large spotted feline, a panther was relaxing in the next compartment. Just when I wondering whether the cheetah was painted black, I saw magnificent royal black panther slowly crawling up the unnatural mountain. Since I was a kid, Black Panthers always fascinated me. These wild cats give me sense of pride, the authority, the power that no can alter or change. When they run, I’m sure that the wind gets mesmerized. The beauty, the strength, the perfection, the excellence, no one can match or will ever dream of running along those lines. An aquatic reptile having a long snout with massive jaws and sharp teeth and a body covered with bony plates, was relaxing in the sun. From distance it appeared as if it was dead, however, if you look deeply in the eyes of it, you will suddenly remember the fear you experienced while watching one of those best Steve Irwin’s shows.

 

It is often said and believed that amongst all wild cats, the Lion or Leo is strongest and most brute of all cats. I had an episode to witness at lions den. There were five tawny coated skinny looking lions. Two Leos were very lazy even to move, they were relaxing without giving any impression of royal existence. One of those five big cats was restlessly moving like a man without any ambition or goal. This cat was so energetic that it circled the artificial den many times within a few seconds. It might be the calorie conscious Leo, who knows. Large gregarious predatory feline was busy on the top of the rock pleasing its mate. It was biting its mate’s neck, caressing its body and unfortunately it had to do everything in public. Still it didn’t care, it progressed well, by then the crowd around that cage had grown and every opening to spot this scene was blocked for a late comer. People actually took pleasure in witnessing beasts make out. Well, this is another very sensitive topic which I don’t wish to discuss here esp. when talking about animals’ exhibition.

 

We moved on from there, we were already exhausted and my friend started complaining that it’s already close to evening and still we haven’t had a single glimpse of food. We could’ve certainly lived for a week or two without food, taking into consideration the plenty of stored energy we have, but you are used to eating on time. Remember what your mom used to you tell you, eat full, sleep tight & play right. We decided against our abdomen calls; and continued our exploration.

 

Our next exploration reminded me of the Jurassic Park movie, remember the bird cage where in you can only enter and exit is to left to the mercy of the inhabitants. We moved in slowly pushing the iron gates to be attacked by an archaeopteryx but the more we gazed at the wired mesh the more empty it looked. It took sometime to figure out that birds are floating below the bridge rather than flying above. There were many kinds of lovely feathered birds. The water was dark green, gave an impression that the water was a real luxury in the desert. However bad the water looked, pure white Swan next to the dirty water was enjoying gulping down the stream. There were bird poops all over the railings and we didn’t feel like noticing those things while live amazing action was going on. We came out of bird cage safe though to enter the Nocturnal mode. My friends were forced to remove their flashy sunglasses to see what’s inside that dark room.  Even the dark moonless nights will be brighter than the room we went in. I tried taking some pictures of night-time cats, owls, but nothing soaked well in my camera.  We could barely see what was around us; seriously, whoever designed that room must have hated light and all those nighttime’s creatures.

Later on, it was time to witness the most venomous and the most dangerous reptiles of this earth. We saw many thin, long, flexible, colorful snakes in the Reptiles room, coiled dangerously behind glass cages. There were turtles, iguanas and many other reptiles in those fascinating glass urns.  Every snake had its own story to narrate, its own dangerous episode to reveal. I dread these snakes the most; still I admire the beauty of each scale vehemently.

 

We came out in piece and took a break. Still No desire to eat and drink anything; I don’t know what stopped us in buying juice, or chocolates, was it the crowd or animals, or unspoken unkempt stench- whatever, we moved to an African zone from there. It was magnificent to witness beasts in harmony. There were Giraffes, Zebras, Deers,   Birds of some kind, I don’t know their names, all lived together. Gave a perfect picture of lived happily ever after.  I took some awesome pictures of these glorious animals and moved to see an Ostrich in a small cage. For the first time, I saw an Ostrich so close, never knew its two-toed feet looked so ugly yet powerful. It looked as if it can squash a humans head with no effort at all. The flightless bird’s features were so gigantic and sturdy that it gave me a feeling that I can never pluck one of those featherings. It made weird sounds; I don’t know whether it was admiring my presence or appreciating me stopping by at its cage. 

 

One of my friend was very much interested to meet his ancestors, at that very moment, while he mentioning we should go see them, we heard thundering roar. Everyone around us stopped what they were doing and turned around to see where it is coming from. We immediately walked across to see the majestic Leo with long coarse hair around its neck, resting in a grandiose manner; it cared less for its surroundings. We didn’t see any companions for him, he was a lone ranger, staring at the unknown horizon and roaring and proclaiming its existence to mortal weaklings staring at him beyond the safe fence.  If I close my eyes and think about it, I can still recall that spine shivering thunder.

 

As I have told you before, many times, about my fascination towards aquariums and its dwellers, I was thrilled to see an Aqua zone.  Closed for renovation board mashed my electrifying wish… and we moved on to see a bird house. A Bird house, another one! It was humid and hot, thought it might be for birds lived in tropics or deserts. I was right. We found many desert birds including the one I see everyday- dumb pigeons. Just when we were about get out of that bird house, we literally saw a tropical set-up changing into North Pole. There were many penguins swimming, posing and moving in that chilly water.  They were very sharp though, why do I say so- to take pictures, we made sounds to attract penguins to us, they came expecting some delicious fishes, soon they learnt that the calls we made were false call for food & no use coming to us. It was splendid to see the underwater swimming skills of penguins.

 

We thought of winding up at this point of time. We were hungry & tired and we didn’t know where to look for the gorillas we wished to see. On our way back, we finally, accidentally bumped into chimpanzees and orangutans. Chimpanzees were fine, they looked like monkeys but orangutans looked like over-sized old ugly beasts. Interestingly, they were chewing gum and one of them was fascinated playing with that gum. Whatever said and done, we were disappointed to see the sight of those monkeys. We slowly dragged us out of those apes sight to get something to eat at late in the evening.  In a land where vegetation is a dream, having a fine-looking zoo is also a herculean task. This is wasn’t the best zoo in the world but definitely good enough for this desert.