Zebba, Ippo and Eyetaya!

If you come into the Jain ghar these days, you will see a little boy walking around the house saying Zebba! Baergatta! Ippo! Baby! Baergatta! M says I have scarred him forever by taking him to Bannerghatta National Park. That he will be found walking chanting Zebba even at age 20 perhaps. Sometimes, I almost tend to agree. But I am already planning to take him to Mysore Zoo in near future. They even have a giraffe I have heard!


At the entrance. raring to go!

Anyhoo, now that Cubby had started recognizing lot of animals and can walk for fairly long time without demanding "Gooddi" (carry me request said in one word!), we though good time to take him to the zoo. And it was so totally worth it.



Oho! Mummy stop posing for pics! Let's go!

Ofcos the day started funny with rain gods deciding to do their sense of humour bit by making it rain in middle of January! I kept having my intense one on one with God demanding the rain be taken away with immediate effect, but the cludy n cool weather could stay. Afterall you can only bargain as much and the rains did stop by the time we entered the zoo, though cool n cloudy, not really! :p

Bass aise hi. GK ke liye! :p

We decided to skip the safari considering we were not sure if Cubby will enjoy being in a small bus with grilled windows and squinting to see tigers and lions. Plus there was a mile long Q for it. So we bought our tickets for the zoo and camera and went it.

Can you see the python, somewhere down there?!

Bannerghatta is a tad confusing and its not easy to find animals you really want to see. I mean would an 18month old actually care about a huge cobra that lying on the floor or hidden in it's cave with just the tail showing?! Anyhoo, we first found Bear which is an animal Cubby recognizes. There were three of em and one was eating Ganna (sugarcane). So now the series goes Bear! Baergatta. You ask what does Bear eat?! He replies Ganna! :) The grills have very small squares and for a kid it's not easy to make out what is prowling the cage.

That's a Bear! It is eating ganna!

We saw some monkeys, langurs etc and Cubby was quite happy though not as excited as we thought he would be. The leopard didn't interest him at all and the hyena was too stinky to stand there for long. The small tortoises were really cute, but thanks to almost no movement I am not sure how much Cubby noticed. Same goes for crocodiles, who were sunning themselves like statues that even I had a doubt if they are real. Some moved suddenly and we tried to see Cubby would notice it. He does say Cocodile now! ;) So maybe he did.

I think there is leopard somewhere in the background! :p

What really got a reaction was his favourite Zebra. He could not believe his eyes that he was seeing a live Zebba about 50times the size of his toy one. Plus the fencing had enough gap to see it clearly. Add to that it is a good looking animal. The black n white stripes, taut and shiny skin and right there within your grasp. Cubby was totally fascinated. Till date he identifies Bannerghatta outing with Zebba more than anything else.

Isn't the baby Ippo totally cute!

Hippo (Ippo) also became quite a favourite. My belief all babies are cute came true when we saw a baby Ippo. It was adorable and stuck to it's mum (i guess) all the time. They also came and gave them food while we were there, so we showed Cubby how they were having their khaana.

I am bored now, Mommy!

Eyetaya (Elephant) didn't get as much approval as we though. Or maybe it was because he was tired by now. He had been walking with us almost the entire time, demanding godi every now and then and walking again when little refreshed. We saw some birds, but that didn't interest him much, neither did the listless aquarium. I have seen better stuff in homes.

WE took a lunch break and ate some OK types biryani available at the government stall. Egg rice, more like it. Tried feeding Cubby some cerelac. The stall was next to the children's play area and Cubby went absolutely ballistic just playing in sand rather than go on slides and swings which we made him do for our khushi! :p

See- saw! Up Down! Upar Neeche!


I am doing this only for their happiness!


Id much rather play in mitti! One fistful of sand has so many interesting things! :)

Ofcos, playing in it with Zebba, even more fun!

Zebba ROCKS! people! :D

Where is my Zebba?!


Oh my god! What do I do now?!


What the heck?! I will just play with sand again!

We then tried hunting for rabbits which turned out to be futile and we just kept going in circles. Plus we were terribly tired by then and decided to call it a day, leaving the rest to another day. And we will be back soon indeed! :)

Chalo bhai. Ab ghar chalein?!



Haan please! I am so tired. And sleepy.

ps: We don't have too many animal pics because its difficult to click em through the mesh and we were too fascinated by Cubby's reactions to bother taking pics at that time. His expression to me read "OMG! These things exist OUT of books and even move!"

pps: for anyone who wants more details on Bannerghatta National park, here's my review with more practical details! http://bangalore.metromela.com/article/Go+wild+at+Bannerghatta+National+Park/2407