Photo Gallery - Biking in Kansal

Friday Morning: 21st Aug'09

With plenty of first timers, allow me to introduce them to you.
CAT Riyaal had brought along his neighbour Minnie,
CAT Uday had his lovely wife Crystal with him,
then we also had Ajit, Lynn, Harman and Kimberly;
not to forget our regulars CAT Sandeep and CAT Harpreet.

Our multi-lingual and multi-cultural pack of 11 CATS
left Karuna Sadan at 6.10am, where CAT Pramod
personally handed over the bikes on rent to us.

The staff of Mr Ishwar Singh was as effective and vigilant, as ever!

Between the 10 of us, we could speak 9 languages and
had collectively visited nearly 30 countries!

Rearing to hit the trail within the Kansal Forest....

Lynn, I and Kimberly radiating in the splendid natural habitat of Kansal :)

....washing powder NIRMA ;-)

CAT Gurinder's son Harman, who was over from UK
for 10 days was simply over-awed by the beautiful environment
he was surrounded with...

He kept on saying, 'This is not India!!!'

The newly constructed Watch Tower in the side lawns of the
Log Hut at Kansal offering panoramic views all around

The walls of the Watch Towers give valuable pictorial information
about the flora, fauna to be found in the local jungle...

along with geographical details about the forest as well..
commendable attention to detail from Mr Ishwar Singh again...

Most of us were reminded of the Swiss chalets we had
been visiting, whilst walking back towards our bikes...

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning spent biking in Kansal CATS.


Saturday Morning: 22nd Aug'09

7 of us got onto our bikes from Karuna Sadan again at 6am
for yet another visit to Kansal... the main difference from yesterday
was that we had 3 kids with us to take care of today :)

CAT Amanat and CAT Ansh waiting for me to complete the formalities of the gate entry...

Just then the gate keeper arrived with a 4days old kitten,
which was being hunted by 3 dogs close to the forest gate...
as you can see, the kitten appears to be as big as CAT Amanat's hand!

With no sign of its' mother CAT around,
our own little kittens tried their best to provide comfort
to the meowing kitten; but to no effect...

The gate-keeper eventually decided to take the kitten
under his shelter till it grew up to fend for itself...

With the little kitten taken care of, our own
pack of CATS left behind our gang set to take off :)

Hardly had we got onto our bikes when kids came across
the first dam full of tadpoles and some mating butterlies...
Though CAT Ajit and CAT Rachna managed to stop them from
paddling deep into the water, it was an enjoyable lesson in biology for them ;-)

This pond held attention further as it had various stages
of being; from tadpoles to frogs in it...
Both CAT Ansh and CAT Aman were so curious that
they almost fell into the pond...

We had to raise our voice to get the boys back on the bikes!

CAT Uday had to rush back to get ready for work,
but we decided to explore the area around Kansal Log Hut
a little more with the kids...

Can you imagine that whilst the city baked in heat,
we had this lovely foggy morning greeting us by the lake at Kansal...

CAT Ajit was surprised to see that we had come
fully prepared with cookies, fruit, lassi, juices, rusks
and sandwiches for the biking morning!

Our services were improving by the day :)

and this was the state of Sun at 8.15am that morning ;-)

Though CAT Ajit had come only for the second time with us,
but he had already become an indispensible part of CATS...
He took our kittens to the field after breakfast when our
highly observant CAT Ansh said while running,
'meri tummy mein khaana uchhal raha hai!!!'

if you thought the fun was over with the biking, THINK AGAIN...

As we all waited for CAT Rachna to get back on track
since she had missed a turning, this lovely little pool with a fish and
single blooming lotus caught the attention of our kids AGAIN!!

Despite being given many warning by CAT Ajit and I,
they tried to hunt for the little fish kept in water to clean it off mosquitoes,
they tried to beat the little frogs in water with a stick...
till they lept a little more towards the pool...

and SPLASH.....

A very sheepish CAT Ansh was found amoung the fish and lotus in the pool !!!

CAT Ajit quickly pulled him out of the shallow pool,
amidst roaring laughter and bewildered looks ;-)

To this day, neither do we know nor we are sure
CAT Ansh has figured out, just how on earth did
he manage to land himself in the pond.

A BIG LESSON of this beautiful and memorable biking morning is:
Always LISTEN to your elders!!

- CAT Supreet