>From http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030406/spectrum/main3.htm The scent of shikar Sunday, April 6, 2003 QUOTE: Over years of colonial rule, shikar grew into an institution, acquiring a cult of high status for the British assured of the natives servility. It meant an exclusive sport, a face-to-face encounter with the world's exotic wildlife, an experience of romantic thrill in jungle, a taste of power and pride-all coupled together in reality-a tamasha of glorified, organised animal slaughter. Charles Allen opined, "... (shootings) were an essential part of rituals of state, necessary displays of power by princes, made largely impotent by Pax Britannica." The English combined political guile and escape from daftar's drudgery with shooting and entertainment. "Come and stay with us in India and we will arrange for you to shoot tigers from the back of elephants from the back of tigers," Lord Curzon remarked to a friend giving an alternative to England's boring fox hunting. UNQUOTE ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India