'When growing up, I was always encouraged to look at different kinds of art, When I was six, my parents took my siblings and me to Greece where I was bored out of my mind looking at art. It didn't make sense to me. But I developed an interest after that. My freshman year in college, I studied Italian Renaissance Art, and the teacher was fabulous. It was a very visual class with slides and not just text-books. I could relate to visuals. It was an opportunity to learn historical facts and at the same time, an avenue for my own interpretation, because they always asked students to see a painting and critically interpret it.'

Tiger Watch. Two words that more or less sum up the life of Fateh Singh Rathore who one can safely add to the list of the Macho Men of the world. For the world that surrounds the rugged looking Fateh Singh is full of dare and drama, action and adrenaline.

And beautiful creatures. Like the tiger, for example. Born in Jodhpur, Fateh Singh has made it his life�s mission to be in the service of His Majesty, The Tiger, forever and forever.

It was way back when Fateh was in the employ of the Maharana of Udaipur and looking after his Game Reserve that he joined forces with the government of Rajasthan and came to Ranthambore as Game Ranger. His first task was to prepare for the visit of the Queen of England who was going to visit the forest. She was to go on a shikar. Or at least sit in a maachan all night and �lie in wait� for some �game� to appear. And however inappropriate the term may seem in royal connection, that�s what the entourage which also comprised our elegant Maharani Gayatri Devi and the Maharaja of Jaipur, did all night.

Well, right from days of accompanying royal visitors on Ha Ka shoots (driving the tiger towards the VIP maachans, with drums, gunshots and ha-ka, ha-ka sounds) to riding into a trackless jungle on his 350cc Bullet motorbike for supervision, to building the first fair weather road into the forest in the 60s and then much later developing Ranthambore into a Tiger Reserve in 1979, Fateh Singh Rathore first as the Game Ranger and then as the Wildlife Warden of Ranthambore, spent his entire working life caring for, looking after and protecting the Tiger. With love and passion, sincerity, discipline and dedication.

No wonder then that he is called the Tiger Man of India. He worked miracles on the Reserve which was his baby right from conceptualisation to planning to implementation. Villages were relocated, water bodies were created, tracks were made to permit Rangers to patrol and slowly the animals started to return and stay put in the newly-created conducive environment. Fateh Singh worked relentlessly, turning the park into a beautiful area of forest, lakes and grassland. However, the world also has its share of sinister and selfish people and not everybody was to appreciate his work. He was badly beaten by 30 villagers in October 1981 and this unfortunate incident saw him in hospital for three months!

But men like Fateh Singh are built of sterner stuff and he dismisses such memories with the wave of a hand and recounts other aspects of his interesting life.

Like the time they would indulge in jungle cooking, on dark nights under a moonlit sky. Ghoda, mokal, khadkhargosh. Wild hare slow-cooked in an earthen pot into a mash, on a wood fire, or wrapped in rough cloth and buried into a pit with burning logs. Such an adventurous lifestyle one had only read about until one met Fateh, and now to be accompanying him into his beloved forest, driving around in an open jeep, looking out for tigers, listening to him talk sometimes loud and ho-ho-ho and sometimes in whispers, was an altogether different experience.

Bet Bill Clinton whose company the high and mighty were seeking even if just for a moment, on his India visit, must have enjoyed every minute of the two hours he spent in our Fateh�s company! Clinton was a lucky guy, for the most beautiful tiger wandered into their path and plonked himself most casually right there in front of the vehicle of the President of the United States of America!

Fateh Singh Rathore is a content man full of happy memories and wonderful stories. In his youthful hey days, Fateh was known to the villagers around as phatphattia, naturally this was on accord of the bike which he was brave enough or shall we say mad enough to ride into the forest in search of the tiger! Now, of course, it�s another story, he is affectionately known as Fateh Kaka by the village children around there who he takes into the forest to educate and instill in them the love for tigers.

Fateh who lives next to the Tiger Reserve is now retired, officially � I should add, for such people never retire. And they mustn�t, for the reservoir of information that is within them and the knowledge that can be culled from their experiences can never be got from no books, no school. Thankfully, he is as jauntily active as ever as vice-chairman of his organisation, aptly called Tiger Watch. In addition he gives an informal audio visual lecture every evening at the lounge of Vanyavilas, the luxury �tent� hotel of Oberoi. He has been involved with several books in association with Valmik Thapar, another face of the tiger. He also raises funds and helps the Forest Department by giving them Canters and Jeeps for patrolling purposes. But the best is when Fateh wakes up early every morning, 6 o�clock, prunes some plants on his splendid 18 acre property, eats a healthy breakfast, bathes, dresses, throws on his fancy feathered hat, and like an ex-army General flamboyantly drives his jeep away into the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve next door, for just a small dekho... or shall we say � darshan!