Chandu's Blog

Resolve..

2011-05-22T10:46:00.000+05:30

to be back to active blogging..... sooooon
with the new camera plan on the anvil, it won't be long before I bombard the blog with images!
Beware of getting bored of seeing more baby pics, can't help it..

A memorable start

2011-01-26T22:10:00.002+05:30

Cannot start the new year on a better note...
Nothing can beat this feeling...
Thanks heavens for the gift...

Ladies and gentlemen.... presenting our "bundle of joy"...

HNY

2010-12-31T11:39:00.002+05:30

Happy new year friends
Hope all your wishes, dreams come true this year!

Gorookana / Gorukana

2010-11-21T21:21:00.001+05:30

Last weekend I had been to BR Hills with kids of valley school, volunteering for a nature camp in association with ATREE. Although I cut short my stay down to one day, it's nice to be back in jungles and especially with the kids. Deepa had caught the whole episode on her blog at http://deponti.livejournal.com/740798.html in detailed posts.

Soligas are the tribals living in BR Hills and surrounding areas (in adjoining tamilnadu forests). They have been living in jungles from ages and depends on nature and forest for their livelihood. They have very good knowlegde of jungles, the wild life, medicinal plants found there. We visited VGKK, started by Dr.Sudarshan which is insrumental is tranforming their lives. Meeting the kids there, made the trip more memorable.

The contrast in lives of the soliga kids and the city bred kids is quite visible, but kids are kids and we had good fun. When the question "How many of you spotted tiger", apparently the hands kept going up. Can't believe that the kids goes to jungle everyday after school to collect firewood! No Xboxes, No Cartoon network, No Theme parks. All they have are green and lush jungles around, a lake to swim, a hillock to climb and fresh air and full of plays and loads of fun!

What kept me haunting from the trip is the beautiful song the children sung while interacting with valley school kids. All I could understand was the word Gorookana (or was it Gorukana) which we were told means a spider (my guess - giant wood spiders that we found every 10 mts while walking). But the song was too tempting that I ended up searching for the lyrics and meaning.

Although I didn't find the right song, here I found something closer.

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/album/31-Kannada_Movie_Songs/22427-Bhoomigeetha__1997_/#/album/31-Kannada_Movie_Songs/22427-Bhoomigeetha__1997_/

It's nice, melodic and I can understand few words in the lyrics that they are referring the jungles in the song titled "Gorookana". I have recorded the audio when the kids sang, but I guess it's not kannada. I want to go back document the lyrics, translate and publish here, since I cannot find them on net. All I found was a reference mentioned in someone's profile that he was instumental in taking sholiga's to delhi to sing this song.

If any of you could help in translating the original (i guess the song was not in kannada) or the commercial version of it (in kannada in the link above) drop me a mail. Till then enjoy the music of ilayaraja in the above link.Almost forgot, VGKK started a resort and hired all sholiga's there. It's equaly beautiful. Here is the link to it .

Creepy Google!!

2010-11-01T11:35:00.003+05:30

I was composing a mail today and intend to attach a file and mentioned about it in the mail.

But with absent-mindedness, I clicked on the SEND button and bingo Gmail popped up this question and woke me up..! (click on image for a better view)

Kudos to the guys who thought of this feature! Very very handy, I must say, at least to the people like me and helps avoid embarassment. Microsoft guys are you listening?? I am sick of MS Outlook.

Hey wait, but on the other hand it's spooky that Gmail is reading/analyzing your mail content!

Anyways, I am no spy exchaging confidential data! I am excited to chance upon this new feature.

Good work folks@ google!

Inviting

2010-10-16T18:25:00.001+05:30

Brought this new poster home today!!! :)

Copyrights of the images are with dreamlandpublications.

Blame it on birdwatching!?

2010-10-07T05:27:00.000+05:30

Me: What should we name our kids??
Wifey: hmm why not "pigeon", "coucal" etc etc; you might enjoy calling them by those names! ( a sarcastic smile)
Me: err....(long pause + grin)

Touching thirties

2010-09-28T15:04:00.000+05:30

All set for the exciting 30's!! New phase of life awaiting.
Need to sit down and jot my resolutions

Rail boa(i)rding

2010-09-06T10:08:00.002+05:30

I love traveling in trains and enjoy the window views and can sit hours doing nothing but sitting next to a window and watch. Ever since I started birding the pleasure I derive out of this doubled. In fact even my bus journey too is not as boring as it used to be!

I especially enjoy the mornings, as soon as I see daylight, I wake up and start glancing out of window or the door till my tummy cramps of hunger!So I started doing birding from train after boarding it!

As you wake up in the morning and stand next to the door, the cool breeze that hits your face and the unique fragrances the wind carries makes me feel so good (baring those you experience as you enter urban
places in the morning, you know what I am talking about) . The colors of skies, changing terrains, different vegetation all makes it interesting. So when you add birding to those pleasures it will turn out to be awesome!

Last Friday night I boarded the Hyderabad bound train and as usual woke up early and started my birding.
It rained the previous night and the skies are overcast. Everything looked green and fresh with shining drops of water on leaves. The red vented bulbuls are the first to be noticed followed by happy-go-singing ashy prinias.
I tell you it's different ball game birding from the train.

You need to be confident and quick at spotting and there is no second look. It gets tougher when train picks up speed and easier when it slows down.

I was expecting just the common species and kept an eye open. As the train went past a Water body I could quickly see a white throated kingfisher and few cormorants. One interesting thing is that as the train goes past a place the birds get disturbed from their perches and start flying away thus giving you good chance of spotting them! I saw a purple heron doing that besides few herons and cattle egrets.

Surprisingly at one place I noticed a couple of birds that looked very much like francolins , they stay still very close to the track say 10 mtrs away unfazed by the speeding train! What followed next was the biggest surprise of the morning for me, as the train went past a green meadow two birds came flying and perched on tree top and i figured them out to be a pair of pied cuckoos. I had seen pied cuckoo but never in pairs! When i just thought that made my day, the train this time fiushed off a black shouldered kite from a perch at lower elevation which swiftly moved to another perch closer to the train! Ilost a breath there!

I saw small egrets, cattle egrets in the paddy fields as well as pond herons. The best part is spotting peafowls! They are literally everywhere to be seen. For a stretch of 30-40 kms, Every 10 mins I spotted one or more. This particular area is between raichur and Secunderabad stations, more precisely closer to vikarabad. At one
small station I noticed a colony of swallows making nest below road-over-rail bridge. I saw swifts, silverbills , mynas and lots of doves worth a mention, they are the ones that get flushed first! A baya weaver nest just barely above surface of a water body made it interesting.

This is truly one of my memorable railway birdings... Here is the list:
1. Common myna
2. House crow
3. Jungle crow
4. Pied cuckoo
5. Spotted dove
6. Laughing dove
7. Peafowl
8. Indian robin
9. Cattle egret
11. Small egret
12. Pond heron
13. White throated kingfisher
14. Purple heron
15. Little cormorant
16. Black shouldered kite
17. Francolins (?)
18. Silverbills (?)
19. Ashy prinia
20. Swifts (?)

Rail birding is interesting since you hardly need any equipment and the train will flush the birds for you.
The habitats keep changing, you get to see birds of different habitats without walking.... so many advantages! hey but remember to hold onto the supporting rod while standing at the door

Am I alone or does any of you do this kind of birding? Would love to hear your experiences! Well that reminded me of Karthik talking about the swallow congregation he noticed on a rail bridge!

Hi-derabad

2010-08-27T21:59:00.000+05:30

Two days before trip: Tickets booked on tatkal, train

Day of journey....

5:30 pm : book cab stay relaxed
6:05 pm : double check cab confirmation calling customercare
6:20 pm: grinning at cab confirmation SMS
6:30 pm : call cab driver smelled smtng fishy
6:40 pm: cab driver drama unfolded, oh no not again!
6:55 pm: frustrated yet again hearing bng auto driver demands

7:00 pm: ahh finally one honest guy, jump innnnn
7:15 pm: is this an auto or bullock cart!dhu
7:30 pm: traffic jam

7:40 pm: preempt auto1 and get into auto2 agreeing to pay 1.5
7:41 pm: autrocketious driving
7:50 pm: bigg traffic jam
8:05 pm: racing with cars and all set to reach destination early
8:15 pm : reached station, for a change I have to wait for the train

8:35 pm: why is the train not moved to platform 5
8:40 pm : for a change railways played a trick, the train arrives on Pf4
9:00 pm: already 10 mins late, will it start!!
9:10 pm: thank god finally we moved, Hyderabad here I come

Whatz on menu??
Paradise CB
Haleem hmmm
Pullareddy sweets
Watch out for more updates!

Car Quotes

2010-07-30T11:40:00.000+05:30

Couple of days back, when the auto I am in stopped at a traffic signal, I noticed this car with all stickers over the rear glass. I read them and a had a good time. Thought of sharing with you all.

Spare the quality of the picture since it's clicked on iPhone.
Here are the quotes:

"Driver carries no cash
HE IS MARRIED"

"My wife gives me sound advice
99% sound and 1 advice"

"A man is not complete
until he is married
after that he is finished"

There are few more quotes which I could not manage to click

Updates from Amrikka

2010-07-18T22:43:00.000+05:30

Alright, it's been a week since I landed here so I thought I should update. Last one week has been super. Tried some new things in life and another 4 days before I fly back to India.

Thanks to the Summer here, from weather perspective, I don't feel like I was away from home except that the sun is little too harsher than it is in India. So one week flew by so fast! Today we have to say bye-bye to Bosie and fly to Portland and then drive to Corvallis.

One week at Boise has ben memorable, pleasant to tell the least. Finally I got a chance to meet the people with whom I have been working from the past 5 years! Feels so good. Friday adn saturday are more eventful and more on that in next posts. Let me now pack the stuff and fly to Corvallis.

Now... and Then...

2010-06-26T08:07:00.004+05:30

Then....
A college passed out, with full of dreams and aspirations to make it big, somehow "managed' to pool funds , knocked the door to let in was instead shown the door, just because of some stupid unintended dishonest answers owed out of immaturity and nervousness.

Now...
An executive representing a company, with barely any expectations, want to fly per official work, sponsored by company, knocked the door to let in - was shown a red-carpet and admitted within no time with hardly any questions and without verifying any of the additional proofs!

Finally, after 8 days short of 8 years, the otherwise unfortunate "passport" has been "stamped" .
Gearing up for an official trip to US, sponsored by office for 10 days. So get ready to hear amrikka news
Guess what information I am searching for!!?.. of course birds of the area !
Time is just magical! it does heal, but hey wait for your turn!

Back to civilization

2010-05-29T11:49:00.002+05:30

Well not exactly back from a trip, but back to senses and normal life after a hectic 3 months work schedule and especially the gruelling last 1.5 months. Got rid of chaos, tensions and delivery dates and kind of relaxing now. So hope to bring this blog back to life.

Google Pranks

2010-04-01T20:52:00.000+05:30

Love google guys creativity and innovation!! April 1st is always google special
If you have missed this year prank's and hoaxes, then here is the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google's_hoaxes#2010
Enjoy..

Slipping..

2010-04-01T05:20:00.000+05:30

I can't call them deadlines, rather some stupid estimations that one need to adhere to make sure someone is happy about the way things are going, no matter whether you struggle, run, chase, pause and do whatever. It happened again, yet another "schedule slippage" feather in my cap and my manager is all guns at me after this one.

Schedules are something that always troubles me. Especially when one has to THINK and implement rather just do a monotonous task. My woeful time management doesn't help the cause either making it even tougher to meet deadlines. With a colleague who put his paper, how does one make him inspire to do a job neat!? Poor chap, had a bad last day in office with all GITA teachings from what would be the ex-manager from the next day! On the other hand- lucky chap, had it done and gone. But, yours truly is going to count numbers to stay calm during the next 1-1 meeting with manager where magnifying glass will be extensively used to do a work-o-logical analysis resulting in nothing but de-moralising the soul!

So what happened next! yet another extended deadline that results in extended work hours, sleep late, wake up late, give up hobbies for a couple of weekends and finally "meet" and shake hands with deadlines. So here I am, working early in the morning trying to kick the deadlines a$$.

Yaay.. Did I finally find it!!?

2010-03-27T12:40:00.002+05:30

The hunt is "on" from the past few years. To be precise, from the moment my ex-manager threw the question on my face, it used to tease me at times and trouble me at some other. The one question in my life that I am afraid to confront at times. The one question that I keeps asking myself and gets lost and pushes off. The one question that I always hope to find the "answer" some-day some-time. The reason is that the answer to that question is very crucial.

The answer to one question that I felt is very important to take my next step. The one answer that can decide my job, my next step, my next thought and may be my next job or my career! The one answer that can either leave me bankrupt or may be millionaire (too optimist huh!). The one answer that can keep my spirits up or pushes me down. The answer that has a potential to make or break my future! The one answer that I have been searching for all these days. The one oasis in my life of desert. Finally, today I saw a glowing street light at the end of the street (for a change tunnels are no longer fashion ).

The one place in the world where my mind can think in peace, tension-free, innovative, being-with-self,introspect,retrospect,think of things-to-do/achieve is my bathroom. That's where I find better ideas in my life :P. Today after having a long discussion with my colleague on some office work, I went for a bath and while taking bath it flashed in my mind- an almost answer to my question.

Felt like I were walking on bangalore streets late in the night without worrying about the partying dogs. Felt jubiliant, like licking the last spoon of chocolate from the hot-chocolate fudge of my neighbour! Felt like flying in the air minus no air traffic & pollution. Felt like eating the crackling jalebi, off the road side vendor. Felt like drenching in the rain while sipping coffee. Felt like what it feels like gulping 10 panipuri's for one-rupee!

Felt like walking on bangalore pavements breathing fresh air and without a fear of crash! Felt like licking the dew off the leaves or glass blades in the the early winter mornings. Felt like sleeping out in the mid-day sun with a blanket! I almost avoided an Archimedes=Eurekha act and came out of the bathroom and started composing this post so that I will remember this moment and the day.

Now, not to dissapoint the sincere readers like you who is currently reading this line and feeling irritated about what the heck I am talking about- let me write what I finally found out. I "think" I found answer to the question- what do I enjoy most?. Yes, I know, it looks awkward, but when I think about myself, think about my life, think about my career, think about technical choices, think about my commitemnts, when I question my decisions, my acts, I always end up with questions like- Do I enjoy this, what exactly makes me excited, what exactly makes me go and do that extra bit, go and commit myself for a cause, propells me, excites me, I always end up with this question and end up with no anwer. But today, I found what I think is almost an anwer for my troubled soul.

So without making you wait any longer, let me tell you what I found! Yeah I swear, unlike in previous paragraph, to reveal it in this one. I found that - The thought of "doing" something that has a potential to "help" someone by saving their effort (or time) or something that can avoid them the pain of going through something which I or someone else had experienced makes me excited and do it with more interest and hence I enjoy doing it!!So when I asked myself for more clarity and when I co-relate with all the activities I do with interest and passion, somehow this seems to answer the WHY part of most of the things I do or I take interest in (refer explanation of doing below). Here is a detailed explanation of the words in italic and quotes in the above statement. Doing=desinging, supporting, working, thinking, making, co-operating, engaging myselfg into help=monetary, support(physically/emotionally), make them happy, feel enlightened, enhance knowledge!

So did I find the one that I am looking for?Or did I see the wron'un(IPL jargaon)? Am I imaging too much? Is this just the tip of the ice-cube?(global warming melted the ice-bergs)? Is this the day that I am destined to know more about self? Is this the day that can change my attitude towards life? Only Mr.Time and Mr.God (i am not andrine(mascuilne of faminine??) will answer the new question in my mind= "Is this the one!??".
****The ~~End~~ begining*****
Oh yeah, I almost forgot- I liked your patience (or impatience in scrolling down directly to read the end) and that lovely smile on your face you sported after reading last few lines. Now co-relate these words with my answer. Didn'tyou see a relation!? Caugh you napping.. hahaha... enjoy folks... watch out Chandu ver 2.0 is around!

Blogart, Blogtter and Blogiful!

2010-03-25T13:52:00.006+05:30

Well that's not a foreign language, I am talking about blogger.com in bloguage!
After a really looooooooong time, blogger is back with exciting stuff.
Check out the new blogger url - http://draft.blogger.com

Now you know why and how I changed my blog's look and feel!!
Alas, I wish they have an option to upload custom images.
Try it and let me know how you felt!

Missing you....

2010-03-18T08:27:00.009+05:30

We first met at MG Road. We started our journey together with a trip to the hills...

from then on we are hooked, inseparable.
We went places together, to the plains.. to the fields..

We enjoyed all the seasons, the summers, the winters, the monsoons together alike...

she changed the way I think,
she changed the way I see,
she changed the way I feel,
she made me go places,
her amazing memory made me remember things
together we had seen the world, been to places, had a wonderful company...

but finally...
out of nowhere...
without a warning...
without a hint...
without a clue...
without a sign...
she had decided to part ways with me...
leaving me behind in the company of some wonderful moments we shared...

It's hard to say goodbye...
harder to digest the fact that you are no more...
I miss you my dear cam...
miss you so much...
I don't think I can afford to get you back to life...
rip my s3is...
As I go on with life, I feel the void you have left...
Your place might be taken by someone else later, but you are always special...
This post is to tell you how special you are...
You will be remembered... for what you made me, done to me and given me!

Birding at Sakaleshpur

2010-03-08T22:11:00.004+05:30

When do you say you had a great birding trip??
A. When you get to see some lifers
B. When the place is full of bird and resonates with their calls
C. When you had good food and had great time
D. When you meet like-minded people and make good friends

If we were asked this question about our birding trip to Sakaleshpur last week, without thinking we choose another option "ALL THE ABOVE". Last weekend, we (Soumyajit nandy and I) were planning to go for a birdwatching trip and were pondering about the place. That's when we saw the mail from Dr.Javid on bngbirds offering birders to stay at his place with no cost and do birding. We instantly decided to visit his place and now we are glad we did!.Now, if you have time, read through the detailed report, othewise you can scroll down to see the bird list.

******
If you thought "drag racing" happens in bangalore city, we dare prove you wrong. Do board one of those private buses to "Kukke Subramanya" that can drop you at Sakaleshpur and one hour past bangalore, it's game on!! I doubt how many souls had dozed off in our bus. Rash driving is too small a word to compare what we witnessed. Finally, we were dropped at 4 am in Sakaleshpur. Thanks to Dr.Javid, who arranged us a vehicle that can pick us up from the bus stand. At 4-30 we were picked up after watching the bats go after the moths and insects at the lamp post! After a 40 min drive, we reached Dr.Javids estate. We were greeted by Dr.Javid and his cute pups and we opted to take a quick nap after the horrendous ride that made evaded us the sleep.

Day one:
At 6-30 am, we woke up and came out to hear the symphony going around the estate. We can hear hornbills, jungle fowl, bulbuls, barbets and some strange calls (which we identified later) and the place is full of activity. We went out and the first sighting was "Ashy wood swallows". A pair of them are nesting in a tree in the estate compound. They came out and are drying out in the morning sun. Barely few minutes later, we saw a couple of racket-tailed drongos perching on a tree and flyng off in no time and a pair of White-browed wagtails were fooudn nesting in the top of the bungalow. The start made us exciting and we moved out after a cup of steaming coffee.

We selected the eastward route which goes through the coffee plantation and further down to a stream. Hardly 5 minutes into the walk, we realized what is it like birding in that terrain. Our necks have to bent more than the "plains" and our binocs and camera have to be pointed up at extreme angles. While we try to focus and identify a bird, either it fly off or another one comes and perches. We realized how diiferent it is to find, focus and identify birds in the canopy. I must admit, birding in plains is lot easier , compared to this terrain.But the variety and vocals will keep you mesmerizing and makes your neck bend!

We spotted the noisy Plum-headed parakeets followed by scarlet minivets and we can hear the wood peckers hiting hard against the wood. To be honest, for few minutes we were lost and little worried, because we can hear so mancy calls but they are too quick for us to spot, focus and identify. Later, we regained hope and chose a track that had a decent elevation over another track that goes down. Barely 20 meters into the route, the yellow-browed bulbul came and perched hardly 10 meters from us and we did had a great time watching it!Later, Malabar parakeets came along, in fact it's just the start, all through our stay and outings, malabar parakeets are spotted very frequently.

As we proceeded another 50 metres through the coffee plantation, we saw a fruiting creeper with activity around .We stopped and waited and spotted the Asian Fairy blue bird maleat "eye level" and barely 20 metres away. This guy is a beauty to be adorned. We stayed back for a while and soon a white-cheeked barbet joined the party and a couple of Orange-headed thrushes too. We had a satisfying look at them and went ahead to see the Malabar Grey hornbill perched up on a dead tree with a feed.

Few seconds later, it went further down and that's when we noticed that it is feeding another hornbill (not sure if it's young one or female, too far). Further down we spotted a Pompodaur Green pigeon.

We stayed back at the spot for half an hour since the view from the place shows the valley and all tree tops are at eye-level from the spot. We were not dissapointed as we saw the racket-tailed drongo swooping down chasing an insect catching it in mid-air and back on perch and finishing it off. It's an amazing experience to watch them do it with long trailing tail.Further, we spotted an Ashy drongo and a cuckoo-shrike.

We turned back from the spot and while walking back we finally spotted the woodpeckers that eluded us in the morning. The first one turned out to be Lesser Yellownape. As we turned to our left we saw this small bird on tree top almost at the edge of a branch. I was wondering what it was and a closer look revealed it to be Brown-capped Pygmy woodpecker (our first). In between we managed to spot the Red-whiskered bulbuls, Jungle Mynas and surprisingly no red-vented bulbuls and missed out id-ing a flycacher (looks similar to Asian brown). After 3 hours we returned to have an yummy breakfast accompanied by wonderful company of Javid sir.

As the sun came out harsh we just relaxed in the bungalow, played with the pups and enjoyed the smooth, slow and soothing music collection of Javid sir. We did a verandah birding and spotted the yellow-browed bulbul again, watched the activities at the Ashy wood swallows nest and listened to Booted warbler calls, watched the coffee seeds being cleaned and dried out in the sun. We then went down to the stream hoping to see fly-catchers but were dissapointed with no spottings and came back since sun was harsh.A little while later, I started to hear this call from closeby which I am not familiar. I walked down few metres and finally spotted a couple of Rufous treepie. The best part is, one of them perched nicely on tree top(female) and the other one started "hopping" next to it. It makes a call, hops and lands at the same place. Is this a mating ritual?This is the first time I observed this. This went on for some time and then both flew past to another tree. We had a good lunch, caught a little nap and off we go in the evening to the fields in the valley with packed tea and biscuits.

From morning one call kept haunting us. It sounded like coming off an electrical musical instrument and it was loud. We hoped that we would chase the mystery and the opporunity came ou way in the evening. While walking down the road through coffe plantations, we spotted chest-nut tailed starlings, blue-capped rock thrush and malabar parakeets. After 20 mins walk we reached the stream to see a fleeing cobra. We saw a big tree at this place where lots of birds were perching and one guy stood out. We initially thought it was a hornbill but the tail seems to be longer and as we approached closer, we saw it clearly and it turned out to be a white-bellied treepie. As we went closer to the tree is started making calls, the same one's that haunted from morning and our puzzle was solved. It's indeed a pleasure to watch a white-bellied treepie call. It moves it's whole body and let's out the call which is a little harsh, but we found it pleasing. From then, we heard the call on numerous ocassions all over the place, the next day as well. It in fact made our trip worth it. We turned back finished tea and sancks and headed home and called it a day after a simple but delicious dinner.
(if you managed to reach here.. thanks.. read on)

Day 2:
We started off little late since there was mist around. We both headed in different directions. While my friend spotted couple of cobras. I stay put at the gate of another coffe estate and I did had a replay of the species of the previous day. Added to the list are a pair of nuthatches. Yellow-browed bulbuls re-appeared, racket-tailed drongos chased each other. Another interested sighting is of a squirell which is rufous in color and short tailed compared to the palm squirell. I do not have a field guide to mammals. Can anyone help educate us about it? Later added to the list are Oriental-wheite eyes and black throated munia.

Post breakfast we rejoined and at around noon we headed one last time for spotting. This time we had our lessons and chosed the road that had a decent elevation and activity to save our neck from straining too much.we saw Chest-nut tailed starlings of malabaricus species along with the other species together. We could differentiate them clearly. Do they both colonise together?Further down, we spotted a Bronze drongo with the bright wings and dull tail and not-so-deep fork of the tail. Then came a Black-lored tit with nuthatches and while we are spotting them, we saw a movement on tree bark and it turned out to be DRACO! It displayed its amazing camouflage and the bright throat and flew to the next tree. We wrapped up our outing satisifed with the sighing, but the story didnt end there, we spotted a Common Flameback busy searching for some insects on a tree!

We finished our lunch and picked up a vehicle and planned to go to "Kadamane", the huge tea esate next to the forest.We reached there at 4-00 pm and were told that we have half-an-hour before they close. Although the view is exciting, but the fact that so many hills are converted to tea-estate made me feel bad. We causally walked down the road and there came another best moment of the trip. Another white-bellied treepie, came out and perched at 10 mts from us and kept on giving the closest possible views we can every ask for. We had a great time watching it from close quarters and the 45 mins we spent there was worth it!!. Our flycatchers luck was not bad as we spotted a flycatcher on the way back. We are not sure if it is Nilgiri or Verditar Flycatcher. Any help?? We could not get a good look at it, due to blocking twigs and shortage of time and we didnt want to trouble the shy bird more and left the place.

We were dropped back in Sakaleshpur at 6-00 from where we took a KSRTC "Sarige" and reached bangalore at midnight.We had wonderful trip, thanks to like-minded bird lover Dr.Javid. Sir, we owe you a big thanks for letting us stay at your place and had these lovely moments.

The Nithy-"ananda"

2010-03-06T08:32:00.004+05:30

I bet you all heard about the Nithyananda controversy or should I say scandal or may be the "ananda" side of him. Seeing this Yahoo news article made me login to Twitter and man I am in splits laughing around from the past 15 mins. So, thought of sharing it with you all.

Here is another blog post, compiling the list of hillarious tweets on Nithyananda. I must agree with the Yahoo news article that says he is clearly spreading the "ananda" and yeah how can we forget thanking to Sun Tv. No wonder people are always interested in private lives of others and twitter is resounding with tweets on Nithayananda as I can clearly see, Know what, before I could complete this post there are 6 new tweets added on the same and people seems to be hooked on to this!

If you have a twitter account and if you are not checking it yet, you are surely missing some fun.
Boy oh boy, people are at their creative best on twitter now!
Here is one software-twist tweet

YaavanoObba: Oracle by day, i-flex by night

Enjoy... Finally he inspired me too to make a new post. Hail nithyananda!

Upgraded kit!!

2010-02-04T15:46:00.003+05:30

Thanks to BBMP election announcement, all of a sudden the civic authorities are showering us with loads of development activities! Few weeks back, while we were waiting for our MLA to inaugurate the road laying work. The local "chota" leaders thought of adding a traditional touch to the inauguration and brought these 2 guys with "instruments".

I was surprised that the "nadaswara" gave way to modern instruments!!(I am not sure about the name of the instrument he is using)

Re-view

2010-01-10T07:44:00.004+05:30

Whatever you call it, a review or a re-view of the past year. here is it

An year that tested my patience levels to the maximum
An year where I had seen what stress can do to an individual
An year where I kept my hobbies in tact despite of the "situations" I am put in
An year that started off well, went to WORST, ended on positive note
An year that would have otherwise changed my whole life, with the kind of decisions I had taken this year!!!
At personal life level, I wish it won't get worse than this!!!

Ok , off the serious tone..

People pointed out at my protruding belly... need to work on that. (Instant Solution- Buy XL size and cover it up, exercising is tough..duh)
Job is boring, wish god changes my manager overnight!!
My office bus had boring people!!
God save this world from dumbos, I had seen enough of them this year.

Now, the resolutions for new year:

Exercise (without pain)
Exercise more.... & more.. & more
Explore North East at least this year, 2 years of failed promises looks ugly
The NGO work that has taken backseat last year has to be pursued actively
Birds are beautiful, study more, see more(no hidden meanings), learn and spread the joy
Blog more...
Re-look at your salary, it s**** a big time, do something about it!!
Look for prospective donors for a DSLR camera !!! (bhutan lottery, Sikkim lottery etc)
Read more (the lirbary membership fee is going waste)
Buy a bicycle (long time pending), cycle to office
Stop proscrastination (unlike what you did to this post)

that's it folks...

Hope this new year brings more happiness and joy in your lives and be a memorable one....

The day Pharaoh visited..

2009-12-08T19:23:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I had a surprise in office! After a lazy lunch, as I went to our break out room, a colleague of mine showed a picture she clicked on her mobile of what she thought is an "eagle" perching near the window of the women's loo. Seeing at the visual I jumped... it's the Pharaoh himself!! I exclaimed, goodness it's the "Egyptian Vulture"!!!
(more info on wiki- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Vulture)

My office is very close to ITPL (precisely 1 km away from ITPL, on the main road ) and knock knock, we have an Egyptian vulture resting near the window pane today. (place similar to where blue rock pigeons nest in apartments). This is so exciting, since people travel all the way to Ramangaram off Mysore road to get a glimpe of a nesting pair there and we found one in our building.

I struggled hard to held back my temptation of breaking into a women's loo. But had to settle with a view from far when few kind women colleagues opened the door for a long glimpse. (to stop your imagination going elsewhere, the window where it perched is dead opposite to the loo's door). So near yet so far for "men".That fella must be male..grr

Upon my request the ladies brought us this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSsdOPtXCEE

Smart fella he knows that we can't touch him because of the window glass and let people come very very close !! So, my earlier suspicion of sighting one at my office is true. So you all know where I will be peeping everyday after lunch time.. just kidding!

Priceless....

2009-11-01T21:21:00.003+05:30

Distance traveled... 30+ kms
Movie tickets... 400 Rs
Popcorn & Snacks... 100 Rs
Happiness on wife's face... "priceless" :)
*Note:-Never knew that there are hidden costs behind the word "priceless"

Being simple...

2009-10-11T21:26:00.011+05:30

I want to share a story, a real life story about someone I met last year. Yup, a post pending from one year! Today, I am in the right mood to share it with you all since they never fail to inspire me. Ok, now into the details:

The year was mid 90's when software just started to take off a big way all over the world.
A mechanical engineer from IIT and postgraduate from US university was working in US as a software engineer along with his wife who is a product of IISc (bangalore).

Guess what would the couple be doing NOW??
Well a fair guess would be the person would have become a CTO or a Divison head "enjoying" life in the US with a big house, a big car and most probably a green card!

Well if that was the case I would not be telling you this story!

So here is what they are doing:
They live in a thatched roof hut in a small tribal hamlet off a small village in INDIA practicing agriculture, encouraging afforestation, working on water conservation and learning about traditional ayurvedic medicines and all this by CHOICE!

Mr Nagesh and Aparna are the couple I am referring. I am fortunate to meet them in person and "experience" their hospitality and life style over a weekend. This is the first time in my life I came across such an idealistic people! The couple came back to India in late 90's and started living in a hamlet with the tribals and took up agriculture, experimented and worked with another visionary of the village.

Later they formed a forest protection committee along with villagers and started afforestation. They had dedicated some acres of land to plant commercial trees, the yield of which can be taken back by the committee and benefit the villagers. They went through lot of tough times. I personally saw the place and witnessed the land and the trees. Besides these I practically saw how check dams and rock filled dams can prevent soil erosion.

The live in a simple house, with basic amenities. Their daughter Turiya goes to nearby village school along with the children of the hamlet, far from the cartoons, sops, theme parks etc, yet brilliant and speaks impressive English since her mother tutors her along with the kids in the hamlet. I learnt how simple life can one live, how humble a person can be, how committed an individual can be, how idealistic one can be!

That made me think, what do I want out of life?What stops us from being dedicated for a cause? I know each of us had our own commitments, promises and things that keep us sticking to our current life. But sometimes I feel there are more things one can do in life than we can think of! Being simple is no easy job, I would say, being idealistic is even tougher!Kudos to the couple and may god bless them with more good things!

Back to Bangalore

2009-10-05T13:21:00.003+05:30

So after well spent 2 weeks at home town, spending time with family and relaxing, I am back in bangalore. Weather is OK. Office looks new. It should be a week before my body get used to this weather and couple of days before getting used to work.

Thanks almighty for the learning, realizations and for taking care of me.
All I need is some positive energy and some work!

Best gift in Life!!!

2009-09-16T18:41:00.003+05:30

If god suddenly appear in front of you and asked you to make a wish, what do you ask??
Think...
What is that one wish...?
What would you ask??
The only wish..?

OK on any other day I would ask:
"Appear whenever, wherever I wish and fulfill my wish there and then"
well kind of infinite loop. huh? :)
Well on serious note and after one week of sick sickness I have decided I would ask
HEALTH.

Yes, someone rightly said "Health is wealth". I realized this after a marathon one week of painful experiences and still going. This nasty viral fever brought me down with strange pains and acts and made me run to hospital every day with the swine flu scare round the corner.

Finally, I made an appearance to the swine flu testing center and had a consultation. The doctor much to my relief told me that this is normal viral fever and I don't need to panic and gave some tabs to relief and asked me to check back if needed.

I realized how important health is over this week. Strange pains, irritation, restlessness forgot to tell doc about some symptoms, what not!Imagine a restless guy made to confront to home with confusion for one week. Finally I am relieved to hear the news that this is normal virus. So yours truly is going to be at home for an extended holiday taking fluids, tablets. You can touch the monitor sicne I hardly had any swine flu syptoms, no runny nose, no cold, no cough, just this bloody nerves connecting neck and head itching, almost normal temperature and worst weather outside. Guess I never hated rains like I did today.

Ok some gyaan for people who want to get swine flu test done:
Only Rajiv gandhi Chest hospital, off Nimhans campus is eligible to do tests. Rest of the hospitals only treats you if you have symptoms.Now the procedure is like this:

1. Go to Rajiv gandhi chest hospital. If you are arriving from Christ college side, at NIMHANS signal, take left turn, hit dead end, just keep going straight till you reach the Chest hospital.
2. Go to room no-7, fill a form and register yourself (they give you a card and a form)
3. Carry the card and the form to the consultation ward 50 mts past this block.
4. Wait for your turn
5. Go in meet the doctor, answer his questions, explain your problems. Only if the doctor is satisified with your symptoms, he will recommend tablets or X-ray or whatever.
6. Your swab samples and X-ray would be taken only in the case of perfect symptoms or if doctor diagnosis it to be H1N1. Otherwise they recommend medicines.

Wish me happy recovery

Bheemeswari -Part 2

2009-09-12T08:15:00.004+05:30

So where did we stop...??? aah we started walking back! On the way back, 2 of us along with my manager took a de-route and missed the others. Only after walking for another 200 meters we realized that there were no traces of humans walking past that way! So we turned back thinking in a worst case we can take the route we took while climbing up and but we soon realized that we missed a deviation enroute. We took that and after few meters caught up with rest of the gang.Reached back to the resort and rested for a while and had yummy lunch.

Besides the lunch I like the concept of tips in JLR. They have a box where you can drop the tips so that every one shares it later. I found this fair and good practice. Fair play! All men were wishing to celebrate with beer and thankfully our manager had no problems!I too joined them with coke and well that's the moment of the day ;)

Now comes the best part, after a heavy meal the hammocks are too tempting! Guys posed as spider man, lazy man what not! Walking on a hammock I tell you is a good adventure and these group hammocks are huge that are tied together in a swollen W shape. What a fun!! Our manager B's hile lying on the hammock almost touched the ground(i am not guilty of over weight any more!). Then came the rafting part.

I overcame all my inhibitions and doubts and opted for rafting and I am glad I did it. The guy who took us for rafting is from uttaranchal and he feels that Cauvery rafting is peanuts, but he is glad that we al are beginners, so it can be a good start with only Class 2 and Class 3 rapids! The next one hour, we had good time, rowing, pausing, rowing, screaming... The best part was watching a grey hornbill(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Grey_Hornbill) fly over our heads perpendiculary from one end of river to the other end while we were on a patch of still water. Thanks to yasvanth who ventured to bring his camera in the dry bag of the raft! We had some good snaps while rafting.

With life jacket hanging around, yours' truly jumped into water holding the roap and had few dips at a location where water is still.The 2 ladies on board kept on bugging mukesh bhai (our raft guide) with 2 questions "how far are we now"? , "How deep is it here" and they screamed at every rapid. Finally mukesh bhai pushed them to the front and asked them to row while we are busy acting and shouting behind. Poor ladies did it for the last rapid and 100 metres.

While 5 of us are busy doing this, rest of the "careful" ,"lazy", "no-risk"souls went for a coracle ride which they claim to be scarier than rafting!Whatever we were picked up some 8 kms down the stream and driven back in a jeep. I then realized what kind of vehicled does one need to drive in that terrain- A mahindra 90's model jeep! We were lucky to spot a jackal and surprised to spot a homosapien couple inside the forest (now don't ask me what were they trying to do inside with a liquor bottle hanging around). Unfortunately most tourists in Muthathi (place on banks of Cauvery) litter a lot and their idea of picnicing is more of littering and loitering around disturbing the wild! Anyways our driver informed the forest gaurd to take care of them. Although I am interested to know what happened next, I had no chance :)

Back to resort, we had tea and some snacks and time to depart. With wet trousers (I didn't carry my swimming trunks) and antakshari to keep us occupied, finally I reached home at 9-00 pm. Almost forgot to add about the sighting of Grizzled giant squirrel which resides on the banks of Cauvery, none of my team mates except sap is interested and they don't know that it's a rare species. Here is it munching on something.

Bheemeswari - Part 1

2009-09-11T12:26:00.005+05:30

A post pending from 3 weeks. Finally a 4 day leave on grounds of ill health helping me post this.

All right here we go - as usual our manager B was grinning wide when our partner confirmed funding for team outing and with no second thought the option to choose the place has been passed on to yours truly. After being tired with the usual city resorts, I thought this is the time to try Jungle Lodges and Resorts day visits. Quickly checking facts of JLR we zeroed in on Bheemeswari on the banks of Cauvery. In fact JLR had 3 nature and fishing camps located on the banks of cauvery - Doddamakalli and Galibore being the other two.

Off late our team had become more family centric- hence I starte calling it AUT, well nothing to do with Applicatin Under Test, but it's the "Aunties n Uncles Team". The moment guys hear about a trip they start it-"only day trips","I can't leave my husband/wife, but I can't bring them either", "I have a baby to take care"! "My in-laws won't let me go", "we are expecting guests"..... the list goes on. Whatever, we realized that we cannot afford an overnight trip with team anymore! Hence the day trip is best for us. Once we finalized the place the usual games of "Who's IN" and "Who's OUT" for the trip started. Finally 2 people dropped out. So we ended up with 9.

Let me stop this crap and start the drive. Soothing the nerves of our manager, sap(my best buddy at office) and I made it just in time for the 7-00 am deadline for transport and for a change everything went smooth with transport and breakfast and bloody hell I again endedup counting money, collecting bills, maintaining accounts! WTF!? When will I relax and enjoy the trip as a member than worrying about money, food for driver, route etc. We hit Adigas at Banashankari for some yummy breakfast and started off.

The travel till Kanakapura had no surprises and the tiny town of Kanakapura which seems to have got some inspiration from Bangalore with roads being laid and expanded! Guys reminded about the Water rafting and i went searching for an ATM. I was in 2 minds on water rafting but on a safer side carried enough cash to try it just in case my decision changed. After travelling down to Satahanur we took the right turn to Muthathi. The terrain started changing and we didn't feel that its been hardly 1.5 hours away from bangalore. This is the beauty of bangalore, travel for 2 hours in all 4 directions of bangalore, you end up seeing different jungles and eautiful landscapes!

Finally after traversing mini ghat roads, we reached the place - "Cauvery Fishing camp aka Bheemeshwari Fishing and Nature camp" at 10 am after paying a 50 RS village developement fee which I wonder where it ends up. The moment we entered the resorts, we are in for surprises.. 1. The resort manager was not informed of our arrival (I made payment just the evening before the day we left) 2. Cauvery is in full flow!! Man you gotta see the beautiful cauvery which appear to be flowing slow and silent but a closer look tells you that it's a strong current! The monkey menace has to be noted here, these guys having used to visitor littering have become smarter. One chap jumped into the van and despite of Shalini's balooned body and trying to converse in English with him/her, he/she didn't give a damn flicked a packet of chips!! Evolution hmmm..

The bird watcher and the naturalist enthu in me could no longer be hidden. I started with bird watching pulling the whole team into watching the Green bee eater, the king fisher and the red rumped swallows! Most of them wondered how to use the binocs!!Whatever after a refreshing welcome drink (my favorite- lime juice), we were asked if we are game for rafting since another team are leaving for rafting then, we choose to do it in the afternoon after lot of debating. The first activity was a trek up the hill to the view point.

While yasvanth and I were busy chasing the butterflies with cameras, rest of the team walked half a kilometer and were shouting. So we ran and caught up with them. I soon realized why we were served lime juice. The sun is blazing and trek at 11-00 am is not a good idea espcially with 90% obese persons in the gang!! (uff including me). I was dissapointed that this camp do not have a naturalist! But still, I love JLR camps for the ambience, the places and the food! Although I have been to only 3 (Bandipur, Bannerghatta and Bheemeswari.. oh wait all B's). The log huts make me think wild and feel like staying back there for some more time.

Before you forget about the trek, let me go back,.. so with lots of huff and puffs we reached the view point after 45 minuts. I was the last one to reach clicking pictures and complaining about the trek not being a walk. Well there is a big difference between a nature walk and trek. A trek is something you start early in the day (to restirct loss of energy due to sun) and your aim is to reach a particular place by so & so time and come back and time is the utmost thing. But a nature walk is where you hardly walk... yes if you have the keen eyes and the company of a true naturalist like Karthik, every step shows you something and catches your imagination and attention. Every flower had a story to tell every bird makes you think about it's behavior, every thing in the jungle tells you a story if only you can hear! Unfortunately our urban souls could not hear or understand those and half of our team mates think I am crazy and they hoot, shout and scream.. thinking it's a picnic place.

The view from top is just amazing... with cauvery flowing full, it's just WOW! Here is how it looked like. Imaging one sititng here and enjoying the view.

The late monsson showers ensured good patches of grass on the hill.

here is the watch tower

and the butterfly that made me wait and wait to pose like this..

Finally the JLR guy who accompanied us thought we had enough fun and just before we started back, we spotted the water rafting group and the 12x zoom + digital zoom helped me click this one at the "splashing moment"More to continue in Part 2...

Expectations

2009-08-28T19:04:00.003+05:30

Learning lessons.. Expectations are real reasons for trouble.

When you expect someone to be like this or like that or react that way or this way, but they won't !!.... you get disappointed. Dig in more and you will find the reason is expectations!

Wonder why we build expectations, why we expect people to do something or to react in one way! May be it's better to accept the fact that everyone had their own way of taking things and may be sometimes people needs more time.. or may be they will never change, may be they will never understand, may be they have their own set of problems, may be it's good to leave them as it is.... well, whatever!!! ... there is no point pondering too much and ruining one's mood, especially when there are better things to do in life...

life just goes on....

All paths leads to ONE

2009-07-19T10:45:00.004+05:30

All prayers reaches the ONE, no matter who you are!

One of those photos where I personally do not worry about clarity/colors/exposure while posting. Clicked on my mobile in a hurry not to invade their privacy. While this unison works here, 200 kms away their brothers are fighting for wrong reasons! I love india for these moments and for the truth that we still live in unity despite of some fools trying to interpret religion in a wrong way !

Why.. What?

2009-07-17T07:56:00.003+05:30

Why am I here?
What am I supposed to do/achieve?
What do I love most?
Why can't I change?
What makes me passionate?
Where am I destined to go?
Why can't I love my work?
Being instinctive or Being thoughtful- which is better?
Where exactly should you use heart and where should you use head?

Questions and more questions grilling my mind.
Few realizations:
I realized that my left brain is killing my right one at most of the times! (so says the neuro signals from my right brain)
I realized that I had been instinctive when I am supposed to be thoughtful and vice versa :)
I should stop taking words to heart, it's the job of head to analyze, filter and pass on!
Reaction won't help Respond makes things better!
I need to listen more although the fear of forgetting the thought/idea hurries me to interrupt!

Finally, I think time has come for things to change....

Man's best friend

2009-07-14T08:58:00.003+05:30

Clicked on my mobile @ Koshy's off MG Road !!

U-turns!

2009-07-10T07:52:00.007+05:30

"If life was like driving on a road, I have been negotiating a ghat section from past 2 years.. too many U-turns! ":)

My business trip at office came from no where, got surprisingly approved despite of not so encouraging financial restrictions, was postponed, then just when I got my last document needed for visa submission and on the day when my application was supposed to reach the embassy, the news came that it's CALLED OFF! My passport has never been lucky ;) (Assumption: Travel abroad = have fun)

So re-planning and restructuring has been the order of the days.. no years! Someone rightly said, life is something that happens while you are busy planning! Of late, the success percentage of my plans went awfully bad or may be I became too imaginative., whateva! My poor manager wondering how to put the news across was surprised not to see any "oh god!, oh sh***, I am upset" kind of phrases from me, if only she knows that I am getting used to this bumpy ride and no more feeling nausea out of this travel!

Life is still a celebration, cousin's wedding this month end calls for a big fun time, monsoon trip is ON, survey in the Melagiri forests is a bonus! What an exciting monsoon time ahead! I pray it rains enough not to trouble the people by floods, but enough to supply enough water to survive the next summer. Hope your journey is pleasant! Enjoy the rains....

The world we live...

2009-07-06T20:39:00.003+05:30

Irony, yesterday i wrote about food and today I received a link to this video.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte

The world is not the same everywhere and for everyone and I pity the one's living in their own little world thinking that life is just what they are experiencing and nothing much!

The maggi gal

2009-06-29T08:18:00.003+05:30

Yesterday, i went to a grocery shop to buy something that mom asked me to fetch. As I parked my bike, I saw this 4-5 yr old girl standing with a maggi packet and negotiationg something with the shop keeper. As I waited to collect my order, I saw the shopkeeper explaining the gal that she doesn't have enough money to buy a milk packet.

Apparently the cute little maggi lover was sent by her mom to buy milk packets. She ended up buying a maggi packet first and kept on requesting the shop keeper "uncle, please give me milk packet.. phuleeez" and the shop keeper , a 50+ old person tried explaining her that she doesn't have enough money to buy a maggi packet+milk packet, all in vain. She refused to give the maggi packet back and was ready to take another biscuit packet. After little while she lost her cool and started demanding that she needs to go home and wants the milk packet. I was enjoying this episode of innocence and perseverance.

Once i finished my shopping, before moving I offered to pay for the maggi for the cute angel, but the shop keeper politely refused and told me that this is a ritual that happens frequently with this cutie and added that, if he offers her the maggi, her mother will be upset and he will be in trouble. I left the place laughing at the way she is hiding and refusing to handover the maggi. Another maggi lover... Tell me aren't you one of those maggi lovers! hmmm reminds me it's been long since I had maggi and the weather now is perfect for one!! mom are you listening...?

Biryani, Work, W/L, Tiring..

2009-06-15T16:43:00.005+05:30

Those 4 words sums up the whirlwind official trip to Hyderabad which suddenly popped up from no where on the afternoon of Wednesday and ended on Sunday evening. Definitely hyderabad is catching up quickly with other cities. With the kind landscapes one can ogle at near Madhapur, with the kinds of roads that my friend kept praising.. many more. do read on..

A list of things that I would cherish from this trip ....- gup-chup aka the pani puri of Hyderabad, samosa's (unknowingly I tasted mutton samosa's), the shared auto's and the cheating auto-walas(although very few and way way way better than chennai and bangalore autowalas), the "newly-bought-cars" on the roads that my friend kept pointing out,the tasteful houses of Jubilee hills,the tension with the wait-listed train tickets, the absorbing last day at work that made the trip worth it.(officially)

On the other side, the visit to Blue cross society along with my cousin who took an year off from being a Techie and decided to work with the less cared creatures of the world. I had a chance to listen to his plans watching an overcast Hyderabad skies from the Blue cross office and couldn't resist appreciating him. Man!! one needs real passion and most importantly should "love" what he/she is doing and before that realize what he loves. I tell you,this chap did realize what he loves and is after that. Wish he will be successful one day! I had no doubts, especially after knowing that despite of his broken finances, he is happy deserting the techie tag and passionate about the work he is doing.

Despite of little time to roam around, these things made the trip memorable. So yours truly is now trying to negate the unavoidable sleep, all credit to the tiring train journey despite of 3 AC and typing this all. Hyderabad you are charming as ever!!

Wish I had 48 hours in a day!!

2009-06-03T17:32:00.005+05:30

Here is my schedule for the next 2 days on my office outlook:

To top this all, mom is going to be back with me tomorrow. I need to pick her up from station and drop her off and most importantly clean the house!!! I have become lazy off late and things at home are not helping either. I need to clean up house and then rush to office and then pick up mom and again rush to office and attend all those meeting. The list does not include the impromptu meetings that are "expected"!

If weekend would be a relied, it does not looks any better. The weekend starts with unpacking, packing and shifting. long and tiring weekend. Wish Monday lands tomorrow and I will be done with all shifting, cleaning packing and unpacking! duh... life is at time too busy!How is yours?

Jst like dat

2009-05-29T18:41:00.006+05:30

As I sit alone in office typing this jst like dat, the skies are overcast and it is all set to rain (probably it might have already started while I was typing this). Feeling lonely at home, I am ending up staying back in office and killing more time in office off late. Finally the good news is that I rented a new house to shift.

Now what lies ahead?? A great weekend, especially the packed Sunday! The 10k Run followed immediately by the NGC photography work shop(guess I need to continue my run and reach the British library), then need to collect new "rented" house keys and finalizing things with the house owner. I am tired of typing it, wonder if I feel same after doing all these. Life is becoming monotonous and the change of house and company of mom should make me feel better and let me start new things!!

Work has become more interesting off late or Should I confess that I started taking a little extra interest in office work? I am badly looking forward to the day when the shifting and arranging things at new home gets over! Hope mom loves the new place and finds it comfortable and good. Suddenly I felt, I realized(do you actually "realize" suddenly?) that I am stressed out. I am wishing to change lot of habits in life now. Exercise is right on the top of the list.

But, before all those, may be it's time to head to Agumbe and spend lovely time amidst the ever green forests doing nothing but enjoying the monsoon. That should make me feel lot better, besides meeting gowri shankar and witness the wonderful work they are doing. Of course how can I forget the charity work of donating few ounces of blood to the leeches.

Birding might take a back seat since monsoon is in, but boy oh boy I am hooked on to it. Exercise, birding study, time management, financial management... are a few to name off the list of things I would like to start very soon and I am waiting for life to be event full again!! Wish me success and offer your free suggestions and thanks if you are still reading this this as 'this'.

Love-d--song

2009-05-15T20:03:00.002+05:30

Finally got some time to explore the lyrics of this song....
LUKKA-CHUPPI
Love the song and lyrics... should thank the person for the translation!

Beat d heat..

2009-05-13T01:38:00.005+05:30

What are you doing this summer to beat the heat??

Here is some cool thing to do this summer!!

If that was not enough, spend the evenings at a beautiful place with your loved one's

For the non-bangaloreans reading this, that's the lung space of bangalore named lalbagh

Well, house hunting is eating my free time and more on that in a detailed post.For now, wish me a good spotting (read house)

Monday mania

2009-04-27T13:39:00.004+05:30

No.. No...NO. I am not going to talk about Monday traffic of Bangalore, not about Monday blues of going to office. let me explain, every time this little absent minded brain of minegets serious and starts thinking about "what do I change in LIFE" or "what "improvements' can i do"... I always bank on Monday.

For instance,
"Go for jogging" (to self), (resolution:Ok let's start it on Monday)
Similarly
Clean the house .. ok from monday
Start making a T2Do chart.. ok will start from monday
WORK in office in between mails, chat and blog .. ok will ONLY work in office and use Airtel connx at home to best, but from MONDAY..

Then comes the MONDAY gleaming with hopes and aspirations of starting so many new things... and eventually what happens....? Realization dawns on me- Monday is as good as any other day. I end up feeling - ..bloody I could have started it already and to add that when I look back, I had forgot all those START-ON-MONDAY things, since no records exist.

then what happens? Ok, a resolution will be passed into mind register to start noting things down and a resolution is made to buy a white marker board at home to bug mom, to write messages, to kick myself up , to feel good by STRIKING Off "things-to-do" and most importantly to REMEMBER THINGS by writing them on the board. But the White-marker board is waiting to reach home from past 2.5 years! Phew heights of procrastination...!

Another Monday is getting over, so let me stop choosing Mondays, since sundays are ending up as sleeping late, bird watchings, meeting friends, mondays always start late and lazy and no time to think about what to start on Monday... here goes another monday..

Citizen de responsible

2009-04-23T08:04:00.010+05:30

Yaaay... Finally..
..after 10 years of reaching the elgibility...
...for the first time in my life.

Hail BEL for the EVM's, that made life easy!!! I did it!! The early bird needed just 5 minutes to cast the vote. Whom did i vote for? shhhh... the one whoever wins in my constituency :P

I thought my application was reject-ed and I was deject-ed, but was elat-ed to find my name in the edit-ed electoral rolls, just few days before the much await-ed D-day!!Although, I haven't collected the much deabt-ed voter-id card, my passport help-ed and I cast-ed my vote! chandu... "citizen de responsible" .

Perfect Evening

2009-04-19T11:04:00.004+05:30

Chips, kurkure, soft drinks, friends, IPL, what else can you ask for?
Spent a lovely evening at friend's place watching IPL and gulping snacks n sprite..
Thanks PV and Aarthi for hosting us....

Closing this post with pics..

Aiming Higher..

Does this look like a bungee jumper..? Clicked @ Nandi Hills.

Perfect Symmetry

1Der Jack

Too Tender.. so a wonder

Go Bro Go..

2009-04-13T16:02:00.009+05:30

Like Brother, Like Brother

>>>>>> www.mongolrallyrustics.com <<<<<<<

Crazy guys.. out on an adventure of a life time! 14 countries... mini engine... less heard countries... unseen landscapes... unheard languages... it's wild,dusty,risky,adventurous 5 week drive with a noble cause in mind. go bro go...

Can any of you help them get a sponsor!?(request on behalf of my brother).
They have a huge advertising space and bought a SUZUKI engine!!

**I am dreaming of joining the RICK rally by the same guys. Kaush, are you still "planning" like you were last year? We can try the 2010 slot?**

T 2 DO

2009-04-13T08:40:00.006+05:30

Few things I would like to..no.. should.. no no.. MUST do
- Hunt for new House.. tough ask in bengaluru
- Exercise.. ooh too much fab
- Stop Procrastination.. already started, see I updated my blog "NOW"
- Plan for the day.. hmm after the post
- Impress manager to secure a 10 day leave.. so shimbul-cyaarry shum byanana cheeps to offeez

- Start maintaining Birding notes.. (to self)lazy bum start practicing writing with pen
- Buy a new jacket before the heavens start pouring in bangalore.. spare the drenching for Agumbe trip!
- Organize the 1000's of snaps clicked till date.. aaah tiring task, whoz gonna buy my snapch?

- Dump the cover in the bin at the street end.. true it started smelling, time to give the street doggies some diet food?
- Go to office.. who invented office?? anyways manager is on leave today, who cares?
- Have breakfast.. ok mom i remember that! anyways mango juice @ juice corner in office will do. But hey wait isn't that the place where the density of gals in cafeteria is high * wink*
- Enough , go have bath.. yuck!! me smelling rotten fish, sweaty summer, love d winter!
- Keep updating the blog.. AMEN!!!

tlank u uncul

2009-04-02T19:10:00.004+05:30

deayl deyal GOD,
thlank you velly velly much. mommy iz byack ach home chmiling. i am tiled and lotch n lotch of wolk iz waitchin por me atch offich. But am hyappy pinally. i am cho glatepull tu you. thyank you por lichening tu my playel uncul.

I will giveyu 2 chocklatch next time. I will shale that hyaf-eatchen licked 5 stal. do you like to lick chocoltch wlappel? I have chum with me, half-half ok ok?? keep hyelpin me for chum more time, i have 3 mole chockyolatch wich me, eclaich ok?

luv yu uncull
chyandu

Work .. huh!

2009-03-24T09:48:00.000+05:30

Who wants to work after 3 weeks of vacation!? that too a tiring vacation!

When it rains, it pours!!

2009-03-13T17:36:00.004+05:30

After the lull, the storm brewed and brewed and finally it started pouring as anticipated and it slowed down and appeared to be clearing the coast. Exactly when you think it's all over, it suddenly seems to be taking a different turn. I am sure these moments of my life can clearly go to the TOP OF the CHARTS of TESTING TIMES list.

Insults, appreciations, bad-words, impatience, sleepless moments, furious mumblings, confusion, worst-is-here-moments, it's-all-over-thoughts, stupidity, insane, foolishness, love, hatred, ignorance, tears, few laughs, celebrations, meetings, discussions, debates, thinking and thinking and flooded by thoughts, moments of hope, moments of despair...Those are "few" words to describe what I have gone through in the past week.

Overall things went smoother than the worst they can get. Of course they did not go as smooth as they can either. But a feeling of clarity in thoughts emerged and it enabled few bold decisions. Physical and mental strengths have been tested and targeted. A well-wishers advice to pray god did worked.

It's a see-saw journey. A moment of hope followed by disappointment. The moment you realized that you guessed the next move, the one next to that goes beyond your wildest imagination. Your best prayer comes true followed by your worst fear. All these proves how ignorant one can be when one says "I CAN TAKE CARE OF THINGS or I KNOW EVERYTHING".

Thanks for praying and being with me, things are still under control (there I go again) or rather appears to be not very bad!( how much we wish we can control someone's -- love hatred and thoughts! )...

I am in the middle of an dark ocean...
witnessing a looming stormy night...
rocked by tides of thoughts...
clinging to a plank of hope...
driven by a divine light...
heading for unknown...

Thank you god.. thanks for being there.. if not for you, there is no hope!

The Mist-erious journey....

2009-03-01T01:04:00.002+05:30

....called L~I~F~E !

Lull

2009-02-24T11:17:00.000+05:30

A lull before the storm... back to work

D-day is arriving!

2009-02-16T09:46:00.004+05:30

Finally, the D-day is fast arriving. I kicked it off today. I am trying to choose my destiny. TNot the d-day you thought, the DOOMSDAY in relationships in my LIFE is fast arriving. No looking back, no regrets. A huge emotional and may be physical battle ahead!

Truths might be deformed, Truths will be morphed, Truth might not be accepted, but ultimately, let TRUTH emerge and prevail..!! God give me the strength to face hostility, to face the MORPHED TRUTHS, to face the inhumane behavior, to face the mindless humans, to face one of those "best-to-forget" moments of my life!

I might have been wrong last time and I might not be right this time, but the big difference is I am following my HEART. I heard it and I am following it now. I know that I need to face a huge consequences. I know LIFE is not going to be the same after this. I guess I am PREPARED, may be I am wrong, but well when you follow your heart you need to face the trouble, you need to be afloat, you need to be positive, you need to be stubborn... you need to be calm!

Let pain be there, let suffering be there, lest how can one become better. May be a one time suffering is better than a pain in doses. I might be broken , I might be out, I might be down, I might go insane, but I think I am taking the right path at this crossroads. God, may be I am ignorant, I might not be rude with people, I might not remember things, I might not be argumentative, but be with me and take me through this journey....

Just weird

2009-02-06T20:22:00.004+05:30

Sometimes, I can't help but feel that life is unfair. Sometimes I feel it's fair. But why is that this weird feeling creeps in me, chokes me and few moments later, one phone call, one hi, one thought, I will forget about it. But the wounds it leaves are deep.

Confusion is such a thing that it lands in at unwanted time. To follow one's heart or to follow a "positive" way although it looks rubbish is my dilemma! Am I scared of a bleak future or Am I running away from the problem? Am I doing right? Pounded by questions and a zillion thoughts in mind and a painful heart, I wait to hug my destiny, well on the other hand do I have options?

I am too selfless!!- yes, on most occasions I were, but at the wrong one's. I am pessimist, when I think about the one's I am scared of. I am positive, when I saw the worst! But the trouble keeps brewing and the thoughts never cease.

I think it's time to listen to my heart. Let the world cry I were wrong, let people think I am insane, let them gossip, let the hell break loose, because after the worst comes the good time and the only companion in this lonely journey would be the almighty who must be busy preparing my To-Do list!

The "much needed" vacation

2009-01-14T06:41:00.010+05:30

Finally, I grabbed time to update my blog after looooong vacation. Had a memorable trip down to Coastal karnataka. Watched the last sun set of last year followed by the sunrise on the first day of the year that made me spell bound(i still had the images reeling in front of my eyes).

A detailed report on the vacation will follow. But for the time being here are some pics I loved- made during the vacation.

"Makara Sankranti" is the time of the year where the farmers bring home their yield and rejoice with family. Here is the corn yield pile! Wish you all a happy sankranthi!

Here is a NATURE CANVAS I found at Bandipur at the day-break!!

I tried some B & W images off late and loved the feel in these..here are couples of them..

One more... look at the "change of times" in this one!!

I sing off this post with one beautiful image. Here is the First sun of the year.. emerging from the clouds-clad hills near Agumbe. Wishing a great beginning in your life and a great year ahead!!

Jungle Drive

2008-12-26T12:06:00.005+05:30

~~~~~
Day: 21st December 2008
TIME: 4:15 AM
Place: Gundulpet "Coffee Day"
2 Cappuccino's and one Assam tea were "washed down" the throat by 4 KANS members to set the tone for the day. Saying bye-bye to sleep, we set off for a long and fruitful day. (what a "relief" this one gave!)

TIME: 10:15 AM
Place: Bandipura Check post (Karnataka border)
Officer Names:Prakash, Satish and Chandu-- Trainee KANS Awareness officers :) and Soumyajit (officer-in-charge)
Task: Stopping vehicles and educating people, while our almost Forest officer look alike Soumyajit doing the vehicle "census"

Typical Dialogues:
"Excuse me sir/Mam , please drive slow, do not stop anywhere, do not get down from the vehicle, and please do not honk, no music please"

TIME: 12:00 PM
(The Probation completed Officers...)
Prakash: "Do you know at what speed you are driving?"
Driver: "No sir, I think 20-30 (in fact he is drining at 50+)"
Prakash: "Do you know what is the speed you are supposed to drive?"
Driver: "No Sir!"
Prakash: "40, you should not cross it and no honking, no music .. go..
On the other end..Satish handling things for KL, TN (the registration numbers)-"There can be elephants in the forest, don't stop sir. "
Chandu: "Forest department rule says the maximum permitted speed is 40 kms, do not let anyone, especially kids to get down.. Switch off the music till you go out of the forest."

TIME: 4:00 PM
Prakash:(no more questions)... "Oye maximum speed should be 40.., no stopping , no honking...no getting down.. OK?? .. understood?? go..!"(annoyed with attitudes)

Satish: "There are elephants in the forest, be careful- this is for your safety, they might attack you if you try to get down or do something silly."

Chandu: "No honking & over speeding, there is a squad few kms down the road waiting to penalize, you better drive slow. "
~~~

Did you perceive the change in tone?? Blame not on the amnesia! It came out after witnessing the attitudes and lack of awareness in the people who drive through jungle. Just listing the rule won't help much, you have to show a bigger picture and we tried to sketch the same.

Let's switch over to few more things...

Some "situations" we were "put in":
1. One guy: "Sir, from where will the wild animals start ??" (you are in the wrong place moron..Do you think all animals in the jungle queue up for you to watch??)
2. Another fella:" Sir, is something happening in the jungle? Any wild life movement "(what to say?? it happens everyday if only we allow it to happen)
3. (3 drunken fellas in an a/c maruti car):
Prakash: "Sir, there might be elephants around, so don't stop,it's risky!!"
Feellas: "We can take care of elefant, no prrroblem, we will take rishk..."
(.... go get "crushed", wish the jumbos are around)

4. Few people carried their big egos along, and one impatient fella who had no time to listen had droven over my toes and another one was about to crash into Satish.
5. Some tourists: "..Oh we know it, we are from Coonoor!"- Another guy-"I know, I am from Ooty!!"....(does that make a difference??)
6. One cab Driver: "Sir, i have been driving on these road from past 6 years, but no body told me about these rules !!?” (no surprise, that's why we are here!)
7. A bunch of guys were stopping on the road in the mid of the forest- drinking and driving at 4 pm!! But when the forester checked their cars, they managed to hide all bottles!!

8. "Why should we switch off the music??? Where can we see animals??" (go to zoo man, there is no sighting-guaranteed scheme out there!!)
9. Few people are too generous to offer us money even before we start explaining things- assuming we are guards creating a "situation" there.(Corruption, tell me d place u haven't been..!) Couple others promptly came down with RC book and license!! :)

Few appreciations:
"You guys are doing a great job!!!... "
"I have a suggestion for you.... "
"Where are you based at? Can we have some details about KANS!?"
"Can we join KANS??"

~~~
Hope, that sums up quickly how we dealt with people and their attitudes during the weekend Road kill awareness program in Bandipur forest with "Kenneth Anderson Nature society". Overall, it's fun talking to so many people (count must be 500 vehicles). It's a good feeling to educate people. We had a great time- but we had our share of irritating moments as well. But witnessing the kind of ignorance people displayed was appalling.

Drunken driving, over speeding, stopping, honking...we witnessed everything that can be considered as "breaking the rule". But, What hurts me MORE is NOT the ignorance of people-but the impatience, in sensitiveness and attitude of the some of the so called educated class whom we interacted with. Somebody tell them that the ego-filled, closed minds are not going to help them !!

With the new year eve around, the drunken driving things is going to get even worse! God save the wild. I wish we can suggest the DFO to deploy few guards on the new year eve to check the drunken drivers. I am sure, a huge "penalty" money is awaiting the Forest department which can be used for other useful purposes(not sure where the money goes!)

Although we do not know how long the drivers and tourists remember the guidelines, but now they at least know that there are few "guidelines" while driving through the forest.

Kudos to our team -
Prakash- For driving most part of the journey with hardly one hour sleep and the officer kindda look (shades+khaki shirt with half- folded sleeves) that scared the hell out of few people out there!!(although unintentional)

Satish- For coming down all the way from Chennai and sleeping in advance on Friday evening to save energy for the program and handling Tamil and Malayalam and for sharing the driving time!!

Soumyajit- Our officer-in-charge of the operation and who never showed signs of fatigue and sleep despite of not sleeping the previous night and did the vehicle count without a break!!

Chandu- For writing this report & clicking pics !:P

As we pass on the baton to the next group of volunteers, let me tell you- Being a volunteer for this program is FUN with a little drama and "surprises"(like the sighting of elephant and a calf we had) and you can leave for home feeling better and few reasons to smile!

It's unforunate that many of us do not know the rules of driving through forest-I am listing them below:
1. Drive slow and enjoy the ride esp if your loved one's are next to you.... hey wait but don't make it a long drive ;)
2. Do not feed animals, they get used to it and stay on road inviting trouble for everyone. Yo are disturbing their natural diet.
3. If you spot an animal trying to cross the road, let it cross and then you proceed. After all, you are at their place.
4. Stay far from elephants, don't honk or annoy them, reverse the vehicle and wait for the animal to cross the road (no animal tries to attack you, unless you provoke or intrude it's privacy)
5. Don't honk or play loud music. Switch off the music while driving through jungle. Enjoy the silence and bird calls..!Yo have no right to disturb it's serenity.
6. Don't stop or try getting down from your vehicle unnecessarily
7. If you notice drunken driving or rash driving or smoking or animal killed on road or incident of people stopping in the forest-Report it to the nearest forest check post.

Share these with your friends and let us try to be "humans"
**************************************************************

Random Update

2008-12-08T18:23:00.014+05:30

Nothing much, just landed in office straight from a trip to hometown and bloody APSRTC buses always runs slow and I repeatedly trust them and ends up feeling cheated. Finally after some grueling 16 hours journey I went straight to office (barring the 2 hours break to fresh up) and half asleep as i was typing this post. (continuing it on Wednesday below.. )

Trip to home town was refreshing and urban birding was exciting. I started noticing things at home town which I never did before!I tried sharing the observations with our family and thankfully they think I am not insane!!Here is the strange perch of the White throated King Fisher that is commonly found across.
Must be waiting for it's mate to play see-saw!??It is not it's usual perch, once can find it usually near water bodies, wonder what is it up to?

I always felt that my hometown do not have those special or bright or colorful birds. But I was proved wrong. Just when I moved out for a haircut, there came the highlight of my whole trip.. the Eurasian Golden Oriole. What a beauty!!!I was very happy to see this one at my hometown! Not surprisingly my uncle never noticed it.,. I told you it's just a matter of "noticing" things that makes a difference..

These bright golden yellow birds leaves you at awe and this one is no exception. It is a winter migrant to South India and not a "resident". The Drongos are chasing it away from their territory. This made me resolve that I would explore more wooded areas around my hometown pretty soon.

Now I am sure all of us had seen this guy near our homes.

This is the DRONGO and look at it's beautiful tail, the big give-away. They are found very widely across India. A couple seems to have nested close to our home and they put up a great show.

Next came the black beauty - the male ASIAN KOEL with it's stunning RED eyes!
A generic note- All beautiful and colorful birds are male!! (although we have very few exceptions). So next time you see a beautiful bird with a bright colors or plumage, the chances that it is MALE is high.God is a Fair man!:)

Besides these, I noticed the Ants and their relationship with the ticks (another post) and few other birds. Finally the urge in me to find our the birding places around my home town is increasing!! This trip had given the right inspiration!!So donno where I end up...

Now if you are tired of watching and reading about birds... (you need to bear with this trend in my new blog for a while..) here is a Homo Sapien at work..

A naturographer at work!! or PAW- Photgprapher at work .. the way my friend Deepa called it.

The most exciting thing I am looking forward is the 15 day vacation that we are going to enjoy this year end starting 19 December and ending 4th Jan.. Thank god I am with this company!!! (aah I can smell some J factor)

The Love of Nature

2008-11-29T19:50:00.011+05:30

**********************
Prelogue:
~I woke up in the morning, got out of bed. Picked up the news paper. Read it a while sipping coffee.

~I started to office, cursed the traffic, waited impatiently at the signals and finally reached the office and rushed in with impatience.

~I took a break and came out of office, crossed the road cursing the traffic yet again and finished off my work and get back to office.

~While walking on the road with friends and collagues, we gossiped and discussed about job, manager and gals of course ;)

~On weekends, I sit back at home on saturday morning wondering what to do !

Epilogue:

~I woke up in the morning, went out and my eyes searched for the daily visitors- the whitebrowed wagtails and the spotted dove. While I read the newspaper I lent an ear to enjoy the song of the wagtail.

~I started to office, scanning the skies and the tress tops. Traffic signals provided ample time to look out for birds around. I reached office glancing the "resident" Rock pigeons and the huge fig tree.

~I took a break and came out of office and noticed the regular Pariah kites that dominate the skies. I found that a group of rose ringed parakeets too were making lot of noise.

~While walking on the road with colleagues gossiping, I talked less and scanned the skies and trees... besides regular gossip. I picked up something from the ground aaah a fig fruit, I opened it and searched for the fig wasps!!
( at times preaching friends about how wonderful fig pollination is..)

~On weekends, I started wondering how to manage time with so many birding places to visit!!

**********************

Aaah.. you are right!!! I misplaced the Epilogue!!. But, it was intentionally done!

Now some questions-
What can a 3 day program do to a city/town-born spoiled brat?? - Magic!!
What can a meeting with other nature lovers can do to a nature lover--? Rub-off effect!!
What can an enlightenting session do to someone who think wild life=forest?Discover the city outskirts!!

The answers for all those can be searched by analyzing the prelog and epilog I wrote above
Between the prelog and the Epilog happened the Jungle Lodges and Resorts-Naturalist Training program! (henceforth referred JLR-NTP)

When Shalini called me on one fine day in September and informed me about the JLR-NTP Program plan, I jumped up at the thought. How can I reject such an offer, it's something that I have been looking forward to, but never thought it could happen so soon. So how can I reject such an offer. I need to attend a wedding around the same time, but gave it a slip and decided that I will spend 3 days away from the civilization learning what is it to be a naturalist. I blocked my calendar, applied for leave and was counting days.

Finally the D-day arrived and I packed off my bags and reached Ramesh's place albeit with regular delay.We are joined by a group of women and in total 11 of us set off in 2 cars to Bannerghatta to spend 2.5 precious days away from home. We stopped at one of the darshini and finished our breakfast and reached the Bannerghatta zoo well in time. From there finally we were "escorted" by the JLR staff into the herbivores park and eventually to the JLR-Bannerghatta camp where our trainer Mr.Karthikeyan was waiting for us.

I read Karthik's blog (http://wildwanderer.com/journal/) and learned more about him through websites and forums and admired him. So, the idea of meeting him excited me.Karthik came to receive us and ushered us into the meeting room. Another student named Rachana joined us. After completing the formalities, the "ice-breaker" session started where we tagged each of us with an animal or bird name and Karthik added more insights into each of those.The fun has just started!! I was asked to start the naming and I smartly passed on to my neighbour to start, but evenutally we were told that everyone should reiterate all the names quoted till then and proceed that put me in a spot!! :)Now the ball passed on and I should thank god we are only 11 members. I quicly picked up the Copersmith barbet name looking at the name of one of the tents and co-incidentally I was alloted accomodation in the same tent.That is not the end, we spotted Coppersmith Barbet in almost all 3 outings that followed and I fell in love with this bird.

The first session was very interesting (infact all sessions). It's on the "Naturalist" and "Bio-diveristy of India" which amazed us and we started to get a feel of the whole thing. We had a break which prompted us to take our cellphones and go hunting for signal. Ramesh and I went searching for signal in the JLR campus and somebody told us that we can get decent airtel signal if we walk beyond the dinner place taking the small clearing that reaches the border of the campus.

We went promptly looking at our cellphones signal and while we are searching for signal as I stepped further I heard some noise in the bush next to me. I was curious but then started looking at the signal and stepped further.I heard another sound from the bush that drew my attention and bingo out came a colorful small bird out of the bush, glanced at me and flew away.!! It's the INDIAN PITTA. It's colors are stunning and awesome and made a vivid combination. I know instantly that I had seen this birds before. Memories from childhood flashed for once. I remember, we tried rescuing it when we were kids but failed to so. It's a complete surprise to me.

Back to the sessions- the afternoon session was when we tried to draw a sketch of birds. It's fun and imagination at it's best and we are anxiously waiting for the "nature trial". Eventually at 4-30 we set out albeit a bit late on a nature trail.We started geared up wtih cameras and bincos and first spotting if i remember right was none other than the "Copper smith Barbet"...way 2 go.. !!It's an interesting birds with beautiful bright colors and never seazes to amaze me.No wonder that's why they had choosen it to be on the cover of the Grimmett and Inskipp's "Birds of Indian Subcontient ".

Once we moved out of the campus,we saw a millipede and karthik told us that it's harmless and we handled it with ease. We learnt the difference between the Centipede and Millipede.
Interestingly it had ticks or parasites clinging on to it's body. Then we debated what we say was a Jungle crow or a Common crow and moved toward the lake.We had a good outing and we started to identify birds...oops I should say we started to find out birds to identify.

I must admit as a starter it's tough on first hand to spot the bird leave alone identifying it.With the kind help of Karthik, we saw the White cheeked barbet and Pond Heron and then moved on to see the "Resident Sambar" of the Herbivore park. The light was quickly failing and just when we are about go back we saw this active brid flying around and catching something in air.The beautiful blue color and tiny body made it look awesome. It put up a great show for us. Karthik eventually told us that is' the TICKELLS BLUE FLY CATCHER.

With the ligh failing, we returned to our rooms and refreshed and watched a wonderful part from the "Life of birds" series of Sir Attenborough. Later we had a dinner and with that we called it a day and retreated to our rooms and set off to sleep.

The next day morning we set out to a lake and it rained birds in that session. We started with the bulbul cousins. The redvented and the white browed perched on the same branch and gave us a good show.The cocophony started, "where is it??", "I can't see the bird", "aah yes I can", "can you give me the binocs", "it's red tail", "no it's white, bigger than crows", "smaller than sparrow"... anwyays, we had good sigthings and returned to the resort and munched happily on the yummy breakfast.

The first session of the second day was on Bird behavior and we dwelled deeper into the subject. It helped us understood and made us awed by the depth of the details we are witnessing. It's just the introduction to the big world of Birds.Late in the afternoon Deepa and Mohan joined us. That's the second person I have been looking forward to meet in this training. I read deepa's blogs and when Shalini mentioned about deepa during some conversation and told me that she knew deepa and that she is going to drop by at the training, I was looking forward to meet her in person.

Finally I met her and yet again I realized the power of blog. If you follow someone's blog and meet the person I am sure you tend to feel that you know each other from quite some time. It's different from a situation where you hear about someone from a third party/person and meet him/her. Deepa is sweet, warm, open, active, friendly, witty (the kinds of friends I always wish to have) and Mohan who enrolled for the course was my roomie and they make a good couple!!Anush also joined us for the evening.

The afternoon session is when where we are supposed to go for lion-tiger safari. But we did not want to trouble the poor beasts and instead had a session on Mammals which was a learning experience.During a break in that session we came out and saw the drama of a WASP paralzying a spider,laying eggs inside it and trying to dig in a hole to secure it!! what a drama.. more on it here.. http://deponti.livejournal.com/451434.html

Later in the day another nature trail and some more sighting. But as we are about to start, it drizzled a bit but we procceded. We proceed in a different direction and since it just stopped raining and an overcast october sky didn't do any good to us. We could spot few drongos and barbets and just when the excitement is going down Mohan managed to see and click an EURASIAN EAGLE OWL. Although the pic shows it facing the other side, it's such a a beautiful one. It made our day and we spent quite sometime tracing it as it went into the bushes after we started looking at him. Anush with his sharp eyes was quick to spot it and then he had his belly full and left for home.

We then proceeded to the lake when the heavens thought the otherway and it started pouring. We got drenched and karthik managed to call the resort to send us a vehicle and we all were transported back. On the way back, few of us wished to have some pakods+chai in such a chill weather and Karthik had them ready by the time we got freshened up.We attacked the pakodas and tea... reminded me of Youth hostel treks....! Later, we watched video from the "Life of Birds" and concluded the day.

On the morning of the last day we went for another trial and our list of birds almost doubled on this eventfull day. We saw the malkoha, the cuckoo shrike, the robins....
Interestinlgy, we DISCOVERED a new species of birds. :) In all our nature trials Ramesh used to spot lots of birds, but eventually most of them ended up as Red-vented Bulbuls. The last day was no exception and finally mohan suggested renaming the bubuls as "Ramesh Vented Bubuls" instead of Red vented bubils

The last day had a session on Ubran wild life which was an eye-opener and dispersed the myth we usuallly have that Wild life is only in forests!!. We started to know what a big world we have around. Karthik quoted that he spent 400+ hours watching just a bird from his house window. We learnt lot which I cannot share all here, rather it need to be felt and experienced than read.
With a heavy heart (at least me) we packed off and checked out and reached home.

Now let me differ from what I wrote above. I want to share something I learnt.
~Nature hosts so many miracles that it never ceases to interest you.
~There is so much happening around us that we fail to notice and all we need is an attitude to understand and learn.
~There is never a dull moment in life when you stay close to nature.
~The joy of being with nature is unmatchable and less told and more to be experienced.
~The way you look at things will change and you will start observing minute things and details when you get used to being with nature.
~It's a duty of naturalist to spread the awareness, share knowledge and I promise myself to do so.

~Nature is a delicate web of interdependancies where a distrubance at one palce can make a big impact on lot other. So be sensitive when dealing with nature
~Every living creature (incldues flora & fauna) have a role to play in this world and all of them are equally important. An ANT is as good as a TIGER to me.
~Ultimately the same generic logic applies to be a naturalist- Be curious, Be energetic, Be patient, Be hungry to learn more, Be open to admit NO or say I DON'T KNOW....

There is so much to learn , so much to understand, that once you start exploring or understanding nature you can't help yourself from admiring it. The bonus here is there is never an end to this learning since a life time is not enough to completely understand each and everything thing that constitutes the nature and I am glad I started my journey....

Break Time

2008-11-26T23:07:00.005+05:30

No... I am not taking break. I am referring the break time while watching TV. I used to change channel during commercial breaks earlier, but offlate I stopped doing it, thanks to the creative advertisements. I fell in love with this ad.

I can just watch it over & over and the cute kiddo made it even more memorable & enjoyable. The innocence, the way she talks, her expressions.. flawless. Esp when she bring in the excitement on the grim face. I could not resist joining her to say "sone ke daanth" evry time I watch the advertisement. It brings back all those silly superstitions we had as a kid.

I confess, I too digged a pit and secured my "milk teeth" in it and covered it up. But curious me had digged it after few days to check why nothing happened!!On the money part, we got the money in alternate ways (leaving that story for another day..) How about you??? gotcha!!?

Another interesting one...

Hmm... interesting to note that Indian ads are getting better and better and more creative. Take for instance the Virgin mobile ad's that are too creative and smart too!!

Talking about ads, watch this advertisement on my friend's blog that we spotted last fortnight :~)

Bisi-Photo-Bath

2008-11-15T19:36:00.009+05:30

Time for new snaps :)- an easy way to post something!!!
I have been to Valley school off kanakapura road with new friends and had a great time. Few pics from the trip. To start with, on the ocassion of Chandrayan's sucess, here is one pic clicked today to pay my tribute to my cutie moonie..

Touching the moon:

Place: IndiraNagar

The X Factor:

Place: Valley school

The Mini Spectrum:

Hope:

There is always HOPE!! Take care and have a great weekend!!

The Jumbo Conflict

2008-11-13T07:50:00.008+05:30

On one of my yahoo "interest-groups", a member brought in an interesting topic. He found a report stating that the forest department compensated villagers whose crops are destroyed by elephants. Apparently, the department ended up paying lakhs of ruppess to those villagers who live on the edge of forest and constantly troubled by elephants who raid the crops and destroy the yield. So the question is- Instead of spending so much money on compensation, why can't forest department buy off the land from the villagers and make it part of the forest. Very interesting idea!! So I took it up and dwelled deep into it and with my little exposure and knowledge I tried to look at the BIG Picture. Here is my take....(long one.. needs 5 tons of patience, note- 1 ton=1 minute)

Say the forest department bought the land for 2 lakhs! How long do you think the farmers survive with that money. In most of the cases the not-so-educated sons of the land who do not know how smartly to use the money might end up evaporating the money in an year. To top it, if they get their children married off, it might evaporate even before...

So what do they do after they finishing off their reserve cash.??? One of these...
1. End up as a labourer at some resort or farm (visit some of the villages around Bandipur to WITNESS THIS, but there the land is bought by so called "city-people" from bangalore for their private party houses..)
2. Migrate to cities for better living.
3. Feel bad at loosing the land hence clear some other trees bordering reserve forests and start cultivation.(Farmers are very closely attached to land)
4. Frustrated at loosing the land and the income they might turn hostile towards the forest department and the wild life(read: elephants in this context). Some of them can turn into poachers which can earn them the EASY BUCKS.

So it's not just about buying the land, you need to provide them with alternate sources of income which helps them on a long run and when I say alternate sources of income that leads to another discussion.

OK, when somebody uses the buzz word "alternate source of income"- it is easier said than done!! The less-educated farmers who got no skills other than cultivating the land should be willing to learn new skills that can provide them alternate income sources. Again, this should not be causing any destruction to the forest and it's biodiversity-- say if you decide to manufacture finished goods or some material where they use the resources of forest, the typical challenges(note- not problems) can be finding out skilled people to train them, sharing of income, usage of forest resources if any and marketing the goods which ultimately earns the income.

So do you think our forest department and political lobby are ready to take up such a MAMMOTH TASK, especially with no self-gain motivation other than saving forest??(I agree there are some genuine forest department people who had the attitude and will)? I guess the answer is a big "NO" in most of the cases. This is where a GENUINE and dedicated NGO's can chip-in and be a crucial link that connects all- -The people, the forest department and the political lobby without which the whole program might not succeed to the extent we anticipate.

So, I agree it sounds more logical to buy land, I would be more than happy to hear such a news...but I would add-- Buy the land but make sure the sons of the land are taken care of. To sum it up, make sure the impact of our actions have less side-effects by taking into account the welfare of all parties involved in this.

To do so, we need :

1. Committed people who can work with the villagers by educating them on the importance of conservation and about the alternate sources of income and win their confidence.
2. Do a socioeconomic study that reveals the "per capita income" that helps in choosing the right SOURCE of alternate income generation (ex: Handicrafts, Herbal products, Honey etc). Also, we need to do a Marketing survey and find out the places where the products can be sold (basically a BUSINESS PLAN that fits in.. spare my little knowledge on marketing, could not get right word)

3. Study the forest bio-diversity to understand the Non-timber products that can fetch any income (with a controlled and limited usage of forest resources- again only in reserve forests not national parks where such an activity is prohibited.) In fact, if forest department can buy 100 acres of land, they can use part of it to "grow" plants that might not be of interest to any herbivores but can generate income.(again here I am not an elephant expert to decide that and I assume elephants do not raid crops which will not serve them as food except when they are in "musth" .. experts correct me..!!!)

4. Have a strong political will plus forest department support to undertake such projects which can be implemented across all villages where the Human-Animal conflict is on rise.

5. Last, but not the least- Plan to use the land bought by the forest department in a right manner...the reality is... you might be surprised to see a politically supported fella erecting a "RESORT" on the recovered Land....! It's INDIA- anything can happen over night. .! Besides this, acquiring land might bring in resistance from political parties lobbying against the government who gives a damn for anything except POWER!

If any of you managed to read till here, a big THANKS. These are opinions expressed from my personal experience and observations. There are lots of other issues that I might have missed. At the same time, I confess I am neither a Human-Animal conflict expert nor a animal behaviour expert. I am just a lover of mother earth who would prefer the planet to be rugged, the way it was ages ago!!

I agree that some of the things I listed above can be debated for hours. But this is just my take on the issue and I am open for any open-discussion (not debate..) and love to hear your thoughts and opinions. I can agree to dis-agree with my opinions :~)

Bise-foto-bath

2008-11-06T08:23:00.013+05:30

I already warned you in the first post that I will be bugging you with pics. So here we go... enjoy the Bisi(e)-foto-bath series that goes on.....
(click on pics to get better resolution. I am yet to get a hang of this blogger. May be time to create flickr account)

The Web-hanger..

Place: Lalbagh, Flower show
Cooked on : August-14-2007
Clicked this guy at Lalbagh flower show last year

D Quote:

Place: Autorickshaw
Cooked on: July-24-2007
What a quote man!! I instantly fell in love and clicked it on my mobile.
Let me try translating it with whatever little Kannada knowledge I had.
***********************
"Birth is FREE...
Death is CERTAIN...
Love is ETERNAL..."
************************

The Fall collection!!

Place: Lalbagh
Cooked on: October-19-2007
The FALL collection....!

OK that's it folks. Stay hungry till next round. aa bisi bisi.. bisi bisi...

What a DRAMA!!!!!!

2008-11-03T00:27:00.005+05:30

Emotions, Tears, Celebrations, Hope, Despair, Swing of Fortunes, Chaos, Destiny, Twists & Turns, almost-had-it.. if you wish to see all this in a minute, you should have watched the last 2 minutes of the "just" concluded grand and fitting final F1 race. I am sure it will be debated and discussed who the REAL champion is, but when I sit and write this review of the final F1 race, I could not stop myself from empathizing with FELIPE MASSA.

What a race this was!!Leave behind all those technical things, the last 2 minutes of the race had packed so many things and a big PUNCH at the end!! I am sure, he would have not felt this bad if HAMILTON had maintained his 5th position in the last but one lap, but that's life....!

In case you do not follow F-1, let me not bore you. But it's worth a watch to catch up some news highlights on the last F1 race of this year to see how all those emotions played with the lives of HAMILTON and MASSA. Understandably MASSA was in tears. Especially after a fantastic race, his hopes of championship budded just seconds before he crossed finish line and he erupted with joy assuming he WON it, only to find seconds later that his destiny has changed and Hamilton had the better of the fortunes. I wonder how many of us could expect such a TWIST in the tale.

If you an atheist, you might differ from me, but what a trick does GOD holds back till last minute. What a drama! Isn't it true that Life is so uncertain and full of unplanned things?? We plan so many things in life and we take it for granted with a positive hope that it is going to happen the way we thought, only to find later that the almighty had planned something else. It hurts more when you know you gave your best, but find yourself evaded of the fruits of your efforts. But, I believe all that happens for a reason. In this case, the tears Massa shed might be the fuel of inspiration for the next year to win comprehensively.

Anyways congrats to Hamilton and thank god I got a chance to witness a wonderful race of my life. (do catch some news on F1 to understand better of what i wrote above...).

One more time

2008-11-02T00:01:00.000+05:30

Yes, one more time!! (STOP imagining and read, dirty minds..ayyo). I started it all over again. Although I have been passive(wahh.. whatta excuse) at blogging from the past 2 years, finally the itching prevailed and here I am at almost midnight of the 1st day of Novemeber franatically typing a post which is due from ages.

Allright, it's time to pay homage to my good old blog: http://myalterego.rediffblogs.com that carried millions of memories and that helped me make friends for a life time and made me a better person, taught me loads, changed my attitude, helped me discover new things...... d list goes on.... I know 2 minutes of silence does not do any justice to what you had given me my old bloggie... I owe you a lot.. senti!!

Now, what happened to life ever since I became lazy to blog??Here you go ..
1. I'm married, albeit I claim it's child marraige, mom says 27 is not too early!
2. Although people notice that I have been "ballooning", let me write an explanation.. aah may be the G force of earth altered a little and making the weighing machines go crazy, especially when I stand on one of them!!
3. My love for nature is gaining strength and pulling me strong. Thanks to the JLR-NTP(reserving some lines on it for next post)
4. My Fitness levels have already dipped below the "ZERO" level and I badly need a reason to work out!
5. Work at office is "butchering" me (using the word Killing would do no justice ).
6. My camera handling skills got a bit better (something to cheer about, finally). I concluded it based on the fact that the count of images that I delete due to camera shakes or mis-focus have comedown. Don't be surprised to see my S3IS images posted here unlinke my old blog where I used to depend on gettyimages.

Let me not clog you all with more. I will keep updating more "happenings" in my posts. Till then with a promise of more posts, I sign off (enough man, lemme go sleep, it's 12-30 am).

Finally....

2008-11-01T23:58:00.001+05:30

Finally, I am back to blogging....