Blue Lotus

Blow fly

2009-09-30T21:28:00.006+05:30

Sep 28th, amidst a long weekend, and on a Ayudha pooja day, decided to cycle to Hoskote lake. The lake had some water....and I spent one hour looking around.....there was promise behind every bush, and secrets beneath the stones.

And, as I was gearing to start back, chanced upon these two fly on a twig. They sat there without flying away though I took hazzar macro pics.

Blow fly - the metallic body strikes you - the red & yellow in the head also stands out. These chaps can smell dead matter & dung for miles....I read 10 miles somewhere.....and the first thing they do is to lay an egg on it.....and soon start eating away the matter...the smell soon disappears.....the maggots hatch....and immediately start eating the decomposing matter...

This immediate egg hatching ability is made use by forensic detectives. Body found - highly decomposed - when was the murder committed ?? after 72 hours, it gets difficult, thats where the forensic entomologist steps in. And, figures out which developmental stage the blow flys are. The time stages of the developmental cycles are quite deterministic. And now, its 2+2 for Mr. Sherlock Holmes!

Next time, you see dung or dead matter, watch out for the blow flys and thank them for their good work!

Camouflage

2008-06-19T16:16:00.000+05:30

3:20pm, 23rd Sep 2006, Dodabetta, Krishnagiri, Tamilnadu

Gaping Hole

2008-03-21T13:21:00.003+05:30

Thousands of stars, and a gaping hole!

I stumbled on this pic, and furthur reading pointed to some exciting info.

This is a Bok Globule. Dark dense clouds. One of the coldest objects in the sky with temperatures around -270 degrees (3 kelvins). The dark clouds have hydrogen, helium & some inter-stellar silicates, and are so densely packed, making it opaque at optical wavelengths.

But become transperent at infra-red wavelengths, showing the background stars.

In 1947, Bart Jon Bok declared that these objects lead to birth of stars!!!

The Blok globule in picture is called Banard-68, at around 400 light years from earth. As you notice with no other star in between, weighs twice the solar mass, and is half a light year across. Temperature is around -257 degrees (16 kelvin).

Banard-68 is at a preliminary stage of star formation. The inwardly gravitational pull is balanced by outwardly gas pressure. At some point this stability is lost, gravatational power wins, and matter would condense to form stars. Banard-68 is said to be marginally stable, and in a few million years could collapse on it self, and may lead to birth of one or two Sun sized stars.

So, ladies and gentlemen, coming up soon, in the place of the darkness would be dazzling stars!

Source: http://www.eso.org/esopia/images/html/phot-02a-01.html

http://www.universetoday.com/2005/06/17/a-star-in-the-making/

http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/14678#22726

The Rusty gate

2008-01-29T21:06:00.000+05:30

That is all I remember from this Diwali.

But no, I remember many more things. The first day on 8th nov thursday, we met at CRY office and left for Kutumba , about 8 kms out of Bangalore on hennur road at Dodda Gubbi. Although we planned to reach early and finish the celebrations early. It got delayed , we reached there by about 07:30. The Volunteers Rajarshee, Murtuza, Venugopal, shweta, Anil, Sonia and friend, Sabina, Deepak, Devendar and Family, and myself,

The kids were waiting for us, there were a lot of new faces this time, as the strength has increased there, so after a round of intro - we set on fireworks, lit the place with candels, and what next ? lot of fun, crackers, rockets, sweets, Bombs, flowerpots, sparklers, the children had major fun , also we ensured everyone gets involved in this festival .

Then it was time to have a small interaction session discussed things like their courses, etc

NOTE :- we need a volunteer to teach them basic Computer skills , may be once or twice a week visit would be enough, the PCs are going to be provided .

Then chocolates and one small goofup by our dearest volunteers, they couldn't locate the sweet box kept in the car, and we thought we lost the sweets , but none the less we gave them other sweets like gulab jaamoon toffees , etc, then we left, as it was late

But still that rusted gate Haunts me.......

The Second day 9th Nov Friday was at Vatsalya at5 Wilson Garden again most of the volunteers were the same with the addition of Akash, Dharin and Nancy, while some from the previous day had dropped out.

Vatsalya being our regular intervention also happens to become a very pet place for most volunteers . As I entered the tiny tots came running wishing diwali and it was as if meeting old friends after ages. And yes, they remembered the action songs I had taught them and asked me to do those again for them. So without wasting any more time we got into our activities, then some fun activities, and the fireworks started.

The kids were divided into three groups of small , very small and the very very small kids ( Vatsalya has girls between age 5 and 15 years, and there is a fair mix of Children of all ages.
The very very small ones were given only the light ones like the sparklers, bhoomichakras, flowerpots, etc, the very small ones were given the little bigger ones like a mix of sparklers , Small bombs, flowerpots, some fancy fireworks etc the small ones, mostly high school kiddos, were seen with the big B's the Big Bombs, double sounds, and lakshmi bombs and the likes
and yes all under the supervision of the volunteers.the grand finale was our guided rockets which went in every direction but straight , and some special bombs,

Then we distributed the sweets including the sweets that was lost and found. Mmmmmm My mouth waters even at the thought of those exotic burfees, thank goodness we found them..... I got to eat too.

The rusted gate........

The third and Final day Of Diwali saturday 10th Nov we went to shishu Mandir.

This is where lot of thoughts and emotions were evoked again. Reached there at around 6pm saw two rows of girls seated on the road and our volunteers bursting crackers lighting flowerpots, etc... it was a common diwali planned for children in two homes situated adjacent each other a girls home for girls above 5 years and the infants home, for children below 5 years, mostly children lost and found, who went missing, abandoned, are the ones who stay in these homes, even children undergoing juvinile justice stay here.

As I reached the fire works were on. The older girls were seated on one side of the road watching the fireworks, I was wondering what happened to the tiny tots, then I walked a few steps towards the shishu mandir, Where the tiny kids stay, they were all seated on a small pathway that leads to the home and that gate seperated me and the children , the gate was kept locked , a meshed old gate , the children had to sit inside the gate and just watch the Celebrations and fireworks demo being done by us, To me personally it was a very sad scene as these kids looked like any other children, ( imagine some child you know of less then 5 years of age and you standing in front of a closed gate and inside which there is this child who cannot ask for some thing it needs.

I hope the gate breaks some time ....

But to the volunteers even getting permission to allow them see the fireworks was a major effort, so we thought this was much better then them not having anything at all, we gave the bigger kids sparklers and assisted them to light them up.

Immediately after this they were asked to get into their respective homes and we packed up.

Could some one define 'childhood' ? what are the minimum requirements to be called 'experiencing childhood'. What it means to miss the light of Diwali, id or christmas. Does it make any diffeence if they are aware of the MAC D, the internet, , Pogo, etc etc that the other children cant live without, how about Forum, PVR Even small outings, what difference does all this make. And Finally what difference does it make to stay away from Family...... ...

The Rusty Gate.....

By Sunand

A bouquet

2007-10-28T16:17:00.001+05:30

Only for the brave. No entry to pregnant women!!!!!

Requires guts for the 'golden' handshake!!!

Shrikanth courageously married Priya on 29th Oct 2006!!! Hey....itz their first wedding anniversary......wishing them the very best ;-)

Wedding happened in the musical town Dharwad. Tons of his friends, and students from Friends of children landed up, and we had a whale of time!!!

Among other things, we decided to wish him over a balloon ;-)

From all of us, wishing Priya & Shrikanth, wonderful times togather!

Geckos

2007-09-27T00:14:00.000+05:30

Gecko's: Lizards, all around the globe (40 deg latitude around the equator), 40mm to 350mm, eye lacks eyelids, but has a transperent shield.
Devbaugh beach, Karwar, Sep 10th 07.

This gecko caught the attention, and remains one of the best sightings from that place. Chap was moving away, but then was slow enuf for me to catch up, and posed. The green thrills.

Am sure, you noticed the long tail. Tails seem to be major protective/defensive feature. When confronted, the tail detaches, writhes & wriggles, drawing the attention of the predator, while the gecko moves away. Tail regrows.

Moving on, Dandeli forest on a nature trail on Sep 12th. Another gecko with some green around its throat(?) caught my attention, I was so amazed, that I simply watched it, called Lakshmi & the guide, and watched it climb up the tree, before I got to click.

Another 2 hours later, saw one more, but then the green tinge was missing. Chap again moved up the trees. Indian geckos are nocturnal, soberly colored (brown/grey). Food predominantly being insects, bigger geckos may feed on smaller snakes.

Need to identify these geckos. Material from Daniel's book of Indian Reptiles & Amphibians.

Tribal kids

2007-08-08T23:23:00.000+05:30

Forests; Jungle; Evoke myriad of images. Animals, trees, rivers, streams, falls etc etc and to a lesser extent tribals. A fortnight back, we got a chance to visit the fringes of Nagarholle forest, and interact with school going tribal children. Herz an account.
The much needed push came from the note book drive Sunand had organised for some of the govt. school children in the Heggad-Devan kote area. Off, we left on a rain promising saturday morning with 2000 - 200 page - notebooks. Santosh came witha 4WD, Vishwas & Nandha joined us. Here, with a beautiful girl watching us, we decided to coverup with notebooks.

The books were more targetted at drop out children in various schools. But, we started with a distribution to all kids in a school. Tobaco is majorly cultivated in these parts. Herz how the plant looks.

A web can be seen as a you-will-get-lost puzzle or can be seen as a wonderful supporting structure. The tribals that lived in the Bandipur-Nagarhole-Wynad forests now live in the fringes and try to make a living.

The predominant tribes are

Kaadu Kuruba

Jenu Kuruba
Yarava

Soliga

Some of them have some land to cultivate, and also engage in basket making & honey gathering. Most of the seem lost between the jungles and the towns. A lot of them go to Coorg a few months a year to assist in their plantations. The Kabini back waters.

Helping the tribes make a healthy living is the NGO - Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement - http://www.svym.net/

This group started of with health, and have now moved onto education among other things. They have a good hospital in Saragur, where a tribal can avail facilities for Rs 2.

And yes, they have a residential school for the tribal children. This houses 400 kids, studying from first std to 10th std, with 218 boys and 182 girls. The school is close to Kabini back-waters, a place called Hosahalli, on the other side of the back-water one can notice the Kabini Jungle lodges.

We spent a night and half a day at this school, interacting with the children. A lot of the current 10th kids said they have seen a tiger in the wild! And, here, I was going through a bird book with them, and they could identify a lot of them.

The school has wonderful facilities. They seem to follow a montessori like system.
One of their primary school class-room. They have a good library, wonderful lab, and a computer centre.

Leaves collected by 3rs std kids!!!
The class-tribe-sex break-up.

Well....a snake molt....and the spine of snake ;-)

At this point, my kyamera fell and got damaged ;-(

So...the rest of the day, we got to interact with the 10th standard students. It turned out to be intense sessions. They were around 40 of them. What was amiss was the exposure. Growing up so far from the cities/towns - depite all the facilities the school offers - they seem to miss the bus. A desire to go away from the place was there, but what next wasn't clear. A girl who scored above average marks aspired to be a bus conductor!!! We spent a lot of time talking 'bout career options etc etc. The kids lapped everything up.

What was striking was the closeness amongst the kids. The teachers remarked that they don't have a concept of mine/yours. There are no fights in the class when the teacher is not around. And, that the word 'orphan' doesn't exist in their language!!!

The kids look very promising, eager to make it. What they would do well, are more visits by the outside world (you & me), to inspire, show directions, and help them take those next few crucial steps.

Most of the 10th standard pass students are sponsored into higher education by the NGO. Currently, 10 such students are persuing their 11th standard science at Mysore. These children would benefit by regular mentoring by someone in Mysore. Mentoring would involve talking & motivating them, and an easy way is to teach some subjects or clear some of their subject doubts to build the relationship. Interested, let me know.

Sinhagud day-2

2007-08-05T20:30:00.000+05:30

Sinhagud a fort near Pune offers a wonderful climb for the physically inclined - tons of them -, romantic couples, picnic spot, and ofcourse hosts wonderful floura & fauna.

On 22nd July, Avi, Prasanna & me were led admirably by Sanjay Katti - an old leg with the mountains -Bulbull pair. Snails....need to get more info.

Ants busy transporting a dead grass-hopper. It was interesting watching the fast progress the crack-team made. Quickly moving around, changing positions, strategies, they kept going.

Wire-tailed swallows. All of us were spell bound by this couple, who let us have a good look of them.

Need to get back the wild-flower book from Shrikanth.
Hill MynaThe fort was getting closer, and the climb steeper. The day was promising to be mist filled/cloudy.

Watch-tower or whatever.
Sanjay pointed a mongoose, it looked left & right, and quickly went back to the shrubby vegetation it came from. A dog sensing it quickly went behind with no success. The dog realised perhaps Sanjay would lead him to some more, and joined us for a while!

Snake with its head crushed. You know, I have been trekking for a while now, and have hardly come across snakes in the wild. They move away sensing our presence. And, it was a shame to see a snake in this manner.

A nice outing, many thanks to Sanjay Katti.

Sinhagad day-1

2007-07-31T21:13:00.000+05:30

Above pics from Shaniwarwada, Pune. The following are from a hill close to Sinhagud, Pune.
Hill turmeric

Crabs with golden claws

2007-07-17T23:45:00.000+05:30

Beasant Nagar beach Madras, a lazy sunday afternoon with Rohit in the background. Hardly spoke with him for there were better things on the beach. Anand & Brinda hosted a wedding reception that evening, hey, doesn't the above pic look romantic...Goodluck guyz.

Kids from the fishermen hamlets, armed with golden claws, were furiously digging out molluscs/shells; their food.

Yes, this red crab grabbed all my attention. They live in those vertical pits, and were busy digging out the sand. What strikes is their sensitivity to movements. A little movement and they disappear into their holes. Those white eye like things must be really sensitive.

The view from the other sideNotice the amount of sand being thrown out.

And there were lots of these sand colored crabs. Notice the way they carry the sand up for dumping. Need to figure out details of these crabs; different species or male/female of the same species ?

Bannerghatta

2007-05-22T16:11:00.000+05:30

A weekend spent quitely at Jungle Lodges Bannerghatta. Sharing a few pictures. A good shot after a long time.

The safari had its fair share of bears, tigers & lions.

Gaur, these chaps have suddenly climbed to the top of my charts! We love staring at each other. The Gaurs during the morning walk.

A gaur stretched to reach across the leaves.

The killer sniff

2007-03-28T23:49:00.000+05:30

Over 1 million human killing every year by this species, makes it the most dreaded organism in the world. An organism tiny but wide-spread in 3rd world countries.

Yes, Mosquitoes.

Well, Man does want to kill them back. Tit for tat. Eye for an eye. And, I believe, hez been largely unsuccesfull.

And Mosquees won't let us sleep in peace either. Typical arms & ammunitions against them have been some repellants that probably kill us than them!!!

So...what next ?

Lets look at the latest weaponary being sharpened in killer-labs!

Yes, Co2 (carbon-di-oxide) is a sign of life....esp Human life.......and Mosquitoes sense Co2....and can figure out the presence of humans based on the concentration gradient.

How do they do it ?

Thats an head of a mosquito, and it has some protrusions called antenna and maxillary palps. These house cells called neurons that can sense chemicals, and some of them specalised for Co2.

For example, Fruit fly (Drosophila Melanogaster) has 1200 such neurons to sense chemicals called olfactory neurons. Of these 45 of them can sense Co2.

And, how does that happen, wherz the knowledge, memory to recognise a Co2 chemical. Genes, yes, Genes encode that information and scientists recently have isolated two such genes Gr21a & Gr63a, and these togather carry information thats used in the Co2 sensitive neurons.

Wow! thats something, but where does that leave us with mosquito's ??

Yes, knowledge of the genes lead us to the molecular identity of the insect olfactory receptors (structures for binding with chemicals like Co2). And knowing the structure of the receptors one can come with other chemicals to bind with them, and either stop their functioning or mislead them.

Thus, new repellants could emit such chemicals, destroying the Co2 sensing ability or misleading the mosquitos.

Mission accomplished, rest in peace.

3..2..1....go!

2007-03-26T21:51:00.000+05:30

Saturday 24th March, 6:25pm to 6:35pm, IISc, Main building. Landed to check the scavenger vulture, instead these noisy birds caught my attention. They were seated on two christmas trees. Now & then, they would take off, go around the main building or elsewhere and soon land back at one of these tall trees. And, they were quite noisy. The swish-swish of the wings as they take-off has to be heard. Crows gave them an hard time.

AeroIndia

2007-02-11T16:57:00.000+05:30

Aeroplanes, my first love. Simply can't take my eyes away from anything that flys. I still can't believe it. How come.......

AeroIndia 2007, every 2 year event in B'lore. And, I seem to have attended all of them. This time with a camera. We were seated almost at the end/begining of the runway. And, it indeed was challenging to capture them. Will take sometime to putup the labels. Yes, missed Anand, my aerospace expert.

LCA - Light Combat Aircraft - The pride of India. You must meet anybody who has been remotely connected with it....chaps in various defense labs in B'lore....and the pride with which they gush!!!! Saras from NAL (?)
Sukhoi - dream machine - now with IAF.

My much wanted shot of the day. The orange fire from F-16. Nothing to beat this fighter interms of manouverability; swift movements.

Mig-35

Mig 35

A walk

2007-02-04T12:30:00.000+05:30

At the base of Nandi Hills. Jan 28th, 8:45 to 11:45, with Dharin & Murtuza.

Ganarajyothsava

2007-01-27T21:05:00.000+05:30

India's Republic day means & doesn't mean a lot of things to people. But to school children, itz fun time again. Marchpasts, community processions, speeches, flag hoisting, songs, skit, dramas & chocolates!!! It was 9ish in the morning, when I reached the Chalghatta school. For a change, all the kids were neatly seated, and awaited the proceeding to start. The chief guest was to arrive, and there was no sign of him. And soon, there was these colorful distant objects in the sky that got the kids excited. Parachutes, balloons ? None of us cud make them out.

The 6th std kids rehearsing

Shivaji & a look-alike!
Awaiting the chief guest.

Finally, we decided to go ahead.

The culturals started, but we guyz had to move to the Bellur school.

Initial photshot with Chetna & Hena.

' Bharath Matha ki Jai'

The Anganwaadi kids.

The Vande matharam song. Chetna & Hena had trained these kids for it. One complicated version, with tounge twistors galore.......I regarded it as pain & torture to my kids.......but to my surprise they pulled it of with aplomb.

Loose control... One more time!

Man...now for THE skit. The 'Punyakoti' song. Chethan, who sang was running away with the song. I barely managed to click a few snaps.

We had wonderful masks for the cows & tiger, but the one for the calf wasn't available, and we had to make do with a rabbit mask!!! Here Punyakoti is talking with her calf....'bout her impending surrender to Mr. Tiger.

After sentimental scenes, Punyakoti goes to Mr. Tiger, who for reasons I haven't fathomed all my life, feels sorry for wanting to kill her and instead of sending her back & going home, jumps from a cliff, and ends life!!!!

Teaching with my 5th std kids goes like this....45 minutes of English...restlessness.....and suddenly they jump and say 'Uncle, we will dance'......and thats it...they have their 'n' dances...that includes Dhoom machale!!! Here, we have them as Gopika's cribbing 'bout Krishna!!!

Speech in English. Chetna came with a simple written speech, and thrust it in my hands. None of the 4th & 5th were ready to speak it out, for they can't read it in the first place. Shocked. Well, thats the way it is. And, as I loudly contemplated writing the English in Kannada, and getting it read. Manjunath, a 3rd std kid, jumped, and forcefully said, he wud do it, and did a wonderful job of it. Long way to go for us.

3rd std kids singing the poem 'Bannadha thagadina thuthuri'

Man...this song has climbed up to the top of my charts. Something like 'Jannadha pannadha mangagallee'......Monkeys... please don't see, speak & hear evil! A dance, that evokes lot of laughter amongst kids.

End of celebrations. Lots of volunteers missed. Sunand, Dharin & Ami joined. And, the best part was the culturals at the Bellur school. Last Independence day, the kids just watched as pooja & speeches took the centre stage. But this time it was the otherway.

After we left the school, came across this injured Brahminy kite. It may have done well with some attention & care, we left it to nature & moved away. And, so are these govt. schools ?

Kodachaadri trek day 2

2007-01-21T00:04:00.000+05:30

We pitched our tents, and crashed. Well, thats damp squib is what Sunand would say. And, lo...he didn't let me sleep. He pulled me out for the new year celebrations, that began a day earlier. A cake with 7 candles surfaced!!! Some game.... soon pettered away, and it was the time for anthakshari around a bonfire with competition from other trekking groups, camped just a stone throw away. I sneaked out, and crashed.

Soon, I was pulled out in the name of a 'night trek'.....Deepak, Sandeep, Sunand & me went up to one of the Kodachaadri peaks. I was dragging my feet. Lot of moonlight, outlines of distant hills, a valley, grasslands and forests. We reached the top, and lied down on a carry mat, and starred at the sky. A clear sky, the brightness of the moon, kept some stars away, but still it was breathtaking, it was midnight, and Orion - the hunter - was right above. We watched amazed, and asked questions over-awed, "What if a star falls on us ?"
(pic, flicked from the web)

Nest day morning, the last day of the year, I was slow to be off the blocks. The gang had started for the sunrise. I went up to the peak we had gone the previous night, only to realise the rest of the gang was at a much taller peak. That gave me some time for myself.

As I moved around, on a crater like peak with wild grasses. I stopped, the pounding began, will the snake stay ? I slowly moved, and aimed, it seemed to laze in the morning sun. No movements, as I inched closer, with increased beating, it turned out to be a snake molt! I was excited beyond measure. Therz absolutely no pattern on the skin, and I am finding it difficult to identify it. Yes, I got it home in a lunch box. Note that the head & tail are very close. It has eyelids!

Encyclopedia Britanica article on snakes

The trek began around 10ish. Look at these snow clad leaves. I was amazed. After closer scrutiny realised it some fungus deposit on dying leaves.
Western Hill Catmont. Flowers pollinated by bees, wasps & ants [Isaac].
Thats amazing, for a lot of flowers evolve to have a specific species pollinate their flowers.

As the gang caught their breaths, after the steep & labourious climb down from Kodachaadri. We reached a eatery, and were awaiting 'Puttu'. Meanwhile, I went out to explore a small path that beckoned. And as I stepped into thick vegetation, I could see a skink rush away, and I lost sight of it. The next half an hour, I waited.......at some point it came out......the rustling of the leaves was a dead give away. Importantly, you need to maintain the silence, as you move, spot it, peer thru light tunnels in the dark forests. Little Skink: Mabuya macularia. Skinks the largest of all lizard families, with over 1,300 species feed on plant material & insects.

The puttu finally arrived ;-)

By now, we were in real thick vegetation, quite dark, rapid decent, and my bruised knee. Wonderful trees all over. I just wasn't able to capture them due to pressure to keep up with the group! Notice the leaves. There were four or five leaves at the tip, and just one of them was real long. I couldn't believe my eyes! Was this the characteristic of the plant......or was it the light source that just elongated a leaf ?

These bright colored fruits(?) were sticking out of the ground. I find them quite fascinating, have no clue what they are. The small plants closeby seemed to be associated with it. They were found close to a stream (which had leaches), alongside a unused jeep track.

Dense forest. Trees. Climbers. It was bewildering. And some of them pretty tall. Herz one. Sunand & Deepak (left to right).

Seed dispersal is another interesting aspect in plants. The plants devise various mechanisms to ensure that their seeds reach, far & wide. Fruits are once such mechanism. Many a time, the pod bursts and the seeds are flown, hopefully far away. Here, you see the pod(the conical structure), the brown seeds, and the white radiating threads in a parachute fashion from each seed. A little breeze shud suffice to take the seed away. Wonder, what aerodynamic fundas apply here.

We finally reached this tall waterfall. ArishinaGundi falls. Barely had time to getinto water. Away from the falls, just above the flowing water, besides the rocks where a colony of spiders. Lots of webs, and spides galore. As I watched them, I was zapped to find spiders inside water!!!! Wondering - what the hell - and kept starring at them, took a few pictures, that didn't come out so well. Thought, I shud check this out with experts. As I kept watching the water-borne spiders, blood gushed in, and I realised I was looking at spider reflections!!! Ha....what a let down!!!Well, herz a unsolved mystery. Found a spider inside this nest. Itz real white. With almost straight edges. It looked like a tissue paper folded on a branch and stitched. Mmm...adaptation of a tissue paper thrown or nature's yet another creation ?

The trek was to get over in another half-a-kilometer according to the local guide Vijay, and we walked for atleast 30 minutes!!!

The Gang.

As we walked towards kollur, the new year celebrations started hitting us. Here the road was turned into a greeting card!

A lovely trek. Perfect way to end the year. Would like to go back, with a smaller group, and examine the flora-fauna closely. Thanks KMA.

Sources:

The Book of Indian Reptiles & Amphibians: J. C. Daniel
Common Indian wild flowers: Isaac Kehimkar
The Private Life of Plants: David Attenborough

And, Karthikeyan, Ullas, & Joby.

Kodachaadri trek day 1

2007-01-11T05:02:00.000+05:30

Forests fascinate. You see lifeforms everywhere: zapping you. And, believe me, soon you start wondering 'bout them. What is it ? Why ? How ?? And, there in begins a journey to understand life around you.

Kodachaadri is a peak 1343m above sea level in the western ghats, quite close to the Arabian sea. Dec 29th saw me wind up a project, heave a huge sign of relief, and catch 22 (or 24 ?) other blokes for the KMA led trek.

We stopped at a resort like place for early morning activities. Quite a few birds around, but I just couldn't get close to any of them ;-) These leaves caught my attention. And, that insect (who-what-why). Also seen was a big bird - a kite like bird - quite far off, and I didn't have my binoc's with me.

Hey...you see those seemingly dried brown leaves ? I had always wondered at them. These are small plants called epiphytes that grown on the big tree. They put up big leaves (those big brown stuff) in a tight circle around the stem. This enables it to catch rain water and form ponds. Falling leaves from above, decay, and pass nutrients. Birds come for water in these ponds and leave behind nitrogen rich droppings. Other visitors could be Mosquitoes, Dragonfly's, frogs, beetles, lizards, small snakes. Its party time out there! Also called Bird fern nest, and commonest of these epiphytes are bromeliads.

A huge tree trunk lay across our path, and you see the orchids. Orchids are mostly epiphytes, and they are not parasites. Orchids have an exciting tale apart from living on other plants or rocks, their name comes from the Greek orchis, meaning "testicle". Well, Theophrastus (370-285 BC) used that term to describe a class of plants that had testicle like roots. And, the name famously stuck.

Pied Paddy skimmer (male)

Crimson tailed Marsh Hawk (male)

Moving on, Dragonflys here. Thanks to this online book, I got to identify them.

Flaming spike climber. All wild flowers identified here are thanks to Isaac Kehimkar's book on Common Indian WildFlowers.

Common Jezebel on Common floss flower. One of my favourite butterfly. The plant is an aggresive invader, rampant due to felling of evergreen forests[Isaac].

Orchid. I thought this could be a catterpillar, and gently touched it. Notice the roots. Some dangle the roots in the air, and absorb moisture in the air. Some spread it on the branches, and absorb the water(along with any absorbed nutrient) trickling down.

By this time, it was afternoon, Jharna, Sunand & me - we had got lost - blame it on orchids & dragonflys - and were the last to reach this amazing waterfall. The path was quite adventerous - walking besides a stream, on rocks, slippery at times.

This looks like a 'Tree frog', unfortunately I don't have a better picture.
Hill Blepharis. Bees polinate the flowers.
Common burbush. Interstingly, the lower leaves in the plant have three lobes, while those on the flowering stem have single pointed apex[Isaac].

????????

Spot the insect.

It was a long day, my left knee showed up an earlier running injury. And, I struggled once the climb & decent began. This majorly hampered my movements, getting closer to the subjects, and having time to photograph. And, had also finished up one of the two batteries I carried. And, so got very choosy in clicking. Stayed away from people & landscape snaps.

An NCC camp

2007-01-03T06:20:00.000+05:30

Sunand vanished sometime in May 06. We waited, checked with his mother, and waited. He still didn't turn up. And, I was convinced that our man has eloped with some girl, will soon 'knock knock', his mother will open the door, to see a grining groom & a shy bride with garlands on!!!

Sunand did turn up, and had an equally exciting tale to say. Sunand writes....

Hum Sab Bharatiya hain,
Apni Manzil ek hai…

Yes these are the lines I have been chanting the whole of last week Starting 10th May to 16th May 2006,

650 Girl cadets from various district of Andhra pradesh ( most from rural background).
7 days of rigorous training.
Total army discipline .

The fifth Andhra Girls Battalion NCC ( National Cadet Corps) Had there Annual training camp at Tirupati, the camp was held with the following aim

TO DEVELOP CHARACTER, COMRADESHIP, DISCIPLINE, LEADERSHIP, SECULAR OUTLOOK, SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE AND THE IDEALS OF SELFLESS SERVICE AMONGST THE YOUTH OF THE COUNTRY.

TO CREATE A HUMAN RESOURCE OF ORGANIZED, TRAINED AND MOTIVATED YOUTH, TO PROVIDE LEADERSHIP IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE AND ALWAYS AVAILABLE FOR THE SERVICE OF THE NATION.

TO PROVIDE A SUITABLE ENVIRONMENT TO MOTIVATE THE YOUTH TO TAKE UP A CAREER IN THE ARMED FORCES.

The KMA team comprising Anand( 4 days), Suma( 6 days), Jagadish (4 days), Kiran ( 7 days)and myself the camp leader had to stay till the end of the camp shouldered the responsibility of undertaking adventure training for the whole battalion

Various activities like firing, karate/self defence, meditation, drill, obstacle challenge etc were a part of the camp

We had initially planned to go and demonstrate adventure activities for two days and return, but on reaching there early 10th morning to be greeted by the Camp commandant and the group Captain I started discussing the nature of the camp its aims, back ground of the cadets, their schools college details etc,

To my surprise more then 80% of the cadets were from rural background, most of them from government schools. Many join the camp( or NCC(National Cadet Corps) on a larger level) just for the good food provided. There was an air of total discipline, the army officers who were managing the camp. Cadets in uniform, a loud call of 'order' from some far corner every now and then.

All this looked very thrilling and tempting …

After doing a preliminary reki( this is a preliminary assessment of the situation) of the camp site for the adventure activities, we located few spots for some activities, we were suggested a hill about 10 Kms from the campsite that is called Chandragiri. At about 9 am we set out to the hill with a batch of about 50 senior cadets in an army truck with an open top, we were accompanied by a lady officer an army Jawan and another cheerful army officer Prahlad who is from Darjeeling.

At Chandragiri myself Anand and Kiran had the task of finding a spot for Rappelling,

It was then that we realized the temperature was soaring ( it was some 40 d c) we found the rappelling spot , got all the cadets to the top the activities went on till about 1 in the noon, we returned to the camp site , wondering what sort of adventure training are we going to do in this heat, after lunch confused about the progress we went to sleep only to be waken up abruptly at about 3:30 pm by some uniformed guy, saying hey guys the cadets are waiting for you for the evening activities, taking a sudden decision we organized a jumar climbing for few cadets that evening, by then lot of cadets were watching us and wondering as to what these guys are doing with ropes, and gear.

The first day I also discovered that I had to revoke my Telugu speaking skills as most girls knew only telugu , none in the KMA team knew, during the briefing I had a tough yet enjoyable moment of having to speak in Telugu. ( I could see some cadets trying hard to control laughter… discipline issues)

Now that we had a fair idea of the camp, the cadets timings, activities timings, climatic conditions, I decided to make a plan for the adventure part of the camp. As that made a major composition in the whole training camp.
We would start as early as 6:00 am go till 7:00 am with the jumaring activity, 7:00 to 7:30 is the camp breakfast time, after that we set out for the Chandragiri hills for hill climbing, rock climbing and rappelling activities, in the evening we would do other activities between 3:30 and 5:00 pm,. With this plan in hand I went to the Camp commandant Lt Crnl Jude rocque and group Captain Ms.Chandra. The plan was accepted with a strong request from them to continue the training till 16th as the top army brass including the group commander were to visit the training camp that day.
All of us had different things to do back home, Anand had to go to work, I had an event at DSF to be involved in and some projects, It was tough for us to decide on staying that long.

That evening during the Cadets roll call I heard the song live for the first time, though I have heard it so many times and love the song too

"Hum Sab Bharatiye Hain, Hum Sab Bharatiye Hain
Apni Manzil Ek Hai,
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ek Hai,
Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ek Hai.
Hum Sab Bharatiye Hain."

After the roll call there was a cultural show

We were to wake up early at around 5 from the next morning to start the session at 6, in one of the boards I saw this:

CARDINALS OF DISCIPLINE
Obey with a smile.
Be punctual.
Workhard and without fuss.
Make no excuses and tell no lies.

There was something in this camp that said Lets do it … JUST DO IT

Next morning we were happy to have Suma with us there was a 'fall in' at 6 and the cadets were there dot on time . we selected about 25 cadets took them for jumaring ( a type of climbing technique. ) we set out to chandragiri Hills early with a mix of senior and junior cadets, a little bit of antakshari on the way to and fro the hill was good , the problrm was most wanted only telugu songs, so we had a hindi vs telugu antakshiri,

Some girls did know Urdu, English and Tamil too, so we took there help during the briefing sessions and giving instructions while rock climbing etc, , the second day I didn't feel the great heat ( may be got acclimatized) reached the camp site a bit early went for lunch then sleep,

For the evening session we had the river crossing rope ready and an extra jumar rope fixed to cater to many more cadets,, as the word had spread about our activities , and many more were willing to be involved, we too were eager to impart the spirit of adventurism, various mountain skills

"Kashmir Ki Dharti Rani Hai,
Sarjaj Himalaya Hai,
Sadiyon Se Hamne Isko Apne Khoon Se Pala Hai
Desh Ki Raksha Ki Khatir Hum Samshir Utha Lenge,
Hum Samshir Utha Lenge."

The junior wing starting from 8th std till the senior wing upto final year degree, all came in batches, company wise, about 50 to 60 per batch per session,

The activities went on the same way for the next two days too and on Friday 12th we requested for permission to visit Tirumala and have a darshan of lord Venkateshwara, immediately special pass and a vehical was arranged to drop us, that was something I was very happy about.

Now that we had decided to conduct the camp till the end and deliver the best possible training, we roped in jagadish on Saturday in order to relieve Anand and have a steady flow of 4 instructors. Myself Kiran and Suma decided to stay till the end. With The team becoming more confident on our training schedule we increased the difficulty level for the Cadets in River crossing and introduced the Zipline into the schedule,

Sunday was a very tiresome day as we planned to conduct training in a little more adventourous manner, ( I had Sunday in my mind as that was the day Bangalore marathon was scheduled and at the n th moment cancelled, so wanted to do something worthwhile that day)

By this time we became friends to some cadets too , who were volunteering with us ( one of them Sunitha has done her Basic course in Mountaineering and has got Alpha grading too… that's cool) another one Taj a very good cadet has a intention of becoming a C A , she has come up facing a lot of difficulties , there were many more such cadets who are highly skilled in these activities, many of them didn't know these things exist.

"Bhikre-Bhikre Tarey Hain Hum Lekin Jhilmil Ek Hai,
Ha, Ha, Ha, ha, Ek Hain
Hum Sab Bharatiye Hain."

For most of the girls this is the first and the last( as they say) opportunity for such a camp, some of them will get married after their degree(I even got invited for two weddings:: - ) ) about 5 of them I spoke to said they will join either the armed forces or police.

On 15th there was a visit by the Group commander who commands about 7 units , the whole camp site was sparkling , we were told he will come straight to the hill for watching Rappelling Demo, thus we set there a bit early, with 50 girls , a mix of senior and junior cadets. They did rock climbing and slow rappelling ( which is a bit safe and that's what we did for all ) but there was more time for the GC to arrive we selected a few confident ones to allow them do fast rappelling , surprisingly there were many volunteers for that both juniors and seniors, we did as many as we could, ofcourse some of them did slip topple but in our hands they were very safe,

The demo in front of the top brass and media glare was superb, I gave an equipment briefing for the second time in that day some talk on nature conservation, The group Commander himself a mountaineering enthusiast was happy about the whole rockclimbing programme and was full of praise for us.

At the campsite we had increased the difficulty level of even the jumar now.

More and more girls were coming forward for the activities, they were eager to learn and take this further ,

There were girls who had earlier said they never knew anything existed like this now pleading for more chances on doing these activities, some of them coming forward to do some difficult techniques of river crossing, a few even dared to try out the other Rappelling techniques like the stomach and side rappelling which we had demonstrated. At times it rained during the evening session , but the cadets would wait in the rain for their turn I enjoy rain, so had more fun and even my team did.

The final day 16th we were supposed to do a demonstration by the Cadets at night in spot lights, we fixed the ropes started early and many girls knowing this would be their last option tried their hands on various activities( by now all cadets had undergone training) there was heavy preparations for the cultural evening with VIP's family members of the officers and other personnel, Cadets,

The Cadets put up a splendid show with a mix of folk dances, songs, classical dances, and a lot of other activities, There was wide publicity of the Adventure , rock climbing activities in the newspaper, My pic appeared in two papers(yeah ;-) Anand's appeared in one, and a lot of write up like "Bangalore team does rock climbing for NCC camp", "Karnataka mountaineers train the cadets at Tirupati" etc, lot of that was in Telugu too.

"Mandir Gurudware Bhi Hain Yahan
Aur Masjid Bhi Hai Yahan
Girja Ka Hai Ghadiyal Kahin
Mullah ki Kahin Hai Ajaan

Ek Hi Apna Ram Hia, Ek hi Allah Taala Hai,
Ek Hi Allah Taala Hai, Rang Birange Deepak Hain Hum,
Ek Jagmag Ek Hai Ha, Ha, Ek Hai, Ho, Ho, Ek Hai."

In his speech he expressed total satisfaction towards the adventure activities and the rock climbing part of the camp.

BADA KHANA … Gave an opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the top Brass and discuss business, While Suma left for Bangalore before the bada Khana saying her job as an adventure trainer is done, Jagadish and Kiran found it more worthy to have food with the cadets, I joined the Officers and during the course of Dinner surprised myself by getting confirmation for two more such camps, ( although I am not sure if I will attend them) , I have also convinced them to think of sending their deserving Cadets for climbing expedition's. and also upgrade their existing adventure equipment gear.. . After a while I too joined the boys,
Time for Slam book, Autographs etc It has been a long time I had done that,

ON THE WHOLE this was the best camp ever as it involved a large magnitude, no scope for mistakes as we were always in the army glare ( they have experienced all this in their training) , the training was for NCC cadets so there was an added purpose of service to the nation also. , many girls who had phobias of height are now confident of standing high… alone …

The overall outcome of the children is very good, the amount of exposure given to them to various activities, from the cadets point of view,

Waking up at 4:00am or some even earlier
Getting dressed neatly
' Fall in ' at 5 am & warm up exercises
Following strict rules, disciplined life , group manners
All the various activities they get involved in and
The benefits they get after successful completion of the NCC training all this put together makes it a great opportunity.

I would suggest more of our children to be put into NCC, Scouts, Guides, Cubs and Bul buls etc, .

After this … Yeh Dil Mange more.....may be a national camp.

Signing out,
Proud leader of the adventure training team
Combined Annual Training Camp ( CATC )
Sunand

Ramnagara school trip

2006-12-29T07:40:00.000+05:30

Thorns made red by bleeding hearts.

Well, if not a bleeding heart, I indeed was in a quandary. Chalghatta school - 200 kids - never been on a school trip - wow! lets take them out - but how ??

The logistics was turning into a nightmare. A bus can take 50-60 kids, a long journey makes it 9k/bus, and entry fees. And, food expenses. Mysore beckoned, but entry fees & quite long a journey. Same tale with Shravanabelogala-Tallakad-Bellur circuit.

Thorns.

My morning run ---> solution thrashed. Check with Sunand. 'Yes! we will do it', he says. Bliss.

Funda: Thorns are mostly in our imagination, as in the pic above. The locust intimidates other predators with it thorn like legs.

And, so on a saturday morning 9th of Dec 06. All the 6th & 7th std kids were taken on a outing. The 5th std kids from Chalghatta, along with 3rd to 5th from the Bellur school will be taken to Fun-world sometime in Jan. An elaborate pooja for the bus, seemed to satisfy the bus driver. He had cribbed heavily that only 46 passengers are allowed, and we were 66 kids, 8 teacher staff, & 6 volunteers!!!
And soon, Sunand & Shweta got some major Anthakshari going in the bus. Latest Kannada songs from FM 137.66
Ramnagara was the destination. A rock-climbers paradise. A quite place, with vultures above ur head, place to be. We wanted to introduce the kids to trekking and rock-climbing.
And soon, after breakfast, Sunand launched onto what trekking is....rock climbing is......the equipment used...how you need to be.....water bottles.....discipline....etc etc. At the end of the briefing, a boy promptly fainted!!!!
And soon, the 66 kids were divided into groups with volunteers Leena, Chetna, Shweta & Navrathan leading them. Sunand & Mallesh were the rock-climbing experts and leading the trek/climb. The teachers, esp the school HM Mary had a tough time in the small trek. She kept saying 'Since when have you been scheming this on me'...she struggled.....the kids literally ran.....and after some time 2 kids came back to help their HM!!!

Soon, we reached the base of Ramdevar betta. The joy here is the natural slide thats on this rock....the kids went up & slid down merrily.

We climbed up the hill, pitched in the equipment, and introduced rappling.
And after swift instructions from Mallesh & Sunand, the kids rappled down. It was a good test of their confidence, courage and trust.

Soon boyz & girls clamoured to get down. A few kept away, having a single rappling rope was becoming a botlle-neck.Shwetha took upon securing the harness & gloves.

Mmmmm......

By 5pm, we had finished with the last rappling kid, and went down for lunch. A good number of the kids had rappled down. The plan was also to visit Kokrebellur, some museum at chanpatna, and Rajarajeshwari temple. But, with rappling taking all the time we ditched it.

The school had raised Rs 2300 from the kids 50Rs each, from all those, who could pay. They covered food charges and also bought some canvas shoes for those needing it. Transport charges was covered by DSF. Rock climbing charges raised from volunteers.

The way back, the back benchers started with some major Ayyappa bajans, and soon being tired gave up and slept. It was 8:40pm, when the bus reached the school. Sunand wanted me to 'de-brief' the kids. And so, for the 66 kids seated in a corridor, that glowed in a yellow light lamp, for those who rappled, and those who didn't, with some of their parents watching, I spoke of 'Why adventure'....'Why push the body'...'Striving beyond the limits'...'Marathon running'.....'Rock climbing'....'Their exams'.....'their studies'.....'little more marks' The kids starred back sleepily, and their parents were quite.

Well, we managed to pull thru this outing safely. And, the kids enjoyed it. A new experience.

A zillion thanks to my buddy & Man Friday (Man Saturday ?) Sunand, who made this happen.

BR Hills

2006-10-24T14:38:00.000+05:30

Billi Rangan Betta, 11th September, Anil & me, went on a 2 hr trek, 6:40 to 8:40 kinds, along with 2 guides from Jungle Lodges. Overcast sky, misty conditions, a wet forest, thick green vegetation, animals seemingly just out of your eye-reach, various calls.

A bison skull, an old tiger kill.

Fungi ??
Tender leaves, wonder why they are red ??
Gaint wood spider.
Unidentified spider.
Mushroom from the bark of a tree.
Wow! this was the find of the trek for me. A spider nest, in the form/size of a football, had over 50 spiders. Bad light conditions, the whight specks are spiders.
Mushroom/Fungi/Lichens.

Yes, pug mark of a tiger. And closeby was the remains of its kill. The hooves & legs of a deer. It was roating & lotz of fly's were stuck to it. The guides said, it must be a one day old kill.

A lovely little trek, pity it was just 2 hrs. Walking in a forest, with an element of surprise around the corner, itz an amazing feeling.

Guess who ?

2006-10-10T22:39:00.000+05:30

Blogging is infectious. Mmmm....well, not all my close friends have caught the bug though.
Once you write something, you think it is the best write-up ever. You read re-read. It Looks better & BETTER, as you stare with unconcealed glee, the characters get polished, and the words glitter back at you. Yes, its the very best words can offer!

And now, you march triumphantly into the outside world expecting 'Wow!' 'Great!!' 'Fabulous!!!' Strangely, that doesn't seem to happen. You meet your friends, look at them with that glitter in your eyes......did-you-read-my-blog....shinning all over. Your chums don't pick the signals, instead talk of Munnabhai's Gandhigiri.

You wonder.

And, yes, occasionally people do seem to visit, but you want them to declare it to the universe.

Comments.

Yes, that wonderful feature. When friends drop in, and say what noble work you are doing. What pictures. What write-up.....waah wah....waah....wah.

Wow!!!

But that hardly happens. Blokes seem to chicken out. They read, and their writing skills seem to vanish. All it needs is the skills of a 6 year old first standard kid. But, with my friends, I have my doubts!!!

So...

So...whatz to be done.

Its a challenge.

Well, I know my friends, they need a challenge.

Herz one, they would like.

Identify the flower in the picture. Tell me, which plant ??

What say ?

Don't call me, or mail me......please do leave your comments ;-))

Wow! brilliant idea, isn't it ?

Let me leave behind a clue. This pic was taken in one of the densest jungles of Karnataka.

A marathon run

2006-10-05T14:35:00.000+05:30

Bangalore hosted a marathon a few weeks back. And, surprise-surprise, one of our friends - Suma, came second in the women's full marathon. Herz a fabulous account of her experience.

Hi,

This is Suma.
Fitness turned to serious action:

Did I complete a full marathon?
No, Never, You believe me or not, this is true, I have still a big doubt.

I am very happy that I finished a full marathon with a timing of 4 hrs 23 min 47 sec

Special Thanks to:

1. Ashit Lama: One who accompanied me for the whole marathon in cycle to give Glucon D water

2. Sunand: One who helped me to get marathon details

3. Raj: Who dropped me in the stadium @ 5.a.m.

4. My Aunt: With whom I stayed one day before the marathon.

About Myself: 24 yr. old, Mr. Bean fan, always worried about my 'Slim & Trim' structure. I want to keep my weight below 50Kg. Only for this reason I started jogging.

Why Marathon:

1. Opportunity to run with the people from all over the world
2. To see the beautiful structure of guys and gals.
3. Chance to wear less dress and run around Bangalore
4. To see the beauty of Blr. at no cost.

About my Practice & Diet.

Practice makes Perfect - absolutely true.

I was jogging half and hour daily for my fitness sake till Aug. 2005. Then i got in to a teacher job in New Horizon school . So I had more time for reducing my weight. I was 56 kg in Aug 2005.

I spend one hr. for jogging and exercises till Dec 2005 But lost just 2 kgs, so 54 kgs.

Then I took a resolution in New Year
(Speciality: I never followed any of my resolution in life)

I increased my practice to 2 hrs. continously. I felt easy after a month. I felt so happy that I lost 2 more kg. in the month of Feb. 2006. But still I was at 52.

One day I went to stadum to see the beautiful structure of guys and gals. Casually I got the information about Blr. marathon celebration run for 7km, half-marathon for 21km, and full marathon for 42 kms.

So I thought that I can reduce more fat from my body by running 42 kms.

Yes But how? Then I planned.
(Advice: dont plan this way)

If I can cover 20 kms in 2 hrs. (10/hr) So after 20 kms u think that u have started the race just know. How is it? Great idea?

But problem is not with mind and body, what willl I tell my legs?

'Ok legs, you forget every thing about previous run.'

Then I found that "I am a stupid"

March 2006 I managed to run 3 hrs continously, I cut short my oily foods, automatically I started drinking a lot of water prepared for May 15th.

One more month to go. I gave three day complete rest and ran 4 hrs continously in the month of Apr.

Yes I can do it. But the next two days I was flat. So I thought of doing only 3 and half hrs. I bought a weight less addidas shoe for my marathon.

I managed to run 4 hrs continously from apr 10th onwards.

But my worry was always about my weight. let me go and check my weight

'Amazing i was just 49 kgs.'

May 1st: the month of all expectation to complete a marathon.

I had a doubt, whether I can finish within 4 hrs or not.

Not possible, I can't, so after 4 hrs what will I do, I planned it out
(Advice: dont follow this)

1. Shall I quit the race
2. Shall I catch a volunteer bike for help
3. Shall I walk and finish(that would be better)

But its not that easy after a long jogging, its difficult to change the leg movement. I thought of jogging 4 and half hrs.

'I think i am in love with u, no no, i am thinking about u. May be i am in love with u'

my letter for marathon race.
(Love ur activity what ever it is)

My prayer to God has increased. I packed my bag.

Message from Sunand:
'Marathon has postponed to Sep 3rd'

Very sad. I felt punishing myself by jogging 5 hrs continously at the same day of my expectation i.e. May 15 th.

I prepared for a marathon alone. But I couldnt. I lost all my energy in 4.45 of continuous jog.

Atleast I did this. Thank God.
Then I continuod my usual practice.

June 4th:

Sunand, Ashit, and myself planned for Nandi hill 60 kms walkathon. We covered the distance in 12 hrs.

Confidence and Trial make our way stronger

42 kms became very very small in front of 60 kms. A lot of thanks to Sunand and Ashit.

I knew that i can complete this race. I felt that God has given me the opportunity to practice more. i came to 47-48 kgs. I felt that I became thin, not slim.

'Marathon is the best way to keep ur structure slim and young forever'

Sep 16: (3 days before itself I stopped my practice)

An unusual day I called up Shaheen and Sunand about my stay. They gave me a tough picture of staying with a gang of marathon runners.(New place, New people)

So I thought of staying with my Aunt. I drank 5 glasses of pomogranate juice without- milk, sugar,& ice. and 2 boiled eggs. I got blessings from my pappa and mamma. I got in to sleep @ 8 p.m.

I prayed God

1. Help me god to complete this race
2. Oh Sun, u ar the grt God. Shall we play hide and seek tomorrow(Sep 17) You hide but I never seek u. Bcoz then u will show ur hot sun light.
3. God plz adjust my loosemotion for a day.

(But god agreed only for 2 wishes)
Bcoz god too never likes the loose motion problem)

Sep 17 : 1 a.m.

I got my 1st loose motion. At 4 o clock I had one banana and 2 apples and dry fruits. When they were announcing the 1st call for marathon I was inside the stadium toilet @ 5.45 a.m. That was my 5th loosemotion.

Then I thought not to drink water till 20 kms. so that I can control my problem.

I crossed my start line thinking that 'oh line when will i see u again I love u Iwant to see u again.'

Many of them accompanied me. They felt 'a girl running with boys'. I felt so happy. Bcoz I was the centre of attraction among boys.

I had a lot of energy but I don't want to pull myself. I know my own pace.

I croossed hebbal fly over, a traffic police man said I was in 4 th position
Never mind, I just want to complete the race.

"Finishing is more important than winning"

I crossed my 21 kms mark. I say many of them standing there and encouraging runners I got my old point of view.

'Think Suma, think u are just started the race, u have to run just 21 kms. only.'

So stupid no, what can i do? No other way, I have to think like that.

I crossed the 3rd girl. Then volunteers said I was in 3rd position.

For the next 5 kms. i was dreaming about 'standing in the 3rd victory stand, photographers, autograph to boys, bla, bla, bla.....(Day dream)

"Good day dream will give u more enery to our harmones"

I drank my first sip in 25th kms.

Once again Hebbal.

One prayer in my mind:

" God show me the stadium, I dont want to enjoy the beauty of Blr, I dont want to see beautiful gals and handsome guys, I dont want to run with less dress"

That time Ashit gave me good encouragement saying "Suma u ar in 3rd position, u can do it"

I saw my timings. it was 3.15 Wow. I have 45 more minutes of my practice. I have to cover 10 kms. Yes I can.

I can see nobody running marathon, everyone got into their own pace, no company of boys, some thought that I was jogging after 9 a.m. stupid girl. Some two wheelers and travellers turned and laughed at me so sad, many of them doen't know abt the race.

I was counting my each step in the last 5 kms. Casualy I saw one bus standing in the traffic signal, one boy was clicking my photo in his mobile camera.

This gave me push to run 2 more kms. i.e. till 40.

Then I saw 2nd girl running before me. She is also very tired. She is covering by walk and jog. But I can go without walk. But I already completed my 4 hrs of daily practice.

Last 1 Km

" I felt i was going to fall, my leg was carrying 100 kg in each People were thinking that I was handicapped, 7 kms runners thought that I was cebration runner with a crying face"

When I crossed the stadium gate many of them clicked my photo in thier camera. There was an annoucement
'give a big hand to women full marathon runner " I felt that I can run 10 more kms. easily. But so sad I have only 400 mts. to go.

I completed the race with 4:23:47. I didnt sit, fall, thinking that I can run 1 more hr. non stop (Not in Reality)

"Thank God I completed the race"

This exp. taught me a lesson: "How to live life"

- Prepare and plan urself before u do
- The only way to reach goal is keep going
- Get confidence by way of practice, it makes perfect
- Love ur activity what ever it is
- Thank God for all the Good and Bad things
- Finishing is more important than winning

"Life is like a Marathon"

Stage I : till 10 Kms. School and College age (till 20 yrs of age)

We have more energy, but dont do things extremily. it will effect ur coming stage. u will enjoy the beauty of every thing (Nature, company of boys and gals, etc)

Stage II: Till 21 kms (20-30 yrs of age)

We are still young and energetic, dont misuse, take up career 1st, then go for love.

Stage III: till 31 kms. (30-50 yrs of age)

Middle stage, got in the job and responsibilities. After marriage I saw very few of them are happy, but no way, u have to live with ur partner(marathon) and family(pains).

Stage IV: last 10 kms. (after 50 years of age)

Life will be boring, Bcoz u know about everything. Relax and prayer is very important. Love ur partner (marathon) more in this stage. Say I love u in each step u make.

Special tips for my marathon friends:
(If u think u can also run a full marathon, follow my steps below)

1. Increase ur practice - step by step - otherwise get confidence that u can complete the race by walking.

2. Dont skip ur streching exercises for next day. Do it after the jog. it helps u to relax ur muscles.

3. Intake of water should be 5-6 ltrs. per day. include more vegi and fruits, egg and fish is o.k.

4. You have to sleep atleast for 7-8 hrs in a day.

5. Get a comfortable weight less shoe, bcoz dont carry ur shoe along with ur body weight

6. Take ur friends and cover more kms,. like Nandi hill walk. So that u will get more confidence. Make 42 kms smaller than that.

7. Prayer to God and blessing from ur parents will give more satisfaction.

8. Find out ur own pace Dont follow others pace.

9. Practice on staircase steps by jogging, then u will feel high slopes and bridges is like stairs. (once in a while)

10. Drink buttermilk with salt in previous day of race it will control ur tension as well as ur loosemotion.

11. Put foot powder in ur legs, shoes, and socks. it will control swetting.

12. Try to be in ideal weight, bcoz your legs have to carry ur full body weight while jogging.

Thank u all for seeking my marathon experience - looking out for more life games and company of marathon friends. Send me reply about this exp.

"You come with me, I will also come with you"

" I didnt complete a marathon, I just completed my practice timings"

Regards

Ur Suma.

The General

2006-09-27T18:49:00.000+05:30

'Good morning, good morning!' the general said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we were cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
'He's a cherry old card', grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

-Siegfried Sassoon
Written in April 1917

Wild Pigs

2006-09-20T23:19:00.000+05:30

Billigiri Rangan Betta - BR Hills - beckoned us like never before. Promptly Anil & me made an appearance, after close to 7 hrs of travel from B'lore. And that included a broken Volvo bus, a jeep that threatened to breakdown any moment in the ghat sections, via Mysore & Chamrajnagar. Jungle lodges at Kyathrayana Gudi - K Gudi - was our base. They have a nice library. And soon after lunch, we just hung in front of our huts. Looking for flowers, staring at the green vegetation, distant hills, and waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly from my left came these black figures, sloth bears ?? nope.....wild boars!!!!!! I stood transfixed, clicking, trying to get the frames right, and not moving much.

As I choose the pics for uploading, felt the green vegetation looked boring, so I played around swapping the RGB colors, now...behold the magic!

Some fundas:

Pigs live in groups called sounders
Female pig is called sow
You may know this, kids pigs are called piglets ;-))

Ah...there they are...the piglets are light brown with pale stripes, the stripes last 6-7 months. The adults weighing close to 100 kg, have a black mane (hair sticking out from the head to tail on top of the body), you can notice it in these snaps.

They live/move in groups - the sow & her piglets - Adult male joins during the breeding season. They first fight for sow, and once victorious they male froths at the mouth or produces lip pheromones to attract the sow. The sow gestates for 100 days. And may bear a litter of upto 12 piglets (a rare thing amongst hoofed animals).

At this point, the pigs were closest to me, I wasn't hiding anywhere, and this chap noticed me, and made his/her displeasure very clear. It stared at me...and grunted....waited for a few seconds...the rest of the clan stayed still....and having warned me, got back to business.

They had their noses to the ground - have a stronge sense of smell - as they foraged. I moved to my binocs & watched them for sometime untill they disappeared behind a hill. It is so satisfying watching wild animals in their natural habitat. I look forward to see them again, the adult males with erect manes fighting amongst themselves, and the female cooly watching the show!

Rosy Periwinkle

2006-09-18T21:44:00.000+05:30

A flower, that looked very familiar, but seen in the premises of Jungle Lodges at BR Hills , it caught my attention. Took the usual snaps, expecting to label it with Kehimkar's Indian Wild flowers book. The flowers were not seen in the book, surprise, and somehow I stumbled upon the label Rosy Periwinkle, a plant from Madagascar that has given some major cancer saving drugs. I can't believe it, I seem to notice this plants almost everywhere now.....

Traditional healers in Madagascar used this plant for treating diabetes. Curious with this, western researchers, dug in, and studied the effects of the chemicals in the leaves on rats, they noticed that the blood sugar levels of the animals were not affected but rather their white blood cell counts had decreased, thus its anti-cancer properties were discovered. Vincristine and Vinblastine are powerful anticancer agents, and are two of the most important medicinal compounds found in plants in the last 40 years. Vincristine is a standard treatment for Hodgkin's disease, and vinblastine for childhood leukemia. Although extracts from Madagascar periwinkle have been shown to lower blood sugar levels, simple preparations of the whole plant may not be effective.

Long before modern researchers learned of the plant's valuable and varied properties, folk healers in faraway places were using the Madagascar periwinkle for a host of medicinal purposes. In India, they treated wasp stings with the juice from the leaves. In Hawaii, they prescribed an extract of the boiled plant to arrest bleeding. In Central America and parts of South America, they made a gargle to ease sore throats and chest ailments. In Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and other islands, an extract of the flowers was commonly administered as a soothing eyewash. Periwinkle is used in folk medicine in the Philippines as a remedy for diabetes. Most of these practices are still followed.

Rosy periwinkle grows up to two and a half feet tall. Leaves are oval and have a glossy surface. The five-lobed flowers are usually white or light pink. Note the leaves in this pic. Periwinkle was called "sorcerers violet" by the French, in reference to its use in charms and love potions. Europeans also believed that periwinkle had the power to exorcise evil spirits. Medieval Europeans used rosy periwinkle frequently in garlands to protect the bearer. The Italians placed garlands of the plant on the graves of infants, calling it the flower of death. During the Enlightenment in Europe, the French considered periwinkle an emblem of friendship. Low light conditions, some of the flowers have come out bright!!!!

Lets look at Vinblastine in detail. Vinblastine has become a widely applied drug, and is today used primarily in the treatment of the following conditions by interfering with glutamic acid metabolism (specifically, the pathways leading from glutamic acid to the Krebs cycle and to urea formation).

Hodgkin's disease
Lymphocytic lymphoma
Histiocytic lymphoma
Advanced testicular cancer
Advanced breast cancer
Kaposi's sarcoma
Letterer-Siwe disease

Vincristine is interesting too. This vinca alkaloid is a spindle inhibitor and is a cell specific agent, blocking cells in the metaphase of mitosis. During mitosis, the DNA of a cell replicates, dividing into two new cells. The vinca alkaloids therefore affect all rapidly dividing cell types, including cancer cells but also as intestinal epithelium and bone marrow.

Vincristine is used primarily to treat

Acute leukemia
Rhabdomyosarcoma
Neuroblastoma
Hodgkin's disease
Lymphomas
Breast cancer
Multiple myeloma.

Well, I don't know most of the listed cancer disorders, anyways these two alkaloids are impressive. Herz the chemical structure of these two guyz.

So, Rosy Periwinkle, you can't miss this plant. Look for it, and take your hats off to it ;-))

Nanjundeshwara temple

2006-09-13T17:49:00.000+05:30

Nanjangud -close to Mysore - is famous for its Nanjundeshwara (Shiva) temple. A 1000+ year old temple from the days of Ganga's. And seems to have had major royal patronage all through. It reflects in the grandeur of the temple, exquisite sculpture, two big wooden chariots, and idols of numerous kings & queens.

Anil, & me, visited the temple, on our way back from BR hills. Kabini flows close to the temple, and a dip there is the way to start. Cloudy day, so low light conditions, a test of your camera skills. What majorly stuck me, was the paint of the temple. A golden yellow paint of the Gopura's etc stands out.

My favourite shot.

Side view of the gopura.

Back of the gopura.

This huge wodden rath (chariot) had some amazing carvings. The Rathotsava here, is quite famous.

Liked this a lot.....didn't notice the background clutter....shud have kept that out....wud have been a nice pic.

Some erotica!

Yes, in the temple, the sculptures of Gods were simply amazing. There were lotz of Shiva Linga's, and idols of kings & queens. Anil bought some ladoos as prasad. And, as we opened the pack, crows quickly descended, and I got to feed them, they almost picked it from my hands.

My first visit, nice 70 minutes spent at the temple. Lots yet to be seen, and a dip in Kabini awaits. Need to visit it leisurely.

Deadly pictures

2006-09-09T00:44:00.000+05:30

Seriously, a deadline @work....thats almost met....the rest of the team is still working....rather the PM etc are giving the final touches, and we chaps, are waiting for the release to be made.
Meanwhile, these 3 pics from Lalbaugh a fortnight back.

Need to identify this flower. Its from some kind of grass.

And these butterlfly's, a tamrind tree was full of them. I am happy that today is THE release day. Badly need to get out of the city. Bandipur or BR Hills ??

Perot, chalghatta & mummies

2006-09-05T18:14:00.000+05:30

Chalghatta school, a nice looking govt. primary school with a small ground interspersed with Ashoka trees. The kids run around like prince/princess. They really own this school. 200 kids, make such ruckus, that some new volunteers go back home to terrible headaches (seriously, ask Leena).

The school has a fundu HM Mrs Mary Angela (left most), a superb PR person. And, another teacher Bhuvaneshwari, whoz fast becoming my favourite (rightmost lady). Bhuvaneshwari is real good at culturals, no wonder, we had so many children vying to sing/dance & perform.

Ha...oh..3 similar shots....lots of back light, so only this angle permitted decent shots. Hey, who are these lovely ladies ??? They are singing 'Hum honge kamyaab ek din'......well, Ladies & Gentlemen, Sep 2nd 06, over 20 employees from Perot systems dropped into interact with our kids. To keep matters simple, the 1st to 5th kids were let off at their usual closing time, and we continued interacting with the 6th & 7th. Amit, hardcore DSF volunteer, also happens to be a Perot, and so it worked cool for both parties ;-)

Event A was collage making. 8 teams with volunteers thrown in, and 30 minutes. The teams took on this with all seriousness, with volunteers majorly guiding them. And, soon we saw some lovely stuff.

Event B was to mummify.....yeah...seriously, take a kid and mummify....for bizzare reasons only girls got choosen....and boy...it turned out to be real fun.

My favourite shot of the day.

The kids were all real excited by now....and the volunteers strongly identified themselves with their teams & kids. I guess, the event had achieved its purpose.

Yes, kids got a double-decker box with pencils/scale etc and some nice snacks/Icecream.

Perot systems is also sponsoring a LifeSkills session here at the school for the 6th/7th on weekdays, conducted by Mrs Sadhna. A nice corporate-NGO partnership.

We still need people for the bread & butter stuff, my kids are pathetic when it comes to reading English. And Math ? not far either. So, if volunteering & making a difference at the primary level appeals to you, join us.

NBD Ramanagara

2006-08-28T22:38:00.000+05:30

Notebook drive, a DSF initiative: Giving notebooks to govt. school children. On 19th & 22nd Aug, 5,500 notebooks were given to 1500 students in 19 primary rural schools around Ramnagara. On 19th, a gang of 30 volunteers, lotz from Accenture, distributed the books. A few schools were closed because of 'Nalkne shravan shanivaara', and these were covered on 22nd Aug. The pics, shot by Sunand, tell the story.

Long Billed Vultures

2006-08-22T23:10:00.000+05:30

Aug 15th, a day celebrated as India's Independence day, turned out to be quite special for Murtuza, Dharin, Ami & me. An half a day of trek at Ramnagara, with vultures watched like never before. As you approach Ramdevara betta, this colony of long billed vultures, can't be missed. They eye you from their high perch, as you eye them back with your binoc's, their sheer size astounds. And, as we climbed closer, their size simply got bigger!!!!

I was also checking out my 'Hunter' shoes, picked up at one of the numerous 'Army stores' in the bylanes of Shivajinagar for 250Rs, with lot of rubber, I was hoping that the shoes 'clicks'.

Can you spot Mrs. Rock Agama ?

We counted 12 vultures sitting closely. Now & then, one of them would soar into the sky, or glide back & land softly. The nest seemed to consist of natural crevices at a good height from possible human intervention.

The paleness of the underwing is diagnostic of Gyps Indicus, Indian Long billed Vulture.

Most of the snaps here were taken by Ami on her Sony DSC-H1.

This snap from the top of Ramdevar betta. It turned out to be a pleasant half-day trek for us. I missed my Olympus. Missed Sunand, Rohit & Anil, and as we climbed to the top, was reminded of the first gang I had come here with. And, my 'hunter' passed the test.

Field Manoeuvres

2006-08-17T12:50:00.000+05:30

The long autumn grass under my body
Soaks my clothes with its dew;
Where my knees press into the ground
I can feel the damp earth.

In my nostrils is the smell of crushed grass,
Wet pine-cones and bark.

Through the great bronze pine trunks
Glitters a silver segment of road.
Interminable squadrons of silver and blue horses
Pace in long ranks the blank fields of heaven.

There is no sound;
The wind hisss gently through the pine needles;

The flutter of a finch's wings about my head
Is like distant thunder,
And the shrill cry of a mosquito
Sounds loud and close.

I am 'to fire at the enemy column
After it has passed'-
But my obsolete rifle, loaded with 'blank',
Lies untouched before me,
My spirit follows after the gliding clouds,
And my lips murmur of the mother beauty
Standing breast-high, in golden broom
Among the blue-pine-woods.

Published in 1917, Form the 'Poetry of the first World War'

Richard Aldington (1892 - 1962): Educated at Dover college and London university. He volunteered in 1914, but was rejected on medical grounds. He was able to enlist in 1916, joining the Royal Sussex Regiment as a private. In 1918 he was invalidated out ( as a lieutenant) suffering from shell shock and the effects of gas. After the war he wrote Death of a Hero and several biographies.

Noon

2006-08-07T15:57:00.000+05:30

It is midday; the deep trench glares...
A buzz and blaze of flies...
The hot wind puffs the giddy airs...
The great sun rakes the skies.

No sound in all the stagnant trench
Where forty standing men
Endure the sweat and grit and stench,
Like cattle in a pen.

Sometimes a sniper's bullet whirs
Or twangs the whining wire;
Sometimes a soldier sighs and stirs
As in Hell's frying fire.

From out a high cool cloud descends
As aeroplane's far moan...
The sun strikes down, the thin cloud rends
The black spot travels on.

And sweating, dizzied, isolate
In the hot trench beneath,
We bide the next shrewd move of fate
Be it of life or death.

Robert Nichols (1893-1944)

From 'Poetry of the first world war', published in June 1917

Nichols' First World War military service - which lasted from from 1914-16 - saw him participate in the Battle of Loos in 1915 in the role of artillery officer.

His front-line service was however brief - after just a few weeks serving in the trenches he was invalided home with shell shock; an illness which caused him to be sent home to England in 1916. Subsequently serving with the British Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Information, he went on to pen war poetry that he often read to large gatherings, which included tours of the U.S.

Wedding Invitation

2006-07-28T14:31:00.000+05:30

Little Johnny's confession

2006-07-27T16:28:00.000+05:30

THIS MORNING
...................being rather young and foolish
.........I borrowed a machinegun my father
.........had left hidden since the war, went out,
.........and eliminated a number of small enemies.
.........Since then I have not returned home.

This morning
.......swarms of police with tackerdogs
.......wander about the city
.......with my description printed
.......on their minds, asking:
.......'Have you seen him ?
.......He is seven years old.
.......likes Pluto, Mighty Mouse
.......and Biffo the Bear,
.......have you seen him, anywhere?'

This morning
.......sitting alone in a strange playground
.......muttering you've blundered, you've blundered
.......over and over to myself
.......I work out my next move
.......but cannot move.
.......The trackerdogs will sniff me out,
.......they have my lollypops.

-Brian Patten

Schrodinger, pearl, & the woman

2006-07-18T12:48:00.000+05:30

A few days before Christmas, 1925, Schrodinger, a Viennese-born professor of physics at the University of Zurich, took off for a two-and-a-half-week vacation at a villa in the Swiss Alpine town of Arosa. Leaving his wife in Zurich, he took along de Broglie's thesis, an old Viennese girlfriend (whose identity remains a mystery) and two pearls. Placing a pearl in each ear to screen out any distracting noise, and the woman in bed for inspiration, Schrodinger set to work on wave mechanics. When he and the mystery lady emerged from the rigors of their holiday on Jan. 9, 1926, the great discovery was firmly in hand.

Article continues here......

She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep

2006-07-17T14:03:00.000+05:30

She tells her love while half asleep,
........In the dark hours,
................With half-words whispered low:
As Earth stirs in her winter sleep
........And puts out grass and flowers
.................Despite the snow,
.................Despite the falling snow.

Robert Graves

Mixed Hockey

2006-07-14T15:34:00.000+05:30

- P. G. Wodehouse

You came down the field like a shaft from a bow;
The vision remains with me yet.
I hastened to check you; the sequel you know;
Alas! we unluckily met.
You rushed at the ball, whirled your stick like a fail,
And you hit with the vigour of two:
A knight in his armour had surely turned pale,
If he had played hockey with you.

They gathered me up, and they took me to bed;
They called for a doctor and lint;
With ice in a bag they enveloped my head;
My arm they enclosed in a splint.
My ankles are swelled to a terrible size;
My shins are a wonderful blue;
I have lain here a cripple, unable to rise,
Since the day I played hockey with you.

Yet still, in the cloud hanging o'er me black,
A silvery lining I spy;
A man who's unhappily laid on his back
Can yet have a solace. May I ?
An angel is a women in moments of pain,
Sang Scot: clever poet, he knew.
It may, I perceive, be distinctly a gain
To have fallen in hockey with you.

For if you'll nurse me (Come quickly, come now),
If you'll but administer balm,
And press at my bidding my feverish brow
With a cool but affectionate palm;
If you'll sit by my side, it is possible quite,
That I may be induced to review
With a feeling more nearly akin to delight
That day I played hockey with you.

Without You

2006-07-10T20:57:00.000+05:30

My pillow gazes upon me at night
Empty as a gravestone;
I never thought it would be so bitter
To be alone,
Not to lie down asleep in your hair.

I lie alone in a silent house,
The hanging lamp darkened,
And gently stretch out my hands
To gather in yours,
And softly press my warm mouth
Towards you, and kiss myself, exhausted and week -
Then suddenly I'm awake
And all around me the cold night grows still.
The star in the window shines clearly -
Where is your blonde hair,
Where your sweet mouth ?

Now I drink pain in every delight
And poison in every wine;
I never knew it would be so bitter
To be alone,
Alone, without you.

-Hermann Hesse

German ----> English
James Wright

Across the Fields

2006-07-10T15:17:00.000+05:30

Some great news.
I have got back the clutch of poems I had posted on IISc poetry egroup long back. The ground rule was that we don't post poems written by us! And, soon we came across amazing stuff. And those days, I used to frequent the British Library, and which has a good collection of poetry books. So, I would carefully select a book, and pick a few that interest me, and post them. While I typed them, the poems sank, andz been a part of me.

But sometime, during machine migration, I had lost them all. And now, thanks a zillion to Ashish, they are here.

Hope to post them now & then. Today, one of my favourite writers - Hermann Hesse.

Across the Fields ....

Across the sky, the clouds move,
Across the fields, the wind,
Across the fields, the lost child
Of my mother wanders.

Across the street, leaves blow,
Across the trees, birds cry -
Across the mountains, far away,
My home must be.

-Hermann Hesse

Translated from German by James Wright

Rock Agama

2006-07-04T17:05:00.000+05:30

Finally picked up Daniel's Book on Indian Reptiles & Amphibians. The trigger was to identify a lizard we saw at Hoskote lake on sunday, 2nd July.

Peninsular Rock Agama Psammophilus dorsalis

Beautiful isn't it ? Notice the colors, and the patterns. The eye & the ear. What you see is the colorful male. It turns brilliant crimson red on the head & foreparts and black elsewhere.

Herz the female. No wonder, I have found it difficult to spot.

The males maintains a territory, by displaying from a conspicuous location, press ups & nods of the head. These guyz are very sensitive to our presence.

Insectivorous in food habits. Females have upto 8 eggs in ovaries (eggs hatch within the body).

Distinguished by

Regular arranged scales
Flattened body
Presence of a fold in the skin of the throat.

Look at these, the coloring looks a bit different, couple of months back - May - at Ramnagara. Basically, a rock dweller.

And this was at Hoskote last year July. The coloring has come down, as though the rains have washed them away. Its fun looking for Agama's, Calotes, Gecko's, etc. Some of them bask in the sun, and you need to move in silently, amongst those rocks. And, Rock Agamas are quite easily seen around Bangalore, so do look for them.

Hill Turmeric

2006-06-30T14:03:00.000+05:30

Curcurma pseudomontana

Hindi: Kachura
Mar: Sindarbar
Guj: Kachuri

Found in western ghats, on forested hill slopes. Bright yellow flowers are borne among mauve-purple bracts. Flowers sometimes appear before leaves.

Food plant of grass demon skipper butterfly

The small almond shaped tubers are boiled and eaten.

Flowers between June & September

This pic was shot by Sunand, during the KMA summer camp for children at Muthodi in April 2005.

Should get the pics of the yellow flowers.

Material: BNHS Common Indian Wild Flowers by Issac Kehimkar

Esslingen

2006-06-23T14:52:00.000+05:30

Had visited Germany in March 2005. Stayed in Ulm, and visited Esslingen often to meet our client. And, after the last meeting, as Ganesh and me walked back to take the train to Ulm, I took these pictures.

River Nekar flows through the city, rising in the black forest (SW Germany) , flowing 367 km, encountering 20+ hydroelectric plants before joining the Rhine at Mannheim.

Note: 20 hydroelectric projects over 370 km.

It was a Friday evening, as we walked back, 1 more day, and then we fly back to India.

March was strange. It snowed in the first-fortnight, and got warmer in the second. And, a lot of flowers started blooming.

Yes, the time then was 4:35 ;-) It was tough to focus all 3 objects.

Spot the jogger. Jogging/Running seemed to be Germany's pastime. Even with snow people used to run. And that's infectious.

There was this dew on this flower. Tried hard to get a good pic of it.

A dog's tale

2006-06-07T17:06:00.000+05:30

Last Sunday, my friends walked upto Nandi hills, and all along a dog accompanied them. Sunand, looks at the walk as seen by the dog.

Wooof! Life changes with one walk.

Woooaawww… what a boring life it can be just to wake up this early every morning look at the same concrete structure, the same people walking around everyday carrying their tiffin boxes. I know so many things, My age is 7 months, this place is I guess Hebbal afterall I belong to this place, And I know this is a big junction. Hey, look.....people....that means possibly food. Looks like these guys are carrying some goodies in those backpacks, letme give it a try, Hey wait there Give me something … yeah young lady you are calling me ? I have no problems in fact I want to enjoy a new company, and you three humans seem to be on some sort of a mission this early in the morning.. I love walking , if I am guessing right these humans … oops.. what are their names, let me find out, One of them is Suma , the other Chap is Sunand, this third does not belong to Bangalore, he looks like somebody from the mountains, … oooohhh they are calling him Ashith.

Oh my … those rogues wont let me step into their territory WOOF WOOOF, guys I am just a puppy spare me, please … I don’t want to stay here I am with these humans, , that fool almost bit me, Its been an hour, looks like no signs of stopping I AM HAVING FUN, WHAT I cant believe this …… How the hell can you name me, did you see my stars, did you check the numerology or atleast the surname, , How dare you Name me Walker,Why not call me Tiger, Rambo, Why Walker? I hope you atleast have a get-togather for having named me.

Good pace guyz 6kmph I am very comfortable, mainly that you guys need to understand my language, I can even sing for you, I hate those heavy vehicles, who don’t care for our community. Thanks for driving those dogs away I feel more secured now , actually You know what... I can be of help to you, guess you guys realize this....It is not sunny but hope it doesn’t rain.

Guys it is already 7 am when are you stopping, don’t you want a break, these humans act crazy at times, oh … thanks for that biscuit… how do you expect me to jump and catch that, I am not trained. But I know my instincts, I am much more cleverer then you guys. At last you decided to halt and it is 8am now … Give me water and ofcourse I love the bread too, anything at this moment , afterall we have been walking like jobless creatures all through the morning.

If I can read your intentions , I guess you are after the distant land of the Nandi. Guys please promise not to leave me , I have started loving you, I will be your best friend . .. hmm are we resting, lemme take a small snap wwooooowwwwwww..........Hey, where have they gone ? sniff sniff sniff, … there they are, did they forget to take me along, I need to run, you idiots…. Did you do this intentionally, didn’t you know I am with you, ok.. now lets make it clear I am walking with you.. now stop patting my head you Suma, and you too Sunand I know you have a scared look when you touch me, You are a fool if you are scared of me.

Guys move on. Yeah I am having fun,That’s Davanahalli The city is whoofing up at this alarming rate. I am worried about my brothern, Ah ha it is only 25 kms more from this turn. And we keep walking I love this greenery. I think we are going to climb that hill .. Whats that sunand’s buying, are those eggs, no they cant be, they are green and they are in a bunch, Hey whats that.... give it to me, oooh he calls it grapes, that’s Angoor, why is Sunand teaching Suma its called Langoor in Hindi.. She is in big trouble.. hey wait don’t throw it for me, sniff sniff, doesn’t even smell yummy huh. Looks like, they are trying to send me with this boy, but why don’t they understand I love them and not the boy, I have been walking the whole of 45 kms with them, why are they cutting the string of love between us, wont they take me with them, Why is he going for a string, I do not require strings to be tied up with, is this the real humans, I don’t think so, they are trying to put me with this boy, I need to find why, They are even paying the boy some money,HEY WAIT DON’T BE SO RUDE.. why that loop, I don’t need to be tied, I am not a fancy item, I am an animal, I have my rights too, no leave me... I hate being tied , I have to run away, see I am running back, will you like it now.. Hmmm they are far now and the boy is gone too, and these hikers don’t even have the rope, letme catch up with them..Hey buddies, I am back, I like you, I know you like me too.. then why this silence, take me back, comeon lets walk back, ask your friends how you will take me home, I know that guy on the phone you were talking to, think you called him Murtuza was asking you to take me back, , listen to him atleast you idiot.

That’s the base you have walked 55kms now and we have shared about 50 kms in that, don’t you still feel like doing something extraordinary today, I am watching your every move, you don’t dare leave me in this place. I know no one here, look at that Black and White, he is already giving me a warning that he is the king here, how will I survive, Its 12 kms to the top now, and I am feeling a bit tired too like you guys, this Ashith is already down, Oh so he shall Sit, I will move on with you, to the top and we will reach Nandi Circle, the climate has been perfect for the long walk. And we walk just walk.

That’s Nandi Circle, people told it is 8 kms climb from here, some shops here maybe I get some food here, hey guys thanks for the biscuit and the bread pieces too, this dog looks friendly too, let me relax here in this shade, but I am watching .

OH oh… did I take a nap, can’t believe it, they are gone, I don’t know where they are gone, let me find, Hey blacky… did you see a guy and a girl walk with bags, , he is not too sure,I think they are gone, what will I do, how will I live here, atleast a friend , where will I sleep , who will I speak to, who will admire my beauty, they didn’t even say bye to me, It’s been 6 hours and no clue of them, think that’s the end , I must live with these new chaps here, I still wont give hope, I know they will come and take me with them, I am the walker.

YAHOO! I see them.... thats the team and at this hour..... it is already 8pm I wonder where were they,WOW, GUYS I AM HERE WAITING FOR YOU, , CATCH ME . HERE I JUMP, I AM SO HAPPY… Ok so you walked all the way to the top that’s about 8kms from here and came back now, I am so happy to be with you, doesn’t my unstoppable tail tell that..Hey aren’t we walking anymore may be a night walk, Don’t tell me you guys are going to jump into one of those big steel boxes humans call Bus and speed away, since evening I am seeing people doing this, If you do this take me along, hey there it comes, no don’t throw the bread, wait take me, just wait, I will cry if you leave me here, just look into my eyes and tell me you want to leave me here, don’t you love me. You are just leaving me like that….

Wooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh.
Wooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh.
Wooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh.

Nandi walk

2006-06-06T17:22:00.000+05:30

Bangalore to Nandi-hills walk has been majorly promoted by Murtuza, so much so that my Dad calls him Mr. Nandi. Recently, Murtuza & Shaheen walked until Devanhalli. Inspired, Sunand & co. went for the summit on Sunday, 4th June. A nice account of the walk by Sunand.

Walker we called her.

Just walk , keep walking, keep walking and then ? walk,Yes … you guessed right , its about Walking and we walked Not 5 not 10 not 20 not even 40. 50 was alright, we walked all the way up covering a total distance of about 67 kms.

From Bangalore to Nandi hills Covering the total distance were myself and Suma, another guy Ashith Lama tried hard to keep up with us, but towards the end I had to pack him in a bus upto the summit (The last 12kms climb) . The star attraction of this high energy walkathon was WALKER our own desi dog, who got along with us from the hebbal flyover and kept up with our nonsense talks , the changing light of the day walked all the way to the Nandi circle it was with us for a total of about 50 kms.

The intention to walk was natural with Suma and myself doing our regular training sessions for the marathon . I had this long standing desire to conquer this route..Sunday 4th of June was decided to be the D day. The day being close to the earth day had a special importance, and we planed to start early.

We started at sharp 03:40 am from the R.T.Nagar police station, walked towards the Bellary Rd and in no time caught up with the National highway leading to Hyderabad. My only fear dogs and they did compliment that fear at times till we reached the hebbal flyover it was 04:07 am at that time, we were honked by a Hoysala team sleeping under the flyover, we told our intentions and kept moving, , some dogs here and there looking at us suspiciously, we walked on one dog started walking with us , Suma generally tapped at the dogs head, I tapped at Sumas head to leave the dog alone. I think by then invisible relation was made: the dog, the suma, the ashith and the me, all walked facing the glare of the oncoming heavyvehicles, it was still dark.

Reaching Yelhanka at about 5 am we were happy with the speed continued the walk passed Yelhanka Airforce station. Number of villages, towns, hamlets, we named the dog ‘WALKER’. It had such a beautifull smile, very patient and understanding, Suma was talking to it, at times it would walk by the side trying to lick the handstay back catch up with ashith and run ahead to walk with us, we became a good team.

At 8:00am, We took our first break, shared the bread, and water and we already got worried about the fate of WALKER once we reach the top and return by bus, so we wanted to leave her at some village so it can take care of herself, during the first break we somehow managed to get away without her notice but … woooph within some 50 mtrs he spotted us and came running joined us , we continued the trailat about 10:00 we reached Devanahalli and moving a few more Kilometers we reached the deviation to Nandi hills,It was another 25 kilometers from there, at this point Ashith was a bit tired so managed to make him agree to walkup to the base about 13kms from there.We keep walking.

The huge hills right in front of us but still the summit is so far 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 we see the km stones pass by give us a lot of satisfaction, the pain already has entered the shin but I wanted to speed up , Suma wanted it a bit slow, Ashith was already giving up , WALKER was really good , we bought some Grapes kept walking that path, I picked up talk with a young boy who was selling grapes and was walking along , trying to convince him to take WALKER along with him and I even promised to pay him 30rs if he agreed , he agreed , he even told he is not doing this for money and that he liked the dog , well I was happy , he quickly found a small piece of rope and we tried to tie WALKER so he can keep it with him, WALKER resisted this though not by barking etc but not being at ease when we tried to put the loop, I am not at all at ease handling Dogs at this level, It started running the way we came from , A few villagers standing there asked what we were trying to do and I told them the whole story, they asked us to leave it there and that it will take care of itself, Hoping for this to happen we just left, gave that boy some money to try and catch the dog and take care of it, and started walking filled with a sad thought of leaving WALKER behind but happy about it finding a new place to live .

In about 200 mtrs we saw the slender figure of the light brown dog running to us from a distance, no words….. we walk on, not wanting to think of what she is thinking..Reaching the base at about 01:20pm, I ask Ashith to catch the next bus and wait for us at the top 12 kms from there, we move on 4kms from from there is the Nandi circle, The dog , The Suma and The me, walk to the Nandi circle from there it is a steady climb of about 8 kilometers, at that junction, WALKER gets busy taking rest and trying to avoid some local biggies .

Myself and Suma drank tender coconuts water and started our final move to the summit, When asked for the time required for the walk some locals laughout saying we will reach only by night, without wasting much time we start on pass the 8km mark each step felt like a mile, lots of two three four wheelers pas by both ways , some yelling at us , some encouraging us , a very few offering to drop us to the top, some bikers coming down even said HI , I think that was only for Suma she was happy when I told her that, We walked and walked and walked … the beautiful view of the sorrounding villages the highway gave us some more energy, 3 km mark, the 2 km mark , we hugged and kissed the 1 km mark. And soon at the end of the 45th curve on the Nandi hill we saw the Grand entry it was like heaven the time was 04:15pm When we put our feet at the summit.

The return Bus came at 6pm , we jumped into it , but the day had more in store for us, just two curves down the Axil broke and the bus came to a sudden stop, the driver called the nearest bus depot Chikballapur and a bus was expected only at around 9pm , with no energy to walk back or even down we decided to try our luck with the local vehicles and luckily one jeep took a lot of people I had the honour of having a real plump kid sitting on my already breaking legs. We reached the Nandi Circle from where we had to Catch a bus to Doddaballapur.

To my surprise WALKER came running from nowhere and started jumping at us wagging its tail, I was shocked , Suma was too emotional too, she said the dog is questioning us as to where we went and why we left it behind, the next half an hour it remained with us we saw the glaring light of the bus , had to leave WALKER there, climbed up , My dear friend kept watching, I can feel the thoughts that went in its mind, But we had to leave, I felt the gear being applied, the bus moved, my friend walked a few steps... I got inside the bus.

Reached Bangalore at 10:30pm via Doddaballapur.

Friends walking is fun, lets do more of it, its not very easy though but with practice we can achieve a lot, this is just a start , we wish to do more such walks in future, It only requires us to take that first step and things happen after that.

Signing out. Sunand 9448476683

Ramnagara

2006-05-31T22:08:00.000+05:30

It was a recon for the vatsalya trip. Sunand & me, started without any care in the world, had a relaxed trek. Yes, it was that hectic week of the year.

Wed: Rajkumar passes away.
Thu: Hez buried, violence in the city.
Fri: Ramanagara trek, April 14
Sat: Chinnarangala starts, night Ulsoor Pallakki
Sun: Lalbaugh outing for Vatsalya

A sultry day......the clouds gathered and saved us. One of the hottest weeks of the summer.

We lost our way & arrived much earlier than planned. Arrived at the base of the Ramdevar betta...and the small pond there had these frogs. as, we approached I saw a turtle slipping into the water, waited for quite sometime, no sign of it.

Climbed up. Rama temple was closed. Quite tired, lay down besides some Nagara kallu (snake gods), and soon caught sight of these Crimson Rose butterflys mating. They went on for a long time.....despite good breeze.

Thats Sunand doing the final climb. We climbed up, got nostalgic of our previous trek here. Sunand, tried reaching Manasa, but she was sleeping.

Me, posing. Yes, that hat was real helpful.

As we climbed down these Geckos(??) caught our attention. Need to pick up Daniel's book on Amphibians & reptiles and identify them. Yes, these are Rock Agama's.

Yes, saw lotz of vultures - 3 to be precise - Long-billed vultures. Quite far...snaps are quite bad.

A 10 am to 8 pm trek. Lotz of things running in my mind. Thankfully gotaway from the city. And, had a friend, who noticed it all, kept quite & let me be. Thanks buddy.

Chinnarangala 4,5,6

2006-05-27T19:36:00.000+05:30

Action continues. The children still come to school. They run around.... fight majorly....play or climb trees...... and when tired stop, sit, listen to the teacher - write/paint. Thats children, at their very best!

With each passing saturday, I take out my camera less often. The kids & their actions are no more novelties ;-))

We have had good support from other groups.

Firstly, it was the Reuters gang...they came...they saw...they played.....and left behind a lot of crayons/books/stationaries and hazzar clothes for the kids. This coupled with the cloth collection, we had from other donors was distributed 2 weeks back. Except for a few kids, almost everybody got 1/2 clothes. Somehow, more of girl clothes than boyz.

Texas Instruments had a cloth drive as part of their Annual day. And, passed it to us. Here, we had clothes of all ages, and in the children category have ended up with clothes for very young girls & babies.

Then entered FSL India, and after a good look-around, they were clear 'bout what to do....A medical camp.....and a day of funNGames.

So, last saturday was medical camp. Dr Anand lead. It was over 40 kids .... diagnoised mostly with some hygine related disorders. Each kid got a toothbrush/paste/soap and some multi-vitamin tablets.....to be given along with their lunch at school........and ofcourse, the prescribed medicine. Lotz of very young girls were crying, totally uncomfortable in seeing a doctor. My job was to talk to them...get their names....and their ages....had to guess majorly. And their sex....had some problems with some kids with long hair. You think...itz a girl...until they announce their names.....and you look startled......then confirm with kids around...'Hey, is this a boy!'...YES, they declare....I take their word. The camp went eventless until a 4 year old girl slapped me for pestering for her name!!! The other volunteers took the weight, height, pulse & temperature. And, the doctor, who was very enthusiastic checked them up. Lot of Telugu speaking kids....so one of the teacher had to translate. Pretty good medical camp. The doc's came back after a few days with the prescribed medicine & passed them on with neccessary instructions.

And that afternoon, we had one of our expert volunteer joining us. Meet Mr. Chaitanya, a 12th std student, he was keen on having some drawing/painting for children. Charcoal painting. Kids were guided to drawing a house, trees, clouds etc. And, then using charcoal on it. I had never seen such stuff before. The kids got going.....once they get in...itz tough to stop them.....they draw...they paint/color....and then most of them get so carried away they color/draw all over the place ;-)

Today...the FSL gang came carrying in lot of things.....a crayon box/pencil/drawing book for each kid. And, 2 footballs......and hold ur breath....2 cricket bats...stumps...3 tennis balls.....the kids were overjoyed.....they have been pestering me for cricket bats for weeks now.....I had been evasive.....now they were maha-thrilled. They somehow think I am behind it ;-))

So, we started with the painting session....the kids soon settled down to it....and furiously got going.....they crayoned colorfully. Some of the volunteers drew pictures/scenes for them to color up. And, met up with Pooja....a volunteer with FSL...a 2nd year BBM student......she zapped me with her push....asking those searching/uncomfortable questions. She wanted that proactive approach. And, as we parted, she said 'Once, you come to volunteer, you should not stand and laze around......start doing things'......wow! thats volunteerism for me ;-)

Yes...we got the kids to kick the football......the kids chased the ball like mad.

Guyz...thats how Chinnarangalla is progressing, we are seeing a good turn out, after 6 weeks too. And, hope to get them to continue with the regular school. We have a couple of saturdays to go, interested, join us.

The Dame shall fly

2006-05-19T23:35:00.000+05:30

Here I go with Damselfly's. The first time I really observed them - an year back - I was taken aback....such think stick like abdomen....and wings neatly folded above.

Coromandel Marsh Dart Male (IISc marsh, in front of CEDT)

Stream Glory - Female (Ranganthittu, Hotel Mayura, Kaveri bank)

Black tipped forest glory (Kukke Subramanya, on a tree besides a stream)

Blue Grass Dartlet (IISc, behind lecture halls)

Blue Grass Dartlet(??) (Ramanagara, atop Ramdevaru betta in the pond)

Identification thanks to Subbu's online book.

Enter the Dragon

2006-05-19T23:08:00.000+05:30

Yes guyz, finally found the book I was looking for quite sometime.
A wonderful & simple introduction to Dragons & Damsels, with color pictures by K. A. Subramanian. Online & free.

Thought will start using the book by putting up pics of the odonates I had captured earlier and use the pdf's to get to know their names. Would like to write more detailed accounts later.

Ladies & Gentlemen, Dragonfly's.....popularly called as helicopters are a treat to watch.

Common Club tail

Green Marsh Hawk

Blue Marsh Hawk - male

Blue Marsh Hawk - female

Wandering Glider

Ditch Jewel - Male

Ditch Jewel - Female

Crimson-tailed Marsh Hawk

Hope, I have got the labels right. The pics have been taken at IISc, Whitefield, and Ramanagara. DragonFlys are seen very much in the city too. Keep looking out, sometimes an entire species will be migrating across the city. The kites line up for their meals. Yeah! don't forget to check out the online book.

The Big Question

2006-05-16T21:40:00.000+05:30

For those of us, reading this blog sitting in the comforts of IT industry, it may be just about our promotions, projects, deadlines etc.

But for the Kids who have written their 10th Exam it is a BIG '??", what next after 10th ? and for kids who have written their II PUC Exam, what now ?

Its is one of the most important choice a child makes in his/her life, but sadly more 45% of kids have no choice in this, because their parents cannot afford their education. At the tender age of 16 they end up dropping out of school.

I am sure, YOU care.... and would want to support their education. Join hands with us.

We at Friends of Children sponsor & mentor such children. We ensure they get into higher education leading to better employment & life.

You can support

By referring a college where they can offer discounted fees to deserving less privileged students

By sponsoring a child his/her college education

Provide mentoring, academic teaching and/or career guidance

Additionally....

If you believe in "catch them young"

Team up with us to teach in Government schools, we are desperately looking for volunteers to work with Adugodi Government High school for Girls and Madivala Government High school.

If this calls you, get in touch with Shrikanth /Ravi/me immediately or visit Friends of Children

Children need your support to realise their dreams...

PS: Shrikanth's writing.....flicked.

Pallakki

2006-05-16T00:20:00.000+05:30

April 22nd, Ulsoor, Bangalore, 23:00 to 0:45 of April 23d.

Pallakki - a Rathyathra - a chariot of Gods & Godesses. An Annual event in most old parts of south-India. On a particular night, each temple or a sponsorer would come up with a pallakki, and a diety is seated in the rath, and with all devotion, gaiety and josh, the chariot is taken all around the village. Its a matter of great prestige, honour and faith. People from the surrounding parts throng in thousands. Its mostly associated with the village fair.

Halasooru (Ulsoor), an old part of Bangalore, this year hosted close to 80 pallaki's.

It also turned out to be a meeting up of old boyz. Vasudev, Vasu, Thulsi & me, met up after ages. And, soon it was the old laughter and leg pulling.

Preperations start a lot earlier, that night as you walk along...you will see the franatic making of the pallaki's. Busy workers. Its more a chariot of flowers. So flowers: mostly Jasmine & Kanakambara.

Temples usually have a 'Utsava moorthi'. A metal idol for such occassions. For normal prayers & darshan in the temple, we have the dieties made of some stone, fixed permanently. I have noticed idols in south India made of darker stones (granite ?), while those from North India are whitish (marble ?) . The inner temple, normally is quite dark (without Electricity), and thus the aarathi (camphor light taken close to the idols) become very important.

Usually, during a Pallakki night, the Electric power in that area is shutdown, due to fears of the overhead cables coming in contact with the tall chariots. And, so its typically a dark night, generators run and supply the much needed spotlight.

Each Pallakki has it associated music. This gang was playing some carnatic stuff. Not a common sight I wud say.

Mmmm...definitely needs a closer look.

Pallaki's create a sense of competiton in the neighbourhood. Quite a lot of people associate themselves with a certain chariot, and would like to believe theirs is the BEST. Again, the architecture is interesting. Normally bigger the temple, better their funds, and grand their pallakki.

The above is from the Kempamma temple. Pallakki's are not only from the rich. Here, every temple, however small, raises money & makes one. Not surprisingly, even children, collect money, build small pallakki's....toy pallakki's......and take them around. Taking them around....thats interesting....the chariot may be physically pulled......it may be housed on a matador or pulled by a tractor.

Lord Aiyappa, I somehow find his sitting (squatting) pose very different from the other gods. Any funda's ??

Yes, what are these chaps doing ?? This ladies & gentlemen is THE music. 'Thamatte' music....high decibel stuff.....fast beats......with lots of energy....and we guyz simply love it. Its a music, you can't just listen too, but simply start dancing along.

Pallakki's happen during the summer in almost all old-parts of Bangalore. An old tradition that continues strongly. Drop in, I bet....you will love it.

Coolie inda skoolige

2006-05-08T23:51:00.000+05:30

-R

Banni, Bega Banni

2006-05-08T15:18:00.000+05:30

-R

Chinnara Angala 3

2006-05-08T00:26:00.000+05:30

Chinnara Angala, Chalghatta School May 6th. 30++ kids, 2 teachers, 7 volunteers.

Morning sessions had children enacting stuff. Most of the young kids were shy to speak out and enact things. Children need lot more exposure. And, with we big guyz around, with our high voices wonder how they find us ;-)) And, the vocab we use........becomes very important.

Megha was painting lovely little flowers using the children's fingures. Unfy I didn't capture them. Outside, some games happened. Interesting was Tug-of-war where the boyz shyed away to hold on to the girls ;-) Getting the kids all excited was Vinay with his train......the kids happily ran with the chikubuku train.

The teacher Bhuvaneshwari quickly seized the opportunity, got the train to stop at various stations kannuru(Eye station)...mooguru(Nose station)....kiviyuru(Ear station)....and gave some hygine funda's .

Joining us in the morning were other school DSF chaps Shridhar, Avinash, Vinay & Megha. And, greeting us were lot fewer kids than I am used to. Apparently, the previous day, lot of chaos in the class, so one kid was chided/beaten by a teacher.....he immediately got his 'gang' togather......and lo...they happily marched out of the school ;-)) So....this morning, with poor attendance, the HM had to send a teacher to get the gangsters back!

The kids had their mid-day meals. And, we went out to have our meals. Bad idea. By the time we get back, half the gang had vanished ;-)

With the elder kids, I got to teach/test some maths. Priya & Santhosh were getting the rest on to painting with crayons. Priya drew some fundu outlines, and the kids colored them amazingly.

Nagaraja seems to be highly talented, here are his creations. This is a 'Jeebuba' in the making.

Well, we have just 4 saturdays left, need to get in lot more and newer activities to make school real attractive for kids. Remember, many of these kids will not continue with schooling, so need to make the school, a great place on Earth.

Interested ?, Join us, Saturday's 10:30 am onwards.....

Chinnara Angala 2

2006-05-05T00:07:00.000+05:30

Chinnara Angalla@ Chalghatta school, April 29th. 60 kids, 4 volunteers.

Rajarshi went to check up other migrant labour sheds with a school inspector. Santosh down with fever, didn't turn up.

The kids got new notebooks, and got to write all that they know, and the new ones got to practise kannada alphabets. Sudhakar & me hung around. Rohit pulled out some disinterested kids. and got them playing games.

Later, the teacher was getting the kids play Dog 'n Bone.....itz a hit game anywhere...... I soon ran out of ideas.......and taught some simple Kalaripayattu jumps, kicks & poses. Here the kids try a peacock stunt.Terribly short of volunteers, join us on saturdays 10:30am onwards. Clothes & toys badly needed.

Chinnara Angala

2006-04-15T22:54:00.000+05:30

The nicities stop with the name: Chinnara Angala (Children's playground)

Its a world one hardly notices. Make shift huts. Families. Both father & mother work. Work in constructing those appartments coming up all around Bangalore. Kids at home. Playing in their own Chinnara angala.

A play in a devilish field. Wasted childhood. No learning. Child labour. Soon a construction worker. Marriage. Kids. The devilish field again.

Solutions ??

I guess you can tackle the problem at various levels - macro, mini, micro - Lots of people already on the job. Yet, the construction worker kids remain in those devilish fields, the Devil very happy.

One solution is to educate the children. Give them a good education. An education that will be second to none. Well, does that sound too optimistic ? Lets settle for atleast basic literacy for ALL the kids. And, for lot more take them to 5th std, then 7th std and then yes, 10th std. And, then vocational/skill based training(ITI's , Diplomas). And, for those who really want to study furthur. Lets give them the opportunity that you and I had.

We at Dream School Foundation share this dream. Quality Education for everybody. We work to strengthen the govt. schools. These schools reach out to the under-previleged.

The education department has this programme called Chinnara Angala. 60 days during summer vacations. The primary school teachers focus their attention on the construction worker kids, school dropouts, and kids who have never been to school. The 60 day course, full time, Mon to Sat, 9:30 to 3:30 with support interms of meals & snacks helps in getting the child back to school. And, soon many are part of the regular school.

The Chalghatta school (right behind the B'lore airport) is running one such programme. And, volunteers from DSF assist it. We plan to have a lot of fun based learning. Lots of outdoor games are planned. With activities like painting, clay models, etc etc

Today, the programme started with around 20 kids. Many of these kids brought their baby brother/sister along. Later, we went on a drive to talk to parents, and get more children. Another 25 enrolled. The Chalgatta school HM Mary, along with teachers Lalitha & Bhuvenashwari went from hut to hut. A few regular school kids joined us in the march.

The construction worker kids are either Kannada speaking people from Raichur/Gulbarga or Telugu speaking crowd. We saw a few from Orissa too.

So, knowing Kannada/Telugu would be fantastic, but the lack of it shouldn't stop you. Our experience shows that the enthu of the volunteer makes all the difference.

Interested ?
Dash a mail to our DSF co-ordinator Maitreyee, or to Santosh or me.
Join us any saturday 10:30am onwards until June 14th 06.

You are needed to move the devil out of the Chinnara Angalla.

Ranganthittu

2006-04-06T19:15:00.000+05:30

Ranganthittu bird santuary, April 6th, Ugadi day.
Kavitha, Uma, Murtuza, Sunand & Me.

We took a bus until Srirangapattna...and walked untill the santuary....a boat ride for 80 minutes....and then walked back to the road.

Giant Milkweed

Indian Coral tree

Large pied wagtail
Blood Flower

Red-Whiskered Bulbul
Common Grey Hornbill

River Tern
Large Egret

Crocodile Large Cormorant

Painted stork
Immature Night Heron
Darter/Snake bird
Spoonbill
Openbill stork
Fruit bat Omkaara dweepam Shivam.....Bhaje Manjunatham Shivam...

5 5 3

2006-04-04T21:03:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer:

1. I don't love dogs
2. I don't hate dogs

Well, my 5th std kids....perhaps the last few saturdays I teach them....and then the summer holidays...and they become too big for our school.....and would have to walk upto the Chalgatta school for their 6th std.

We were seated on a 'jumkhana'....I hate indoors....so I always take them out....we sit on the cement floored corridor.....the sun is bright....the aeroplanes so close.

Me: Naayee..
They: D..O..G....dog....
Me: Naay chitra bidsee

That was it.......

The dogs came alive!!!!

Naayee Nerallu

2006-03-24T23:26:00.000+05:30

2pm, Cubbon park, Bangalore, 24th March 06.

Spoonbill

2006-03-21T15:03:00.000+05:30

Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia Linnaeus

Kan: Chamachadha kokku
Tamil: Karandi mukh narai
Tamil (Sri Lanka) Chappai chundan
Telugu: Gent muku konga
Hindi: Chamach baza
Bengali: Chinta, Khunte bak

The long flat spoon shaped beak/bill catches your attention. This bird preys in shallow water. It moves mining the area in front in semi-circles. It rakes up the matter with the bill tip and uses its wide flat bill as a sieve. Feeds on tadpoles, frogs, molluscs, insects & vegetable matter. Mmmm, interesting menu card.

Both sexes look alike. This guy stood on one feet for a long time.

Characteristics

Snow-white body
Long black legs
Yellow-buff patch on lower neck (prominently visible)
Yellow throat patch (seen in the pic below)
Long white pointed plumes during breeding
Long flat spoon shaped black bill with yellow tip

The calls are low grunt and clattering of the mandibles.

Found throughout the Indian sub-continent. Nests July to Nov (later in South India). The eggs are 4, dull white, spotted and blotched with deep red.

All snaps at Ranganthittu bird sanctuary, Dec 31st 2005.

Sun-nu Moon-u

2006-03-13T14:59:00.000+05:30

Recently, DSF did an assessment of it kids. We have adopted 6 primary govt. schools. And, at each of these schools (except the urdu school), students of 2nd, 4th & 6th std were evaluated. Language (Kannada) and Math skills were checked, tests were carefully designed by Megha, & Vinay, with expert support from Juveena of NEEV. This assessment would help us in knowing the kids better, and point to where we stand, & which way to go.

Herz an account of it by Kavitha, a DSF volunteer, who moved out of her familiar turf to join the team at Murphy town, Ulsoor.

February 25th was the day set for evaluation for the kids at Ulsoor School. I wasn’t expecting anything more than a small room besides a garbage-dumping yard with little or no furniture. I had imagined a mud road with lots of potholes that would lead to this small room that might perhaps have either a leaking roof or crumbling walls. I was also concerned that the volunteers might not be able to locate this tiny little room, as there might not even be a board to display the name of the school.

The auto driver who drove us to the school seemed to be well versed with the locality as he took us to the school without having to ask anybody for the directions. When we arrived at the school I was pleasantly surprised to see a single storied neat building located in a decent neighborhood. There was a board with the name of the school and that confirmed we had indeed reached the right school. Some kids peeping out of the classroom windows waved their tiny hands at us and called out aloud “aunty”. This was a welcome sign to the volunteers. The children greeted us like they had known us, though it was our first visit.

We took the stairs to the first floor and I was rather too impressed with the painted boards in the corridor displaying the English months of the year, “Kaagunita” etc. The classrooms also had a few hand made charts. The two teachers in the school greeted us and informed that the principal wasn’t around. They appeared excited that their kids were being evaluated. They were very co-operative and gave us complete freedom to assess the kids in the manner that we thought was apt. They were also very enthusiastic and enquired if they could help us in any way. We assured them that we would only need a classroom for the assessment exercise and some time alone with the kids.

Vishwas, Thiru and I opted to evaluate the second standard kids. Vinay and Arvind chose to evaluate the fourth standard kids. Our first task was to make the kids comfortable and not give them a feeling of being “tested” or “evaluated”. We introduced ourselves and the kids who initially seemed shy and hesitated to tell their names later sang a few Kannada songs for us! They only needed a couple of minutes to feel comfortable and then they were their bubbly, cheerful selves again. The people in the neighborhood were celebrating a festival and a loudspeaker was blaring loud music. The children seemed to be least disturbed with this. It appeared to me that they were so accustomed to such disturbances they had learnt to live with it. The teachers expressed their concerns about such disturbances occurring frequently. Their repeated requests to reduce the disturbance didn’t seem to have much effect on their neighbors. They had requested the neighbors to turn down the volume of the music when the “volunteers” would be evaluating. But the neighbors felt it was more important to celebrate the festival with loud blaring noise than children learning to grow up to be responsible citizens contributing to the welfare of the society. But this did not deter either the teachers or the children. The teachers wanted their children to learn new things. Dedication in teachers is a rare quality even in some private schools. But this seemed to be in abundance with the teachers in this little known school at Ulsoor. Teachers in Malleswaram Government School sometimes personally go to the kids’ homes and bring them to school.

Majority of the children attending this school speak either Tamil or Urdu at home and hence they spoke with either a strong Tamil or Urdu accent. Some kids couldn’t differentiate between the two languages and they liberally mixed Tamil words assuming they are Kannada words :-)

I pointed at my ear and asked a kid what it was, he innocently replied “Kaadhu”. “Kaadhu” is the Tamil word for “ear” and its Kannada equivalent is “Kivi”.

I pointed to the picture of sun to another kid and asked him “idenu putta?” meaning, “What is this child?” He replied “Sun-nu”. When I asked him “Kannadadalli enantaare putta?” meaning, “What do they say in Kannada child?” He replied “Moon-u” :-)

I asked another girl “ ‘Aa’ inda shuruvaago yaavdaadroo ondu pada helu putti” meaning “tell me a word that begins with ‘Aa’ “ she sang a song that begins with “Aa” :-)) Apparently the kids cannot differentiate between “word” and “song” as the word “pada” means “song” or “word” in different contexts.

I pointed to the word “Rajanikanth” on a flash card, to a kid and asked him to read it. He was struggling to identify the alphabets and I turned the flash card and pointed to the picture of “Rajanikanth” on the other side. He smiled and said “PASHA” or perhaps it was “Basha”???

We then asked the kids to read a sentence from their Kannada textbook. One sentence read “avaLu ondu dhoni maadidaLu” meaning “she made a boat”. When Vishwas asked a kid what it meant, the kid very innocently said “cricket-u, dhoni”… J . Apparently the kids thought Dhoni referred to the Indian cricket player Dhoni!!!!

Language did not seem to be a favorite subject with the kids. So it was now time to move on to the next subject Mathematics. Most kids dread mathematics. They do not get the fundamentals clear in their elementary school and it wouldn’t be surprising if these kids didn’t fare well in this subject. I wasn’t expecting them to fare well either. I announced “sari eega ellaaroo lekkha aata aadanva?” meaning “shall we all play a game in mathematics?” I was expecting a couple of kids to groan or make it evident they didn’t like what they heard or look disinterested. How wrong I was! The children smiled and very enthusiastically said “sari. Naanu barla aadakke?” meaning “Ok. Shall I play?” almost instantaneously.

I held a few different colored objects (building blocks) in my hand and asked a kid to count them. Next I divided the objects into two equal portions and asked him to tell which had more number of objects. He smiled at me and said “eradralloo ashte ide. Yaavdu jaasti anta helodu?” meaning “both the heaps are equal. How can I say which is greater?”

I held the objects in my hand and then asked a girl to count them. She happily counted them for me and then I placed the objects in her hand and asked “eega helu putti eshtu ive?” meaning “Tell me child how many objects are there”. She said “Nim hatra ZERO nan hatra entu” meaning “you have zero objects in your hand and I have eight”. This was very impressive! The kids knew the concept of ZERO! After all we Indians taught the world the concept of “ZERO” :=)

We finished our evaluation exercise with the second standard kids and helped Vinay and Arvind evaluate the fourth standard kids. The kids could all read simple alphabets, but they had some difficulty reading the compound characters (othakshara). Also their comprehension wasn’t very good. This definitely causes some concern. If they are not good in Kannada, which is the medium of instruction, they cannot learn the other subjects like social science well. It didn’t surprise us that the girls fared better than the boys. There could be a Kalpana Chawla, Shakuntala Devi, Sudha Murthy, Indira Gandhi, Arundathi Roy or a Kiran Bedi among these kids. I would have loved to stay a while longer and find what they dream about. But a glance at my watch said it was time for the kids to have their afternoon meals. We distributed chocolates to the kids, waved bye to them and returned home.

Volunteering with Govt. primary schools is a lot of fun. Kids from 1st std to 7th std. Shy & Cheerful faces, calling you 'Uncle', 'Aunty', 'Anna', 'Akka', 'Sir', 'Miss'. Childhood stares & smiles at you. Itz Heaven. Help the kids realise their dreams and keep their smiles on. Interested ? write to Mrs Maitreyee, our DSF co-ordinator.

Openbill Stork

2006-03-09T14:12:00.000+05:30

Openbill Stork Anastomus oscitans

Kan: Baaikallaka
Telugu: Galu konga, Pouna konga
Tamil: Naththai kuththi narai
Mal: Cherakokkan
Sinhala: Gombelle kokka
Hindi: Gungla, Ghonghila, Ghungil
Bengal: Thonte bhanga

The first set of birds that greeted us, as we took the boat ride at Ranganthittu on Dec 31st '05. Apparently, the smallest stork found in India. Sexes alike.

Observe the gap between the beaks - openbill - thats the identifying characterisitic

Around 80cm high, seen all over the Indian subcontinent (includes Pak, Bang, Lanka, & Burma). White or greyish white with black in the wings.

Breeding season is Nov to March in south India, and July to Sep in north India. Breeds in colonies, as seen here, along with cormorants, egrets, painted storks etc.

Infact, Ranganthittu has lotz of very small islands. And, one such housed all these birds. They seemed oblivious to our proximity. It was exciting, getting so close to birds & crocodiles.

The blackness at the base of the beaks seems to be another characteristic.

Why the gap between the beaks ? Salim Ali's suggests that this is an adaptation for grasping large fresh water snails. Voice apparatus doesn't exist in the stork family, hence more of the beak chattering and some moaning sounds are heard. Strong flight with neck & legs stretched - would be a lovely sight - Domestic duties shared by both sexes. Eggs: 2-4. Food regurgitated by parent into the nest and eaten franatically by the nestling.

Openbill Stork: Tall, white, long legs, black on wings, black at the base of the beak, and the gap between bills.

Disha

2006-03-05T00:03:00.000+05:30

Well guyz here I go.
This is a blog I wanted to write for months. But, somehow Disha, the event has been overwhelming, it was not easy getting to put the ink on the paper ;-)

Disha is a workshop and an exhibition of science experiments for high-school children, predominantly from Govt. schools. An annual event for the last 3 years, initiated and pursued by the volunteers of Friends of Children and sponsored by Synopsys India.

The idea was to encourage science at govt. schools. To get the students & teachers involved. So, we decided on a workshop for the students by a professional, soon followed by an exhibition of science projects done by the students.

We invite one or two teams of 2 students each from schools with emphasis on larger participation from the govt. schools.

Mr. Hari Paramesharan of Dynam has been conducting the workshop for us. Very lively, every student gets a kit. Lotz of experiments are conducted over the day. And, science is introduced/illustrated in a simple, thought-provoking way. Mr. Hari leads the way, explaining, asking, & demonstrating it. And, the students find it very interesting.

Usually, a science teacher accompanies the students. And, this year, we wanted to have a workshop exclusively for them too. In came Mr. Balluragi, a retired college lecturer/reader from Dharwad. He is known for popularising science amongst schools, has authored a few books, and is known for his simple experiments, explanations & low cost science kits. It was such a privilege to have him with us. Volunteers, who witnessed his workshop were bowled, and the teachers impressed. Ravi thanking Shri Balluragi.

Disha 2003: 12 schools; 7 govt+5 aided; 40 projects; 80 students; 14 teachers
Disha 2004: 35 schools; 17 govt+18 aided; 75 projects; 154 students; 38 teachers
Disha 2005: 31 schools; 27 govt+ 5 aided; 31 projects; 67 students; 31 teachers

And....in 2003 & 2004, the events happened at St. Theresa School, Chamrajpet. This year, we moved it to St. Josephs Indian High School.

Organising an event like this is a huge challenge. Visiting schools, talking to the head-master, science teacher, etc. Getting their confirmations. Then the workshop happens. Usually, we have had problems like unconfirmed schools dropping in, throwing the planning out of gear. Its fun, and very challenging.

And then the exhibition day, which is typically a fortnight after the workshop. The teams are re-embursed up to 500rs for the project. The students arrive with their projects, set up stalls, start explaining, crowds pour in, mostly students from host & neighbouring schools.

Judges. Yes, we have had some very fine judges, some of them from Synopsys, and the rest mostly with IISc connections. The judges go meet the teams, and then arrive at a decision. Here, the judges being introduced to the students and then they meet the students, and finally they are discussing.

And, finally, certificates for all, and prizes for the first few are given away. Apart from the first three prize winning trophies, we have had other sponsorers pitching in with gifts, from books to NIIT courses. Bhanu Kiran - the spirit behind FoCh - giving away prizes.

Yes, apart from Science experiments, this event has had an equally important goal for us. Passing the message to students that, if you are interested in studies and are unable to continue it for financial reasons, we are there to help you out. The Friends of Children gang has been sponsoring college education for quite sometime now. An informal group of volunteers, we sponsor their education and mentor them on weekends. Mentoring/academic doubt clearance happens at St. Theresa school, Chamrajpet.

Another issue of concern is rationalism. Science should imply rationalism. Unfortunately, in our country, Science is just another subject. A curious mind, understanding the science behind, can all happen. But soon, we start having a whole lot of superstitions in the name of personal faith & tradition. Especially with impressionable minds and coming from under-previleged societies, it becomes necessary to talk 'bout rationalism, to talk 'bout the science behind 'miracles'. A gang that has worked hard towards pushing rationalism in our society has been the Breakthrough Science Society and herz a news article on them. For us, they have been conducting 'miracle bursting' programmes: expose the 'miracles' performed by false swamies. Hope to involve such groups in Disha.

Yes, Disha for us has been taking the excitment of science to govt. school children and teachers. Telling the children that higher education is possible. And, someday hope to talk 'bout rationalism as well. Here, Shrikanth talks 'bout the options available after 10th std.

Disha also means event management of the highest order. The number of schools, teams, children, teachers, judges, prizes, certificates, VIP's. Its a challenge. We have reached out to less than 30 govt. high schools in Bangalore. There are hundred's of govt high schools in Bangalore alone. Can we reach out to them ? And, what about the rural schools, can we think on those lines, reaching out to smaller towns, away from Bangalore. Can we replicate this model elsewhere ? Thats the challenge. Money is not an issue, but dynamic volunteers to make it happen.

Special thanks to Synopsys India for sponsoring the event all these years. And, if you are interested in volunteering for Disha 2006 (Nov-Dec) or with Friends of Children, dash a mail to Ravi.

Snaps from various sources cover Disha 03, 04 & 05.

Dhobi's Kerchief

2006-03-04T15:40:00.000+05:30

Dhobi's Kerchief Mussaenda glabrata

Kan: Billoothi
Tam: Vellaiyalai
Mal: Parthole
Hin: Bedina
Beng: Nagballi
Mar: Bhatkes

A flower with a strange name and looks. It was again on the Kumar-Parvatha route I saw this flower. Western ghats, May 2005. The yellow & red flowers, and white bracts (??) stuck me. I wondered 'bout it for a long time and still do. Whats the significance ? of having a red-colored, yellow-colored and white leaf like bracts.

Yes, distributed in western ghats. Flowers during mid-monsoon & early winter; but the white bracts are seen all thru the year.

Flowers are eaten as pot herb. Leaves & fruit in traditional medicine. And is the food of Commander butterfly.

Source: BNHS book ' Common Wild Indian Flowers - Isaac Kehimkar '

Blackmouth

2006-03-03T23:15:00.000+05:30

Malabar Blackmouth Melastoma malabathricum

Kan: Ankerki
Tam: Nakkukaruppan
Tel: Pattudu
Mal: Kalampatti
Mar: Palore
Beng: Gongai

The flowers caught my attention while I was walking on the Kumar-parvatha trek route(western ghats, near Mangalore). I had hardly reached the forest, this was on the road-side, in the month of May. Now, the BHS book has helped me identify it.

The plant is found near hills & forests along the streams. Notice the long, wide & glossy leaves.

Flowers may be pink-magenta, purple or white. And have alternate yellow & reddish-purple anthers.

The edible portion of the fruit stains black, hence the name blackmouth. Infact, Blackmouth is a family with trees, shrubs & herbs all promising to stain your mouth black. Melastoma in latin means blackmouth.

Yes, these insects caught my attention. The bee flew-away, while the cricket stay put despite all my attention. Infact, it is said (in the book) that this flower feeds the atlas moth & grey count butterfly.

Note the yellow streak of the cricket, matches so well with that of the anthers.

Yeah! read somewhere that this plant is a potential source for the extraction of natural colourants.

All these, Thanks to Isaac Kehimkar for writing 'Common Indian Wild Flowers' and to BNHS.

Mexican Poppy

2006-03-03T19:27:00.000+05:30

Mexican poppy Argemone mexicana

Kan: Datturi
Tamil: Kudiyoetti
Telugu: Brahmadandi (interesting name)
Mal: Ponnummatum
Hindi: Bharband
Beng: Siyal kanta
Guj: Darudi
Raj: Satyanasi (satya nash ?? ;-))
Mar: Pivala dhotara

Guyz...if any of you can understand the meaning of these names, do lemme know.

Chaps from poppy family take up positions on vacant land.

Native of West Indies. Seed resembles mustard seeds, hence used as an harmful adulterant in mustard oil. Has anti- terminte qualities, dry & crush the stem & leaves of the poppy and spread them at the base of the plant to be protected.

Flowers all around the year.

Quite a common wild-plant, you can't miss it.

Source: Common Indian Wild Flowers by Isaac Kehimkar..BNHS.....great book guyz...simply buy maadi.

U 'n I

2006-03-02T16:18:00.000+05:30

You & I. Its a BEAUTIFUL world!!!!!

A torn wing

2006-02-28T11:54:00.000+05:30

This was long back at IISc. A butterfly with torn wings caught my attention. And, I followed it for quite sometime taking lotz of snaps. Wanted to get close to it, but the guy kept hopping from flower to flower, resting briefly, sucking the nectar and moving along.

A long shot. The Monsoon was on, long blades of green grass, various plants that spring up overnight and grow furiously.

The otherside of the wing. Paler, still the eyes & other patterns are noticable.

Clicking a butterfly is interesting. Some species, sit for quite sometime & are unperturbed. Many are shy & hop fast. Some are real fast, have U seen them, they just zap away.

I kept watching him. Many a snap. Pauses in between. This guy flying, sitting, drinking & moving on. But always around the place I stood. Soon he become somebody I seem to know for a long time.

Chester

2006-02-22T11:28:00.000+05:30

A DSF meeting. Room full of volunteers. Discussing: How to check learning levels in our govt. schools. Meeting led by Vinay & Megha with Juveena from NEEV as the expert.

Juveena giving fundas.

Catching my attention was this beautifully illustrated book, with a simple story of Chester - a crocodile - trying to gobble various animals.

Meanwhile.....some heavy discussions were happening....and T arrived...the book was on Murtuza's leg....Sunand placed this Tea cup on it & started zooming....Murtuza leg was supported by my leg.....so this was a precarious shot. At the end we burst out laughing not to the amusement of the crowd.

An unlucky Chester goes back home. Hey this snap reminds me of the croc snap we took in Ranganthittu.

Here it is.....I love crocs.

Bird flu ;-(

Megha started writing a math paper on the board. Note the bright light at the bottom.

When I focused on the bright light, I got this shot....the best shot of the day.

Watching Chester & the fleeing animals, Megha & Vinay, Juveena & My3, & the rest of us was Gandhi-thaatha. Should get a sharper shot next time.

Yes... we are trying to quantify the learning levels of 2nd, 4th & 6th std students in our govt. schools thru simple tests. The exercise happens over the next few saturdays. We need volunteers of all kinds. Kannada, Tamil & English. And, badly needed are Urdu reading/writing chaps. Interested write to Maitreyee.

Rock climbing

2006-02-09T11:36:00.000+05:30

3 schools, 38 students, 6 teachers, 7 instructors. Rock Climbing, Turalli, 29th Jan 2006.

Shikshana trust works with Govt. schools in Bangalore south. Starting from Banashankari until Kanakpura. Lotz of schools. They have been doing a fundu job, and are working on allround development of their children.

Karnataka Mountaineering Association - KMA - my first gang - one of the oldest trekking & mountaineering clubs of karnataka. Have majorly supported rock-climbing outings for under-previleged children. This outing was lead by Mr. Mohan Rao.

I won't get into the how's and why's of rock climbing for the under-previleged. You know it.
Would love to see a lot of other groups taking their children for rock climbing. Can think of kids from Dream School Foundation, Vatsalya, Friends of Children, Bosco etc Interested write to Sunand, a DSF & KMA volunteer.

The pictures tell the story. Snaps by Sunand.

Wanted

2006-01-31T14:47:00.000+05:30

Badly
............Wanted
............................Volunteers

Looking for lady volunteers for an under-previleged home for girl children called Vatsalya at Wilson Garden, Bangalore. Vatsalya houses around 50 kids. Some of them orphans, the rest from economically poor sections. The kids go to schools around - first std to 10th std and a few to college -

Our voluntary group has been working with them for the last 5 years. Our current programme is LifeSkills. This happens every sunday 2:30pm to 4:30pm. Currently targetted at high-school kids with personality development and spoken English as the focus. We plan to reach out to the smaller kids too.

So wanted, lady volunteers....strong...bold...and wonderful.

Our Aims/Goals:
In one sentence: To get them to stand on their feet.
As a paragraph: Make them strong inside, ready for the society, believe in themselves & life, make them dream big, and get them to reach there.

So wanted.....people who can infuse that enthusiasm, character and josh for life.

Issues:
Well, I can perhaps get a PhD on this topic. Traumatic childhood, future uncertain, not good academics, lack of role models, role of wardens, contact with outside world, general awareness, communication skills, career options

So wanted.....live people....who want to make a difference in their lives.

An earlier account of my teaching with the younger kids can be seen here. Interested, write to me.

Believe me, this is challenging & exciting. Balances our lives. And teaches us a lot. Commitment level is atleast 2-3 weeks/month. Hope to hear from you soon.

Note: Volunteering at Vatsalya is open for LADY volunteers only.

Run DSF Run

2005-12-25T21:14:00.000+05:30

'Research is like long distance running'. This was my close friend Vishwa's funda during my IISc days. And, as I struggled with my research work, hanging on to it, pushing it. That comment seemed so apt. And, soon I realised not just Research but LIFE indeed was like long distance running. You need to persevere, hold-on, cling-on to your goals, ideals, principles, what not....And, you need to keep working towards it. Boredom, distractions, sudden dip in confidence/faith all these comes in the way. You need to keep pushing, keep taking those steps, keep running. And, suddenly it dawns on you. Its not the body, itz not the facilities, but your mind, your thinking that matters. You suddenly encounter YOU. You get to know YOU.

Ladies & gentlemen, thats why I love running. Its a training to take on life and enjoy it all the way. In that 30 minutes, 1 hours, or 2.5 hrs of running, you go through life. And, each time you finish it as planned, its an affirmation that you've got what it takes. And, THAT is wonderful. Ask, anybody who runs.....

As I run my life, I realise a few things are precious to me.
1. Neuroscience
2. Giving back to society.

Neuroscience - The Brain - fascinates me so much that my very existence should tend towards it ;-)

Giving back to society: Yes, doing what YOU can. Sharing. Inspiring. Empowering.

It may sound strange but yes, poverty has fascinated me. Initially, it was walking through slums, watching them: their families, and their kids playing on the street. The kid running around half-naked, the boyz loitering around with a defiant/hurt look, the girls busy with household work. And soon, you notice that lotz of boyz & girls are working. In canteens, cycle-shops, garages while they should have been in schools. You know for sure, you could have been one of them. Choiceless birth has made all the difference. Life withering before it blooms.

Yes, for the last 7 years I have been part of a gang that reaches out to those children. Supporting them through education. Giving them a fair-chance, a level playing field, letting them grow up with the conviction that the society is with them and that LIFE means opportunity - every moment.

Now, a few of us who deeply believe in this cause will RUN for them. We plan to use the run to raise awareness, get more volunteers, and raise fund for our group - The Dream School Foundation [DSF] . DSF works with Govt. schools in Karnataka to ensure quality education for the children. And, we will be running at the Mumbai marathon on Jan 15th 2006.

DSF has adopted 5 govt. schools in Bangalore and also interacts with 15 more schools. We have long-term volunteers associated with each of these 5 schools. They teach the kids, interact with teachers, and also are involved in school management.

Activities at the school are fuelled by the dynamism of its volunteers. And, we badly need many more volunteers. There are 100's of govt. schools in Bangalore. And, almost all of them would do well with active support from itz citizens. Let me illustrate with some of our activities.

Medical camps at the schools. Apart from general health (and dental) check up, blood grouping, maintaing the records has been helpful. Most of the kids come from slums, and their parents are into construction work, domestic help etc

Note book drive has been a helpful exercise for the last 4 years. We distribute 2-5 notebooks/kid. This has been supported predominantly by the IT crowd in the city. This year we reached out to around 20 thousand children in 144 schools.

Another important activity is spreading science/rationality. Currently, our sister/brother volunteer group Friends of Children trust organises 'Disha' - science workshops & exhibitions for govt. high school children. We plan to have workshops for teachers & students in our primary schools(1st to 7th standard/grade) .

A strong component has been teaching English & Maths. All these schools have mostly Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, or Urdu as the medium of teaching. In cosmopolitan cities, it becomes imperative that our children can speak good English & have good math foundations. Pygmalion has been an helpful English learning software that is being increasingly used in our schools. This interactive, multi-media approach excites children. Inculcating reading & comprehension skills are a challenge. Reading material from Hippocampus has been helpful in this regard. We need lot more teaching approaches & aids to make it attractive, impactful & full of learning. And, enthusiastic volunteers to make it happen. Believe me, talking to the kids, teaching something is a great learning-balancing-fun experience.

Infrastructure support in schools is another important issue. We have schools with bad roofs, less benches & desks. Overcrowded rooms. Sometimes no toilets. Yes, it is a government school, and they are supposed to solve all these. Various bodies like Janagraha, Akshara foundation are working towards it until then lets do our bit.

Sensitising children to environmental issues. Getting them interested in plants/trees/birds/animals around them is important. Recently children from various schools were taken for rock climbing at Thuralli. This event was organized by Shikshana trust and Karnataka Mountaineering Association.

Taking children out on picnics to other cities, planetarium, museums, zoo's makes it fun & learning. For many children this would be their first train trip etc etc One of the challenges is to keep the School dropout rate low. So community mobilisation drives, better teaching at schools, English teaching majorly helps. This instills confidence in the parents that the school is good & would make a difference to their child. And the kid also loves to come to school.

So guyz, therz so much that can be done in a school. It all depends on YOU. Join us and strengthen the schools and make a difference in their lives. You could join some other group too, or simply visit a govt. school in your neighbourhood and start interacting. Lets make education available, and of good quality for the underprevileged.

Yes, we RUN at Mumbai for DSF. We RUN with the conviction that we will reach out to more & more children. You could pledge for our cause by volunteering for us (we would love it) and /or donating to the cause. Cheques should be made in the name of 'Give India' (Charity coordinating group at the marathon). Do get in touch with us (info at dsfindia.org). Thanks so much.

We will run with Dream School Foundation. Distance doesn't matter. Destination is clear. Mind is strong. Paths get created. Join us. Run with us, itz fun, Run for DSF.

Spiders

2005-12-06T16:44:00.000+05:30

After a long break I had the camera around my neck. The world around turned into a wonderful theatre. Actors all over. Beaconing me to take their pictures.

This Damsel fly held me attention for sometime. It was drizzling on & off. Initial snaps with zoom from far & slowly I close on to the subject stopping only a few centimetres away with the macro on. It is concentration, balance, and above all - a wonderful sense of getting absorbed in them as you keep watching them -

And soon this bee sitting on a 'kal-chapdi' (a long vertical stone slab). Notice the transperency in the wings. Amazing!!!

Next half an hour was (yet another) turning point in my life. I discovered Spiders!!!! Yes...spiders.... man...great stuff....actually what I discovered turned out to be Spider Women ;-)) Seriously. The rest of the blog contains pictures of what I think are Gaint wood Spider. Infact, all of them happen to be the female of the species. The male apparently is insignificantly tiny.

That day I saw two webs. One of them had a small spider, and the other a real big one. Light was quite bad. And so I did the un-pardonable. I snaped the smaller spider with my flash on. These spiders are cool chaps. Coolest dames, I have ever come across. They give a damn to you. Flash on - top view - Smaller spider.

And, soon, thanks to Partha, who generally swung his umbrella up, and I looked up & saw a huge spider. Almost black & white snaps with bad light. The last one is my current background image.

Giant wood spiders (Nephila Maculata) are also known as Golden Orb spiders for the golden color of its silk -though I saw only thick white strands of silk - they make the largest & strongest webs. Web diameter: 1 metre++

The web in the above pic was in a Y frame, with top left & right support from two different tress, and the bottom left support from a 6 ft plant. The spider was at an height of 12 feet. Leg to leg it looked the size of one's palm.

As I stood there, and looked around, and took these pictures. I started finding more & more spider webs. In a 3 metre radius, I spotted 4 webs. The webs have a strong 2-d structure and in the centre lives the spider. In one web, I noticed two other sparse(not well structured) 2-d webs, parallel to the main web, just a few inches away. In another web, only one such loose web was seen apart from the main web. Strangely, I have been staying/visiting the IISc campus since 1996, but never had seen these spiders before. The belly & the back view of the spider.

This web was high above. More than 15 - 20 ft I think. I was unable to spot the male spider in any of the webs. This spider silk is apparently very strong, used by man/tribals as food, fishing lures, traps etc. And, the spider seems to have a wide presence around the globe.

Giant Wood Spider. Big web. Unfazed. So, next time you are outdoors look around for them. They get lost in the heights, the light, & the vegetative background. But, if you watch keenly, you will soon spot them.

Kadaley kai parsey

2005-12-03T19:43:00.000+05:30

A Fable.
One of my favourites. The picture depicts an unsuspecting Iravatha - Indra's elephant - talking up some villagers to the heavenly abode.

A village in Bangalore. Time: unknown. A bull keeping grazing & feeding on the groundnuts. Villagers plan to attack it, but that night their crops are mysteriously destroyed. They beg forgiveness from God for their evil plan. Offer heaps of ground nut on one day of the year to the bulls. God is pleased. A huge temple of a bull - Nandi - now stands (monolithic I think), and closeby another huge rock carving of the Elephant god - Ganesha. And, the place thus gets its name Basavana(bull) Gudi(temple), and the groundnut offering becomes a tradition Kadaley kai (groundnut) parsey (fair). Well, I am sure various other stories exist. This, one must agree is a nice one.

Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to Kadley Kai Parsey. A fair, a jatre, a typical Indian event. A few days back - Nov 29th - I went to the fair, 8:30 to 10am, and herz the account.

Its a 3 day festival. I was visiting on the 2nd day, and quite early in the day. The shop keepers were putting up their stalls. I decided to visit the temples first - that keeps my mom happy - and then leisurely move around. The huge Nandi seemed sleepy; reflected more by yesterday's garlands that were half-wilted.

The stone pillar is the dwaja-stumba (right ??), kind of a flag-pole.

Most temples have these snake gods under some Ficus trees.

First to catch attention was this granny. As I took this snap, she noticed, called me up and asked for another snap to be taken.

She called her son (posing as a customer), and grand-daughter in the background. Daughter-in-law wasn't interested in the show, and kept away. As I slowly found out, most of the groundnut sellers were from Dharmapuri ( 200Km away in Tamilnadu). A few from Mandya & Andhra, but it was predominantly Dharmapuri villagers who have been coming here annually to sell.

This chap was quite shy. Moved away as soon as I took this snap. Two gardeners came up, and said some people like you have donated him/her to the temple yesterday. I was taken aback. This karru looked out of place...grazzing I asked....ah...don't worry...it may go anywhere...none of us will stop it!!!! Well, I majorly appreciated their generosity & moved on.

Police bando-bast, as we call it. This event attracts hazzar crowd. And, security is neccessary. The constables were awaiting orders I guess.

The right-most person was their senior officer. As I took the snap, somebody sarcastically remarked, 'Take a very good snap of him'

Moving on to the streets. Bangalore traffic was coming to life(hell ?). Flanking the busy roads, along with the parked bikes & cars were the groundnut sellers, toy sellers, fancy-item sellers, and so on...

This old lady said they are from Bombay; they had shiny caps, swords & bows - 5 Rs each -

This family was cleaning up the burnt groundnuts. Fresh groundnuts & burnt groundnuts were on sale. I am not sure if any other kinds of ground-nuts were sold. I noticed the fresh & the burnt ones only.

Yeah! this Ajji cleaning up fresh-groundnut, the ones plucked/unearthed. And, here she rubs them on the ground to remove the mud sticking to it.

Various groundnut shades. The lady gave me a great smile.

Groundnut garbage ;-)

And, BCC at work. The lady to the left wasn't keen on coming on the picture.

A stall of clay gods. And this kiddo posed with baby krishna for me. Couple of her aunts, and an uncle were around. They sat leisurely. And, were doting on the little kid. This family was from Salem, Tamilnadu.

Yes, chains, necklaces, and such fancy items. This family stays somewhere in Yeshwanthpura, and hawk them in the Majestic area.

Boys trying there luck. One rupee to play the game. You throw that ring, and if it fall on a 5Rs or 10Rs or a soap or a biscuit pack. You take them home. The boys were trying valiantly with no luck. The ring simply was bouncing off ;-)) The lady in green owned the stall

I put the items closer & took this picture.

It was 9:53 in my watch, decided to get to office. Started talking to this sugarcane chap. Add a drink - 5Rs - I was his first customer.

Well, stuff like this makes up an Indian fair. I missed out on gaint-wheels etc. It was too early in the morning for a lot of such stalls. Its the festive atmosphere that hits you. People moving around with a spring in their steps, music, hawkers shouting their wares off, lot of bright clothings, some people ready to sell you something, some totally resigned, a crowd to navigate through. Excitement 'bout something ahead, not clearly visible nor hearable. Temples, prayers. Sweet stalls, toys, amusement games. You walk with your friends gigling/laughing, pointing to something/someone. Or would have walked as a young one holding your fathers/mothers hand tightly, excited like anything. Colors never seen before and sights unimaginable. Its all there for you. You gonna mingle, enjoy & get lost. Thats Life, what say ?

Ramanagara 2

2005-11-05T21:05:00.000+05:30

After a fine lunch - that included scarry bajji's -we started our walk down. A fast descent it was, we took a different route, and landed at the base soon. Ramanagara is also know for vultures. And, I was keen on seeing them. Had seen a few flying at a great height. And, it was great to come across these long billed vultures. As Sirish pointed their nests/roosting place. I went delirious. My camera-battery barely had any charge left. So, I had to settle for this single shot that I could manage.

A cropped image. Not a good picture. But, great sight it was. I am keen on going back for them. And, soon a vulture - Egyptian ?? - glided very close to us. We went crazy. Sirish & Megha took some snaps. Megha was following its flight so closely that she stepped on a slimy rock &amp; fell ;-))

Hume ne bhi tere har ek pall ko

Galle se lagayye hai, hai na ;-))

The vulture was majorly posing for us. Sat on a rock closeby & again had a low flight for us. Just before this, Jagadish & Sunand had a race. Hopping on one leg. Distance was the criteria, and Sunand surprised himself by winning it.

Hey Zindagi galle lage ley!!!

This is a 2 day old....what U call it....mmmm...ok...young sheep!!!!! And, Mamtha's mamtha was on full display ;-)) Shot was too bright. So adjusted in the second image. Soon, she picked up another young black sheep, that was a week old. No battery: no snap. This week old chap was frailer than the 2 day chap. Well, well. We had T at a shop, then quickly went back to the GETHNAA building, charged my battery, packed our ruck-sacks, got our dinner, and moved back closer to the T shop for camping.

Well....believe me, these beatles/bugs matted more than an hour!!!! We had seen them mating on the way before, and they still were on job when we came back. With the leader shouting 'Daudke daudke' and a ruck-sack on my back, not so easy to bend and take a macro snap. I thought this was sharp enough..but...

There were paddy fields on the way. And, locations of Sholay. Mega was crazy 'bout it. Light was rapidly fading, we managed to pitch in 3 tents just in time. And, soon the camp was on fire.....err....I mean camp-fire was on. Assisting Jagadish were Megha & Manasa, Megha for some reason didn't have her shoe, and an ant promptly announced its presence.

Mega inspecting her feet. Snaps only with torch light and then with the flash on. We had a great time togather. The sky shockingly was clear. Afer a long long time I saw some constellations, but was quite confused, apart from Pegasus, Taurus, and Orion, couldn't spot the other chaps - thatsAShame :-((

Day 2

These kidoo's were from the tea-shop/house closeby, and were typical highly excited kids. The elder is Anil - 8th std - the younger ?? 4th std.

Shot by sunand.

This is the hill that houses the vultures, and also the Pattabi-Rama temple. Does the name Ramanagara come form this temple ?? The village is also seen.

Well, Jagadish went to get breakfast, but took a long time. We got talking, Mega, Manasa & me are all MES products. So, it was fun talking 'bout MES. A superb close-up by sunand.

Hey...whatz this...Zebra at Ramanagara ?? Well, believe me, these are from Sunand's pyjamas!!!

I thought the vultures were quite attracted to the pyjamas, and kept circling above.

This guy flew low quite a few times. I recall the silvery grey of the underside. And, later Sirish felt probably this could be the short-toed eagle, right Sirish ??

Jagadish was back, and rock climbing funda's were being given. Sirish turned into a cool rebel that day!

Hey...Sunand's pajamas...knots....and what not ;-)

Soon, Rock climbing began. Jagadish & Mamtha were setting up the rappling gear. While the rest under Sunand's direction tried our hands and feet on a few rocks. This was fun. All of us used to majorly labour to climb. And suddenly like a wild bear - Ajay - would come from nowhere, climb-up, mutter something & get down.

At this point, I noticed 3 kids on a rock nearby. Went up and joined them. Names were Hussain, Yousuf, Mohammed (something like that...actually I don't recall). They were studying in 8th, 9th & 10th stds. All of them sat on at the top of a high slopping rock, and were focussed on their job. They were making broom sticks. Yes, they had collected that kind of a grass, and now were cleaning & cutting them at the right places. Conversation, moved here & there. They wanted to get to jobs after 10th. Anything would do kinds. No idea of the options/courses available. Suddenly, one of them asked 'Nimm sambla yeshtu' (Whatz ur salary). Thats an embarrassing question to an IT chap, I quickly quoted a figure of 10K. They kept quite. And muttured somebody they know gets 30K. Well, well. I built on that, talked 'bout possibilities of high salary due to education. Said, they shud atleast do an ITI course. Looked like their parents could really support them furthur. I said any difficulties for studying, contact Sunand...showed him to them. All along their fingure's moved diligently over those grass blades. The gang decided to rapple down, and I went to join them.

Jagadish gave the instructions and came down rappling. Sunand tried to impress us with some fast rappling, but Mamtha who was handling the ropes made sure that it wasn't loosened fast enough!!! The first to come down amongst us was Manasa. Watch her bent knees, thats a definite no-no. She came down quite cool-ly though.

Next to come down was Sirish. He was uncomfortable. He faced the classic problem of trusting. trusting the rope, and the people up. Many of us go thru it.

Sunand, at the bottom was handling the landing operations. Jagadish was pushing people down & Mamtha controlled the ropes.

Megha banthu Megha...Megha banthu Megha

Megha Neeliyya Megha...Megha mandhara Megha!!!

Hey...this girl had a cool walk down. She seems to be smilling in this snap. Boy!!!

The 'Awesome' cousins after their rapple (awesome was their most used adjective).

This is how Kiran started rappling. Notice the pond in the background.

And then me. Guyz made me stop in the middle, turn towards the camera, smile etc etc And, since I used to give funda's like look up....watch for the vultures as you come down etc. etc. They insisted that I stop, look-up & enjoy. Well, well. Thirugubanna ;-)

Last to rapple down was Ajay. He started normally, as seen here, but as he came to the middle region, started mouthing some Lalloo dialogues - guy can mimic Lalloo quite well - as he had us amused, he rappled down quite fast, continued his tirade, and..and..forgot to jump down. I mean, you walk back horizontally, when you are close to the ground, you kind-off jump down. Our man was so immersed in those lalloo dialogues, that he forgot to look down and jump, instead simply landed horizontally!!! He soon stood up all smiling ;-)

Hum ne bhi tere har ek pall ko

Galle se lagaye hey, hain na ??

Most of us had a second round of rappling. And, soon it was time to pack-off.

We went back, had a tender-coconut each, collected our ruck-sacks, and trekked back to the base-camp. A significant event on the walk was the spider hunt. Sirish noticed a spider web which had a cricket caught in it. This web was on the ground, those thick diffuse kind of web. Not the usual 2-d stuff, but proper 3-d web. So this cricket was caught, and as we watched it, a big spider showed itself from under, and attacked the cricket. The first attack though swift was unsuccessful for reasons unknown. The cricket seemed to be immobolised by the web. It showed no signs of escaping. In its second attack, the spider was successfull. It held the cricket firmly - rather seem to hug it closely - I suppose it would have injected something & immobolised it. The cricket was still. We had to hurry back. My camera battery was down.

Well guyz this is how our Ramanagara trek turned out to be. The rain gods kept away. The comradery was unbeliveable. Jagadish as a leader was superb. Frankly, what I perhaps would treasure most was the closeness the group developed, and the sharing that happened. Yes, vultures, man..... I need to get back.

Hey Zindagi galle lagga ley

Hum ne bhi, tere har ek pall ko

Galle se lagaya hey, hai na ??

Special thanks to KMA , Sunand & Jagadish for making Ramanagara happen despite the rain scare. October 28th night to 30th night.