deponti to the world

Spinning Fantasies....

2010-01-07T06:04:52Z

There they sit, the two children of the hills of Namdapha:

She is, obviously, spinning stories for the younger one....what gossamer thoughts of far away princes, dragons and wonders is she weaving, that the little boy sits rapt next to her, gazing into the far distance, lost in what his childish imagination shows him?

Children live in fantasy, and to them, stories are part of the fabric of life. I felt lucky to be able to watch these two in their world, even if just briefly...sitting there in the sunlit meadow, free (for a while, at least) of the cares of household chores or school, being...just children...,

All these OTHER photographs from Assam and Arunachal mean...that I have not finished uploading the pics of the birds and the mammals (OK, I admit they are quite lousy, but I *am* going to post them here as usual!)

And meanwhile, I am off to Thattekkad today, with (in alphabetical order) amoghavarsha, anushsh, and Sandeep ...so even more birds (hopefully) to add to the list... I am sure that in the next Bangalore Bird Race, (on Jan 17th) I am going to start identifying birds endemic to Assam, Arunachal, and Kerala!

When I come back from Kerala, it's a trip to B R Hills in Karnataka....I am laying up a store of wildlife memories for the ~~long~~ short, cold days ahead when I am back to GD-care in St.Louis, at the end of the month!

Beavis and Butthead!

2010-01-07T05:21:46Z

I have asked asakiyume to make up one of her (pun intended) fantastic stories about these two goats I found in the hAt (weekly market) at Miao...

But...any of you can do that...what are the issues that these two are at loggerheads about? What has...got their goat?

Let me know what YOUR story is...

Ageism, but NOT everywhere!

2010-01-05T04:29:44Z

Here I am, quoted in the Indian Express by Saritha Rai, a journalist whom I respect.

click here

I do agree to having faced ageism in Chennai...and often facing it in life...

..but I want to make it clear that for the most part, I said the EXACT opposite to what is quoted...I said, VERY clearly, that in Bangalore, and in wildlife and birding circles, I have never come across ageism at all. Between what one says to a professional reporter (even one who is a personal friend) and what that person hears and writes...there seems to be a very wide gap!

Let me state once again, that the birding community, the young-theatre-group community, the wildlife community, the cycling community,the quizzing community, the LJ community...all these seem to have NO ageism at all, and I find myself, and even older people, accepted for who they are, and indeed, age and its attendant experience is often given great respect.

I will be writing to Saritha about this, never fear. For my age, I am quite active, and so are my tongue...and typing fingers!

Deepa.

Making jalEbis

2010-01-05T04:08:49Z

This is for (a) my non-Indian friends, but it's for (b) my Indian friends too...jalEbis, as (b) and many of (a) know, are sweets, made of flour batter that has been fermented, fried and then dunked into hot sugar syrup. Which of us have not fallen for the jalebis at weddings, hot off the syrup kadAi....?

At DakshiNEshwar, in Kolkata, Geetanjali and I had just finished having bhAdEr chA (tea in those special mud pots...its taste is unique), singhAdA (the Bengali samOsA) and heengEr kochudi (kachOris made with asafoetida as an ingredient)...birdwatchers, these are the "endemics" of the Bengali snacks world!..... when I realized I could record the making of this delicacy.

The circular motion with which the halwAee (sweet-maker) starts looks as if he is stirring the batter...but if you notice closely, he's actually filling up a vessel which has a hole in its bottom (please, no dirty comments at this stage!)

Then, he positions the vessel over the hot kadAi (large wok-like vessel) and, extremely skilfully starts making the series of circles, in a spiral fashion, ending up in the middle of the oil. The batter is extremely slippery in the oil and when L-boards (er, you can guess one example of a person unskilled in this...yours truly) and can make terrible lumps and tangled squiggles.....it's NOT as easy as this halwaii makes it seem! Of course I *could* say that with daily practice I would also be as good....but that would be not true, I think!

At the end of the video, you can see him using the perforated ladle to turn over the earlier batch of jilebis, which is soaking in the hot sugar syrup (to his left.)

Jilebis (or jalebis, as you wish to call them) are one sweet that is no longer made at home, for the most part. In the south, we have a variant of this, called "jAngri"..the word is derived from "jahAngiri" from Mughal times! This sweet, too, is made the same way, but is substantially thicker and the batter is not fermented, and for some reason, is now generally bright orange in colour, as opposed to the golden yellow-to-orange variation for jilebi.

(many of the south Indian sweets have names derived from Mughal times..."pAdushAh" is derived from "bAdshAhi"!... interesting sideline that I am not going to follow right now...)

Oh, yes, we went back to Geetanjali's in-laws' place bearing some of the hot jilebis! And you can be sure that some of it is now smiling back at me from my waist and hip, when I look at the mirror....

When were they modern?

2010-01-03T18:59:40Z

I was mightily tickled by this one:

Talk about ancient! I hope those biscuits were not made back in 1883...

The Idle Horse of Magori Beel

2010-01-03T00:22:10Z

In Dibru/Shaikowa, we stayed on the banks of a water body called Magori Beel (beel is lake) which connected to the Magori river. As we went around looking at waterbirds, I saw this horse all the time:

Our guide Binanda told us that for some reason, this horse just does not like working and the owner pampers the animal, too! It was lovely watching the animal under that simple shelter...

Here he is, his coat shining in the misty sunlight:

We think being human is the greatest thing in life...but I'd like to be that horse in his house of hay....!

Oh, even sarees have them?

2010-01-02T16:19:16Z

I thought only males possessed a pair, but apparently sarees have them, too....

I wasn't even looking for the butterflies....

2010-01-02T05:58:26Z

I realize that Namdapha must be a sort of butterly heaven during the season...because I went out of season, I wasn't even looking for any, and yet I just could not resist clicking some of the common ones!

Let's just start with the beautiful HIMALAYAN JESTER:

the COMMON RING:

the COMMON TIT:

the FLUFFY TIT:

an "open" PUFFIN:

the same butterfly, with its wings closed:

I learnt why the COMMON CASTOR was called so, after seeing them in their hundreds amongst the castor plants (from which castor oil is made)!

the INDIAN RED ADMIRAL:

the METALLIC CERULEAN (this one really did have a lovely blue metallic sheen as it flew about, so naturally I could not get a single shot of it with its wings open. Show me a photographer trying to catch a flitting butterfly with a camera, and I will show you a frustrated person.)

the LIME EMIGRANT:

the PURPLE SAPPHIRE (what a lovely and tough name!)

this is another of the Sapphires:

this was one of the "easy" (that is, seen earlier, often enough to be remembered!) ones...the WHITE ORANGE-TIP:

I cannot understand why so many butterflies, such light and delicate creatures that live on sunshine and flowers and in utter peace, should be named after ranks in the armed forces. HOW can associate these creatures of light and air with war? But so it it is.

Here is the SERGEANT:

thank goodness, this one is named after PUNCHINELLO, one of the characters of the Harlequin opera:

sometimes we get back to the flowers, as with this GREY PANSY:

and sometimes the description is so true...this is the COMMON WANDERER:

but whoever called this one a PEACOCK PANSY has never seen a peacock, even though the "eyes" may have brought the bird to mind:

it was amazing how, as I walked, the butterflies folded themselves and just became leaves! Here's that self-same Peacock Pansy, with its wings closed...isn't it a dry, sere leaf?

some more flights of fancy inspired some butterflies being called Tigers, as with this CHESTNUT TIGER:

I could not find the id of this one:

here's the COMMON HEDGE BLUE:

back to the bird names...and where there is any chocolate in the CHOCOLATE ALBATROSS, I don't know!

this one's a COMMANDER...

My guide, Bidyut, said this one might be an ORANGE-AND-BLACK ROYAL but Karthik says it's more likely to be a RED FLASH:

Here it is with the orange colour not showing:

Here's Bidyut picking up the wing of an unfortunate butterfly, which has probably become some bird's lunch:

This is the GRASS JEWEL, which Bidyut told me was the smallest butterfly in the world!

Some of the MOTHS were lovely too; here's some variety of SCOPULA MOTH (thanks for the id, Kiran!) :

and a HAWK MOTH:

here's a moth case, after the pupa has matured and flown out:

We were looking at a dead Moth on the path, when Bidyut, our guide, cracked a great bilingual pun. "Look," he cried, " 'mauth' (death in Hindi) has truly come to this Moth!"

and a few un-id DRAGONFLIES:

I end with the WHITE STRIPED BARON:

I am not sure of many of the id's and would appreciate any help or corrections, please!

I have also decided that instead of hunting high and low for id's, I am just going to call these butterflies "Krishnamurthy", "Subramaniam", "Vahini" and so on!

I can only imagine what it must be like during the butterfly season in this remote corner of India!

Health, Happiness, and Peace of Mind to Everyone...

2009-12-31T18:46:45Z

Wotitiz.....

2009-12-31T03:30:05Z

The answer to the

Wotzit of yesterday .....

There is a tree in the Namdapha area whose local name is "DhunA". This tree, when its bark is cut, oozes resin, which begin long "driplets" towards the ground, which can be snapped off. The resin is aromatic, and is often smoked upon coals to give off a pleasant smell.

Here's Bidyut Barua (Bidyut means electricity or lightning!), our really excellent wildlife guide, pointing out the sap on the tree-trunk:

I had taken one of the solid "drippings", held it up to the light, and taken a macro shot for that "resin-scultpure" shot! So I guess it was sharathm who came closest to the right answer, though I found dakini_bones answer very interesting!

The water bodies of Dibru/Shaikowa, the attendant marshland and reeds, and the forests of Namdapha had so many wonders to show....as I keep uploading my very-much-less-than-satisfactory photographs, I will share them. To me, the forests are a magical place....

And the best plus of the trip? After about 6 months...I had two weeks without even a TWINGE of pain from my teeth...thank you, Dr Sheela of R V Dental College! I am going back to complete my root canal/crown (yes, I am being crowned, you lot better bow before me soon or it'll be "off with your heads!") work....

Another wotzit.....

2009-12-30T07:18:47Z

Just got back home...and it feels wonderful!

So here's the first image from Arunachal Pradesh...wotzit?

Each one allowed one guess.....

And, I hope all of you who celebrate the festival had a very, very....

Back in Gauhati....

2009-12-26T10:53:36Z

It's been a very memorable trip, and I am back in Gauhati,Assam, for the long journey to Kolkata, and then the long journey back home.

I'd say my wildlife trip was superb, and we sighted so many mammals and birds and were even able to observe them rather than just look at them and move on....

However, one incredibly sad image remains....the Namdapha National Park (indeed, much of the North-East) is just a travesty of what it should be, in every way....every one says there are no tigers left, forests are still being cleared for tea plantations, infrastructure has clearly deteriorated badly....roads are in awful shape, tribals are at each others' throat for a few thousand rupees, and I can see that I am looking at what is left of an incredible place.

I have managed to take vast quantities of generally lousy pictures, but true to my tenets, will be sharing them with you soon....

Yesterday's train from Tinsukhia to Gauhati was 4 hours late, had NOTHING working, and it was pathetic to see the state of the passengers in the sleeper class; in the a/c sleeper, our lot wasn't much better. Southern Railways keep their services in far better shape, I must say, than, at least, the North Eastern Frontier Railways!

Couldn't send anyone messages for Christmas, but this goes out in a heartfelt wish from me to all of you who celebrated the birth of the Child...

All of you be good... or at least, enjoy yourselves!

In Tinsukhia, on my way to Miao in Arunachal Pradesh

2009-12-21T10:00:52Z

Yes, there really IS a place in Arunachal called Miao (there's also a place called Ziro)

Sitting in another seedy internet parlour in Tinsukhia, Assam. The
Dibru-Shaikowa part of the trip (in Assam) was just amazing in terms
of the birds and mammals sighted (we even managed a short trip to
Gibbonland this morning.)

I am taking the Bolero to Miao and tomorrow, we will drive into Namdapha.

I sighted, amongst other things, the Chestnut-Capped Babbler, the
Striated Grassbird, the Yellow-Billed Prinia, the Swamp Francolin, and
saw the Hoary-Bellied Squirrel and the Red=Stumped Macaque....and the
views and the experience has been wonderful so far.

Will see when I can come to the net or mobile connection
again...meanwhile all of you have a great time, and see you all
soon...or sooner...

Sitting in Guwahati, in an internet parlour

2009-12-18T11:13:07Z

Not being savvy enough to have the net on my mobile, I am sitting in a seedy internet parlour in Guwahati, having gorged on momos for lunch....had a lovely day visiting Dakshineswar in Kolkata yesterday...will be out of touch for the next two weeks as I visit Dibru-Shaikowa and Namdapha...back on the 31st.

I do'nt have the time to visit my friend's pages, so I hope all of you are doing fine...

And here's wishing many of you a very Merry Christmas in advance, if I don't get to a computer again!

When someone in kindergarten is pushed into post-graduation....

2009-12-14T11:27:45Z

Karthik called me and told me that since I had made a record sighting of the

BLACK STORK

must be properly documented in the form of a scientific paper.

I am coping with power outage (and resultant internet non-access), the packing for a 15 day trip, and a houseguest tomorrow....and how on EARTH does an L-board birder produce a scientific paper, and that too, out of a two-minute sighting that she was fortunate enough to document!?

Oh, I will do it...with the help of several friends....and by BTMNO...Burning The Mid Night Oil! :)

One of the most common birds, and one of the most beautiful, too

2009-12-14T02:42:03Z

Here are two views of the

RED-VENTED BULBUL

and this one's not eating breakfast:

The burbling, fluting call of the bulbuls can be heard all over the countryside, and we actually have two

RED-WHISKERED BULBULS

trying to build a nest in our lawn...unsuccessfully, as the foliage is not heavy enough!

Just Happy...

2009-12-12T00:09:32Z

I think I am the happiest and probably the luckiest person in the world. I have general good health (forget the occasional blips...everyone has them), great family, wonderful friends, the ability to be comfortable with who I am, and what I can achieve, the ability to learn (albeit, very slowly), I like people and am perennially interested in them....all this is incredibly good fortune...yes, I do have a fortune in my mind and heart...and it may long after Thanksgiving, but I do give thanks.

On the Chennai Photowalk, I found this beggar, whose crutches need crutches...

Now, would I call him lucky or not? Believe me, he was grinning at all the photographers, who all pressed money upon him... perhaps this appearance is his stock-in-trade, to help get photographers get their "artistic" and "ethnic" this-is-India shots!

Off to the Zoo area to have a nice little ramble....

Dental/Mental Torcher

2009-12-11T18:39:57Z

I walk with dragging feet (and my infected molars and gums) into the large hall where several chairs are placed, and approach the nearest white coat diffidently, with my dental records card. I am hoping that this person will say, "No, we can't see you now," and I can go home in peace.

No such luck. I am in the unfortunate position of the patient in the hospital, who was asked by his doctor, "You want the good news first or the bad news?" When he said he wanted the good news, the doctor beamed, "Well, we are naming the disease after you."

"Oh yes, Mrs M," beams the dentist, showing a perfect set of pearly teeth that surely no other dentist has laid hands on. "We've been expecting you. The students are waiting."

No, thankfully, the students are not here to take turns at trying their budding skills on my molars.

They are here because I am a referral patient; that is, my case is interesting enough to be made a case study of. This means (on the good side) that my treatment cost is incredibly low.

But the bad side is that these WC (White Coats) proceed to put me in The Chair (which is only a shade less terrifying than the electric chair), and will open my mouth, stretch a bright green square of some rubbery material across it, with some needle stuck into one recalcitrant tooth...and then the professor will bring the students in.

To the students, I don't exist. I am an uninteresting body attached to a very interesing tooth. The professor shines the light on to my gaping mouth, and proceeds to elucidate...and while the students are not aware of me...I watch them.

There's always one (at least) specimen of what we refer to in Bangalore as an Enthu Cutlet. This one is the Professor's Pet. S/he peers unabashedly into my mouth, almost smothering me with hes nose, and proceeds to ask Intelligent Questions...and nods sagely at the answers.

Then there is the Not-Too-Interested One. This one takes a few desultory notes, but I feel that s/he has been there, done that, seen it all...my case may be fascinating to the professor...but it's less so to this person.

At the back of the group is the Totally Bored House Surgeon. S/he is probably NOT interested in Endodontology, which is what my case falls under (re-infection of a badly-done root canal.) This person stares off into the distance while the professor's words wash over hes person without making any appreciable impact. Twice I've seen hem checking hes mobile for SMS's, surrpetitiously.

Then there's the Romeo. He is busy checking out the other chairs, where some of the undergraduate students of dentistry (this is a teaching dental college) are working. Sometimes, instead, he smiles at one of the young women in the group. The Lothario also adjusts his hair frequently. Now and then his eyes flicker to my mouth, as he barely registers what's being said.

There's the Tensed-Up Timidity. This one *wants* to know what's being taught, but timorousness keeps hem at the periphery of the group, where s/he cannot hear the facts. S/he can't see into my mouth very well, either, from the outer reaches of the solar system, where s/he is orbiting around, hoping to get a vantage point. This person is very worried that this case will be one about which questions will be asked at the next viva (or whatever it is that dentists face...SURELY, dentists, of all people, should have oral tests!!). But s/he doesn't know how to get that info.....

The crowd finally moves off behind the professor, and my personal ~~torture specialist~~ dentist moves in. In no particular order, he stuffs three evil-looking implements into my mouth, then solicitously enquires, "Are you comfortable?"

Of course I am comfortable with all those thing sticking out of my mouth like one of those Terminator-type movies. I dare not even nod for fear of dislodging one of them, especially the one that looks as if it was invented by the Marquis de Sade.

I put up my hand to ask him to go ahead. "Hand DOWN please!" he barks sharply. He thinks I am trying to pull those thingies out of my mouth...not, perhaps, a bad idea.

He starts up a drill, a truly dreadful thing that goes "wheeeeeee...I'm going to enjoy cutting you to pieces!" (at least, that's what my dental drills always say to me.)

I tense myself to have the worst of it start....

and the power goes off. The tone of the drill's whine changes...and drops. "There's no pressure in the compressor," grumbles the dentist. He keeps trying every five minutes. No luck.

My mouth has now been WIDE open for what seems like months, even years. I have a dreadful feeling this is the way my face is going to look permanently....

The power finally comes back on, and the dentist moves purposefully closer. I suddenly begin to wish that the power had not come back, after all.

"This won't hurt," the dentists says. If this guy can lie so smoothly, what is he doing in the dental college? He should have become a lawyer. Not hurt, indeed. One day I want to put HIM in the chair, and say this same dialogue to HIM, and then enjoy MY time with the drill...

I come out of my daydream with a sharp pain my jaw, which tells me that the first local anesthetic has worn out during the wait for the power to come back. "Ngghnh hmmphgg!" I say to the dentist.

He carries on with an assurance that everything is OK. Huh! of COURSE everything is OK...for him! HE's not the one sitting and looking up into a bright light while her mouth is attacked, is he?

Aeons of drilling, rinsing and spitting go on. It's extremely tiring to be almost flat on one's back, and very intimidating to see the horrendous implements being used. For the extraction of one of my wisdom teeth, I swear the dentist used a screwdriver and then a pair of pliers. I think the dentist is an electrician in disguise.

My dentist chats casually with his fellow-workers at the other chairs. I learn that "internals" (exams) are happening today. I hear the gossip on this floor. I now know that Faisal, whoever he is, has no right to be dating Mallika, because he's also going around with Mrinalini. Now if only I knew who these two were....

"That's it for today, Madam..." the sweetest words in the English language. I spit piece of my teeth and blood into the basin for the last time, close a mouth that feels as if I was born with it open, get unsteadily to my feet and walk out to a day filled with pain as the anesthetic wears out....

God...make ME a dentist in my next birth, and let me treat all these White-Coats....I ask the dentist why he can't remove all my teeth and give me dentures.... would save me a lot of time and money. "Madam, everyone who has root canal says the same thing," laughs the dentist. Huh, not even my jokes are good, now!

When the root-canal botching happened the first time, a few years ago, I gave myself the Blogger username of molarbear...the molar making me as angry as a bear....alas, that name is still apt!

Sheer luck...

2009-12-11T16:42:10Z

Today I was told that the sighting of the Black Stork, that I posted about

here

was a first for Bangalore! What a thrill that was!

This is not a thrill that the experienced birder will understand. S/he is probably used to making rare sightings and first records all the time...but for an L-board, the thrill of having made a record sighting is quite high....

It's the same in our monthly family quiz group. When, at my most ignorant, I stumble upon the right answer, my happiness in doing so (and gaining all of 2 or 5 points for my team) is far greater than the greatest Mastermind champion could experience, sitting in that black chair answering questions on, say, "The Use of the Semicolon in Shakespeare" or some such chosen subject!

So let me savour the moment, all too soon, it will be gone....

And a word of gratitude here to Karthik, who is a great guide..he points out the direction and lets one arrive at the destination by oneself.

Birds over the last weekend....,and one very unusual sighting

2009-12-10T16:44:39Z

Since I was able to go birding to Bheemannakuppe kere on Saturday, and to the Ragihalli sheet rock/pond area on Sunday, I'd better combine the two for my field report...

My trip to Bheemannakuppe kerE (kerE means, lake or pond in Kannada) on Saturday was with Abhisheka Gopal, Anjali Anantharam, S R Gopalan, Girish Mayachari, Harsha Joshi, Sangeetha Kadur, and Suma.... and the group on Sunday, to Ragihalli, consisted of a member of the Madras Naturalists' Society, Padmanabhan, and his friends Sandhya, visiting from New York, and Kavita and Rajesh from Bangalore. The last three were coming out birding for the very first time!

One raptor that we saw on both days was the

ORIENTAL HONEY BUZZARD :

At Bheemannakuppe kere (kerE means pond or lake in Kannada), we spotted the

SHORT-TOED SNAKE EAGLE

I ask you, when the raptor is flying at that height, which ~~senseless person~~ learned scientist thought to name it after the size of its toes, I wonder?

Here's a view of the bird high above:

I've already posted about the

BLACK-WINGED KITE

But even a juvenile

BRAHMINY KITE

looked so beautiful ....and adult and juvenile cavorted in the air together:

but apart from the raptors, there were several birds that caught our attention, and were caught by my camera....

After the kite the next bird that we saw flocks of, was the

ROSY PASTOR

at the kere, this

LITTLE CORMORANT

was telling its friend the

CATTLE EGRET

about the size of the fish that got away! (Notice the disbelieving look on the Egret's face!)

The Egrets seemed to like congregating:

Even "common" birds like the

WHITE-CHEEKED BARBET

looked so beautiful with food in their beaks!

Overhead, this

OPEN-BILLED STORK

I checked to see...but it wasn't carrying an open-billed baby!

We saw, and heard, several LARKS singing, and then this

PADDYFIELD PIPIT

decided to imitate a lark..it kept singing and singing! You can see its the pinkish-red in its mouth...my friend

AMS

says that all Paddyfiled Pipits have them...so this is a further diagnostic for me to learn!

A very unusual sighting, according to
Karthik

was this bird that flew past:

He gently prodded me that my id of GLOSSY IBIS was wrong, and lo and behold, my "Grimmskipp" showed me that it was, actually, the

BLACK STORK

A very rare sighting for the outskirts of Bangalore, Karthik informs me.

A group of

SPOT-BILLED DUCKS

that were on the water, took to their wings:

that flash of green on their wings is wonderful.

The

CATTLE EGRETS

like to congregate!

and they made a lovely picture upon the face of the waters:

On the way back, we enjoyed the sight of these two

INDIAN SILVERBILLS

having a great bath!

The Ragihalli trip gave me a lifer (that is, a bird sighted for the first time.)

On the Ragihalli sheet rock, we saw this

RUFOUS-TAILED LARK

running about unconcerned by us:

On the net next to the temple by the pond, this

PIED BUSHCHAT female

sat upon the net in the most endearing manner.

I had id'd these Munias as BLACK-HEADED MUNIAS while watching them; it was only when I got home and saw, on the photographs, the streaks on their bodies and their other characteristic, that I realized we'd been looking at

WHITE-RUMPED MUNIAS !

List from Ragihalli:

Babbler, White-headed
Barbet, Coppersmith
Bee-eater, Small Green
Bulbul, Red-vented
Bulbul,Red-whiskered
Bushchat, Pied
Bushlark,Indian
Buzzard, Oriental Honey
Crow, House
Crow, Jungle
Coucal, Greater
Dove, Spotted
Dove, Laughing
Drongo, Black
Egret,Cattle
Egret, Little
Francolin,Grey
Kestrel, Common
Kingfisher, Small Blue
Kingfisher, White-breasted
Kite, Black
Lark,Rufous-Tailed
Malkoha, Blue-Faced
Munia,White-rumped
Mynah, Common
Mynah, Jungle
Oriole, Golden (call...did yo see it Pappu?)
Parakeet, Rose-Ringed
Pigeon, Rock
Robin, Indian
Shrike, Long-Tailed
Sparrow, House
Sunbird,Purple-rumped
Swallow, Barn
Swallow, Red-Rumped
Tailor Bird
Tern, River
Wagtail, Pied
Warbler, Blyth's Reed

Baya weaver nests (no birds were seen)

From Bheemannakuppe Kere:

Bee-eater,Smallgreen
Bulbul,Red-whiskered
Bulbul,White-Browed
Bushlark,Indian
Bushchat,Pied
Buzzard,Oriental Honey
Cisticola,Zitting
Cormorant,Lesser
Drongo,Black
Dove,Laughing
Dove,Spotted
Duck,Spot-billed
Eagle,Short-toed Snake
Egret,Cattle
Egret,Intermediate
Egret,Little
Francolin, Grey
Grebe,Little
Greenshank
Harrier,Marsh ( ? )
Heron,Grey
Heron,Pond
Heron,Purple
Koel,Asian
Munia,Scaly breasted
Lapwing,Red-wattled
Parakeet,Rose-ringed
Pigeon,Rock
Pipit,Olive backed(or tree pipit?)
Pipit,Paddyfield
Robin,Indian
Kestrel,Common
Kingfisher,White-breasted
Kingfisher,Pied
Kingfisher,Small Blue
Kite,Black Shouldered
Sandpiper,Common
Sandpiper,Green
Shrike, Long-tailed
Silverbills, Indian
Sparrow,House
Sparrowlark,Ashy-Crowned
Starling,Rosy
Stork,Open-billed
Stork,Black
Stork,Painted
Sunbird, Purple
Sunbird,Purple-rumped
Swallow,Barn
Swallow, Red-Rumped
Tailorbird, Common
Wagtail,White-browed
Warbler,Blyth's Reed
Warbler, Greenish Leaf (call)

I leave you with this colourful scene of the

WHITE-BREASTED KINGFISHER

at Ragihalli kere, adding its dash of blue to the greenery, and the white and pink of the lantanas and waterlilies:

Creatures at Bheemannakuppe Kere

2009-12-10T08:08:33Z

Yes, I am getting to the birds, but yesterday's tooth extraction was particulary bad. My wisdom tooth had an extra root, which apparently curved deep into the jawbone...it took 45 minutes to extract it, and yesterday evening was one of the most ghastly I have spent so far....

But today I am feeling better, and let me first share the insects and other Life-Under-Foot photographs...

The trip to Bheemannakuppe was a learning process about

BAGWORM MOTHS

I had made

this post

which included a photo of the

EVERGREEN BAGWORM

That had been infesting a tree in my daughter's garden,

but in Bheemannakuppe,

Sangeetha Kadur

showed us a couple of more varieties....

Look athe beauty of the wildflower on which the case rests!

and

Abhisheka Gopal, who works for

ATREE

showed me three stages of the Tortoise Shell , which is a variety of

BEETLE

Here's the beetle:

Look carefully, and you will see that the four black marks which look like legs are actually part of a rounded "ledge" all around the beetle!

Its larva stage:

Its pupa stage:

Abhisheka was sorry that she could not show us some eggs which would have completed the photography of the life cycle of the beetle!

Sangeetha also showed me this

FAN-THROATED LIZARD

We saw this

CRICKET FROG

sitting, showing beautiful copper eyes:

Nearby, I saw this un id CATERPILLAR making its way over the rock:

I could not id this BUTTERFLY:

This one was a BARONET:

The same plant that had the cylindrical bagworm case had this SPIDER mimicking a Stick Insect:

The dragonflies were single:

And sometimes double:

Well, we did see lots more, but that's all the Life-Under-Foot that I caught on camera! :)

Missing the little miss...

2009-12-08T20:14:32Z

There's no one to take photographs of The Biddles regularly now....or to take videos....

I survive in one city, generally, by putting out of my mind all that I enjoy in the other. But yesterday, I saw a little baby just about the age of GD, with chubby, dimpled little hands and legs...and missed my GD so intensely for a minute...

So, here she is, on the day I left St.Louis...just LOOK at that expression!

She hasn't still learnt to crawl or to sit up, and on Skype, it's very funny, when her parents sit her up, to see her falling like the doll that she is!

Internet Forwards

2009-12-08T19:55:55Z

Oh my, when I get a forward...I seem to get it from ALL directions. (right now, for some reason, it's Shashi Tharoor's speech at TED Mysore.)

On one of the egroups that I moderate, people forward jokes and aphorisms and those icky-chweet stories...that others on the egroup have forwarded earlier. I guess some people only like *sending* forwards, not reading them!

I *hate* getting forwards with those HUGE chunks of emails at the beginning...

And those anti-someone-or-the-other email forwards...

Or those forwards which are false (like the Tommy Hilfiger apartheid one, or the one about someone giving you an injection and leaving you in a tub full of ice while they make off with your kidney/s) but are STILL circulating.

And I want to know....WHY do all the jokes have to be in such OE (Orrible English)? No, not ethnic Indian English, but really LOUSY language with ghastly spellings, so that I don't know whether to laugh at the joke or the language.

But most of all I detest the do-this-AND-forward this to 89,975 people by tomorrow or your eyelashes will fall out forwards...and the yucky-saccharin "if you like me send this back to me!" forwards. i don't WANT tweety little birds and cutesy little doggies with messages under them....

But...for every 100 forwards I get...I do forward one...because I like it!

The latest forward? One about a sari that cost Rs. 40 lakhs....

Hair Care...

2009-12-07T11:41:48Z

We had done some birding at the Ragihalli sheet rock area and had come into Ragihalli village, to visit the pond. (yes, yes, I *will* post the actual birds-and-other creatures pics soon.)

I wanted a hot cup of chai, so we stopped at my usual lady's shop, said hi to the lady, her grand-daughter and a neighbour's kid called Monica, and had chai and biscuits (in keeping with its being a nature expedition, I bought...Tiger biscuits!) and while we were munching and sipping, I looked into the house opposite...and caught this lovely vignette.

I don't know if the photograph is clear enough...but it shows one woman ready to comb out and plait another's hair.

This habit of sitting for a relaxed few minutes while someone else combs out and plaits your hair seems to have all but disappeared in today's fast-paced world...I instantly thought back to the days when I had hair that I could sit on. (Really. I have a photograph to prove it.)

My mother would sit me down in front of her and the part I totally hated was that she would pour on the hair oil (coconut oil). I always detested the greasy mess it made of my hair...and I think my life-long preference for very short hair stems from this dislike.

But...it was very relaxing to have her gently comb out my hair (except for the odd "ouch" when the comb got caught in a tangle)...and there was one style of plaiting, called, in Tamizh, "kodalai pinnal", which was very much admired by my Bengali friends. (Alas, it would be done only when I'd had an "oil bath" and needed to get my hair dry.) There were also plaits with 5 strands rather than the usual 3, and the French plaits..and when I had two plaits, I had "Y" plaits where the two plaits would be joined together, and a "W" plait where that "Y" was looped back and tied to the top of one plait with a ribbon...and of course the regular two-folded plaits as my hair was too long, even plaited, to be let to hang down.

The difficulty, of course, was that it was my mother who would decide how much of oil would go into my hair, and what style of plait I would have....and I actually treasured the moment when she started letting me plait my own hair. To me, it was one of the signs of growing up...how little I knew of adulthood, to think that plaiting my own hair was entry into this state!

Loose hair was totally looked down upon. "parattai thalai" (unkempt hair) was the very epitome of bad grooming! It was a well-knnow fact that Bengali women and girls let their hair loose, and the words "parattai thalai" was often amended to "parattai thalaiyum, bangALa vEshamum" (unkempt hair, with the looks of a Bengali).

No loose plaits were allowed, either. The hair was tightly scraped back and tied into tight, severe plaits....and finished off with ribbons. T

The ribbons would get greasy, too, and had to be washed. I had to come for "thalai pinnal" ..plaiting the hair...with a large-toothed comb to detangle it, a fine-toothed comb to give the final neat appearance, and ribbons that matched my clothes.

What I loved about others' caring for my hair was, visits to Chennai to my grandmother's house, where the maid would oil my hair thoroughly every Friday, and wash it out beautifully with hot water and shikAkAi powder (soapnut powder).

Then my hair would be spread over a basket set over a mud vessel in which "sAmbrANi" (a kind of resin, I think) would be smoked...the hair would dry and get the delicate smell of the sAmbrANi

And after that, my hair would be silky and smooth and fragrant and would frame my face...and for those few hours (until the next morning's oiling and plaiting!) it was worth it to have long hair!

Hmmmm.....

2009-12-07T04:33:37Z

Yesterday I was chatting with my friend

Chandu

as he and Ramesh were supposed to come birding with me. He said, "Ramesh can't come as his wife has gone out and he has to take care of the maid."

"Oh," I said, "I understand. Yesterday, someone I went birding with had to run home to catch the cook."

...then we both just broke up laughing!