deponti

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/1543-bengaluru-photographers-to-shoot-leonid-showers

However, the title I had chosen was...Shooting Stars Shoot Shooting Stars".

We thought the mist on the hills would prevent us from spotting birds. It didn't. We thought it would prevent us from photographing birds. It did.

But then we realized that the mist, in itself, was a thing of beauty.




( more images of the mist )

And just to see how it would look, I decided to take one image of the passing scenery through the rain-washed window of the car:






And finally, you can see the way the rainclouds are moving ...gliding...along the hilltops...












Rain and mist make for beautiful photography....!

Non-birders... please exkoos, as they say here.

We took a trip to Maidanahalli ("village of the open meadows") on

Rajyotsava Day

...it proved to be a birding bonanza! It was as if Karnataka just wanted to shower us with sightings and observations!


The day started with the usual CKMP (Crow Kite Mynah Pigeon)...but the raptor quotient went up sharply with the sighting of this

WHITE=EYED BUZZARD

in its rocky habitat:




Later, the bird soared in large circles:





Next came this

BOOTED EAGLE





( many birds sitting, standing or flying here )


...and the trip to Ramnagara to see the not-at-all common

LONG-BILLED VULTURE




came to mind, too...so, right now, you can, quite rightly, call me a bird-brain!

( List of birds on two of the trips )

I'd posted about my first photograph of the

SIRKEER MALKOHA

...and on the way back from Maidanahalli, we saw first one, and then, high up on the rocks, two near each other.

In an interesing switch, I got this FS (Foozly Shot) of the Malkoha taking off from the rock:




(I still like the image a lot.)


then I got this video of the bird in its habitat, where it's doing nothing but sitting quietly!






Photo with action, video with none...that's the way wildlife and birding goes, sometimes!

We were waiting at the watchtower in Maidanahalli for the appearance of the endangered Blackbuck...and I was looking around.

I was very tickled to see that three rhyming friends (or relatives or family, perhaps that's more likely) had visited:





When we visit a place, we need to leave our impress upon that spot...the equivalent of "Kilroy was here"....!

I must get down to posting about the variety of birds that we saw in Maidanahalli, but right now, I'm just thinking that dentists are a pain in the........teeth.

It was an amazing sight, as we returned from Maidanahalli, to find the sun setting to our right,





and the moon (nearly full) rising to our left...





In Tamizh, dusk is called "andhi sandhi koodum vELai" (the time evening and night meet". This was a beautiful meeting.

I had named our women's birding group the BULBs (Bangalore Urban Lady-Birders!), and yesterday we went to Maidanahalli (no, I will *not* call it Maidenahalli as if it is the home of the critically endangered Homo sapiens virgensis) to see the blackbuck...and on the way, lots of things made us stop and stare.

One of the most colourful was the Jewel Bug:




( the extravagantly colourful bug )


Here's an extreme closeup:





Sorry, I couldn't put down anything for size reference, but the bug would be...about the size of the first phalange of your forefinger...IF you were an amateur photographer who was five feet tall...

Have done one session of teeth-torcher, next session at 3pm...dunno HOW I am bearing this PAIN!!!

We often speak of "shedding light on the subject"...the coming of light is also associated with acquiring knowledge and dispelling ignorance. "tamasO mA jyOtirgamaya" is part of our daily prayers.

Here's the light arriving, on the sheet rock on the Ragihalli Road, in the Bannerghatta Forest area:




I experimented with shooting into the sunlight, instead of the recommended "shoot at an angle"...and am happy with the results.


( more of light from the sun )

It was shivakumar_l who showed me how he uses backlight....how, when one is using light, can that be a.....real de-light?

Insomnia seems to have become a permanent friend...but I had a great day yesterday (early morning birding, some torcher, afternoon play and a lovely time with friends) and I am looking forward to my trip to

Maidanahalli

in a few hours with

Garima

and others from the BULBs (Bangalore Urban Lady-Birders...we have co-opted some male members, such as

Rajneesh Suvarna ,

though!)


I am sitting in the dark with just one goose-necked lamp...and was musing about light and darkness. That darkness is associated with evil both in terms of the lack of colour (making it black) and lack of light. The dispelling of darkness often signifies the dispelling of gloom, despair, and anything not good.

On my way up the stairs in our apartment complex, I found that someone was celebrating a festival unknown to me (probably it was also the Tamizh festival of kArthigai, I don't know...), they had set up this little shrine outside their home with lights to dispel the darkness:





It was rather unusual to have the puja display outside the home rather than inside it...but it made a warm, appealing picture!

And then, of course, my asakiyume picture...in this one, the light is fading and yet the gathering darkness seems no portent of evil, but rather, the peace and rest that come after happiness and work well accomplished:





Sunset on a daily basis is echoed, in my mind, with the fall season, where the days draw in, there's a sense of things ripened and replete...."season of mists and fruitfulness", as Keats puts it. To some people, of course, the lesser amount of light is depressing...but to me, being a person who loves the rains and the monsoon, it's not of any negative connotation.

"and leaves the world to darkness and to me", writes the poet Thomas Grey...and the peace of that statement is tinged with melancholy, and the name of the poem is "The Elegy"!

It perhaps takes someone in a tropical country, who bears the harsh sun, to appreciate lack of light, and the dimness and coolness that accompany it.

To me, the fall, the Sisir Ritu, and the evening, are wonderful times.

I went to the

Indian Institute of Science

campus

to attend the

5th International Canopy Conference

....there were demonstrations of

tree-climbing

( all about today's tree-climbing )



It's a question of, er, getting the...hang of it!







Here's Edward, running around the branches of the tree and then letting himself down to the ground with the greatest of ease:




It will be many births before I can become a creature of the canopy like that....!

Today's world has an ease of communication across the globe, unrivalled in the past. There are wires, and waves, that carry one's words anywhere. But these drongos seem to say that though we may use the wires and the very air to communicate, there's just nothing like talking to each other face-to-face!

On both my visit to Bannerghatta, and to Turahalli, Galibore, and Ramnagara, I noticed a wide variety of butterflies flitting along in their various colours. Of course, the time of day (mid-morning) was not ideal to photograph them, as that is their nectar-gathering time and so they were most restless, and would hardly settle for more than a second or two anywhere.

So of course it was the butterflies' fault that I got mediocre pictures....having allocated the blame correctly, here they are:


The

BLUE PANSY





( a list of fritillaries )


Let me end with this beautiful


BLUE-WINGED WASP





This post is dedicated to


Karthik

who is an authority on butterflies!

Update:

My NTP friends, Vikram Hiresavi, M V Shreeram, adarshraju ,Vineet, and Uma
have all, as usual, taken the trouble to help me out with the ids. :) Thank you!

Though the bird sightings on our Saturday trip were very sparse, I was thrilled to have a good sighting of the

SIRKEER MALKOHA




I have seen this bird once before, at Turahalli, for a very brief few seconds; this time, it was right out in the open, and right next to the road! We all got out for a few shots, and I also took this video of the bird preening:








Immediately afterwards, we saw two BLUE-FACED MALKOHAS, but they vanished in the tangled shrubbery before we could even get a proper look! That's the way birding goes....

We stopped, arrested by the green of this paddy field:






sharathm got down to stretch his limbs





And spotted this spider






spinning her web:





I think that's a Lynx Spider and just watch the beauty of creation:

I had a wonderful trip to Turahalli, Galibore and Ramnagara with amoghavarsha, anushsh and sharathm....here they are, shadows in the sunset:




Anush, I must say, was a very reluctant co-tripper...


I find that I seem to have forgotten all the names of the common butterflies that I used to know very well. WHAT is someone with a bad memory supposed to do? It's awful...and a little worrying.

Well, while I hunt for the id's, here's a scene that appealed to me at Galibore on the campus of

JLR






In Tamizh, those earth-moving implements are called "maN vetti" (literally, "cut the earth"). They are in between a hoe and a shovel...wonder what they are called in English? "shoe"? "hovel"? :) (LJ user="asakiyume">, those Orrible Puns were for you!)

To me...that photograph is about wood....the living wood of the tree, bearing leaves, and the dead wood of the hoes and the window shutters...

But on a lighter note, what would YOU say about that hen in the window?


Though not productive in terms of number of bird-sightings, the trip was most enjoyable...even though I slept most of the time that I was in the car, as the jet lag and the strong painkillers I'd taken for the jaw pain joined hands to knock me out!


The sunset was painted in intense colours:




And a little later:

A quick trip to the Bannerghatta National Park (around the Zoo area) with anushsh yielded such a variety of birds, starting from the tiny

LOTEN'S SUNBIRD





(thanks for the correction,

Garima !



to the

SHIKRA

that we were really thrilled!

Here the Shikra is, perched upon a eucalyptus tree:




( Read more... )

The only sad part was, I had not charged the battery of the 20D properly...so all pics are by MLC2 (SX10)!


This rock pool made a lovely picture....





More pics later....we are off to

Cauvery Wildlife
Sanctuary


area early tomorrow!

Can't decide where "home" is. Home is supposed to be where the heart is, but my heart seems to be in two places now...I have never spent more than 6 weeks away from Bangalore before, and my heart seems to have put down another set of roots, without weakening the first set in any way.

When I decided to spend a longish time period in the US, I resolutely set my mind against thinking of several things that I would miss from India...and I did have a wonderful time there.

But when I stepped into the flat early this morning, when I spoke to friends and felt the warmth of their affection, when I lay down in my OWN bed and just luxuriated in the feeling.....the emotions I had denied for six months just came rushing back, and I wept...I don't know why....I can't call it happiness when I miss GD and my family so very much that *that* also hurts....

I did miss, I realize, the warmth of my friends' affection here. Everyone needs friends of their *own*. I must say that....SOME... of DnA's friends in St.L, did treat us like their own friends and talked to us as equals without relegating us to the "boring geriatrics" shelf...but the fact remains that I had not been able to make many friends of my own (though I certainly managed to make one good friend, Dawn, with whom I enjoyed the Muny, the Zoo, the Balloon Glow, and one lovely long chat at home!) and it was only when I came back that I realized how much I had been missing this.

But...you can now call me Miss Deponti instead of Ms Deponti, as missing is going to be one of the main themes of my life. I am going to miss...first, and foremost... MAGITKU....that Most-Adorable-Girl-In-The-Known-Universe! From "Biddly" she's moved to becoming "Boodi" for some reason (the more I love someone, the more nicknames I give them. A has about 22 nicknames, each worse than the last.) Boodi just happened, but it means "old woman" in Bengali! I also call her "Titumi"...asakiyume, does this word mean anything in Japanese?

I also miss...the wonderful

Public Library

With the pathetic library facilities that I have in Bangalore, it was so lovely to be able to browse through books, magazines, CD's and so on, from around the world. The library allows a member to borrows AS MANY BOOKS AND CD'S as one likes, for a period of 3 weeks, which can be extended twice. Can you beat that? The library also has free Internet access....

I will miss the clean, smooth roads and pavements (er, footpaths) of the city, with plenty of trees being planted (not being cut down), sidewalks which are sunken at the corners so that baby strollers and wheelchairs can easily cross the road....orderly pedestrian crossings where the pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way....

I had, insensibly, come to think of St.Louis as home, too; I liked to read the local paper and find out what was happening in the city, a sure sign of putting down roots! I'll miss finding out all the interesting stuff that was happening and going to participate if I could....that was the way I went for the ALS walk,and Autism walk, went to the Zoo several times, to a glass-blowing demo, watched so many Broadway musicals, attended the Symphony Orchestra performance....went to do what bird-watching I could, when I could... visited Yosemeite and Lake Tahoe and Philadelphia...I am amazed that I seem to have found time for all this along with full-time care of GD! I think DnA co-operated a lot to let me do so much.

I'll miss the weather too...it was cooling down exactly as I liked (it was 7 deg C the day I left, and the previous day, with the same temperature, I was out walking from about 7am to about 11am!)...

But I've determined not to think of place B when I am in place A, and vice versa. (Vice versa= pornographic poetry?) Here, I'm going to enjoy being with friends, going out to eat inexpensive, simple, nutritious food that's not filled with cheese and calories....I'm going to enjoy every sight and sound that is dear to me here...

...or at least, that's what I am determined to do, but the mind is a monkey....I miss the feel of GD's soft baby skin, and her toothless grin....every bit of caring for her and communicating with her...I miss making the morning chai for D....U miss the lack of dust, the wonderful organization of DnA's home that made it a pleasure to live and cook in it...

OK, that's enough....I must stop thinking of the "missing list"!

It's tough to be torn between two continents, half the world apart from each other.

Somewhat scrambled and inarticulate post...but I'll let it stand, as I am tooooo jet-lagged and tired to rewrite it properly.

Most things (except for N's health) are going fine, and I shouldn't be feeling so mixed-up and torn, I suppose; I should actuallly feel fortunate in being able to be a happy part of two worlds.

Approaching motherhood
Colours one's life, one's thoughts.
So it's fitting
That one's hands and wrists
Are filled with colour, too;
The rainbows that the little one will soon bring,
The good wishes that friends pour into one's life,
And the prayer that the baby will be healthy and happy.





The baby for whom this was done is now more than a year old! :) And she is a real delight.

For some birding friends of mine who, looking at a non-typical tail on a Black Drongo, id'ed it as a Drongo Cuckoo:



Sometimes drongos get a divided tail
Sometimes in this task they fail
If we birders get the id wrongo
It's *we* who're cuckoo, not the drongo!


Here's one pic I took of the BLACK DRONGO, a long time ago:

Sandalwood has been a close friend for some time now; he is a childhood friend of amoghavarsha....without being a computer science student, this guy is so knowledgeable about software and hardware...and is one of the sweetest-natured people I know! KM and I ask him for advice on how to maintain our computers, and he has been unfailingly helpful. He is also a keen hiker, and I am thankful to him for introducing me to places like Turahalli.

He too knows of my interest in ...interesting...signboards, and here are some notices that he sent me recently. He says he too received them as forwards, so we don't know where these were taken....

If anyone has any information about their location, let me know!

We *think* we know what this one says:




I can understand the part about "a pride man is below to pig"




but that "one rope released donkey"...what's that? Chandan explained to me that the first few lines mean, "it's better to be an egg that the snake eats, than be in the mouths of people as the subject of gossip"....

This one sort of starts of being understandable...even though "environment less is effect to human life" is difficult...



but why the exhortation that's there's no hurry to be rich?

Next,



I agree that "where and there toilet usings" is the "work of animals, not human"...but why, suddenly, that talk about "loan arrangement"?





"All most all is one of the meaning less" just about sums it up!

The propriter of Hotel Shringar, wherever it is, has a lot to explain...

I am sure to face protests that I am being elitist. But I think that if someone is paying for public interest notices being put up, that person should also get something translated from the Kannada into English that is understandable! For example, "greenery is our health" (hasirE nammellara usiru) should have been translated as "greenery is the breath of life"...