http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/show_entry/989


For all other Lalbagh posts:

click here .

I think (I am not sure) I had mentioned a few months ago, that "Harmony", a magazine for Senior Citizens, had asked me if they could interview me about my cycling....and today, a sweet-sounding (they always sound sweet if they allow me to talk about myself!) Rajashri Balaram called me up from Mumbai to ask me about how I cycle.

I felt a total fraud because a. I am not (technically, being 54) a Senior Citizen and b. for the past two months, on doctor's orders, I have been off cycling, and so am not, technically, a cyclist...but she said that since I have been cycling for about 17 years now, and I am over 50, I qualify!

So I shot my mouth off (hopefully, not too badly)...and their photographer, Anuradha Joshi, will be coming to take a photograph of me on my little Ladybird-with-a-basket....soon....

Oh, I forgot to ask her if this magazine is online, too...stupid oversight! :)

But I got to talk about myself, which I can normally do only on LJ....I talked about cycling, quizzing, music, activism, wildlife, photography,writing.... I only hope the poor young woman was not as flooded as I was last week!

I must compliment her; she conducted a conversation with me, not a dry interview; that means, she was very good!

Looking forward to see how I am quoted (or misquoted)...watch this space!

Not been able to upload my photographs of the Lalbagh Heritage Walk last Sunday, or the lovely birding morning I spent with Madhusmita on Tuesday (How lucky can one be, to go birding on a weekday morning!!)...so those posts will wait awhile....but let me give you a little taste of it, with this picture of the gloriously blooming CANNONBALL tree (nAgalinga marA) in Lalbagh...



( some more photos )

Finally, this lovely Australian tree, called CAREA ARBOREA, which Karthik had pointed out to us earlier, also charmed us by its beautiful blooms...





But meanwhile.... a group of us are going tomorrow morning to the Bannerghatta beyond-the-quarry area...so more pictures (hopefully)!

I have not yet got my MLC back, though the projected bill is 7.7K!!! :((((




Meanwhile, you lot, have a great weekend! I have the feeling of the sands running out as I prepare for the "paati animal" trip....

After a hard, back-breaking day, I got back home in time for nothing useful or productive, so decided that today was the day I was going to Start Swimming. And so off I went to our little poolette....


The water felt like silk (ok, well, it *could* have been warmer I guess, especially the pre-swim shower which our building authorities seem to have connected up to some Himalayan snow-fed spring.) I was happy to notice that months of absence have not slowed me down too much (yes, I could ..er..'fasten' up my laps a little!)...and that I could do 30 laps with no difficulty at all. (The laps in our pool are also lapettes.)

I am feeling so fresh, though tired...the frustrations of the day have dropped away, and I am at peace with all the world again, even with the mason and plumber who were my main instruments of torture the whole day long...

How lucky I am to have this pool of blue, clean water to swim in as long as I wish to. How many generations hence will swimming pools be a thing of the past?

Meanwhile, on Sunday I went for the Lalbagh Heritage Walk, organized by Max Mueller Bhavan as an Urban Space Event; here's a close-up of a Traveller's Palm that I took...




Let not anyone tell you that abstract art is nothing like Nature makes...Nature has abstract art everywhere; lovely designs, numbers, one-off pieces of exquisite creativity...

I went along to Lalbagh this morning, and looked for the flowering Philippine Jade Vine....here's my blog post about it (along with the Asian Paradise Flycatcher, which is another spectacular sight you can see at Lalbagh if you are lucky)....


http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/show_entry/731


That is the original colour of the flower...isn't it exquisite!

Went off to the flag off of the TFN cyclng event , and then to Lalbagh...




The light was just magical, and the sun through the foliage reminded me that today there was also a Son born into the world! The light also reminded me of the Star of Bethelehem....


The rest of the post is

here


We saw a Kestrel, a Spotted Owlet, and here's another view of the spectacular Asian Paradise Flycatcher....





I did regret not having the 20D, but made do with the MLC, the S3. and indeed, it was better, because I took a video of the bird whisking itself about in the tree:







Merry Christmas, every one! I may not be, strictly, a "Christian", but I love to think of a divine Child being born, who will save mankind...surely, our children are our immortality and our hope. With a granddaughter on her way into our lives, I feel more intensely the joy that a new birth brings....




*

We had met at the Siddapura gate of Lalbagh to distribute some flyers for the walk on Sunday, and decided that I would take along both the 20D and my MLC as well....a great decision, as it turned out!

The morning light was just fantastic for photography, and I enjoyed the light on the grasses at the edge of the lake:





This photo is not a "good composition"; it flouts the "rule of thirds" and who knows how many other laws..but I like it, so here are the stand of ornamental palms on Lalbagh Lake, with their reflection:





( more images from Lalbagh )


A SIGNATURE SPIDER also invited me to click (yes, I swear, it said, "sign here on the zigzag line for a photograph"!)





Have I ever mentioned how I feel about Lalbagh?.... :)



*

From a chat with my daughter:

Some friends' parents travelled to the US to visit, and at Customs and Immigration, the officials pulled out a small bottle of Amruthanjan and asked what it was. "Oh, don't worry!" the couple said confidently, "It's only a balm!"

The couple apparently then spent three and a half hours at the airport with lynx-eyed security men....

Reminds me of when my father in law went to visit KM's brother who was living in Manhattan, 51st St and Columbus, close to Spanish Harlem. He wanted to buy some homeopathic medicines, and thinking that pharmacies were called drugstores, wandered around, asking, hopefully, "Drugstore? Drugstore?" , and someone who didn't hear him properly came up softly and said, "You want drugs, man? Come along with me!" My petrified father in law retraced his steps very quickly indeed...

It also reminds me of this post of mine about Bombs


Meanwhile, here's a cute little squirrel at Lalbagh...

The past week had a fair amount of birding trips....one weekday morning sneak to Lalbagh, Saturday to Ramnagara, and Sunday to Ragihalli. I must thank:

anushsh
Ashwini Kumar Bhat
Avantika Dhar, a beautiful and delightful little girl
Bharat Patil (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bharatpatil/)
Geetanjali Dhar
Pratima Jayaram
sainath
Subir Dhar
Vijay Hegde

Who made it all so enjoyable.


First, there was the weekday morning I-just-thought-I-would sneak to Lalbagh .


We started with the old favourite, the PURPLE MOORHEN, always to be found padding along on the lotus and lily leaves on the lake:



Then we went on to look at our friends the MOTTLED WOOD OWLS:



( lots and lots and LOTS of birds from three days, so take a look only at leisure )




Hope you enjoyed all that as much as I did...you certainly don't get 3 days to do it in!

I spent a very pleasant morning at Lalbagh today....I started at the Glass House, where the floral exhibits for Independence Day are taking shape, and this Anthurium exhibit was stunning....




( more Lalbagh images )

The trees and the skyline of the lake also made a lovely silhouette...





Having gathered more than these images in my mind's eye, I walked out of the park, feeling at peace and refreshed!


PS.
I had made this entry in my Citizen Matters blog, but I didn't realize that the CM blog suddenly stopped supporting (it did,earlier...dunno what happened) pictures, so all I got was this weird narrative with no photographs!

So I posted the actual account above....sorry if any of you went to that narrative-that-made-no-sense-without-the-visuals!

The roses are calling to the visitors....







and here's my account of the buildup to the Flower Show at Lalbagh:


http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/show_entry/339

While we are at Lalbagh for kalyan's Digital Photography Workshop field trip, I took this picture of the leaf (if you can call it that) of the Monkey Puzzle Tree .

Lalbagh has some majestic Monkey-Puzzle trees, and the name certainly puzzled THIS monkey, until I went and read the Wiki about it.

Imagine, these trees being brought by Hyder and Tipu's emissaries from South America, and being planted in Lalbagh....what a beautiful scene that evokes in my mind!

In the middle of all their wars with the British, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan yet had time to encourage such horticultural initiatives....

We went to Lalbagh a few days ago, and enjoyed ourselves very much....

Karthik tells me this is the Flacourtia flower; every March, it is paradise for the bees:




Sometimes they feast, three at a time!





Here's the fresh offshoot on a cactus:





( lots of photos of all kinds here )

But finally, the sun was getting hot, and we left Lalbagh to the flowers and the bees....





Oh, I do love Lalbagh....!

With Vehicles...





Without....




With Trees....





Without...






No further comments!

Mahesh and I decided we would go to Lalbagh quite early, so he picked me up and we went off to see what we could see.

Well, almost the first thing that struck me was the answer to the question, "Why are we here?" which appeared like this:





The gentleman sporting the tee had no objection to my taking a photo of it, and told me he had got it somewhere in 4th T block, Jayanagar!


( for more sights, click here )

Apart from the other birds sighted at Lalbagh last Saturday, it was lovely to see four BRAHMINY KITES enjoying the air currents and gliding lazily around, landing on the huge Ficus benjamina trees and then taking off again. Here are some shots I took of these handsome birds in flight:






Here's one of them in front view:




And one that catches the bird as it soars up:





And another that catches it using those powerful wings to great effect:




Alas, I never got all four birds close enough together to get a single shot of them...but obviously, the Brahminy kites at Lalbagh are breeding and doing well, and that is heart-warming..as usually, one gets to see only one Brahminy kite for every twenty or thirty Black (pariah) kites.


I still think we human beings have been incredibly foolish in our evolutionary path, not to have learnt how to fly (by ourselves, that is)!

I am SO good at giving out gyaan. "Don't compare yourself with anyone else," I say wisely to my friends (obviously; my enemies are not going to listen to me.) "You are unique in your own combination of strengths and weaknesses. Don't worry about others."

Then, of course, I don't take my own advice. This was brought home forcibly to me when I went on a birding trip over the weekend, I found myself comparing my sighting skills and photographic skills with the others and feeling quite a dud.

Someone (you know who you are) sent me practically my own words back to me and I realize that's what I should do...why is it that advice has to come from outside? I think wisdom is taking one's own good advice..or, rather, realizing the knowledge behind the words oneself! :)

Meanwhile, sometime today I hope to get to make the posts about the Lalbagh and T G Halli birding trips; but here are three of those super-cute SSO (Sainath's Spotted Owlets) sitting together in beautiful companionship, in Lalbagh:

A few days ago, I was interviewed in my capacity as a birder (and the author of a "yumerus" article on the Bangalore Bird Race ) by Archana Rai, for Mint, which is the local version of the Wall Street Journal.

Today, Mint's photographer, Hemant Mishra (Nikon D70)took me and two young birders (Nirmit and Abhijna Desai) to Lalbagh for a shoot.

I will be writing about that, but it's nearing Cinderella time, so let me just post some of the images of the sunset that I got today:




( A few more if you click on this )

Ironic that it's the pollution in Bangalore which gives us such lovely sunrises and sunsets...

And I don't have to say the name of the LJ friend (it begins with A and ends with E and the middle is sakiyum) whom I think of whenever I see the "sky ocean".

And for those who don't want owls....


Here's the sunrise yesterday.....








and here's the the Tabebuia Avellanedae in full bloom in Lalbagh....








Er, for those who don't want any birds..I'm sorry, that Golden Oriole has STILL managed to get into a corner of the picture, I think!



This weekend was just superb...to be out in the morning, with like-minded people, observing and absorbing all of nature...that's paradise on earth to me!

Aha, everyone who is NOT interested in birding/birdwatching...off to the next post in the friends' list please!

On Saturday, Anush,Arun,Jaimon, Krish,Mahesh and I went to Lalbagh. The object of our quest was the Mottled Wood Owl that many birders have recently seen in Lalbagh. Of course, Mrs Murphy never goes with high expectations, preferring to appreciate whatever comes her way...but this time, after we had done a lot of other birding (including the SSO's...Sainath's Spotted Owlets, for those with memories worse than mine...Golden Orioles, and so on) we went to the area where they were supposed to be, and found....one number Mottled Wood Owl,which, JUST as I reached the tree, was mobbed out of it by the crows! We stood disconsolately around for a few minutes until one of us had the idea of looking in the direction it had flown, and saw the owl, sitting in the casuarina tree nearby. The light was (of course...!) behind it, but I managed this picture...





( for more owl photography, click here )


And to show that they were quite comfortable when we reluctantly left, here's an image I call, Awake and Asleep....