deponti

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....!

It was raining in Bangalore. It is raining in Chennai. Well, it held off long enough for me to take a long walk last evening, but this morning it's pouring again.

Here's an image I liked, from the Nandi Hills trip, of Garima holding out her hand to feel the raindrops...







Off to do various duties now...back later, when I can...

The Nandi hills trip was wonderful...but from this video, you can get an idea of how it was for birding....






It was utterly beautiful, and we did manage to see a wide variety of birds, and though I don't have the images to back that statement up, I have...plenty of fellow-birders to testify to it!

It's difficult not to sound whiny, but the past fifteen days, as the gum infection has been steadily drained and dried, have been quite murderous. I have now learnt to ask for fresh local anaesthetics as the first injections wear off...but still the deep pain has been quite unbearable sometimes...and being alone in the house is NOT very nice. To be unable, at times, to get up, and yet to know that I have to drag myself to the kitchen for even a drink of water, has been very hard.

But it has taught me how difficult it must be to undergo this kind of chronic pain on a regular basis....and surely, I will be even more gentle when dealing with ill people. I will be able to bear their crankiness, because I know how cranky one feels with constant pain; I will be empathetic to their depression, as I have experienced the lows that being unwell brings. Er...all these good intentions are there now...

These thoughts have been brought out by visiting a friend whose ailing mother is now with her, and she was describing the difficulties of caring for a very strong-willed elderly person...having gone through this a few years ago, I could really understand her problems.

Caring for the elderly is very similar, in the acts performed...feeding, cleaning up, full responsiblity...to caring for a baby...but it is certainly bereft of the joys of the latter. With a baby, one is watching a person and a personality developing...with an elder, it is the waning of a person, of a childhood without any appeal to it. An elderly patient is often cranky and wilful, and also often complains about the caregivers to all the visitors, and sometimes, it's very hard to take.

I am taking a break for a month from the dental treatment, but will come back to get the root canal done...for the fourth (and hopefully final) time.

In the meanwhile, of course, I have tried to do as much as I can, and have thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with those friends who did make the effort to come home (alas, not all of them did!), went on wildlife trips, went to plays, and just....enjoyed being back home as well.

Well, a month in Chennai will bring me back even more appreciative of home....

But before I leave, a quick trip to Nandi Hills, with the BULBs is on for tomorrow! :)

I didn't click too many pictures of flowers, trees and fruit, we were so busy with the birds....but here are some ones that did catch my eye.


This one is not a wild flower; it's been planted all along the slopes, but with the backlight, it looked wonderful!





The trees in the nursery apparently include a lot of trees with these beautiful flowers; I used to eat these fruits as a child, but don't know what they are called.




I loved the rounded fullness of the citron fruit (perhaps it's called grapefruit in English, I don't know) on some of the trees...



Short list, isn't it? I did take some ones that made me sad, of birds foraging amongst the plastic bags...but decided not to post 'em...!

Things have been so hectic that I have not been able to post...can you imagine that!

Oh, well, I have to catch up on what did happen to me over this extremely hectic weekend...a trip to Nandi Hills, a trip to Mysore, a trip to Valley School, and a photo-shoot by Prasad, a freelance professional photographer....this was for Harmony magazine (yes, you lot can now queue up, I will autograph your books for a small consideration.)

But let's start with the wonderful Nandi Hills trip...!


Garima suddenly decided that the BULB (Bangalore Urban Lady Birders...we ARE bright bulbs!) could do a trip to Nandi Hills last weekend, and it all fell into place, and off we went; we decided that we would add two males to the group, Anush and Chandu....


And..we could hardly move out of the nursery area (behind the water tank)...because it was raining birds! In fact, there were 8 of us and we really did not know where to look, as each of us spotted a bird in the foliage, in the fallen leaves, on the branches, and there was a cacophony of exclamations and a marathon of quiet nudges....


Here are the birds; I will be posting the others (flowers, and so on) later....

Let me start with my favourite image; to me, this picture is redolent of several things, that spell "summer" to me...the tangy sourness of the tamarind fruit (those are the leaves of the tamarind tree); the mango, that king of summer fruits and pickles of every sort; and the green of fresh foliage...and this little ORIENTAL WHITE-EYE, mimicking, apparently, a mango in a tamarind tree (trust a birdbrain to do that!), reminds me of all of them....




( prepare yourself for lots more birds, or go to the next friend's post! )


And the highlight of the morning was that while we were oohing and aahing over these birds, this beautiful COMMON BUZZARD, a lifer for me, sailed in and sat on the mango tree! We stopped oohing and aahing...we were just spellbound!




I did try to take Chandu around a bit, because, incredibly, this was his first-ever trip to Nandi Hills! Chandu, you need to take Suvarchala and go along a couple of times....without us!

Chandu had come along on his bike, as our car was full; and on the steep road up to Nandi Hills, Suma Rao decided that she would drive the bike, and I sat pillion, and though it was quite chilly, we thoroughly enjoyed the ride! Thank you, Chandu....

Garima, who is excellent at whatever she does, had baked chocolate cake and carrot muffins (I called them 22-carrot muffins); Uma had brought potato buns; Suma had brought chapatis and chutney and pickle; I had brought bisi bela huli anna; Anush provided the chips (which were never brought out from the car!) and so the list of foods went...what a wonderful morning it was! To meet, eat, and watch the sweet birds, in the unexpected chill of an April morning...it was really heavenly.

and






Do you think our "grandbaby" will look half as cute as this? :))))


No words required, except to say that we had a fabulous outing to Nandi Hills yesterday...more photos will follow....today I am off to Mysuru.... too much time spent outside the house, too little time to do household work...help, my homemaker instincts are kicking in at the wrong time!

Nandi Hills was a mixture of things that I got to know, and things that I still don't know....

While we were in the orchard area, I saw (or rather, noticed) for the first time, what a Lichi tree looked like:






And the flowers looked so beautiful, too (at least, I *think* these are the flowers from the same tree...if not, someone let me know!)....






( for more pictures of things I know, and I do not know...click on this )


And of course, how could I not think of asakiyume when I saw this closing scene for my camera?


















,

This whole post is about the Amtutzes. Uma..thank you for introducing me to Karen, and then the whole family. Prashanth and Deepak also enjoyed their company, and it was a great group to spend the day with....


Here they are, in these two photographs:





and



(You can see the three daughters rolling around on the rocks!)


( Read more... )

Let me close with this picture of some balloons for sale:





Karen and Paul....like those red balloons, our hearts go with your little daughters!





Anyone who wishes to has a standing invitation from the Amstutzes, to visit Yosemite National Park where Karen is a wildlife warden.

There's going to be another, and more interesting post on the whole outing, and especially about that delightful family, the Amstutzes...but first, I want to put up the bird pictures that I got..

The morning was so excellent in terms of spotting birds...and so terrible in terms of bird photography. On the way, we saw a GREY JUNGLE FOWL, the WHITE-THROATED KINGFISHER, SMALL GREEN BEE-EATERS and the INDIAN ROBIN. On arrival at the orchard area, in quick succession, Prashanth Badrinath pointed out two birds that I had never seen before...the PIED THRUSH (which was a first-timer for him, too, he said. This is a visitor that one can see on its migrant path at this time, or on its way back in March) and the INDIAN BLUE ROBIN. Then we continued to see the TICKELL'S BLUE FLYCATCHER, the TAILOR-BIRD, the ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHER, and as soon as Dipu K met us (he was on his way home) he pointed out the RED-THROATED FLYCATCHER. We also saw the ORIENTAL WHITE-EYE, the GOLDEN ORIOLE, the BLACKBIRD, the RED-WHISKERED BULBUL, the BLUE-CAPPED ROCK THRUSH, the GREENISH LEAF WARBLER, the BLYTHE'S REED WARBLER, the BOOTED WARBLER, the SPOTTED BABBLER (forgive me for an interruption at this point. To me, all these warblers-- especially spotted for fractions of seconds-- look quite, quite alike. But Prashanth talks about wing-feathers and bars on the tails and coverts and supercilium and things like that, and tells each and every bird--and its brother and sister-- apart. Me, I will say "warbler", and let it go at that. Dr. Kumar Ghorpade would probably murder me within five minutes of my meeting him.)

Up in the air, we saw ALPINE SWIFTS, BARN SWALLOWS, RED-RUMPED SWALLOWS, DUSKY CRAG MARTINS, the BOOTED EAGLE, a JUVENILE EGYPTIAN VULTURE, a KESTREL...we especially saw the kestrel swooping along with a lizard in its claws, and do you think we got a good shot? What do you think? Yes, indeed I got a nice brown glob on my camera....

As we finally went towards a welcome lunch, we saw a NILGIRI WOOD PIGEON shoot across the road, and we finally got a good view of the bird...and a male Asian Paradise Flycatcher tantalized us so much that we were quite a good hour late for lunch!

I was quite disheartened about the photography part, though I was thrilled with all the sightings. I thought that I would probably go home without any good photographs ( which would NOT a first-timer for me by any means!!) but then Fate took pity on all of us....

So here they are:

The TAILOR BIRD:





A lovely pic of a TAWNY-BELLIED BABBLER (thanks, Uma and Yathin, in alphabetical order!) with food, taken by Uma to try out the 20D....





Here's the kestrel in flight. I asked why the bird could not face me, and Prashanth said if I could wait for six months, the direction of the wind would change and I would get the shot I wanted....!






And then, of course, when the light conditions were none too good, both the female Asian Paradise Flycatcher







and the male






decided that they had teased us enough, and showed themselves long enough for us at least to aim our cameras, if not get great shots!

The next post will talk about the sweetness of the Amstutz girls, who troubled us not a whit, the parents, who have done such a great job with their daughters, and the various other things that we saw, and enjoyed....

But this is the birding post and I am sure I have left out several birds that I will add after I get Prashanth Badarinath's list!

We had a fantastic trip to Nandi Hills today, with Uma K, Karen,Paul, Eliza, Sylvie and Lupin Amstutz, Deepak Arya, and Prashanth Badrinath...more about it later, but meanwhile, here is an ovine ice-cream ad...




I suppose another flavour (especially in our Silicon Valley) would be "Baa Baa Black Chip"...?

Woo hoo I love sharing serious, earth-shaking stuff like this!

Apart from the birds that we try to spot, Nandi Hills is such a beautiful spot for seeing majestic trees that have grown untrammelled, and a variety of wild flowers, plus many historic spots.

Because of the rain, the tree trunks are full of moss and lichen, and this picture of a millipede amongst the moss appealed to me:




So, too, did this picture of this leaf with the raindrops on it:





( for more botany, history, and beauty, click on this )


With History,Geography,Botany, Zoology,Ornithology, all going hand in hand to produce so much beauty, is it any wonder that Nandi Hills should be one of the prime attractions of a visitor to Bangalore? I enjoy the place on many different levels when I visit!

Mahesh Devarajan, his wife Priya, amoghavarsha,amonks, KM and I left as early as we could and drove down to Nandi Hills, intending to get back before noon.


One of the main reasons for our returning much later was this beautiful BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE that kept flying from one telegraph pole to the next, tempting us on to take more photographs...






( details of the trip and more pics, click here )


Well-satisfied with the time we had spent, we drove back, but of course, on the way the INDIAN ROLLER-- the State Bird of Karnataka,which Mahesh and Priya had never seen before, decided to oblige...




We had a late but enjoyable lunch at Emgees...am really happy that Mahesh decided to call me yesterday.

I am looking forward to more birding as the migratory birds start coming in....and think I will do a separate wildflowers of Nandi Hills post.

Heh, heh, my last few posts have been musings, with no pictures...because some (hopefully) lovely pics of the Serengeti and Mt Kilimanjaro are going to come along soon...wish us a good trip and great sightings please!

But let me include this wonderful misty view of the hill ranges from Nandi Hills...




My friends on LJ...I am sure, that if I don't access it for even a day, you will make the most interesting and amazing posts...oh, well, I will catch up sooner or later.

Here's my Metroblogs post about it, at

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/06/nandi_hills.phtml

(A few nice pics, even though I do say so myself!)

When anushsh, sainath, his friend Manu and I set off to Nandi Hills, we also got the welcome news that Adarsh and Nisarg would be joining us. But as we approached Nandi Hills, Adarsh and Nisarg (on a bike, we were in Sainath's car) told us that it was raining heavily. However, we decided to press on, a decision which was quite correct, as the rain then held off almost all the time, and we had an amazing time. A usual, I found a huge variety of interesting things, not just birds....Let me start with some flowers, whose name I don't know, that we saw...





( lots of pictures..click here )

I will close with this picture that delighted me, which proves that children are children all over the universe...as my little niece lisped to her mother many years ago, "Mummy! Cawwy me!"






THAT pic was by me before the battery on KM's camera died...I just can't resist the antics of these macaques!

Today was a day filled with music..a superb performance of north Indian classical music by Arti Anklekar in the morning, and old Hindi film hits in the evening...and it made me muse on love in lyrics.

themadman drew my attention to skthewimp's post about the lyrics of Carnatic music being generally always a description of the attributes of gods and goddesses, and I do agree that sometimes I can't relate to the fulsome flattery of the gods! Why must Carnatic music lyrics ALWAYS be spiritual...why can we not sing of the celebration of love in its many forms, in human terms, not divine?

Some of the poetry of the lyrics sung both in the morning and the evening were so very beautiful, haunting, amusing or whimsical...Arti sang one "bandish" which went, He told me he would come, but he hasn't; the clouds have formed, the air is cool, and my heart beats...here I am, all dressed up and waiting...simple words that rhymed and resonated...and of course, in the evening, the songs were all of the love between man and woman, teasing, sad, tentative or sweet...

Poetry is a collection of words which touches the heart as well as the brain; and when it is allied to great music, it has the power to move to great happiness, or tears sometimes.

Before falling in love, a young man sings:

"lAkhOn hai nigAh mein
zindagi ki rAh mein
sanam haseen jawAn..
AnkhOn mein sharAb hai!
hOtOn mein gulAb hai!
--lEkin vOh bAth kahAn?"

(There are lakhs (of girls) I see
on the path of life
Lovely, laughing and young;
Their eyes are intoxicating,
Their lips are rosy..
But--where's that special 'something'?)

And a sad lover whose inamorata sits before him with another man that she must marry, sings:

dil kE jharOkEy mein tujhkO bitthAkar
yAdOn kO tEri main dulhan banAkar
rakhoongA main dil kE pAs..
muth hO mEri jAn udAs..

(I will seat you in the window of my heart
Make the memories of you my bride,
And keep you near me...
Dont feel sad,Oh my life.)

and here are a couple of teasing songs:

kOi bathA thEy dil hai jahAn
kyun hOthA hai dard vahAn?

theer chalAkey yeh thO na poochO
dil hai kahAn, aur dard kahAn!

The woman sings,

Will someone tell me, why does it ache where my heart is?

And the man replies,

Don't first pierce (me) with the arrow, and then ask where the heart is and where the ache is!

And a man teases his beloved:

Ap yoon hee agar hamsE milthEy rahEy
dEkhiyEy Ek din pyAr hO jAyega!

(If you keep meeting (me) like this,
One day you will fall in love!)

And I love this description:

"khuli latOn ki chAon mein
khilA khilA sA roop hai
ghatA sEy jaisi cchan rahee
subah subah ki dhoop hai"

(in the midst of the shadow of your tresses let loose
your face is flowering
like the early morning sun
filtering through the clouds)

Oh the delight of lyrics of love...whatever mood they depict!

Ah, can't wind up without a few photographs...

Here's some unknown flower ( I refuse to get into too many flower and butterfly id's; id'ing birds is bad enough!) drenched in the rain at Nandi Hills...



And you want to see someone on the ladder to success? Here he is, a tailor bird (this was the iron ladder on a water tank):



And here's the closeup of the little fellow giving his typical single-note cheeping/whistling call...





Off I go to look at my friends' list now..

I know I should write about the superb day we had at Nandi Hills; but a Saturday evening lassitude sits heavy upon me...we had a great morning today, too, as sainath came over at 7.30 in the morning..he was supposed to spend half an hour showing KM his snaps, and then go for b'fast with his friends...we finally went with him at 9.30 for b'fast, and then came back and he finally left at about 11.30 after his worried parents reminded him that he had a flight to catch to Delhi! It was such fun to see KM and him talking Camerese (and I have actually started understanding some of the polysyllabic words)...KM is now a staunch Sainath fan, too!

Well...here's the monsoon breaking over Bangalore, as we saw it from Nandi Hills....it's truly a sight for sore eyes, parched by the summer...



Look at the colour of those clouds..that's the colour, of fertility and freshness, that Vishnu is supposed to be! When the grey of the clouds is almost bluish, it's called Neelamegha...

I am uploading the pictures taken during our wonderful trip to Nandi Hills on 19th June, and the short visit to Madivala Lake on 21st June... but want to post, first, these graphic pictures of what our wildlife faces....

We were climbing up to the top of Nandi Hills when, almost as if wanting to give us a great show, a pair of Egyptian vultures began soaring right overhead; we scrambled to get good shots. Satisfied, we were just lowering our cameras when this bird struggled past:



In this shot, too, you can see the bird's talons caught in the plastic bag. It repeatedly flew close to the ground in an attempt to try and work the plastic bag off; obviously, the bag was hindering its flight...




A little later, we also saw a black kite with a string of faded flowers trailing from its leg, trying to shake it off in exactly the same fashion, with another kite actually trying to help it. We went a little further and found a large trash dump, which was where the kites were feeding, and getting entangled in rubbish...


And when we went to Madivala Lake yesterday, we found this juvenile Pond Heron, with a broken leg...and with three people just waiting behind the perimeter fence to take it away for their evening meal....



The hunched posture, the lack of shine in the feathers, the nictitating membrane pulled over the eye...they all told the sad story. We called up
People for Animals , the animal shelter that we visited earlier, which has been doing great work for the past ten years. Finally, sainath, sanath, and I brought the bird home to my place, where I wrapped it up in some soft material and put it securely in a cardboard bag, and Sainath delivered it to a shelter volunteer. Alas, it was all in vain. The bird died early this morning, and Dr Somnath, the vet at PfA, said that the fracture was not in the leg, but at the hip, and was a multiple, compound fracture, which must have happened 2 or 3 days ago. The young bird really didn't stand a chance, he said.

The bird actually had a piece of dirty cloth tied to its leg, and we are still trying to speculate how that could have happened.

Yes, if the bird never had a chance, perhaps it was better for it to die...but now I am really wondering...would it then have been wrong, as we thought, to let those people take it home and make a meal of it? Would that not have been its fate had a predator seen it before we did? It might have fed a poor family...the answers are never black-and-white to such dilemmas....

Not even the fact that one song from my Carnatic music concert was aired on "Suvarna" TV channel this morning, and that I have got it (without any colour though!) on my 12-year-old VCR, makes me feel good about these things.


Nandi Hills photographs coming up soon...GAWD it takes EONS to download from camera, crop and zoom, upload to Flickr...HOW do these other photographers EVER get anything else done, I wonder.

http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/06/hollywood_and_switzerland_are.phtml

In America, the movie city is called Hollywood, so in Bombay, the movie industry is called Bollywood. Tollygunjge is the area for Bengali movies and is called Tollywood, and Chennai's Kodambakkam area is called Kollywood. And Bangalore's (Karnataka's) film industry is called...Sandalwood!