deponti

In Chennai...

One, the Corporation building:



And two, the Central Railway Station:





There are many, many more...some are falling to ruins...

One, while waiting at Central Station, Chennai:





I can just imagine the criminal innocently sitting in front of the camera which, of course, knows immediately that this person is a criminal, and starts watching him...


The next delightful thing was in my coach.



It says, "Hammer for breaking the window glass during emergency".

Now to find a hammer to break the glass of the window in which this hammer is kept...


And the last...make no mistake, there will be no teetotallers on this train...

Very long post, read only if you have some leisure.

I do love my country, which often has its flag represented in unique ways:



And I like walking through its cities.

Each city in India is quite distinct from the other; not for us the bland homogeneity of a skyscraper downtown and sprawling suburbs...I find Indian cities totally fascinating.

Like all Indian cities, the architecture in Chennai is an often astonishing mixture of old and new idioms, which are radically different from each other. It's fascinating to watch...and there are also the this-es, the thats, and the others as I walk. I decided to take my MLC for a walk, too...and we went together, through a few roads in

Mylapore (town of the peacock), now called Thirumylai or the place of the divine peacock

( walk with me through Mylapore )

Think about the beauty of seeing a small temple, that's traditionally built under a spreading young

Peepal Tree



...and make my way home....


Some more on Mylapore

the walk without photographs

Mylapore Tank


New Year in Nageshwara Rao Park

Chennai vignettes

Mylapore Tank

And if you STILL have patience for more,

here !

....what about onions, ask the Jains....

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...

Why...
Do I want to try
To be the official scribe
As the cyclists pedal furiously
Across the hills?
Because...
Through the course...
I'd able to describe
All I'd experience, and see.
The wheres, the whens, the hows, and the whys...
The thrills, the chills, the spills
As the bikers sail across the Blue
Mountains...trying adventure for size...
Take some pictures: videos, too!
I could see their dreams
With my eyes, and write
How they climbed slopes and forded streams;
How they exchanged anecdotes,
Danced together, sang some notes....
I'd share their points of view;
Record their moods, both heavy and light
Every little incident;
The pedal that fell off, the wheel that bent:
The final push, the incredible thrill,
Of conquering distance with one's will....
Click their faces, as they passed
The victorious finishing line at last...
Have, at the end, a memorable journal
Of the cyclists' efforts diurnal.
I want to be the Official Blogger(if you please)
Of the 2009 Tour of the Nilgiris!

I call her Biddly, with rhymes with idli...but she's more like a dosa, because (after turning herself on her stomach and not being able to move anywhere) she has to be turned at frequent intervals.

She is the first infant I know, who has decided to bypass evolutionary milestones, and achieve something remarkable. Instead of even trying to swim or crawl, she turns over on her stomach, and extends her hands....she wants to fly, not crawl or sit or walk.

She's learnt (at 5.5 months) that cereal paste in the mouth is great to blow raspberries through and spray the person feeding her....and then she knows to smile like an angel just after that.

She already knows that being put in her car seat means an outing, and the angelic smile and toothless grins abound.

She practices several vocalizations ..."nanna"..."pappa"..."mamma"..."thatttha..." on and on and on through the waking hours, punctuated by fairly animal-sounding growls and little throat-gurgles.

I am so torn apart, I want to go home, and yet, am finding it terribly hard to leave this little piece of my heart behind....it really does feel as if I am cutting out a piece of my heart.

Non-attachment...VERY difficult, indeed. I have got nowhere in my spiritual quest of release from the shackles of

Maya ....

I am beginning to pack.

I really like looking at sparrows here; I think they are very much like the Indian diaspora in this country. They are not native to the country, but have made their space here, and are thriving. They manage to survive very well, and yet, they keep a low profile for the most part; amongst the local people, but yet apart, keeping themselves to themselves, at a little distance. They are not interested in making waves or making themselves prominent, only in maintaining their lifestyles in reasonable comfort.

Indians...and perhaps other minority communities too...are the sparrows of America. And yes, I see boards in Forest Park (put up by bird lovers, no less!) which say that since sparrows are not a native species, their nests can be destroyed, and they can be shot...so sparrows are no stranger to mindless, illogical hate, either...

Here's the view from my friends' home:




One building had lights to illuminate the others:




( here are some more )

And of course, the sight of the sun behind some of the skyscrapers was irresistible:

Just back from a very enjoyable trip to

the City of Brotherly Love

Thanks to Madhumsita and Kusi, I had a whale of a time:




(Philadelphia is ..er..phill of murals.)

Lots of photos to follow, but meanwhile:

I got the following photograph quite by chance...votzit? One guess allowed per person :)





Off to sleep now...

First, you look at the scenery.




Then you see the bird.

Can you see the bird in the first picture? I assure you, it's there....

( where the bird is )


You take a quick foozly shot and run to catch up with whoever you are with, whether it's family or fellow-birders, wondering which part of the innocuous-looking landscape is hiding more birds now!

PS. the bird in this lot of foozles is a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE....funny name for a bird that I saw two of! :)

GD took the two flights (St.Louis to Phoenix, and Phoenix to Reno) very well, and was, in fact, quite playful on the plane:




As usual the view from the window was just fantastic, as we flew over the deserts of Arizona and Nevada, and saw parts of the Grand Canyon once again. Here's a lovely blue river in the sandy wastes:



( more about the trip to Lake Tahoe )

I came back, hoping that we had some plans of hiking, and found KM in the sunshine, framed in the window, cooing away with GD:



We did go to Emerald Bay and a short hike up to Eagle Falls....but that's the next post!

Well, one does also document the human presence at all points....! Here are a few images of the most successful mammal (in terms of breeding and presence) on earth...


This is Half Dome, and if you look closely, those ants are....people...








Here's a video where I zoom in. It's not *really* surprising, given the proximity of Silicon Valley, that the languages most likely to be heard at the viewpoint (this one's Glacier Point) are ...Indian! You can hear a little Hindi, and then, of course, the couple walk blithely between the camera and the view.

But then the camera zooms in on Half Dome and..you can see the rock climbers who have reached the top.








Here are some rock-climbers who have finished, and are drying out their equipment:






(  more if you click )


Deeksha pointed out these lovely criss-crossing vapour trails as we approached San Jose on our return...



We went to as many destinations in Yosemite as humanly possible, in those packed two days; east to west, I discovered the park as I have always wanted to, including such areas as the Tioga Pass, which a friend recently told me he had never visited though he has been to Yosemite four times!

This was a trip that I would rank with my visits to....the Pyramids, the Necropolis in Iran, the visit to Darjeeling when I saw Mount Everest at the age of twenty-one, the sighting of the tree-climbing lions in Tanzania's Lake Manyara....

Thank you, Y, thank you, K, you gave me great memories for a lifetime!

These images truly took my breath away;
I do love the mountains and the streams,
The springs and the snow.
With all the trappings of men,
These scenes are yet pristine and clear.
It takes me to when the rivers' flow
Was not dammed and broken.
In my dreams
I take the unfrequented ways
Filled with flowers, Nature's token
Of benison for creatures here.
It was not a time when
Man had left his mark on the lands,
Or wandered over the country in large despoiling bands.
These images make me sleep...
And dream of Paradise that's still ours to keep.
Nature's not kind, but always fair;
Those who are the fittest can survive...
Breathe the free, pure air,
Flourish, and thrive.




Storm gathering beyond Olmsted Point






Tree growing on granite at Olmsted Point



( More scenes from Yosemite )







Yosemite sunset


No photographs can do justice to Nature's majesty....

The creatures of Yosemite are varied in size and appearance, and we got to see very few of them; but what we did see was fascinating!

Let this squirrel welcome you to this post...





( if you want to see other critters, click here )

We saw several BLUE-BELLIED LIZARDS. I got a closeup of this one where you can actually see the blue belly, but some predator seems to have got its tail!





Field trip accounts are hard work, sorting out the pictures and videos and uploading the least awful of them, and then getting the narrative together....will be doing the plants soon!

I wondered if I should do a day-by-day account of the trip, but then decided that it won't be easy...I would probably mix up everything and give wrong information as usual...so here are some of the creatures of Yosemite...

The birds, of course, were far more in number than the mammals; and the only butterfly I could actually look at and photograph was the California Tortoiseshell; there was a perfect wave of them across the road and the banks of the Merced River, across from Karen's home in Crane Creek. We were not lucky enough to sight a Coyote (we never stopped complaining to Yathin about that) but we did see the Pica, and I think Yathin got some good pics of it, too.

If this was the rate at which one feels like taking photographs ( and in my case, at least 60% of the photographs should be, and are, deleted!), I can only imagine how many photographs Yathin must have taken over his eight trips to Yosemite so far, at various times of year. (I think to myself that Yathin only posts his best photographs and all the DM-quality photographs must be there, somewhere on his hard disk. I don't want to face the fact that photographers like Yathin won't HAVE DM-quality photographs.)

One of the very common birds that we saw was the AMERICAN RAVEN; Karen's email id has the raven in it. Here's one against the beautiful Yosemite sky:





And another view:




( lots more under here; look only if you have the time and the inclination )

Here's another juvenile Scrub Jay, turning over its shoulder to say bye to the visitor from far away:






Next up, other creatures of Yosemite...

Here's the sign that said that Yosemite Valley, and Tuolumne Meadows are not too far off, on my recent visit to Yosemite:






At the very beginning (a very good place to start, as Julie Andrews would have said!), I must give heartfelt thanks to yathin. A casual remark to him that I would love to go to Yosemite sometime in the vague undefined future brought forth the response that he was, indeed, going to Y on the 30th and 31st of May. I decided that it was too good an opportunity to miss, and promptly booked my tickets to San Jose airport; he lives just 3 miles from the airport!

He banished his poor younger brother to some friend's home on Friday (29th) and Sunday (31st) nights, so I could sleep comfortably on the bed, convinced me that he was more comfy on the couch, and had even rented the car in which he was going along with two of his more-friends-than-colleagues, Hitesh (who works in San Jose) and Deeksha (who was visiting from Bangalore.)

When I landed, Y took me home, and we left as early on Saturday morning as Deeksha's jet lag would allow; broke for breakfast at Denny's, and so began an amazing trip aross the width of Yosemite; Yathin started at one of the easternmost points, Crane Flat....


You can view the map of Yosemite National Park

here

to see how detailed was the trip that he took the three of us on!


Lee Vining is actually off that map, and he took us beyond it, to see the beautiful Tufa formations at Mono Lake, too!

Yathin drove right through the day on both days. On Saturday night, we arrived back at Yosemite Valley, where the others checked into their accomodation, and then he drove me the twenty-five or thirty miles to El Portal, where the Amstutzes lived, and dropped me off there before going back to get some much-needed sleep. On Sunday morning, Karen Amstutz took me to meet the others at Bridalveil Falls after breakfast, and we then spent the time together until the evening, all five of us, visiting Glacier Point, and other destinations, with both Y and Karen showing us so much incredible stuff on the way.

The wonderful thing was that all the destinations we wanted to see were open, including the Tioga Pass Road (it is closed eight months of the year, and also if there are any sudden thunderstorms)...we were very lucky indeed, to have that happen on the two days that we were there. Here's the sign that shows our good luck:





( A little more about the trip )


Here's the wonderful view of the mountains reflected in Lee Vining Creek:

I zoomed in and out for this video, from the slope on the hillside that we were standing on; this is the continuation of the road, and the whole slope seems to have had a major landslide at some point of time.





The uploading of the pics is going slowly, with so much else to do and the wifi stopping whenever the microwave is on! :)

and






Will have to organize my pics a LOT and then will come my dream-come-true 3Y trip....

One of the things I love doing on a plane ride is to have the map of the route in front of me...this time, as usual, it was lovely to see exotic names slipping past, and bringining up memories of our visits to those places.....Ispahan, Shiraz, Teheran, and so on....the Alps made a beautiful backdrop to our right....I remember freezing on the Jungfrau, visiting Mt Titlis, Hotel St Gotthard....I remember the tiny prinipality of Leichstenstein, and visiting Vaduz....our world travelling has come down sharply in the past years, because of the imperative to visit the USA every year (there's only so much time, and money, that one can spare for Transatlantic travel!)...but the memories rushed back as I flew high above the countries that I had once seen and enjoyed visiting.

On the second leg of the journey, Paris to Atlanta, Murphy's Law mandated seat in front of us that leaned back far more than they were supposed to, so that we were sort of sandwiched....and the window seat felt like a trap! Alas, the view was just a sheet of white...during Spring, Europe is covered with snow clouds...


The food...was plastic as usual, but eatable, I guess..the coffee has actually improved a lot.

We had timed our flights beautifully, AND each flight was on time, so we made it to St L with the minimum of waiting in both CDG Paris as well as Atlanta.

We came to St Louis, our luggage arrived one hour later, and DnA at the same time as they had mistaken the time of our arrival...but we fully utilized the $14 food voucher that we got for waiting, and came home, where, as soon as I had unpacked, (there's LOADS of stuff to be posted/sent to others..this time, there's been a far bigger quota of can-you-take-this requests than usual) I went off and had a ...I canNOT believe....15-hour sleep! I didn't inform anyone back home of our arrival, my brain just shut off...

Feeling better now, it's a lovely 17 deg right now, outseide, so I am off for a long walk (no MLC along with me, alas, alas!) but...my eyes and ears will be open.

A has gone to work, which she will as long as she can; D is working from home, he is tapping away behind me...KM Is on the massage chair, off in dreamland....it's peaceful, and it's home away from home.