The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
Click here to see the complete report.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
Click here to see the complete report.
to read my article on the efforts at Daroji, Karnataka. The photos are mine (to use a terrible pun!)
It’s Christmas Eve…Silvesterabend…and here’s one of my favourite children’s songs.
are the lyrics.
Mamacita, donde esta Santa Claus?
Donde esta Santa Claus?
And the toys that he will leave?
Mamacita, oh, where is Santa Claus?
I look for him because it’s Christmas Eve.
I know that I should be sleeping,
But maybe he’s not far away,
Out of the window I’m peeping,
Hoping to see him in his sleigh.
I hope he won’t forget
to clack his castinet,
And to his reindeer, say,
“Oh Pancho, Oh! Vixen, Oh! Pedro, Oh! Blitzen,”
Ole! Ole! Ole!
cha cha cha.
Mamacita, donde esta Santa Claus?
Oh! Where is Santa Claus?
It’s Christmas Eve.
Mamacita, donde esta Santa Claus?
I look for him because it’s Christmas Eve.
I know that I should be sleeping,
But maybe he’s not far away,
Out of the window I’m peeping,
Hoping to see him in sleigh.
I hope he won’t forget
to crack his castinet,
And to his reindeer, say,
“Oh Pancho, Oh! Vixen, Oh! Pedro, Oh! Blitzen,”
Ole! Ole! Ole!
cha cha cha.
Mamacita, donde esta Santa Claus?
Oh! Where is Santa Claus? It’s Christmas Eve.
It’s Christmas Eve. It’s Christmas Eve. It’s Christmas Eve.
Alright, Mamacita. I’ll go to sleep now. It’s Christmas Eve……
Merry Christmas, and happy holidays, everyone!
Hi, everyone
After a very long gap, I was able to go for the 4th Sunday outing to the Sarjapura area,thanks to Suneel’s very kindly offering to pick up my friend Ravi Srinivasan (from Chennai) and myself.
However, co-ordinating with multiple members and multiple meeting points caused a lot of delay and instead of depending on the correct directions that Shishir had given, we made the mistake of asking the locals, and this delayed us even further! When we finally reached Muthanallur kere, we were never able to meet up with the main group, and we wandered around the lake bed and the banks on our own. The mist also played its part…
After a pathetic monsoon this year, it’s a blessing to be able to visit any kere with water in it, and Muthanallur kere was very picturesque and scenic (with not too much of litter, either). We were able to observe many of the waterfowl, whether resident (like Brahminy Kites or Pied Kingfishers) or migrant. While we felt sad that we could walk so much on the lake bed, it certainly allowed us to get just that little bit closer to the waterfowl.
However, the presence of the bodies of three dead Brahminy Kites at various places on the lake bed, and that of many dead fish along the banks (uneaten by any predator), made us wonder about the quality of the water. There was a lot of algae in the lake, which, at places, gave it a bright emerald colour. However, since there were live fish, too, and some Checkered Keelbacks, we felt the water might be OK.
Several raptors soared on the thermals and being “rocky on raptors”, I was hard put to id them. The Red-necked Falcon delighted us with an appearance, as did several other birds of prey. However, it seemed to be Brahminy Kites which have adopted the lake; we saw many juveniles soaring and hunting.
As usual, there were not too many small waders, but there was a good number of Painted Storks and Openbills. Two Pied Kingfishers hovered, dived, and then dried themselves on the mud banks. We managed to sight, and observe, the
WESTERN REEF EGRET
for a while…
Ravi and Suneel decided to go to Decathlon, and I took a ride with the Managoli family, Vaibhav and Deepu. Of course we got lost again, and finally decided to eat brunch at Sarjapura before making our way home, watching Kestrels and some of the warblers on the way. Moral of the story: never try to use the words “early return” on a birding trip!
I do not know who else was there, but our group consisted of:
Aparna
Deepu
Ravi
Sanjeev
Suneel
Surekha
and I.
Bird List (let me know if I have left out any)
Babbler, Jungle
Barbet, Coppersmith
Barbet, White-cheeked
Bee-eater, Small Green
Bulbul, REd-vented
Bulbul, Red-whiskered
Bulbul, White-browed
Bushchat, Pied
Bushlark, Indian
Coot, Common
Cormorant, Great
Cormorant, Little
Coucal, Greater
Crow, House
Crow, Large-billed
Cuckoo, Common Hawk
Cuckooshrike, Large
Darter
Dove, Laughing
Dove, Spotted
Drongo, Ashy
Drongo, Black
Drongo, White-bellied
Eagle, Indian Spotted (I think)
Eagle, Short-toed Snake
Eagle, Tawny
Egret, Cattle
Egret, Great
Egret, Intermediate
Egret, Little
Egret, Western Reef
Falcon, Red-necked
Flowerpecker, Pale-billed
Flycatcher, White-browed Fantail
Flycatcher, Asian Paradise
Heron, Black-crowned Night
Heron, Grey
Heron, Indian Pond
Heron, Purple
Honey-Buzzard, Oriental
Ibis, Black
Kestrel, Common
Kingfisher, Pied
Kingfisher, Small Blue
Kingfisher, Whitethroated
Kite, Common
Kite, Brahminy
Koel, Asian
Lapwing, Red-wattled
Leafbird, Golden-fronted
Martin, Dusky Crag
Minivet, Small
Munia, White-rumped
Mynah, Common
Mynah, Jungle
Openbill, Asian
Oriole, Eurasian Golden
Parakeet, Rose-ringed
Pigeon, Blue Rock
Pipit, Paddyfield
Plover, Little Ringed
Prinia, Ashy
Prinia, Plain
Redshank, Spotted
Robin, Indian
Robin, Oriental Magpie
Roller, Indian
Sandpiper, Common
Sandpiper, Green
Stork, Painted
Sunbird, Purple-rumped
Swallow, Barn
Swallow, Red-rumped
Swallow, Wire-tailed
Swift, Asian palm
Tailorbird, Common
Treepie, Rufous
Wagtail, Grey
Warbler, Greenish Leaf
Warbler, Booted
Warbler, Blyth’s Reed
Warbler,
Wagtail, Pied
White-eye, Oriental
Butterflies were there in plenty, too.
Blues, various
Castor, Common
Emigrant, Common
Emigrant, Mottled
Gull, Common
Jezebel. Common
Leopard, Common
Pioneer
Psyche
Rose, Common
Rose, Crimson
Tiger, Plain
Wanderer, Common
Yellow, Three-spot Grass
We also saw many Dragonflies and Damselflies; and I thought of Ajay as I watched some Weaver ants for a while, as I rested in the shade of the Eucalyptus trees, through which the wind soughed as it rippled the surface of the lake. The fine Cirrus clouds overhead promised only sunshine….and we came back feeling much hotter than when we set out!
I am sending some photographs to the experts I know, for id…so the list may get amended. Sorry, folks, I make LOTS of mistakes!
I have put up photos from my Mary’s Lamb camera (Sony HX200) on an FB album, at
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151215624103878.471834.587058877&type=1
Please, if I have made wrong id’s, feel free to correct them!
Cheers, and with heartfelt good wishes for the festive (and holiday!) season ahead…
Deepa.
When my child sighs
In distant shores…
It brings tears to my eyes.
She misses her child,
But her separation is mild…
A matter of a few hours.
My child, alas, is so far away…
I cannot wipe her eyes.
In matters of a mother’s love,
I am not very wise.
My arms ache for my child
Quite as much as hers for her own;
I’d like to rise above
My emotions, and say
I’m practical. But I’m wild…
I’m not missing her alone
But her child as well…
They’ve both cast a spell
Over my heart….
It’s tough…living apart.
I found this incredible video and would like to share it with all of you…
The control the grace, the beauty of it all…there are no words needed…just watch it…again!
Is there a future? After tomorrow?
What would mankind not give, to know the future!
We consult oracles, read palms, gaze up into the stars;
We wish to know our fortunes, our loves, our wars.
Is there, for prediction, any reliable feature?
Could we know early, and so avoid sorrow?
We gaze at the tea-leaves, at the coffee-grounds;
We read our palms, look at numbers;
We interpret the dreams that we have in our slumber…
We look at the cowrie shells that have no ocean sounds…
We ask little birds in cages,
To pull out predictions, in little messages.
This cow that is supposed to predict good times…
She just nods her head…and hopes to be fed.
The future, beyond that, for her, is dead.
It’s only humans who think of the future..and pen rhymes.
And yet the future lurks, unseen, unknown:
Humanity stands in the present, alone.
The future…if by chance, we could know
What lies in store, perhaps…we’d not be human any more.
The “boom-boom maadu”, caprisioned, is led along the houses where loud cries of the good fortune that is in store for the householder (with the cow nodding agreement) will result, hopefully, in cash, clothing and food for the man and his bovine working partner.
BTM Layout, Bangalore 161212.
is my write-up about one of the popular “Bun-butter-jam” Bakeries that dot my city.
Click
for the FB group.
Here’s my report on a monthly quiz group that I joined in 1992, and which is still going strong….
Hi Everyone!
I must say, the one word that is most misused in QuizFamilies (after
the word “Basically”, which we use while we grope for answers that
may, by some random chance, be correct) is…”sitter”.
When any quizmaster, mistress, King, Queen or Knave tells you, “This
is a sitter” …whether he or she is talking about the question or the
quiz….DO NOT believe the words. It takes quite a while for the real
lollipops to start appearing, and then, ofkose, they always go to
Other Teams And Not Your Own.
A great case in point was Socro’s initial announcement, that he’d put
together the quiz in the last 12 hours, so it would consist of
“sitters and supersitters”…so many of his koschins went unanswered
by everyone, that he had to “re-run” them, so much so that I hereby
dub the December quiz the “Rerun Quiz”.
I am including the koschins here, so you can judge either the
toughness of the quiz (or the Ignorance Quotient of our group) for
yourselves. (I will be sending the audio round, which was actually a
crossword, separately.)
Let me just fill you in on the stuff apart from the koschins. The
teams were named “Happy”, “Sneezy”, “Grumpy”, and “Sleepy”, and much
hilarity ensued as we tried not to look happy or grumpy or sleepy,
according to which team we were sitting in! Little Ameya had a great
explanation for the connect on the team names: “It’s various ways of
holding our face”….great answer, Ameya! Our witty repartees are
coming from younger and younger people!
Our wit (if one of you cracks a good joke, and I am in the room, I am
entitled to say”we” are witty!) is renowned…just after the “What is
the second full moon in one month called?” (Blue Moon) question,
someone objected to “What is the name of an area of Venice, which is
now used generically for such settlements?” question (Ghetto). Raghu
quipped, “What’s your problem? We get an easy question once in a blue
moon!”
The quiz start was delayed for a bit while Ganu went to get
bondas…and these then figured very largely in the whole quiz, with
some of us saying, “So many questions have been re-run, we want a
re-run of the bondas also!”
Socro started the quiz, and the minute he projected his desktop on to
GV (I’ll explain what this was, a bit later), Raghu queried, “Why do
you have so many icons on your desktop?” In fact, Socro started
feeling, with our queries, that the quizmaster was being quizzed
himself 🙂
GV…this stands for “Ganu’s Veshti”. The hosts not having a proper
white surface to use as a screen, this article of Ganu’s wardrobe was
pressed into use, hung like a Gobelin tapestry for Socro’s Famous
Projector.
We carefully abstained from witticisms on the veshti, but it put me
in mind of the khadi cloth that was used in some rural Gujrati cinema
hall..someone had the brilliant idea of dubbing the khadi, “Gandhiji
ki Dhoti”. Alas, after advertisements such as “Gandhiji ki Dhoti mein
Ek Phool Do Maali” and “Gandhiji ki Dhoti mein Ek Tha Tiger”, the name
had to be changed….
Break was a great time, too. Ganu of DAB (Delicious Alu Bonda) fame,
Hema and Janani, had provided a solid dinner for us. Sevige baath,
curd rice, dahi vada, sarkkarai pongal, and hot-hot masala chai and
filterkaapi….I was looking, and feeling, like a python when break
was over.
Socro’s “audio crossword” was a very innovative and interesting round,
but the quality of the sound had Jayakumar riposting, when asked,
“What is the next word?”…”We can’t even understand the preceding
words, how are we to give the next word!” I have attached a photo of
the crossword…but Socro, you can’t have a two-letter word sort of
hanging in outer space, like that! (Especially because I got it
wrong.)
Socro threw chocolates to those who gave correct answers, but I do
seem to remember some auctioning of leftover chocolates at the
end…..! Thank you, Socro, I had my chocolates as a lovely dessert
when I came home! I don’t normally buy these as I have no children at
home…so the enjoyment was even more pronounced!
Oh….I must mention the Dumb Charades round. We had to find the
author of the book that inspired the movie…and here’s the list:
Sleepy: Ganu: Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice); 2nd round (Hindi
films), Satyajit Ray (Shatranj Ke Khiladi); Sneezy: Deepa: J R R
Tolkien (The Hobbit); 2nd round, , Amrita Pritam (Pinjar…inspired
work by my team mates!) Grumpy: Sravana: Dan Brown (The Da Vinci
Code); 2nd round, Jyothi, Ruskin Bond (Junoon…the only one that no
one could get!) Happy: Janani, Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby…I
must say, all the rest of the teams got what Janani was conveying much
ahead of her team!); 2nd round, Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake) Janani
also did Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre) for fun, and she did a great
job!
Our DC rounds are great entertainers, and are surely responsible for
our ending the evening with gales of laughter!
I’ve added a couple of photos from the evening, too…please, all you
QF members, add yourself to the QF group that Sharmila has created. We
can exchange even more jokkus (and insults and info) over that! Here’s
the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/408207439247509/?ref=ts&fref=ts
(I’ve posted Sunday’s photos there, too.)
Enjoy the lovely cold weather with adhrak-chai, hot soup, toasty
bhuttas, menchina bajji, and anything else….here’s wishing you all
the best for the festive times (or at least, the holidays!) ahead, and
looking forward to meeting you all in the New Year!
Cheers, Deepa.