The wolf and the kid

There was this kid who lived in a cottage in the woods with her mother. When the baby threw tantrums and cried, the mother warned her that if she cried, she would give her away to the wolf in the woods. The wolf, passing by, heard this and stopped out of the door, waiting. The kid soon stopped crying and the wolf heard the mom and kid happily play inside. It stayed there still waiting, hoping the kid would cry again, and that the mother would give her off to him.

The kid did cry again, the next day making the wolf happy and hopeful for a moment, when he heard the mother say the same words. The wait was again in vain, since the mother and kid yet again started playing joyfully inside.

This went on everyday, with the wolf waiting patiently, hoping and losing hope, rather than finding an alternative to find his food and live, while the kid happily grew up on the other side.

The wolf realized it too late that he had wasted his life being stupid to keep waiting with a false hope, for something that was never going to be.

A meaningless wait!

From scorn to smile

I wasn’t in a very good mood this morning when I started from home. When in such state my usual norm is to speed off past whoever possible on the road, and honk the horn loud and long at others who are mis-driving - my way of yelling at people when they’re not driving right and when I’m off mood.

So, today there was this small car in front of me, who I was desperate to over take and was following it at the same speed since the road was narrow. At one point the car suddenly shifted from its lane and slowed down without any signal at all. I managed not to hit it, by slowing down my old active too. Got irritated more and honked loud as usual, cribbing about the guy driving.

Oh well, just at that moment, I saw a small cute little puppy, crossing the road, just in front of the car. It had just missed getting run over by the car, thanks to the mis-driven car! Immediately my mood changed, and my scorn changed to a smile. I wanted to acknowledge the driver for having saved a life, just in time.

I sped faster, and came parallel to this car - turned and smiled at the middle aged gentleman on the driving seat. He too got my point and smiled back heartily.
Well, now I no longer wanted to speed past him, though I could, but instead, followed him at his pace. And I was happy rest of the day :)

Silver lines

Those two lines of silver
Remind me that Time,
For no one does wait
And flies off fast

Those two lines of silver
Urge me to do
All that I want to,
At a faster pace

Those two lines of silver
Tell me that a nice big piece
Of this beautiful life
Is already gone

How I often wish
Those two lines of silver
Never made their presence
At all! But...

Let there be no lines of silver
At least on the mind and heart
For I want to stay
Young at heart, Forever and ever.

Happy New Year 2011! And a peek into 2010...

Happy New Year 2011!

So, how was 2010?
Well, for me it was quire uneventful, I must say. It was neither too great, nor was it that bad. It was just ok, with nothing much happening.

To keep up the tradition of summarizing the previous year like always, here I go.

Trips and Travel:
There was no travel at all for the first 3-4 months of the year. The first one being in late April to Munnar and Thekkady by drive! It was a wonderful trip, especially loved the drive of 500+km one way on amazingly good roads. Started doing a bit of birding, in a very amateurish way. Receiving a cute little birthday present on a drizzling morning, out of the car on a deserted road from Munnar to Thekkady was the highlight ;)

In July, there was another quick travel to Kodur, Shimoga with inlaws, again by car, and a little more birding!

August, as always is the worst month for me. This year also, it was no different. Too much of work, too many poojas (it being generally Shravana masa), and added to it, some health issues:(. Huh, how I wish there is no August in the calendar!

August and September also had some early morning or evening visits to some nearby places for birding. Learnt some basics of birding from seasoned birders meanwhile.

October, as always is a promising month, with some special trip-of-the-year planned! And this time it was to the west most part of India - Rajasthan, primarily around Jaisalmer.

November had a surprise in store - a naturalist training in JLR, Bannerghatta, got to know some wonderful and inspiring people, and a whole new world of naturalists (and to be) opened up in front of us.

Early December had another short visit to Mandagadde, Shimoga, Bhadravathi, and late December had a marathon trip to Chitradurga, Hampi, Magadi kere, Davangere, etc.
So, this is all about the trips!
Oooh hasn’t this been a birding-year? Yes, it surely was :)

Work - it’s been a great year work wise, with things going smooth for me in spite of some turbulence around.

On the personal front, however, there has been not much of progress, except of course, me growing older by another year and also wiser! None of the few set milestones were met, nothing great happened.
Anyways, it was quite a good year and enjoyed it.

Hoping 2011 will be the year of milestones! Once again a Happy New Year to one and all.

Manvar Desert Camp and Resort

After Khuri, and some sightseeing in the city of Jaisalmer, our next destination was Manvar camp and resort, near Dechu, located off Jodhpur-Jaisalmer highway - 175 km from Jaisalmer and 110 from Jodhpur. This road is just amazing and we missed driving ourselves on these beautiful roads. Manvar is a luxurious resort, with lot of greenery inside, amidst the shades of brown in the desert. Thanks to Archana Srinivas’ blog - Rang Décor, this was where I learnt about this beautiful place. The tented camps about 7km interior from the resort and is a real treat. This place was greener with much more vegetation. We were on a jeep to the tents during sunset and it was amazing to watch the sunset amidst browns and greens. Peacocks are a common sight here.
A fox, which was supposed to be rare, did stop by our jeep, and poised for a shot.

Spent the night at the camp, enjoyed the lovely evening with campfire and music and dance with some drinks and snacks.
We trekked to a nearby hillock next morning for some birding and sunrise. Here's a view of the camps from the hillock...

Then after a sumptuous breakfast, went on a jeep safari. I was amazed at the number of birds here, and the ease with which they can be spotted, thanks to the scanty vegetation. We did spot some Indian Gazelle(Chinkara), came across some smaller sand dunes, sand slides and some village houses.

A Sand slide

Chinkara
A neelgai.... these were in plenty...And the evening was for ourselves, at a small temple on a hillock near the resort, and again watching the sun go down the horizon. I think I can never get bored of watching sunsets.....

Some glimpses of Manvar....
The pathway into the resort

Some antiques

Tents on sand

Camp restaurant
Pool at the resort
The temple on the neighbouring hillock

Check out the bird pictures here.

It was a wonderful stay at Manvar.

A camel ride into the Desert National Park

I didn’t know a safari on a camel back was such an exercise for the bones and joints! Our camel was Laal, and there were four more in the gang, with three boys to manage the camels and four foreign tourists along with the two of us. Sitting high on camel back, holding on to it when it sways forward and backward to get up, and riding on it, jumping up and down was fun. Especially when Laal and his friends decided to run a bit to add to the excitement, at one point, I was almost off the camel and screamed! I blamed Dee for the camel running too fast and not taking care of his wife and the boys made fun saying it’d have been a task for them to search me in the desert, had I fallen off!

It was a bigger dune this time than what we had seen the previous day. And we were truly deserted - there was no one else except our gang for as far as we could see! We were to spend the night here, in the open, in the cold! We were excited. We walked around as much as we could till the sun set, not able to take enough of the desert. As it got dark, there was a camp fire for warming as well as cooking. The boys cooked a meal for us, while we all sang and talked to each other, the boys also pulling each other’s legs.
After dinner, while we were for another round of walking on the sands, and warming up, the boys made our beds, and showed us our ‘room’ for the night.
And here was our room and our neighbors’... ;)

It was too cold, in spite of the blankets and thin mattress we had, but it was a memorable experience to open your eyes in the middle of the night to see only sand and sand around you and stars over your head, and the half moon slowly rising in the east! We watched the moon rise for sometime and fell back asleep.
I was the first one to wake up next morning, as I didn’t want to miss seeing the sunrise. A bowl of hot black tea on the cold morning was welcome. We watched the sunrise, went out for a long walk around the scrubs on one side, finding many more birds, experiencing the desert. Well, the birds here woke up much later after the sun rose, may be because of the cold weather.
After breakfast, I had my ‘myself time’ just walking about with Mother Nature when Dee had gone with the boys to find the camels that were wandering off in the night.
When we were back, again on camel backs, I asked the others ‘Aren’t your joints aching?’‘Are you kidding?’ replied one of the girls in the gang, ‘do you have any left? I have no joints any more!’

It was true, but it was worth every bit of the pain.

Khuri - A Desert Village

After deciding that our next trip would be in the Thar Desert, we started debating on the exact locations. We knew we shouldn’t miss the sand dunes around Jaisalmer, but of the two famous ones - Sam and Khuri, we couldn’t decide which one. After reading reviews and hearing from friends, that Sam is way too crowded when compared to Khuri, we decided Khuri was the place - as both of us like calm rather than crowd!
We reached Jaisalmer by train from Jaipur at around noon, hired a taxi to Khuri - about 40km southwest. We heard from the driver that this year there was a lot of rain due to which the desert was more filled with shrubs and small plants. I was afraid we wouldn’t get to see the actual dunes, and just kept my fingers crossed.
As we reached Khuri, I was amazed to see the number of camp-resorts in that little village, tourism is definitely becoming one of the biggest business there, especially in winter. Most of the buildings are of yellow sandstone, as in Jaisalmer - the reason why Jaisalmer is called the Golden city.
We got into the home stay - Badal House, run by a real gentleman, Badal Singh, about which Dee will write in detail. (Yes, we have a pact and share topics and write, when it comes to travel!) As we freshened up and had a small talk with the owner, the weather suddenly became cloudy and windy. Once wind blows, there will be a few millimeters of fine sand settled over and around you, which we had already experienced in the train. And in a couple of minutes the weather became too chill and there was a small shower of rain! We had to postpone our plans for camel safari and camping for the night that we had planned for the next day.
Had I told you, wherever we go, be it any season, the rains surely follow us! And this we’ve been observing in all our trips throughout last year. We just smiled at ourselves, and set out in the drizzle, to explore and experience the desert ourselves.
I was amazed at the number of birds that we spotted, and Dee started shooting them. A few meters of walk out of the village and there we saw the dunes! Pure, neat and secluded! Wasn’t this what we wanted!! We started walking in that direction and what seemed to be so near took so long to reach. As we neared, there were hordes of people arriving in buses, jeeps, vans and even on camels to the dunes to watch the sunset, and with all the shor-sharaba! Oops, we immediately changed our direction and moved further to a calmer portion, away from all the noise, just to calmly enjoy the beauty of nature and watch the sunset from the clear sand dunes.
How beautiful nature is! It was a treat to walk on the clear sand dunes, watching the sun go down, with chill wind blowing on your face. Just as the sun set, it began to get colder, and we started walking back to the village, happy and satisfied for having chosen this place.

Check out the birds here.

Proud of you, Mom!

Mom has won the first prize in ‘Masthi Kadambari Puraskara’ for this year for her new novel in Kannada titled “Mane”. Masthi Venkatesh Iyengar is a legendary Kannada writer of the last century whose works in the field of Kannada literature are immense. Now ‘Masthi trust’ recognizes budding writers each year and rewards them for their work.

The felicitation ceremony was held yesterday, on Gandhi Jayanthi, which was presided over by honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr. Yedyurappa, who released the book as well as felicitated the awardees. So Mom was on the same stage with Karnataka CM!

The CM also unveiled two volumes of “Masthi Samagra Samputa Avalokana”, compiled by Sri Mavinakere Ranganathan, President of the trust.

This Kadambari Puraskara is a strict competition, where the panel of five renowned judges are kept unaware of the writers’ names and asked to judge the novels. Only after the decision is made that the authors’ names are revealed.

This time, all the first three prizes have been bagged by female writers!
Details:
1st prize - Mane by Saraswathi Nataraj, Rs.30000/-
2nd prize - Kicchillada bege by Dr. Kamala Hemmige, Rs.25000/-
3rd prize - Kamini thalpa by Usha Narasimhan, Rs.20000/-

Congratulations and proud of you, mom!

P.S.: All above pics are shot by Dee :)

Twosome - Two‘Sum’

There are always two ‘Sum’s within me.....
One who is happy and another who is sad, a pessimist and an optimist. One wants to forgive and forget and another keeps remembering and wants revenge. One is quite selfish and another utterly selfless. One is calculative of all petty things and another very liberal about even bigger things. One who decides not to do any good to someone and another who, in the next instant offers to help the same someone! One tries to be cheerful all the time, and another gets depressed in a fraction of a second. One loves anyone and anything and another one thinks she hates everyone and everything.
There is a constant combat between these two. This moment it is one Sum and the next, it is the other. Now one rules and at after now, ruled over by the other. Am I bad or am I good?

Why are there two me’s in me?
Are there two you’s in you too?

The God of Small Things

Just finished reading ‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy. Well, it is a very touching novel. Very different. Very real. It’s sure to wet your eyes at least a couple of times. Or more if you’re more emotional.
It’s about a pair of twins - a boy and a girl, whose father would have betrayed his kids and their mother, after which, the well educated mother brings up the twins being both their mother and father.
At the age of eight, the twins are separated from each other due to circumstances. For no real fault of theirs. Well as the author says, for them, there was no each. There was no other. There was no each other. They were one. And a part of them was gone. .

And they’ll be away and incomplete for 23 long years. All their childhood is lost. Their youth is lost. In fact, their life is lost. They lose their mother and their beloved untouchable companion - for having violated a law. A law set by the clean, touchable society. Of who should be loved, how and how much.

The author touches upon all these minute yet strong details in her story.
Untouchability, Communism, Marxism, Religion, Male dominated society, Domestic Violence, Political brutality, Selfishness, Children, Their dreams, Their abuse, Punishments for doing wrong and for not doing wrong, Well Acceptable Men’s Needs, and of course Unacceptable Women’s needs.

Every character in the book has their own story. The narration is quite unique. She takes the readers back and forth in time. She reveals bits and pieces of the history and comes back to the present. Leaves the rest of it for later.
‘Lay Ter’ as she calls it.
The ‘later’ filled with the most unexpected.

Her style of writing is quite different too.
With regular sentences.
With one word sentences.
With two word sentences.
With three word sentences.
With no word sentences. The most important of all. Where there are no words to tell, yet lies a big story there.

One of the lines that touched me: “When you hurt someone with careless words, they begin to love you less”.
Careless words make people love us a little less. How true!

The story is put up very well. Very touching. It is a sad story. But then is that not what most of the stories are, in the real world?