Hitting the 200 Mark

A decade ago, my cousin got me a pair of binocs in the hopes that I will be putting it to some sort of use. However, it took a good 5 years after that for me to started paying closer attention to my surroundings and become an armature birdwatcher. It got an additional boost thanks to a very inspiring boss I worked with. Recently I hit the 200th species of "spotted in the wild" birds. This called for a celebration and in a well timed moved, my handy ol' binoculars decided to go kaput! So voila, I congratulated myself with a really nice pair of Nikon binocs. The first bird spotted with the new pair was a beautiful juvenile black kite! They are absolutely gorgeous!

It's also nice to add 2 more friends to the birdier's club. Cheerios mates!

Here is my list as it stands today:

Andaman Wood Pigeon

Asian desert Wabbler

Asian Koel

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Australian Magpie

Australian Pelican

Australian Pied Cormorant

Australian Shelducks

Australian White Ibis

Australian Wood Duck

Bank Myna

Barheaded Goose

Barn Swallow

Barnacle Geese

Baya Weaver

BayBack shrike

Black Drongo

Black headed Gulls

Black headed white ibis

Black ibis

Black Kite

Black naped Oriole

Black Swan

Black winged Kite

Black winged Stilt

Black-crowned Night Heron

Blacktail Godwit

Blue tailed Bee eater

Bramhi Kite

Bramhi Starling

Bronze winged Jacana

Brown headedGull

Brown Rockchat

Canadian Geese

Chestnut headed Bee eater

Common Babbler

Common Coot

Common Crane

Common flameback Woodpecker

Common green Shank

Common Gull

Common Iora

Common Kingfisher

Common Moorhen

Common Myna

Common Pochard

Common Tailorbird

Cotton Pygmy Goose

Crested Lark

Curlew Sandpiper

Dalmation Pelican

Desert Wheatear

Dusky Crag Martin

Dusky Moorhen

Eastern Yellow wagtail

Egyptian Vulture

Esabelline Shrike

Esabelline Wheatear

Eurasian Collard Dove

Eurasian Widgeon

European Black bird

European Herring Gull

European Starling

Fairy Bluebird

Gadwall

Glossy ibis

Gray/Spotted billed Pelican

Great Indian Bustard

Great stone curlew

Great White Pelican

Greater Cormorant

Greater Coucal

Greater Egret

Greater Flamingo

Green Bee eater

Grelag Goose

Grey Bushchat

Grey Fancolin

Grey Heron

Grey Heron

Grey Junglefowl

Grey Plover

Grey wagtail

Himalayan Black BulBul

Honey Buzzard

Hooded Crow

Hoopoe Lark

House sparrow

Indian Cormorant

Indian Golden Oriole

Indian grey hornbills

Indian Peacock

Indian Robin

Indian Roller

Intermediate Egret

Jungle Babbler

Jungle Bush-Quail

King Parrot

Kookaburra

Laughing Dove

Lesser Flamingo

Lesser whistling teal

Little Cormorant

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Little Pied Cormorant

Long billed Corella

Long billed Pipit

Long tail Shrike

Lotens Sunbird

Magpie Lark

Magpie Robin

Mallard

Maquire Bustard

Marsh Harrier

Masked Lapwing (Northern oz)

Masked Lapwing (Southern oz)

Montagues harrier

Mute Swan

Nilgiri wood Pigeon

Noisey Miner

Northern Showler

Olive backed Pipit

Open billed Stork

Oriental Darter/Snake bird

Oriental White eye

Pacific Black duck

Painted Stork

Peregrine Falcon

Pheasent tailed Jacana

Pied Avocet

Pied Bushchat

Pied Butcherbird

Pied Currawong

Pied Kingfisher

Pintail Duck

Pipit

Plum headed Parakeet

Pond Heron

Purple Heron

Purple Moorhen

Purple Rumped Sunbird

Purple Sunbird

Racket tail Drongo

Rainbow Lorikeet

Raven

Red head duck

Red Jungle Fowl

Red Munia

Red necked Falcon

Red rumped Swallow

Red Shank

Red vented Bulbul

Red Wattled lapwing

Red wiskered Bulbul

Ringed Plover

River tern

Rock Dove

Rose ring Parakeet

Rosy Starling

Rufous Treepie

Rufus Swallow

Rufus tail Lark

Sand Grouse

Sand Plover

Sauru Crane

Scaly Breasted Munia

Scarlet Minivet

Sea Eagle

Shikra

Short eared owl

Short legged Lark

Siberian Stonechat

Silver bill

Silver Gull

Spoonbill

Spotted Dove

Spotted Eagle

Spotted Owlets

Steppe Eagle

Stork billed Kingfisher

Straited Heron

Tickles Blue Flycatcher

TriColored Munia

Tundra swan

Variable Wheatear

Varigated Fairywren

Wandering Whistling Duck

Whiskered Tern

White breasted waterhen

White browed wagtail

White Cheeked Barbet

White cheeked Bulbul

White Stork

White throated Kingfisher

White wagtail

Wiretail Swallow

Woolly Neck Stork

Yellow footed green pigeon

Yellow Throated Bulbul

Street Arboretum of Jayanagar

A residential layout - The image this brings to mind is wide roads, footpaths carpeted with soft grass, shaded by trees and an abundance of tree filled parks pumping out fresh clean air. Home, a place synonymous with calm, peace, relaxation and life. Toddlers out to explore their surroundings, youth jogging and socialising; the elderly meeting and cherishing a sense of communal togetherness. This is what the city planners dreamt of when we had just got our independence and Jayanagar - the first planned layout in free Bangalore - was designed in 1948. The green, grassy footpaths are almost gone, but the trees and parks still exist as a testimony to the vision of those visionary administrators.  Thanks to these green loving architects, the walk to school was always fresh fragrant and invigorating. The change in seasons was marked by the colors and scents the trees put forth. It was even a mandatory superstition - that I had cooked up - to touch each tree on the path for good luck, and yes, extra taps on exam days!

I have wanted to create a map of these trees for a while now. The tree festival probably gave that extra push for the idea to become a reality. The below map guides you through the various trees lining the street. Try and remember the common names and identification indicators like leaves, flowers, bark and seed pods. There is an assignment towards the end of the walk :) We will encounter close to 26 species of common avenue trees in this part of the walk. A reference list is provided at the end of this post.

Link to the map: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=ztVQM_ctozHo.krZ1CsfVSa3k

We begin our walk at Ashoka Pillar. It was built in 1948 to mark the new southern extension of the city. Thanks to the pillar's historic significance, this circle still stands showcasing the beauty of these charming roundabouts that once dotted major intersections of the city. The circle used to be adorned with seasonal flowering plants but today its beauty is diminished by the easy to maintain leafy 'show' plants. Flanking the circle on four sides are mini parks with colorful flowering trees and very aptly, Ashoka trees. Looking ahead at Jayanagar, one can hardly imagine the groundnut fields of Siddapura and Kanakana Palya villages that once grew here.

Some interesting trivia:
1) The Cluster Fig, Peepal and Banyan trees are all species of Fig, but only the Cluster Fig is edible by humans. Be warned, the figs tend to have small insects inside. Split open the fruit in hand and drive off the flies before popping them in your mouth.
2) There are a surprisingly large number of Peepal and Banyan trees in this locality. Worth noticing is the almost village-like charm at the kattes (sit outs) under the Peepal trees.
3) The parks are named after earlier Diwans like Madhavan park and Krishna Rao park. Keeping one's name alive takes on a more sensible serene approach than dust and smoke covered busts in a noisy street corner!
4) Vijaya High School as well as the Corporation stadium were once lakes.
5) Here is a little tidbit of information I have grown up hearing about the Elephant Rock road:
http://bangalorebuzz.blogspot.in/2007/07/this-road-is-ode-to-elephant.html

The map will be continuously updated and if you are interested to join me in mapping out more streets and trivia, do get in touch at placid.sun@gmail.com! Let's learn a little more about our life giving silent neighbors.

List of trees:
African Tulips
Mast tree (Ashoka)
Copper pod
Pine (Araucaria cooki)
Sausage tree
Mahagony
Peepal
Jack fruit
Rain tree
Eucalyptus
Neem
Mango
Purple Bauhinia
Silver Oak
Moulmein Rose Wood
Avenue tree (Honge)
Gulmohar
Cluster figs (Atti/Hatti hannu)
Banyan
Indian cork tree (Aakasha mallige)
Cannon ball (Nagalinga pushpa)
Sampige
Yellow Tabebuia
Queens Flower (Lagerstroemia flos-reginae)
Golden showers (Cassia Fistula)
Jamoon
Screw pine (Kedige)

Thanks to Karthik's blog wildwanderer.com for the quick reference at times.

Learning to Swim in 21 days

So! Hello there! It's me again. The chap who drowned like 4 times despite all the talk of buoyancy!
Finally decided to face my fear of water (no no im not rabid just terrified i'll drown again). I joined swimming classes at a fairly decent pool not so near by. This blog is mostly for my reference but you are free to join in my experience :)
I plan to write about what as taught each day and how my progress has been so here goes:

D1
Get in to pool at the 1meter deep level and walk around the pool. Just get a little confidence walking and wading in water for about 20 minutes. Then hang on to the rod at the end of the pool bend at the waist and duck the head shoulder et al into water. Chin should be close to the chest. Watch how the legs automatically come floating up and voila! you are floating. Hold breath underwater and get over (a little!) of the fear of water.

D2
Again 1 meter depth. Practice the floating technique for longer. Relax!!! Towards the end kick back against the wall and try to float a distance. Then practice landing with both legs and then getting up for air. I fucked this one up. I was not relaxed, got tense and basically pulled my hamstring a litte cause I always freaked out and landed on one foot and came up gasping for breath. So I come home and look up how to keep body straight and not freak out.Findings:
Duck the head and back underwater to bring up the legs! Plus contract the glutes and back to align the body into a straight line. Mine is a little hunched from bad posture and used to cause my legs to drag down. Breath in, go all the way into water and only then kick off! If you kick off above water a lot of resistance will cause you to slow down. Also I was not so relaxed and confident of water yet.

D3
Armed with info and determination I step into the pool at 1M depth. One round of floating using handle bar and then we were allowed to practice by kick off from the wall. Braving the waters I plunged my head and back all the way into the water and then kicked off. Relaxed and floated and landed on both my feet. That boosted my confidence and then I practiced it a little more. The distance covered didnt matter but proper landing, breathing, relaxing and posture did. Voila! I was confident of this one.
Today he made up go to the middle and push off the floor and float towards the end. He would push in order to assist us. 2 rounds of this and then we went back to 3/4th of the pool and again same thing. The point was to hold our breath till we reach the end then land perfectly then come up for air. After this we practiced the kick off wall(reach midway) and kick off floor(reach 3/4 and once more) to reach the other end. By now I felt a little OK with my technique and was confident of floating. Yay my buoyancy is back :P
He closed class by making up take a sharp quick breath 1sec long and go under water and blow it out for 3 secs as we were coming back up. This was done standing holding the rod. Overall a good class, i am happy unlike yesterday!

D4 - D21
In short I did manage to learn a little swimming. Looking forward to this summer to actually practice it and make it an instinct!

I am back - yet again :)

So! Finally the writer block has been lifted...or so I hope! I am re organising my blog space. There is gonna be now this blog where I am gonna blabber all kind of random stuff that don't fall under the other categories :D

The other blogs I will put up are going to be more specific:

Plays and Movies
Books
Travel and Culture

So wish me luck and do visit and comment! You the audience are my biggest inspiration and I love to hear from you!

The Sparrow and the Crow

The sparrow rushed into the room as I looked up at the sound of fluttering wings. A crow chased the sparrow all over the room and chased it right out. I stood there looking on. The sparrow came in again. It hid behind me. The crow looked at me, eye to eye. The cold hard murderous stare of a raven. The gray-black unblinking eyes. My heart turned to stone from fear and anticipation of it's evil intentions. I felt the sparrow's fluttering wings on my back. The sensation of the beating wings struck my ear drums. It's tiny claws melting into my spine. The tiny warm heart warming my soul. The beating wings fusing into my shoulder blades. The thrilling sensation...and I woke, clenched fist, arched back and a frozen heart.

sms lingo update

well today I decided to come up with a new way of calling my sweet heart - ladies and gentlemen may I present to you my 'qt' a.k.a cutie :) oh well sometimes the bulb up in the brain works.
thank you and that will be all for now!

Kashmir and I am

For more than a quarter of a century I had never ventured beyond South India. When a friend of mine suggested I visit him in Kashmir I took it up without a second thought. The date was set to coincide with the tulip blooming. Spring in Kashmir is unlike anything in India. As I gaze out of the tiny window from the plane a whole new world unfurled in front of me. A realisation that the cloud mass is actually just a line of clouds stopped by a massive range of snow-capped mountains brings geography lessons on the might of Himalayas to mind. The huge carpet of yellow sesame flowers is like watching nature's own version of the famed kashmiri carpet. The crisp mountain air rejuvenates the soul in a manner no medicine ever can.

The tranquil mood as I get out of the airport is disrupted by the heavy military presence and the constant undercurrent of fear. However, a drive around the centerpiece of srinagar - the serene misty mystical Dal lake - instills a state of surreal existence. The overpriced ride on a Shikar suddenly feels priceless as I float along on the mirror finished surface. A walk around the Mughal gardens is like a sneak peek of the opulent times of the mighty kings.

For a flavor of the local, there is the famous Rogan Gosht for the meat eaters and the lotus stem for the herbivores. While the kashmiri Kwava - a delicate saffron infused golden yellow tea with almond flakes - is a treat to the senses, the salty herbal tea refuses to go down without a fight. The coveted Pashmina, the hand woven carpets and carved walnut furniture are wonderful heirlooms. The saffron and walnuts need to be savored in the short run of life as is a visit to the valley at the head of the mighty nation.

As I sit in the theater watching the movie "I Am" it suddenly dawns on me the enormous void in the hearts of 300000 odd kashmiri pandits who were forced into a mass exodus. Working in IT and watching people relocate all the time and a thought floats, "My roots". Are childhood roots important or can we grow new ones like the aptly named runners of plants? I guess each individual has his own behaviour. Yet, on reflection, roots are still needed no matter what.