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Showing posts from November, 2014

An evening with a tree

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Evening walks in the Osmania University take me to the - endearing to eyes and friendly to the spirit - Landscape Garden many a time. It is here that I have come across noisy enthusiastic parakeets and very slim hornbills. The only day I have walked with the camera I enjoyed with a tree – going up, caressing its trunk, marveling at the colours and shades of leaves, flowers and more that lay scattered around its feet,  wondering how calm and friendly it stood and more! The clicking also left me with a host of questions – What interactions does it have with its neighbours? Which bird species it provides food and shelter to? How do the students who come to study in the garden perceive it? How do seasons affect it? How common or uncommon it is in the campus and the landscape?  What does Pradip Krishen have to say of the species? This is a 'friendly to climb' tree and how I love it! Branches that give a feel of its vast experience. Branches that ca...

Education and Conservation : Some Parallels Some Questions

Attended a talk by Dr. Rajaram Sharma – at a function organized by Teacher Plus recently as a part of its 25 th year celebrations. ~ In the lines below what I attempt is to capture select elements that stayed with me, touched some chord somewhere within and not a draft or ‘note’ on his talk. Probability of the text not doing enough justice is high but I risk it none the less. I have also made attempts to place thoughts (most of them on wildlife conservation) that visited me as I heard and later wrote. ~ Lousy job One of the lines that has since stayed - if at the end of a talk or a lecture one feels that the person has answered all questions and cleared all doubts the speaker has in all probability done a lousy job! A talk by a teacher, or else, should make one think and I thank Prof. Rajaram Sharma for bringing this out when people, all around, seem to have solutions when many a time they have not even heard the person out! I recall a one to one meetin...

From the rolling tracks

Musings as one rolled on the tracks  ** Kuch aisa sula diya rail gadi ne, Mano kisi karibi ke god me sir ho, Uth ke darwaze se mehsoos ki Khoobsoorat sham – alhad, khud me mast aur apni aur bulati, Phir tare aye Peeth pe let kar hi unhe nihara ja sakta hai – baat chit ki jaa sakti hai, Train ke haule haule hilne se  - aur mooh pe hawa lagne se Maza to aati hai Aur neend bhi kya khoob aati hai ** Crossed the lovely Krishna and Tungabhadra, Both appeared busy - unlike me at times on the window at others the door, From Darters basking to herons awaiting fishes, From sand-mining using bullock-carts to fishing using coracles, People chatting, washing clothes, going somewhere, bathing, doing nothing,  Why did we have only dead-pan names in school days No trips to rivers ? No chats with people interacting with rivers ?  ** Earlier posts on railway journeys  Moving on rails ...