yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

Across the Chicken Neck – Travels in Northeast India Nandita Haksar Rainlight RUPA 2013 Share some snippets from different parts she moved along – some on account of their pertinent questions and some my bias towards forests. Some words that describe the book Pluses Well-researched, gives a feel of the region, puts forth facts without fear ~ Minuses Amateurish at points, too much of 'I' factor, can do with editing ~ Nagaland Around me I see many tourists, Indian and Western, furiously taking photographs of the cultural troupes. What strikes a discordant note is that all the hundreds of photographers and tourists, not a single one bothers to pause and speak to any of the dancers. No one seems to want to hear their stories, to share their concerns, or to understand the difficulty of keeping alive a culture which has lost much of its meaning under the onslaught of organized religion. I am also disgusted by how the officers of the Indian s...

The Rivered Earth Vikram Seth Hamish Hamilton an imprint of PENGUIN BOOKS 2011 Reviews in HINDU and World Literature Today Poem reading by Vikram Seth A book which, to me, brings out the essence of 'passion' and 'talent' ~ Two poems I loved - more - from ‘Songs in Time of War’ Thoughts while travelling at Night Light breeze on the fine grass. I stand alone at the mast. Stars lean on the vast wild plain. Moon bobs in the Great River’s spate. Letters have brought no fame. Office? Too old to obtain. Drifting, what am I like? A gull between earth and sky. Spring in the Time of War The state lies ruined; hills and streams survive. Spring in the city; grass and leaves now thrive. Moved by the times the flowers shed their dew. The birds seem startled; the hate parting too. The steady beacon fires are three months old. A word from home is worth a ton of gold. I scratch my white hair, which has grown so...

The Mammals of North East India Text, line drawings and maps by Anwaruddin Choudhury Gibbon Books and The Rhino Foundation for Nature in NE India Supported by Forestry Bureau, COA, 2013 Book launch Getting the book Snippets Pieces (neither connected nor complete) from each of the 3 sections (Introduction, Systematic list and Taxonomic descriptions and Species likely to occur) are shared below to give a glimpse of the spectacular diversity of the region that is brought out by the publication.  Attempt is made to eek dollops from multiple species in the section (Systematic list and Taxonomic descriptions) to bring out the wide array of aspects covered. Introduction Review of Literature In the 1940s and 1950s literature continued to be scanty. Some of the works on mammals holding good information on NE India were Pocock (1940), Parsons (1941), Prater (1948), Ellerman & Morrison-Scott (1951), Shebbeare (1953), Gee (1956), Khajuria (1956) a...

Kestrel On 20/10/2013 I saw 1 Common kestrel ( Falco tinnunculus ) from my room at Ritz Hotel in Aizawl. I saw it for about 20 minutes, as if protecting itself from rain. It sat in a ledge on the top floor, yellow claws and the black tips of the claws were clearly visible as was the yellow on the beak. Its posture was slightly different from what I have seen on the telephone towers at Saiha ; possibly because of the location. I noticed that the tail was not long (this came out since 2 wagtails came and perched about 10 – 15 feet away from it – albeit little higher – and helped comparison). It was not affected by the wagtails and their calling, only once in 20 minutes I understand it called, initially it was positioned perpendicular to me i.e. I faced its side with its head to my right and it twisted its neck with ease to as if look at me without being perturbed by my presence, the manner in which it moved its neck reminded me of the Spotted Owlet  ( Athene brama ) owl I...

NEPED and FES ’ joint actions to build on the existing Community Initiatives on Conservation across the state had us at Benrue ( Peren, Nagaland ). Primary objective of the week was to interact on mapping of Community Conserved Areas(CCA) boundaries . Benrue, however, as the directory of Important Bird Areas (IBA) and experience of friends who had visited earlier suggested was a very special dot on the ornithological map of not only the state but also the region. But the time our week-long trip came to an end we had come across species ranging from the tiny Naga Wren Babbler ( Spelaeornis chocolatinus ) to the Grey Sibia ( Heterophasia gracilis ) ( the numbers in which we saw it made us wonder on its being rare and a trigger species for the IBA ); Black Eagle ( Ictinaetus malayensis ) looked down upon us as we walked the boundary while the Himalayan Griffon Vulture ( Gyps himalayensis ) came to have a closer look as we had tea and I understand I also saw the Yellow-t...

Feeling Mizoram  ~ ~ Back to where: Newspapers have holiday on Sunday . .  Road signs warn people not to drink and drive - in a dry area . . A big cross greets one on landing at the airport . .  Hotel staff say ‘tu’ or ‘tum’ after saying ‘sir’ and the tone happily smells of equality  ~. ~  Leaves falling from trees have such a free abandon to them – also each of them is different : colour / fall . . Once in a while wind hastens the fall ~ ~  Life as if becomes 3 D in the silences / openness around – one perhaps feels more . . Wonder if there is any connection – for this is the place which taught me not to take self seriously ~ ~ ~ Bas yahan sirf patte hilte hue dikhte hain Sunday ko . . Beech beech me kutte ya murgi ki awaaz . . baki roj ke shor se aaram hai . . dolne ki ichha karti hai kabhi kabhi in patton ke saath saath ~ ~ Murgi aur church ki awaaz jaise bindiyaan hain alag rangon ki ek kore kagaz pe – Sunday ke...

Share a piece by Yaranajit and me that finds place in February 2014 issue of Sanctuary Asia (Vol. XXXIV No. 1) A group of pale, yellowish white-winged butterflies fluttered around the rotting fruit. We moved forward slowly and then stood still to observe them. Yes, the prominent yellowish-white forewings had a black margin with two chains of white spots and two isolated white spots. The whitish-yellow hind wings had two tails with a ridged margin. A couple of years ago, we would not have been able to identify these butterflies but we had no hesitation now – Great nawabs we wrote down! The nawab butterflies, along with the rajahs, we had read up, belong to the ‘brush-footed butterflies’ family, also referred to as Charaxinae group. Nawab butterflies occur in Northeast India and further east up to Thailand. Many have gaudy colours and brilliant flashes thanks to iridescent scales covering the wings. Beauty notwithstanding, some are known to favour decaying crab-meat or rotting ...

This piece finds place in the June 2013 issue of the Newsletter and Journal of the Rhino Foundation for Nature in NE India Saiha, one of the eight districts of Mizoram is located at its fag end and caresses Myanmar. It houses some of the most amazing remaining rain forests in community owned lands within the biodiversity hotspot of northeastern India. Samrakshan ( NGO, with which I am associated ) works towards conservation education with school going children ( and their teachers ) of select schools, youth associations, village councils and forest department personnel in Saiha. It perceives them as active partners in the program rather than as participants. Film screenings, tea stall conversations, posters, participating in celebrations – meetings of partners, nature walk, documentation of local wildlife values are some of the actions undertaken in the process. While being sensitive to the local cultural values efforts are designed to involve the partners in discussions, argumen...

Some snippets, concerning adults, from an interesting book -  Conservation Education and Outreach Techniques Susan K Jacbson, Mallory D Mc Duff and Martha C Monroe Publisher: Oxford University Press Print ISBN-13: 9780198567714 Learning and teaching with adults (and youths) Maturity generally brings in a different set of priorities for learning, especially a greater sense of self-direction, more experiences from which to draw upon, and a desire to learn things that can immediately be useful in work or social situations. In the likely event of a diverse group of adult learners, it is important to use a variety of learning strategies to appeal to the wildest possible set of learners, allow adults to choose their subgroups or task, and permit a variety of responses and outcomes. As a result, most adult training workshops include icebreakers to introduce people, large group information-delivery, small group discussions, engaging activities,  and opportunit...