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

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...

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...

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 ...

Wildlife in a City Pond Written by: Ashish Kothari Illustrated by: Sangeetha Kadur Published by: Pratham Books First English Edition: 2014 A friend wrote this, of the book, on facebook "... brought back memories of a few mornings spent wandering around here..." and what little doubts I had of procuring it were brushed aside. Not many books succeed in make that connect with readers.  I believe that there is over-kill of information and exercise or module based books in the gamut of conservation and environment education. We need to have interesting stories (besides of course the regular interactions and facilitation of platforms for these interactions) to make the younger ones aware of the environment and enthuse them to conserve it. As a friend says “we are a nation of stories and story-tellers and that is what works”. Stories that ideally talk of corresponding action as well. This is the kind of book that perhaps one had been looking for! The i...

This article finds space in July - September 2014 issue of Hornbill  I visited the Siju Eco Camp, located on the banks of the Simsang river across the Siju Wildlife Sanctuary, Meghalaya, during first week of February 2013, with colleagues. A part of Samrakshan’s eco-tourism initiative, our objectives were to organize an in-house workshop for team members and allot time to look for birds. Samrakshan has taken up interesting and unique initiatives to conserve the habitat. These range from participatory elephant monitoring program to one on Community Conserved Areas. Samrakshan, a NGO registered as a Charitable Trust, works towards conserving biodiversity values in an equitable and just manner. Its Baghmara field-base was initiated during 2004. Pitcher Plant (Memang Koksi), South Garo Hills : Pankaj Sekhsaria Simsang from the hanging bridge at Siju : Pankaj Sekhsaria First the birds... A Blue Whistling-Thrush Myophonus caeruleus had made the Siju Eco Camp its ...

Kohima War Cemetery Maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission We react to people. There are people we are at ease and love being with and there are those of the other kind. One reacts to places as well. Places that tend to make one comfortable and at peace - enough to be lost in thoughts that one wants to – are rare This is one such place After the first trip to Kohima - when a friend and I missed it - have tried to make it at least once during each trip On one of these missed those I had lost in recent years Not easy to recall another place - that one has been to - which has been maintained in such an immaculate fashion Once as I sat on a wall I was stunned with the manner in which one staff-member moved over the walls – for me it would have been high intensity jumps ( and a failed one had I been foolish to overrate myself and attempt one ) but looking at him, as he moved from one wall to another, was like enjoying a ballet The ...