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

Standing trees, frolicking birds Walking at a pace dictated by the Mizo slopes allowed me to be ‘there’ and enjoy the silences and spaces that hills allow. I end up doing 'much' when I am doing 'nothing’. Some musings on bird sightings and some images of trees from Dampa with a sense of awe and bewilderment at their beauty and the impact they have on us. A deep gratitude for being able to co-exist with them – albeit for a while - their presence mystic and majestic at the same time. Trunks one wants to touch, feel . . Trunks that seem to have emotions . .  Common Green Magpie I saw on multiple occasions in and around the Teirei campus, flying low. On none of these occasions did it fly higher than fifteen feet. Over the telephone later that evening a friend mentioned it could be as it is a ‘heavy’ bird. Its demeanour is far more striking than the sketch in field-guide. Must be a difficult task, bringing out the beauty of these winged wonders on paper for, desp...

Tracks Robyn Davidson A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1,700 miles of Australian Outback Vintage Departures Vintage Books ~~ Recent trip to Mizoram read this gem on the Australian desert. Most of it was to the company of a candle burning near and the occasional church-bells afar. Candle-light as if accentuates the reading experience! Last trip it was Africa. Such connect with a book is rare. Many a line where one halts, reads again, and appreciates the character’s multiple shades. Also one takes off at times on trips of one’s own; one line could launch more than one thought. And there are more than few such lines. Some such lines and thoughts they launched I share below. I have followed these lines in the order in which they appear in the book. They are followed ( though not necessarily ) by an indication of story’s phase at the point and then my musings. I had wondered, more than once, as I flipped the pages, on how she had been able to maintain notes bear...

Sunday morning in Hyderabad Both children slipped, they rose - getting their spread-out feet together in the process, tapped their bums and were at it again; skidding on the grains put-out for pigeons. Ten odd meters away few not so adventurous children gently offered grains to ever-ready pigeons. A third category of children fell in the hesitant category. This action around pigeons was endearing enough to take one’s attention off from Mecca Masjid’s splendour. I silently thanked the non-interfering parents! Amidst the small crowd, I guess, I also saw an aunty from Rajasthan, a Hindu, putting grains for pigeons and quietly walking away. To quote Vinod Mehta ‘ there’s somewhere a moral in all this’ . One side of the Masjid’s spacious compound was being swept clean with entire branches of coconut trees while farther away, in a corner, young ones played with ball. Carefully draped chandeliers inside the building brought out other, not so welcome, actions of the pigeons! Before t...

The Land of The Setting Sun and Other Nature Tales Arefa Tehsin and Raza H Tehsin TERI 2014 Stories and authors. Last month a friend shared of selecting books as gifts for younger ones. The month before an acquaintance had mentioned reading being on the rise, especially those aged ten and around. Books like The Land of The Setting Sun and Other Nature Tales surely encourage reading and warrant gifting; not only for the younger ones but also for their parents. It is of interest to those interested in wildlife and will appeal to those not keen on wildlife as well; this proverbial ‘preaching beyond the choir’ is much welcome today. There is a need to take us closer to wildlife especially today when perhaps more of us are dis-connected from nature than previously in recorded history. Stories harbor immense potential to re-connect us. All the more in a culture like ours where story- telling transcends history and mythology! As Janet Litherland states ‘ Stories h...

Music of rains Rushing wind, as if, weaves in the open Waft rings in the music of church bells afar Warp bring in smell of pigs and hens around Above me, the sky finds it difficult to hold the heavy clouds Clouds get darker with energy, await sparkles Birds sit still on trees, as the time flies away Rain follows, gathering momentum like a steam engine, Puddles soon enjoin tin-roofs, leaves, roads, others As their orchestra churns out joyous music

Plain Tales from the Raj CharlesAllen I enjoy reading of the times gone by and am often left wondering how it would have been to be part of society then at various locations. The pace of life, openness of the places described, people interacting with rivers and forests, all fascinate me. Plain Tales from the Raj does this; it takes me to those times. The book contains stories of coming to a ‘different’ and far-away land, living, adopting lifestyles and thriving in a land where language and culture are alien. Of separation and affairs. Of moving en-masse to the hills in summers. Of solitary and lonely lives. Of same set of activities each day. Of colourful evenings in clubs. Of becoming district magistrates at ( age of ) twenty-one and commanding absolute authority over huge areas; some believing, like Churchill, of their belonging to a superior race. It has repeated references to Rudyard Kipling’s work. I had read Kipling including his vivid description of life in Shimla...

Korma, Kheer and Kismet:  Five Seasons in Old Delhi Pamela Timms Aleph Book Company 2014 At one of the panel-discussions at the India Non Fiction Festival at New Delhi I recall Ira Trivedi ( co-panelist with Pamela Timms ) asking her if she did not worry falling sick (eating the street food at Old Delhi that she was then happily describing ). Quickly came the reply that had me intrigued about the book – ‘ the only 2 times I have fallen sick in Delhi is when I have had meals at star hotels in the city, street food is absolutely safe and lovely ’. I later recalled reading couple of articles by Pamela Timms in Mint with lines like ‘ I soon discovered a whole new world of food and flavours to obsess over and crave, light years away from the shrink-wrapped sanitized food culture I had left behind in Scotland, and even the gloopy bland curries I had eaten in Indian restaurants at home ’ . Finally got the book in recent weeks and loved the cover – there’s so...