Showing posts with label Bangalore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bangalore. Show all posts

A birding trip to Kokrebellur had been on my mind, ever since I heard of this exotic village where migratory birds flock in year after year during this season. So last weekend, we were off to Kokrebellur, 80kms from Bangalore, zooming off through Bangalore-Mysore highway at sunrise.

Spotbilled Pelicans, Painted Storks, Black Ibis breeding on the tamarind trees of this village is a sight which left us spellbound. We were completely bowled over by the sight of these huge birds, the size of which would easily put the local birds to shame. These enormous birds swarming in flocks on the top of tamarind trees, noisily flapping their wings, building nests, briskly flying in and out carrying small branches in their beaks made this place resemble a crowded street, which in reality is a peaceful village. In comparison to these avian species, we birdwatchers looked like jobless jacks hanging out here merely watching this flurry of activity and flashing our cameras.
 
Spotbilled Pelicans


Painted Stork
We were here at the right time and lucky to have been able to watch this nest building activity. And it is curious that these birds chose to come only to this village. It must have to do with the existence of numerous lakes and the Shimsha river flowing here, which provides for their food, mainly fish. It is also curious that they only chose the Tamarind trees to breed, while there are other bigger, sturdier trees like Peepul trees nearby. Both Pelicans and Painted Storks are seen co-existing on the same trees.These birds will now lay eggs, hatch and rear their off springs before they finally fly back to their place, usually by the month of May.

The villagers here never seem to trouble these birds, and look upon their arrival every year as sign of good luck and prosperity. If these avian visitors don’t arrive, villagers believe their crops will be lost that year . It seems the underlying fact behind this popular belief is that these bird droppings are a rich in phosphorous and potassium and act as good manure for crops.

To reach this haven, we took a turn from the highway and drove 12 kms inside. The barren landscape suddenly gave way to a beautiful green stretch, with fields of paddy, sugarcane and raagi fringed with cluster of coconut trees. Sericulture seemed to be quite popular here and we passed several silk farms on the way. At times we had to drive over stack of hay, the villagers had spread out on the road to get sun dried.
On the way was Tailur Kere lake, painted in golden honey by glistening rays of rising sun and the silhouette of numerous birds wading in the water sketched quite a contrast against the backdrop. Watched the Pelicans, Cormorants, a bevy of Blackwing Stilts and other unidentified duck-like birds wading here.

Tailur Kere
Flight of the Painted Stork
A canal feeding from the lake runs through paddy fields on the opposite side of the road. Village women were seen washing clothes along the canal sides. Spotted few green bee-eater birds here tirelessly darting from one electric line to another.

Later we drove towards the bridge over Shimsha river. We stopped here and sitting inside the car gorged on a quick breakfast of bread, jam and juice. The river brink was peppered with a generous sprinkle of lovely white waterlilies. Common Coot was seen gracefully wading between these lilies, randomly pecking on leaves and disappearing at times behind tall blades of grass. How lucky is it to be dreamily swimming between these beautiful water lilies all day long.

River Shimsha
Common Coot
An old man with his family embarked on the river bank with a huge flock of sheep, then to our utter surprise and delight started bathing the sheep. The reluctant sheep vehemently protested, bleating and wriggling under the old man’s strong arms, as he dragged each one of them into the water, giving them a good dip and briskly scrubbed them with his palm.



We then decided to call it a day, pleased at having spent an otherwise lazy Sunday morning, birdwatching in this beautiful village.

City Rain

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These days, it rains every evening in Bangalore. The sky is persistently clouded, casting a gloomy spell whole day long. I watched the rain through the glass panes from the fourth floor of my office. I could see the rain droplets plunging down, and the intermittent gale of wind blowing the drops upward, creating a hazy pattern up in the air. It's fascinating to watch these patterns from high above.The rain thrashes down on the parked cars and  people run helter skelter for a cover. But there are  few guys walking around, as if they are unaffected by the nature's fury.. I wonder, are they trying act super cool or are they really enjoying this..I quiver at the thought of getting drenched and later having to sit inside the air conditioned office space..

As I came out of the office after the rain, everything had a glossy washed out look.The air  was cold and the evening sky  was engulfed by menacing thunder clouds. As I walked through the tech park, lined all along with colossal glass buildings, I could see the dense blue-grey monsoon clouds reflecting on the tall glass structures and imparting them a quaint bluish tint. The lights inside the buildings added to the magical feel. 




  As I walked, it started drizzling and I had to pass by the lake, which is inside the tech park. The cold wind blowing through the lake gave me goose bumps. I wished I had a warm jacket on. It's beautiful to watch the lake in the rain. I stopped by to watch the dusky light from the evening sky making the rippling waters even more beautiful. The lake has a dense carpet of flowering plants, lining it's edges. Occasionally, during daylight, we find fishermen in coracles fishing here. At other times there are buffaloes waddling in the murky waters. Group of cormorants (black duck-like birds) breed on this lake. It's a curious sight to watch these water birds. It occasionally flings it's pretty neck into the water and does a vanishing act. After a few seconds, it reappears in some other part of the lake with a wriggling live fish in it's beaks. Then it just tilts it's head up and swallow the entire fish down, in the blink of an eye. After devouring a sumptuous meal of  fish, the cormorant flies out of the lake to the distant horizon. Sometimes it perches on the branch of a nearby tree, spreading out it's wing, as if to dry in the sun.



 The night was settling in. I could neither see the menacing beauty of the sky, nor the rain. All I could see were the silhouette of the buildings against the night sky and lights reflecting in the lake. I walked on in the city rain..

Hues of Holi

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The Holi celebration last week turned out to be a bonding time for all girls in our flat. Till then, me and RT shared a kinda hi-bye relationship with the rest of the girls. And on Holi, we just let down our guard and celebrated like a band of hooligans. I had almost lost hopes of celebrating Holi this year, since my Mom had come to stay with me for a week. My mom being the paranoid Mom that she is, warns me and RT about the colourful toxic chemicals choking our larynx, trachea, bronchi and all possible organs and about the deadly dermatological conditions that we may develop in the aftermath of Holi.

On the night of Holi, RT could no longer resist herself and returned from office wearing an evil grin and saches of colours overflowing her arms. She opened the door in a dramatic gesture and screamed, "Let 's play Holi girls !!!!!" I turned around to Mom and saw the ghastly expression on her face.



Mom: Are these natural colours or artificial? Where did you buy them from?
RT: Oh Aunty.. These are from roadside..Obviously some chemical...I got it cheap for 20 Rs
Mom had a priceless expression on her face
Mom: Heyyy!!!!! I will buy you natural colours tomorrow and you can play Holi then...
RT: But Aunty Holi is TODAY !!!!

By then the rest of the girls had joined in, all ready to celebrate. Mom couldn't tell anything and I took the silence for an Yes. (mounam sammatham) It was around 11 pm in the night. We debated on whether to celebrate on the roadside or on the terrace. Finally, taking into consideration our poor neighbourhood souls, we decided on terrace.. We created quite a ruckus on the terrace, screaming and attacking each other. I could feel the weird taste of colours stuffed into my mouth and even my ears were plugged with it.It was midnight and our laughter and screams reverberated the silent peaceful neighbourhood..A pack of street dogs were ferociously barking in front of our gate. Even our neighbour's friendly Alsation dog Tyson was going wild. We got phone calls from our worried house owner. Well, who had time to answer his calls. I must say our house owner is a cool dude. He didn't later enquire or make a fuss about our midnight escapade and we went on as if nothing had happened. And to add brownie points, the Holi brought all of us girls more close. We are bossom buddies now.

Two hours later, we were downstairs and pestering Mom.
RT: Aunty, can you click our pics pleaseeee????
Mom: NOOOO.. I will die of heart attack if I keep watching you
Me: Amma, can I hug you?????
Mom: @##$%%

At midnight, 3 baths and several scrubs later, I finally looked presentable.

Holi has always given me memorable moments. Two years before, in our office they arranged for celebrations at the rooftop cafeteria. Heaps of natural colours were kept at the counter along with sweets, snacks and unbelievably a vessel full of Bhang. We had a whale of a time. But there were a few scared lot, who went and locked themselves in the cafeteria restrooms.. Well, how long can they stay there.. When they ultimately came out, the tumultuous attack that awaited made them repent for being over-smart.

That year, at our PG, there was this this drama queen (DQ) who took bath and washed clothes only once in a blue moon. She shoves her dirty clothes into the cupboard and wears the same two days later after lavishly spraying the deodorant. At our wits end, when we enquire about this, the standard reply used to be "Oh, I took bath when you went out". Exasperated, I and N went on to plot a naughty scheme to break DQ's nonbathing spree. On the day of Holi, we thought it was the perfect time to execute our plan. We went and bought all possible colour saches. But at midnight we felt sorry for poor DQ and decided we won't drench her in coloured water but just smear the powder on her face and dress so that she is forced to take a bath. We attacked DQ with the powders at midnight and awaited with our fingers crossed. To our utter dismay, DQ just dusted off the powder from her clothes and went to the wash basin to wash off the colours from her face!!! "I will take bath tomorrow", she proclaimed. That was the final straw. We just went ahead and dissolved the colours in big jars of water and poured it directly over her head. For DQ, there was no option but to sulkingly go and take bath at midnight.. Phew...What a satisfying way to celebrate Holi!!!!

Chamba

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I first met Chamba in the PG, where I used to stay 3 years back. She was always draped in a maroon robe, had a close shaved head, and wore an innocent smile. Chamba is a Buddhist monk. If you enquire something to her, pat comes the reply "Yes Yes" in a queer accent. Because, "Yes" was the only English word she knew for a long time. She is a Tibetan monk, who lives in a monastery near Hubli and had come to Bangalore to learn English.

She stayed in our PG for a month. Initially we had a tough time, rather fun time, communicating using sign language like cave men. Once when she was back from her English coaching class, flaunting my great acting skills, I enquired "So what did you learn today?". Her blank face suddenly lit up, she smiled her toothy smile and replied "Chappathi". Gosh!! She thought I had asked her about what she ate. She had a note book, scribbled with English words and basic sentences. It resembled a first standard kids notebook. Every night, I and N used to read out to her from the book and ask her questions. After a few weeks, she was able to decently communicate to us through broken sentences and sign language.

Sometimes,I feel she acts like a school girl, who has just broken a few rules. She explains to me in a hushed tone, how she and her friends occasionally used to sneak out of the monastery to devour some delicious chicken fry. Who said monks are supposed to be vegetarians?? She is the most happy soul, when they serve egg and chicken once in a week in our PG. I and N loves taking her out, just to see the sheer joy on her face. She has never came out of the enclosed walls of her monastery since the last 30 years and gets excited and happy when she comes out with us to a nearby bakery to snack on egg puffs or for our occasional junk-jewellery shopping. But the only problem is that people out on the streets stare seeing a monk . But she seems quite unaware. I have never seen anybody feeling so happy to just come out of the house except maybe for my niece. But absolutely no grownups. And that's exactly why I love taking her out and I feel like I am taking her out on a special date.

She had left her home in Tibet as a teenager, to join the monastery. And that was 30 years back and she has never once gone back home since then. She gets letters from her brothers once in a blue moon and that's the only ties with the family who lives thousands of miles away. I listened in awe and finally asked her, "So do you love India? Don't you miss Tibet?" She replies, "India peace peace... Tibet no peace" She breaks away without getting the right words to continue and then started using her sign language. She explains that Chinese people come, fight and kill innocent Tibetans and hence it's very unsafe living out there. I really don't know whether the situation is same now, but maybe 30 years back this was Tibetan way of life. "India peace peace" was the proudest and most patriotic thing I have ever heard about India.

She went back to her monastery after a month, promising to come back next year. A year later, I had already moved out of that place. N called me up one day and told that Chamba was back and wanted to see me. I was getting engaged the next weekend. I came and broke the news of my engagement to Chamba. She was happy and asked me "He good?" I laughed and replied, "Yeah, he very good". She pressed a brown cover into my palm telling that it's a small gift. There were a few colourful ginger candies, sacred thread and a small craft work. She told me, "Tie the the sacred thread on his hands." She doesn't have any money, all the things I got were handmade by her. It felt so precious...

This year, she called me from a public phone booth. I wonder where she got the money from. But I was out of Bangalore that month. I don't know if I can ever see her again.. Maybe she will come next year too.. Maybe she will have money to call from a phone booth too..

Hope too see you sometime Chamba. And this Christmas season, I am remembering you, your innocent toothy smile, the good will and the cheer you brought.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Last Sunday was a lazy Sunday. I slept till around 11’0 clock, then got up and fixed myself a quick brunch of upma & tea. The sky was overcast and it was a perfect day to snooze off. I was lying on the bed, propped up against the pillows, trying to read the book “Snow” by Orhan Pamuk , when it started raining heavily. I could hear the faint thud thud against the glass windows.

My roomie was screaming from balcony at the top of her lungs. I rushed out thinking that her clothes might be outside on the lane to dry… ‘Hailstones’, she screamed on seeing me. The ice cubes on her outstretched palm were already melting. I could hardly believe this. It was actually raining hailstones in Bangalore!!! I collected a few hailstones from the balcony and tried catching a few as it pelted down… Many people in our seven storied apartment had come out to their balconies to watch. The kids were excitedly scampering around. And on the ground floor, few people were out drenching in the rain and collecting hailstones in a bucket.

My room mate usually stocks up eatables for the rainy days. She loves preparing hot soup or making banana fritters when it rains.. So we go out to the balcony, sit on the steps, watch the rain and sip the hot soup or munch the fritters. I remember the first time when we bought Knorr instant soup mix. It almost ran out of it’s expiry date because it was summer and it didn’t rain for a long time in Bangalore.

Boca Grande is the newly opened restaurant near my house. Boca Grande is a Spanish word meaning “big mouth”. And I had won their puzzle contest which earned me free-dinner-for-two. I was planning to go along with my friend for a lavish dinner on Friday. But severe hunger pangs propelled us to hit the place on Tuesday itself. The handsome owner welcomed us, showed us around the place & told us that as the sole winner, we are entitled to eat to our hearts content.. kewllll..For once, I could devour all the delicacies without having to worry about the ultimate BILL. We scanned through the menu card and started off right from starters. Smart as we are, we ordered the highest priced items in each category and items referred as ‘BC special’.. heheee ;) Food was yummy but the problem was with our appetite. By the time we had the starters and cake-shake, we were almost stomach full. Half way through our main course we felt we couldn’t hog any more. We decided to take a break, chat a while and then try to finish it off. But it was of no avail.. Thus with a broken heart, we left many of those special items untouched :( And I was disappointed that I couldn’t have those tempting mouth melting desserts. Nevertheless, we packed off scoops of Belgium chocolate ice cream with lotsa nutties for my roomie.


I like dancing away to glory. That is if I am dancing to my own tunes and dancing to my own specially copyrighted dance moves. I joined free style dance classes this week. Yesterday was my first day. Initially I was enjoying every bit of it. The instructor was teaching us random steps and we were following it. Later it turned to aerobics and finally to Bollywood dance. The music was “soni de nakhre sone lagade”. I started imagining myself as Govinda and suddenly I couldn’t dance anymore ;) I found it difficult to get along with the ‘continuation of steps’. Hope it gets better in the coming classes. And to add to the insult, two girls in my class are dancing even better than the instructor. They need to see the steps only once and they can dance like some divas. Well, yours truly is feeling really J :)

















Yesterday I woke up to the voice of my roomie, “Today is not Sunday. Wake upppp...It’s already 9’o clock.” I could hardly open my eyes & felt too tired. So I decided to pamper and lavish myself with a corporate extravagance termed as ‘sick leave’. I quickly sent sms to my colleague & went back to catch up my beauty sleep.

I woke up around 11.30 & quickly made myself some elaichi tea & omelet. I had a quick brunch and was relaxing in my bed watching tv, when the door bell rang. I and another girl N were the only ones in my PG .We are around 10 girls staying in our apartment on the 3rd floor. All the other girls had long back left for work.

I wondered who might be at the door, at this time of the day, when usually nobody will be around at home. I assumed it might be the lady who comes everyday to collect the garbage. Feeling too lazy I didn’t bother to get up from my bed. I heard N answering the door & talking to somebody. After few minutes, the bell rang again, and this time a long ring. I got out of my room & found N lingering around the door. She looked tensed.

Me: What happened? Who’s there at the door?
N: (in whispers) There are two guys at the door. They were asking for S. I told them S is not here.(S is another girl in our PG) Then they called somebody on the phone & told, “Sir, she is not here. And even her cell phone is switched off. What should we do now?”
Me: (all suspicious) do they look troublesome???
N : (in a dramatic gesture) They look like some gundas..Big & gruff-looking men
Me : uh-ohhh
N: And later they changed their tactics. They told she has some courier. But they were no papers in their hand..
Me: If they are really courier people why do they ring the bell again & again... Let’s lock the front door properly.

Immediately N went inside and got the key. We locked the door and secured the latch. Then we tip-toed into the kitchen & peered through the window curtains. They were two bulky men. One in red t-shirt & another one in a check shirt…They surely looked a bit too aggressive and resembled those villains in suspense thriller movies.I remembered the previous night, while I was walking across S’s room. I sensed cigarette smell. She never used to smoke inside the room. And I made a mental note that she might be really tensed about something. I put two & two together and suddenly felt scared for poor S.

Me: Let us not bother. They will get fed up & leave soon..
N: Hope so..

Suddenly the bell rang. This time terribly long and persistently. We heard somebody trying the door knob & pushing against the door. I thanked my good-karma that we locked it with key.Then there was the sound of key being inserted & turned .. We both looked terrorized at each other.The door would have unlocked now, had it not been for the inside latch. They were pushing hard with all the might from outside.. The thud sound from the door sent shivers up my spine..This must be some maniacs on run...

N screamed out, “Let’s call the security”..She ran to the bedroom windows..I ran to my room to get my mobile in case of emergency.I grabbed it, ran to N’s bedroom & latched the door from inside. I was almost sure they were going to break open the front door anytime. My heart was pounding…We opened the window. From there, we could see the two security guys in the opposite apartment building. We started calling out to them & waving our hands. They looked, but didn’t seem to bother.. I mentally cursed whoever appointed these irresponsible security guards...From our 3rd floor, we saw one guy down..We called out to him about the two guys at our doors.. He looked clearly confused & finally shouted back, “kannada kannada”…Eeekkk..what wrong timings!!!!!!! Luckily the ironing-guy came to check the matter.. We told him our door no: & about the two guys trying to break open our home.

At that time, the land phone started ringing in the living room. What the hell now..Everything was a total pandemonium.Finally, I carefully unlatched the bedroom door & went to attend the call. Suddenly with a final thud the front door came open……………………

S was standing there with a heavy carton. I couldn’t believe my eyes. She was supposed to be in big danger.Those nasty-looking guys were supposed to be after her....

Me: Youuu..you are supposed to be in office!!!!!!!!!!
S: Why the hell didn’t you girls’s open the door? My new laptop is getting delivered today. When I came in, those guys were waiting…

I & N were standing speechless. Our faces embarassed & pale after all this mental trauma...

“I tried the keys. But you had latched it from inside. At last I had the security to come and push the door open”

Me & N were on the verge of fainting……..water please……….

PS: She got herself a brand new pink laptop :-)

Gone Crazy

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Phew...I need a break. Wish I could sit back, relax , reflect & dream…. Even the weekends had been quite busy these days. I had been literally banging my head on impossible ‘deadlines’ since last 1 month. Everyday I come back late at night, eat & hit the bed. After a long, I had a relaxing day today. So might as well utilize it before I get assigned with my next work. And as my friend tells, “You have completed disappeared from e-world.” Hmmmph!!! No orkutting, mailing, blogging indeed. It seems like I have gone back to Stone Age communication. Am out of contact with my friends :( woaaaaaaaaa…

  I am desperately waiting for the project tapeout in December. Have a list of  stuff I wanna do after that. Joining salsa classes & charcoal painting sessions hits the top list. I was at office on Saturday & contrary to the usual, I finished my tasks much earlier than the deadline. Was so happy that I could relax on Sunday. And I celebrated this by going out & having a ‘big dinner’. And relax I did the next day being down with ‘food poisoning’ & a resulting foul mood :) After popping a few pills, felt enough energized by evening to go out to Forum mall with my roomie. Met a few friends there & proceeded to have a strictly vegetarian dinner at Transit. When we finished & came out of the restaurant, it was almost 10 pm..

Roomie: I’m dying to watch ‘Jab We Met’. And all because of your
dumb work, we were not able to watch it this weekend
me: hmmmph…!!!
Roomie: why don’t we book it for next weekend????
me: hmmm…
Roomie: what ‘hmmm’?????
me: I cant wait till next weekend!!!!

We were standing in the queue at Cinema Europa to book tickets for the coming weekend.The movie availability status kept flashing in front of the counter…And there it was blinking right in front of us “Jab We Met - tonight 10 pm show available”

I looked at her…Hurrrayyy…It was 2 minutes to 10 pm.

“Let’z gooooo” , I screamed.
“Yeahhhhhhhhhh”, she screamed back
“My goodness!!! It gets over at midnight 1 am. How will we get back home????”
“Does it really matter???” came the crazy reply
“Not really!!!”, I was equally crazy…
“We will get prepaid autos down forum”

Yeahhhh.And we rushed to get the tickets and raced to the movie hall. We were lucky that the movie had not started yet. I looked around to see the crowd. Most of them were families. And right in front of us was another girl’s gang, just like us..Crazy girls..Crazy Bangalore!!! Hurrayyy!!!!

I must say say, the movie was worth the risk. Though not a big time fan of Kareena, I found her acting really good in this movie. And Shahid too is looking all cutey cutey.

The prepaid counter was opened but the guy refused to issue the tickets.. Since we girlz didn't want a street-fight at midnight 1 am, we found an autowalla who took us for the 1 km joy-ride back home for 50 bucks!!! That was indeed a crazy Sunday…

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