my favourite words of wisdom

worldly wisdom

come out of the shell... grow and prosper

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from Arabia. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.
Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.
The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer."
In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this miracle."
The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"
With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, " It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting."
We are all made to fly -- to realize our incredible potential as human beings. But instead of doing that, we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling.
So let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and free ourselves to the glory of flight.

Speaking ENGLISH the MALLU way

The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : Speaking ENGLISH the MALLU way

Young Myna Chick

As mentioned in my previous posts, the nest box in my home balocony has been occupied by mynahs. For the past 15days hatching actvities are going on in full swing by the parent myna's. I could hear the sound of young myna chick from inside. For the first time yesterday, the little chick starts peeping from the hole. The young mynah chick is enthusiastic to the world... a pic

Mesmerising Monsoon Clouds 2012 from Air.

I was always fascinated by the Great Indian Monsoon. The monsoon rains are vital for the economy of India. It is elixer of life for Indian farmers. If you live in north India, you can see apparently see the transformation of life after the monsoon rain. Most part of the year, the sky remains cloudless and only during the monsoon period we can see passing clouds and percipataion. It is a pleasure to watch the puffy passing clouds. During the wet phase of the monsoon, the passing clouds pass through passing rains, one after other, dark clouds comes from SW and pound rain and disappear in the eastern skies. It is a delight to watch the monsoon rains and monsoon rains.

I used to under how the sky looks during monsoon period. Lask week I had an opportunity to fly from Bangalore to Baroda, and I waste no time in capturing the magical moments thru the plane window glass. Some snaps below:

Clouds intensity starts increasing as I go down south (21th june 2012)

Puffy clouds, like white candy.. felt like touching them

Suddenly intensity of the clouds increases, and plane experience turbulence when hit upon huge cloudmass

while ascending you could observe dense clouds in the sky

Return journey, cloudy sky at the dawn.. pic from high elevation, above the monsoon clouds(27th June 12)

Encountered huge cloud cover (may be near karnataka / Maharastra border) where the SWM was active, for few minutes nothing visible only fog like clouds everywhere.. a thrilling experience..

After few minutes, sky cleared little, and little light could be seen.. ah what a relief...

Mumbai skyline...

Overall it was an amazing experience to fly during the South West Monsoon season. You could see different shades and shapes of clouds and seeing then from above is just chilling.

Not only air-travel, the rail route from Mumbai to Trivandrum, by Konkan railway route, during monsoon  is one of the fabulous & rewarding experience...try and enjoy yourself.. it cannot be described in words...

silence helps- short story

There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him. After searching high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn. He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded.

Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance.


The farmer looked at him and thought, "Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough."


So the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn. After a while the little boy came out with  the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed.


The boy replied, "I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction."


Moral:
A peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind. Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every day, and see, how sharply it helps you to set your life the way you expect it to be...!

Success redefined !!!!

This image changed my perception of Success. Normally what we perceive as Success is what is apparantely seen... But we need to see the real picture of success, some times what is acheived is not visible, but deeply rooted inside. So don't just jump on out side shows only..  This may a valuable lesson in Corporate sectors also.

The first pre-monsoon shower of 2012

The pleasant experience after the first rain is unparallel, it is ecstatic, It brings happiness and joy, the pleasant smell of the earth, which was parched by scorching sun and the first rain drops drench the dry sand and releases joy all around by way of fragrance..

Some picture on the development of the clouds of the first rain..

the changes after the monsoon rain 2012

Today ie 10th June 2012, Baroda received its first pre-monsoon shower. From the morning there was passing clouds, but around 4.50 pm patches of cloud formation from south west darken and there was little heavy drops and after a few minutes it poured. However, the clouds was localized and clouds formation was not wide and big enough to cover the whole sky. It poured for just 5-10 minutes only. However it transformed the nature.. the pleasant smell of the soil ( shall we call Petrichor- which means the smell of the earth.. just got from googling), the wet road and overall cooling effect after the first rain is beyond words.. I am searching for words to express the feeling.. 

The normal date of onset of monsoon over this part (Baroda) is June 15th. I wonder how the nature is doing its duty punctually and systematically, I think we humans only not giving proper importance to the nature its due..

I wonder how systematically development of clouds occur prior to monsoon, as the sky here remains cloud less for the rest of the year.. I think only because of the SW Monsoon phenomena there is generation, formation and passage of clouds here, and there is no big hills around to block the clouds for rain formation. So it is sheer nature and the mechanism of the nature which forms the rain cycle.

In this SW 2012 i would like to capture the images and post here...

My first posing, before the first rain, how the Ground looks.. see the picture,.. the ground is grass free, with full of fine sand.. See how after the rains it transforms.. exciting.. just visit this page to see the transformation...

This year 2012, the progress of the monsoon is slow and after the first rain pre-monsoon shower on 5th June, heavy rain again on the night of 3rd July 2012. See down below, A picture of the ground, clicked on 4th July, morning.

see here for more updates...

myna nesting in the nest box-updates

June 9, 2012.

The myna's expelled the sparrows from the card board nest box and now mynas occupied the same.
Initially the myna's thrown out the nesting material of the sparrow. Mynas re-constructed the nest for about 15days by bringing twigs, feathers, and tweets. Earlier the nest was shabby and now it made it order. Initially the myna's were sensitive to human movement, now it was familar with us and not bothered even if we present in the balcony. They comes and goes without bothering our presence near them.

The myna's are more cacophony in nature, it is showing various strange gestures and always noisy. I start liking its mannerism.

A picture of myna's taking off from the nest box.

The mynah brings various items to built its nest, see, it has brought a used polythene cover here, It is using green leaves, used plastic tea cups, feathers, used cotton..and so on. So can we say the birds adopt themselves to use the synthetic materials such as "Plastics".. I don't know how these synthetic material have an effect on their chicks and its use.. only systematic scientific study on the behaviour and effect pattern will unravel some intersting facts...

July 8th 2012

For the past 15 days, I could observe intense activity around the nest box as hatching process completed and I could see a little you myna peeping out of the hole. Father and mother myna's continously feeding the young chick. But the strange thing is, there is only one chick in the nest. The young chick was fed by insects, small lizards, earthworm.. I was amazed by the continous feeding.. how come a small chick eat soo much? From morning to evening, taking turns, both father & mother myna brings feeds continiously and feeding the chick, however, there is no spillage and dropping near the nest box. It is absolutely neat & clean@# this is quite contrary to the pigeons, last time when pigeon incubated, it almost spiled the whole place by its dropping, but I could not spot even a single droppings of myna. Neat and clean fellows.. Moreover, the young chick continously sounds and both parent myna's also making various kind of sounds, and during this hatching period it is very lively.. Today, being Sunday, I could get time to observe and I clicked some photos, the mother myna brought a lizard to feed the chick...see the pictures on the top....

wisdom: what is heaven & hell

A holy man was having a vwith God one day and said, 'God, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'
God led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it impossible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. God said, 'You have seen Hell.'

 They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equiped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, 'I don't understand..' It is simple,' said God . 'It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

Remember to be happy you should always share your spoon with others; in simple terms, help others and get benefitted.

puzzle solved...

I was wondering what the bird could be since yesterday... Early in the morning, I woke up by the calls of myna..which includes croaks, squawks, chirps, clicks and whistles,  I just peeped through the balcony door and found it is indeed "myna". So the myna is trying to occupy the sparrow nest box.. and I could realize that It is unable to move in smoothly to complete the nest as the diameter of the hole is not big enough to allow myna eaither. The myna is tapping the side of the hole to widen.. I could see a behavious of wood pecker in this myna. Infact, it was trying to widen the hole of the wooden nest box..

Then I made a study on "myna":

The Common Myna is readily identified by the brown body, black hooded head and the bare yellow patch behind the eye. The bill and legs are bright yellow. There is a white patch on the outer primaries and the wing lining on the underside is white. The sexes are similar and birds are usually seen in pairs. I came to know that they breed through much of the year depending on the location, building their nest in a hole in a tree or wall, in this case they try to occupy the sparrow's nest by force!!!!

The nesting process is shabby, and not clean like sparrow, as myna the nesting material used by mynas include twigs, roots, tow and rubbish. Mynas have been known to use tissue paper, tin foil and sloughed off snake-skin.

Ha ha .. the notorious behaviour identified form wiki:-

The Common Myna uses the nests of woodpeckers, parakeets, etc. and easily takes to nest boxes; it has been recorded evicting the chicks of previously nesting pairs by holding them in the beak and later sometimes not even using the emptied nest boxes. This aggressive behaviour is considered to contribute to its success as an invasive species.

Food and feedings of Myna.

Like most starlings, the Common Myna is omnivorous. It feeds on insects, arachnids, crustaceans, reptiles, small mammals, seeds, grain and fruits and discarded waste from human habitation. It forages on the ground among grass for insects, our 'myna' is feeding rice & bajra from the bird feeder. see the pic below...

The myna is considered as one of most worst invasive species. It is considered as a pest in many countries. I earned a nickname of "flying rat" owing to its scavanging nature.

Pretty SAD... As usual today morning also the Ex-tenants!?? of the nest box, the pair of sparrows came for feeding from the birdfeeder. But they are terrified even to go near their old dwelling nest box.. i think they might got some nasty blows from the invasive mynas.. so terrified the meek sparrows after having a few morsals of feeds..just fly away!!!! see a pic...

Dilemma:- I am confronted with a dilemma and catch-22 situation now!!! whether to allow the myna to occupy the sparrow nesting box and to continue and comple the nesting cycle...or to consider it as an invasive species and still modify the dia of the hole for access only to sparrows?

After pondering over the issue, I decided to allow the myna.. to continue its nesting cycle.. after all I should not be partial to one species, as per the law of nature.. let the fittest survive, or survival of the fittest..according I had facilite the myna a smooth entry by widening the entry hole in the nest box.. see the picture below:

Hope my decision is Fair....

To know more about the invasive nature of the myna.. please refer to the handbook by following the link
http://www.indianmyna.org/documents/Indian_Myna_Handbookl.pdf

puzzled- nest box

As i mentioned earlier in my previous blog post, the nest box was occupied by a sparrow pair and it was in the nesting cycle.

For the past 15 days, I could see lot of activity in the nest box. Last week I was away and my house was locked.

Yesterday when i returned back, I was shocked and surprised !!!!... as the nest box was in complete disarry, the twigs and tweets were spread around and unusual sized feathers were found inside the nest, (definately a sparrow cannot hold such a big feathers). It looked like a war zone around the nest box.

I don't have any clue what had happened?

I persume, some other bird, a much larger bird, might have trying to occupy the sparrow nest box by force, using brutal force, see the pic.. threads and twigs hanging out of the nesting hole.!!!

I am observing for the past two days and could not find any birds movement around the nest box, however, today  morning, I could see a "myna" near the balcony. Is he the culprit?
on the other hand, I could see the regular sparrows around the nest box area in my balcony, but it has come for other purpose, and it is not going into the nest, It came just for bird feeder; they had its grains, water and just flew away.
I am still wondering what could have happened to the sparrow nest..why the sparrows are not going into its nest?  which bird is trying to forcefully occupy the sparrow nest? No Answers till now.

Anyhow, the developments are interesting, Just in a few days, we will come to know.. till then.. it is  suspense-thriller !!!!!

sparrow box nest occupied

I had cleaned the wooden sparrow box next after three cycles. I was amazed to see that it was absolutely clean inside the nest. There was no left over of the egg shell, no droppings and i could find only the dry leaves, and twigs. I understood that the sparrows cleans the nest and maintain a very hygiene way of life.

Also I observed that during the winter there was no nesting activity. Now Summer has just begun and sparrows starts visiting again.

Now the sparrows starts builing its nest in the second home made box made of card-board.( actually it was an empty washing powder box). I could observe it brings dried leaves, cotton, feathers, and threads to built its nest.

Also the top nest box was under continous attack and disturbances by puras (Pigeons). I tried many ways but could not get ride of it from sitting over the top the sparrow nest box. Ultimately, last week I decided to put an end to this menance. I brough a box of paper pins and punched over a card board and made a spike - kind of thing and pasted over the sparrow nest box. Ah, ha.. what a magic, it completely prevents pigeons fom sitting over the sparrow box. Now-a-days, the pigeons are not at all coming over the nest box. It is a great relief. I am not against pigeons but it is not clean and makes the place dirty.

I hope now both the boxes would be occupied by Sparrows... Eagely awaiting for such a thing to happen, and I will post a picture when it materialises!!!

first in the morning

One of the must for South Indian is a hot coffee in the morning. Typically they prefer filter coffee and not the instant coffee. Intitially when I came to Baroda, I dont know from where to get the filter coffee, but I found in the bye-lanes of Dandia Bazaar., near to the famous Canara Coffee House Hotel.

After founding this shop, the problem of morning coffee is solved. You may also enjoy a hot sip of coffee...

Try this next time

Canara coffe house is a famous South Indian resturant at Vadodara.  You will get, Tasty South Indian dishes like Idly, Medhu Vada, Masala Dosa, Uttappam, uppumma and Coffee and Tea are some of the menus. All the items are sold at a very nominal rate. You may get stumptous breakfast at a cost of a single Masala dosa in any other hotels in Vadodara. (Rs. 50/-). It is located at the  Main Road, Dandia Bazar, Near Fire Brigade, Dandia Bazar Vadodara, Gujarat 390001. The Hotel look is traditional and the table and chair also looks old and gives a feel of ancient type feel, and you will be pleased by the courteous services of the hotel staff. Try next time when you read this article!  I used to visit frequently ahd have breakfast for full family, for less than Rs. 100/- with a lingering taste of vada...inviting you for the next visit....

kite festival

Clear sky, chillness in the air, sunny, perfect for flying kites.. Barodians enjoy and celebrate flyign kites during Uttarayan. Uttarayan or makarshankranthi wherein the days are longer, and the skies are clear and sunny, the Sun is moving northern direction giving way to winter, decline of chillness and arrival of heat. Herein Baroda the kite flying is not only limited to children, full family is participating in the event. On 14th Jan, full family comes to the terrace with bedsheets, table, chairs, music system, chats, water bootles, juices, with family and friends. Each terrace is having atleast 50 or more kites with plenty of threads. At some point of time, the whole sky is dotted with colorful and variety of kites, it is a delight to watch. When one kite, cuts other the full terrace enjoys it and celebrate by shouting, clapping and whizziling.. even uses some cacophony - a funnel shapped instrument to vent sound!!! At the evenings, all the members enjoy snacks and dance to the music. It is a sort of community get-together, enjoyment, fun and frolic on the name of kite festival. It is delighted to watch the harmony and festive atmosphere here.

Some pictures from my terrace...