Our friendly Squirrels...

When I was young, I used to enjoy watching joyful Squirrels around in Chennai.. 

Some sneak into homes and make nests and would starts breeding, to our surprise all of a sudden we could see little Squirrels lost its way and comes to the halls searching for its way to its nest... 

We could hear the loud alarm cry that sounds like "chip chip chip" by its mother... and we used to help the little one to unite with its mother.. Out of our curiosity and enthusisam we used to try to feed it but in vain... 

This kind of experience you might also have been faced.

I stay in  Marathahalli, Bangalore, When I came there around two years back, I could rarely find Squirrels.. 

Just adjacent to our apartments, there is a vacant plot, sort of mini-juncle with full of eucalyptus trees... I initially wonder where all those squirrels gone??? 

I could spot birds of prey, rodents, giant rats, pigeons, Snakes in that mini-jungle. 

However, around one year back, I could hear the sweet sound of Squirrels, and could spot few around in the fence and wall, and gradually it started coming to our apartments and will run around the balcony...

I started feeding the Squirrels by placing nuts, fruits in the fencing wall and the they also readily accepted the feed.. Normally, I used to feed them in the early hours 6.30 to 7.00 am and I could sense that thay are awaiting for my feed... Over a period of time, I could see, many squirrels in the mini-jungle and now we could happly hear the loud chip-chip-chip sounds in the morning, as a wake-up alarm call...  

I was happy that some way or other involved in nature and conservation of this little species!!!

reading between words

cute isnt

Kula Deivam temple

Village Theru thiruviya

Temple car festivals are unique as they imbibe a sense of togetherness of the village community, making the culture alive and overall a sense of anticipation, excitement, devotion and all the above sense of fulfilment, on the last day,  once the Car function sucessfully ends after 10 days of different idols procession with the participation of volenteers..


Some pictures of Sri Venkatachalapathy temple, car festival at Nellicherry village Palakkad. I had the blessings and privilege to partake and participate in the recently concluded Theru thiruviya!!!

oh.. Looking for Showers....

This pic clicked on 24th April 2016.. the Scorching heat continues and no heavy rain for the past one month, this is quite unusual... As last year between 22-24  April 2015, If my memory is correct it rained in the evenings, and on this period there were sporodic hailstorms in Bangalore in 2015, and it rained very heavily with hailstorm in Marathahalli and due to squall all the telephone lines and electricity was disrupted for two days... but this year 2016, no rain and heat waves continues.. and we are awaiting for the first rains...

awaiting for the smell of rain...

This year 2016, Bangalore is witnessing one of the harshest Summer... probably beating all the records as in many days in this April it crossed 35deg C mark. Also unlike normal Bangalore weather, as it used to be, whenever temperature increases, it used to rain in the evening. I heard from Old Bangalorites, in Pre 1990's it used to rain almost daily in the evenings in Summer. Bangalore is called the Pensioners Paradise and Garden City !!!

One of the beautify city in India and I remember when I was young, we used to consider Bangalore as a cool place to pamper during School Summer holidays... Bangalore in my mind is comparable to hillstations and colonial style building and landscape and weather like Ooty, Kodaikanal...

However till 1995 it was nice and cool, once the Y2K problem and the opportunity it posed, the development of IT Sector industry begun to descent in Bangalore, and things starts changing.. 

For employment purpose, Bangalore developed rapidly, people from all parts of India start coming to Bangalore for a better Career, many MNC companies, particulary IT starts opening their centres in Bangalore, and quickly bangalore become Cyper city and window of opportunities and talented manpower makes Bangalore one of the fastest developing city in India.. Apart for IT, Business process outsourcing industry, KPOs, LPOs, and many MNC R&D centres starts operations in Bangalore. 

The main reasons attributes initially was the advantage of fabulous, meditarian type of climatic conditions... Cloudy skies, average temperature, round the year rain, moderate cold and one of the few cities in India which have all the four+1 seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer, Rainy , and autumn. As Bangalore used to have rain almost round the year. It used to get

Jan- March- Mango showers,

April -June- Premonsoon showers, 

July - Oct- South west monsoon rains,

Nov-Dec- North East monsoon rains.

Bangalore was called Lake City, In the 1960s the number of tanks and lakes was 280 and less than 80 in 1993. However, now it is having on 17 good lakes., rest all encroached and building and high rises filled the lakes.Most of the lakes have vanished due to encroachment and construction activity for urban infrastructure expansion.

 Also the city's green cover has been cleared for development and rapid urbanization. According to a research study the Green cover in Bangalore has decreased by 66 per cent and water bodies by 74 per cent in the last 40 years. The mindless cutting down of trees for construction of building has reduced green cover with has serious implications for the city’s environmental and ecological health.

It appears Bangalore has crossed the threshold of urbanization, which is evident from a range of psychological, social and health impacts on residents including dramatic increase in obesity, asthma, traffic problems, road accidents etc. As per the experts opinion a city must maintain at least 33 per cent green cover to maintain ecological balance. 

It is time to wake-up, this year 2016, Summer has shown to us, that Bangalore is no more "Old Bangalore" and for the first time in history Bangalore has crossed 40 deg C this summer and entered into the 40C club. This is not a good sign., 

All citizens and NGOs should educate the common people and the admistrators to plant more trees, to increase green cover and to preserve the existing lakes and the gardens...but it is too late..as there is no space in the city for traffic and where can they plant trees!!??

But let us be Optimistic, as they say, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER...

writing this, looking forward to have the first real Summer Showers at Bangalore.. will post when it rains....

Cherry Blossom April 2016

It is cherry Blossom season at Bangalore... flowering season, with birds, insects, squirrels busy with bussing activities around the flowers., very interesting to watch...

cat on the wall

Today afternoon near HAL Veg market, I saw this cat having siesta in the afternoon, on the wall, a cool and shady place under a big tree. It was blissfully sleeping, when  I tried to click the Cat opened its eyes and posed for my mobile.

Temple visit

One of my wish is to visit, Meenkulathi Amman Temple, Located near Palakkad. The Meenkulathi Temple is located in Pallassena, a village in southern India. I took an auto from Palakkad and reached the temple. It is around 25kms from  Palakkad. The route to the temple is fabulous, green paddy fields, greenery, natural reserves, forest kind of landscapes, water bodies, channels and hills around.
On reaching the temple, there were many devotees from Tamil nadu as well as Kerala. The temple tank is magnificent. Herewith posting some pictures. The village ambience during the travel and the serene and green rural environment and the divine feel after visiting the temple is unforgettable...

Kabini - pride of India

Visited Kabini River Lodge this weekend (23 & 24th Jan 2016) and I can say, it is one of the best in India.   Kabini is a visual treat, a pradise for nature lovers, and it is a place one can find wild animals face to face... Sambars, Elephants, Gaurs, wild boars, leopards, tigers, spotted deers, and many more. Birds are plenty...The resorvoir is surrounded by Bandipur, Nagarhole, Mudhumalai and this Kabini is one of the last protected habitats for endangered species like Elephants and Tigers, I pray and would like to see this place as prestine as now in future also, so that our next generations can see the wild animals in their natural surroundings..

Also the Kabini River Lodge is one of the best maintained Resorts, though out of reach of common man, the location and the service is unparallel. Particularly for Bird Watchers, this resorts is a heaven.. Some of the birds are Magpie Robin,  Crow Pheasant, Coppersmith Barbet, White-Cheeked Barbet, Koel,  Red-whiskered Bulbul, Brahminy Kite, White-browed wagtail, Little Egret, Purple-rumped Sunbird, Little Cormorant, Large  Cormorant are easy sight. Many varities of butterfiles, big bats.. Inside the Lodge one tree holds more than thousand of Indian Flying fox.. we could spot many mongoose and otters in the side banks...

Some sample pictures..