Sparrow day special 2024

Sparrows are a complex mixture of simplicity and complicated. There is something sad about them, but at the same time there something joyous about seeing them. They are simplest of birds, but they seek shelter in the company of the most complicated specimen, the humans. They are one species of birds which cannot survive without human beings. But too much of human activity has pushed them onto backfoot and are disappearing from the urban areas, clearly first indication of excess of pollution. More than anything else they need appropriate habitat to make their nests. 

Below are a few photos exclusively of sparrows around our home in Gubbi. By the way Kannada word for sparrows is Gubbachchi or Gubbi more affectionately. Inviting your comments and suggestions so as what can we do so that these lovely and lively birds can live that much more happily around us.

Last few months..Oct2020

Here are some snaps of life around us. You can see redvented bulbul searching for nesting material in a heap of coconut shells. You can see squirrel quenching its thirst from a bird bath. Black headed cuckooshrike is a new visitor to our campus. So also is the blue faced malkoha and honey buzzard. You can see redrumped swallows taking wet mud to make their nest. Fourth year in succession peahen chose the same spot to lay and incubate her eggs. We projected partial solar eclipse on our kitchen wall and it was exiting to see that. We had more than usual movement of bronze backed tree snake. 

Our visit to Cherrapunjee by Supriya (with a little help from Appa)

This is a write up of our visit to Meghalaya in June-July 2019. My parents were volunteering to teach Mathematics in Ramakrishna Mission Schools in and around Sohra, more popularly known as Cherrapunjee.  The biggest of their schools is located in Sohra and has a boys’ hostel. But girls also come to school as day scholars. One of the monks who run the school knew Kannada. His name is Kasturi Maharaj. I loved the food we had during our stay, but it was very different from what we have at home. There was lot of Aloo in meals. It was a new experience for me.

On Saturday, my parents took a session or two with the hostel students as it was a holiday for the school as such. The next day was Sunday and we went sightseeing around Sohra. We saw a couple of waterfalls. All of them were uniformly gorgeous. We saw Seven Sister falls, Nohkalikai falls and Dainthlen falls were a few of them. In Dainthlen falls we could walk on the ridge of the waterfall as you can see in the adjoining photograph. We could even play in the water puddle on top. 

We also went into the Arwah Lumshynna cave. This region is full of lime stones and some chemicals in that dissolve in the water and over a period of thousands of years the flowing water makes large underground caves. It seems once this was part of a prehistoric sea as you can see fossils of marine creatures on the walls of the caves. We also saw several beautiful flowers on our walk to the cave.

 On Sunday evening, we went to Sobharpunjee for Raam naam (evening prayers) with Kasturi Maharaj. On the way we saw a huge conical rock called Khoh Ramhah or Motrop. Legend has it that this was a Shivaling, but these days local population attribute some evil spirits with it and worshiping this is not allowed. But this was a magnificent sight. Sobharpunjee has a girls’ hostel and it was a pleasant change for me to see so many friendly girls. In the far away below the hills, we could see plains of Bangladesh flooded with water. We could see more water than land in the plains of Bangladesh. We also saw a litchi laden tree.

For the next 3 days we stayed in Sohra. While my parents taught the students we (me and Shankara) sat through the sessions. In the evenings, we went to Sohra bazar. There were many things in the market which we do not see here like juicy pineapples, litchis, plums and peaches. I was surprised to know that banana costs Rs 250 per kg!! The following Thursday we all went to Shella in a jeep. (We went everywhere in Meghalaya in a jeep). In Shella School there were not many desks, so we did not go to the school. Students from Kalibari also were present in the Mathematics sessions. So we spent most of the time outside. Shella River was just 1 minute from where we were staying. It was a beautiful place. Appa made friends with one of the teachers, Ari anna. In the evening, Ari anna took us around for an outing. First we drove for about 20 minutes and then we were in the plains. We were told that the last village which belongs to India is on the other side of the river. We waded in the river and then crossed the river in a boat and entered that village. We could see goats and buffalos there. RK Mission runs a school in this remote place. We could see a 15km conveyor belt from India to Bangladesh which is used to transport big lime stones, which they convert into cement in Bangladesh. We also went within 2 meters of the fence separating India from Bangladesh.  Next morning we all woke up early and went for a bath in the river. It was awesome. Separate bathing places for men and women. After that Ari anna took us for a long walk to a hanging bridge on the Shella River. The bridge was held by just two cables. It was fun to see the river from the bridge.

On Friday, the last day of teaching we went to Sobharpunjee. That is the place I liked most. I made lots of friends there. Shella was hot, Sobharpunjee was pleasant and Cherrapunjee was cold. We saw many insects, but my father pointed out lack of birds and I don’t know why. Every evening, in Sohra hostel, they used to have a prayer and meditation session. We liked them and we have started a similar session at home. Below are some assorted snaps.

Cumulative photos

I have not been updating this blog since Picassa closed down as I didn't know how to showcase the photos in any other way!! Now I have started using Flickr and here are the albums.

This post has photos taken by us and different visitors in the past 10 years. Some of the albums have lots of photos. Some may be even repeating. Please bear with me. Here is an album containing photographs of birds and some bird nests we have snapped in last ten years. This is a collection of moths and butterflies of our place. Even in dry land like ours we have managed to get these snaps of flowers. This is a collection of animals from our place. Finally here are the mushrooms!

October_17

Here are lots of photos taken around our home. Most of these photos are taken by Shankara and some by me.

2016-2017

Haven't updated the blog for some time. Will add more photos soon. Here is a quick photo recap of last year!!

Here are some photos of activities of last year. We had a solar observation session handled by Mr Sanat, Rocket making workshop by Mr Vishwanath, Kite making workshop by Mr Ramesh Babu. Supriya as Bharat maatha in a drama, her 9 birthday.

Unidentified moth and several birds.

February 16

Here are some snaps of a few birds and insects taken in last 4 months.

Here are a few snaps of mushrooms and flowers we saw in the last monsoon.