To happiness, joy and a great spectacle

Light up

Stumbling through leaves 
and stepping on stones
along a deep dark forest trail
hunched trees peer down 
cupped branches entrap darkness.
Along the most unlikely forest bend
glinted a few tiny sparkling hints. 
Gathering pace I gaze and squint 
at a galaxy of stars 
propped up on bushes near and far.

Hedged within reality 
on the horizon of fantasy
is a forest of stars. 
Afraid to appear 
yet here they are.
It's no lie 
the foreplay of fireflies
They come alive and begin to play
hide and seek, slowly they stray.
Eavesdropping on the sweet talk 
I took a walk
with my thoughts
fleeting wings and pulsing joy.

I hook my palm and stole a star. 
Then I had to let it go
The only way to enjoy the glow.
I thought of a jar 
full of stars.
But captured and jarred 
they would burn and char.
Fireflies and joy are meant to fly
though they may seem fleetingly shy
yet lasting in the minds eye.

I seek not what I find
I bind not what's meant to fly
Memories of joy will always light up.
Now I step back and watch the show 
as the rhythm peaks and flashes flow
A forest fire in cold glow

April 2015

Sakaleshpur

Don't let this happen to you

​Why You Really Should Be Afraid of the Zombie Apocalypse?
Because its reached epidemic levels and I have been unwarily sucked into it on multiple occasions.
This is why I often tell to myself : grow up, such a trap!

Here is another zombie apocalypse warning from Rumi -
I learned that every mortal will taste death but only some will taste life.

This really struck me today.

On forgiveness

Why does it take so much of an effort to forgive someone who is dear to you. The closer someone is to you, the more hurt one feels and the harder it is to accept the pain they have caused and forgive them. Forgiveness is important, for it opens the shut door in your heart and undoes the hurt to restores an untarnished relationship. Is there a thing as 'untarnished relationship' after forgiveness? But logically it should be easier to forgive someone dear to you because of the wonderful moments shared and instances where that person has brought joy to your life. But why does all these wonderful memories fade and the only occasion or two where the other person let you down fixate? And what does it take to go back and forget those unpleasant instances?

What is that 'thing' that one needs to forgive someone. What ever that 'thing' is why is it so hard to keep constant after you have taken that decision to forgive. Sometimes I think - isn't it much easier to be that person who let you down and apologizes rather than being the person who has to forgive and put things behind like it never happened. I used to think that lost trust is the stumbling block to forgiveness. The sincerity of an apology and the fear of being hurt also has something to do with forgiveness. In that case how come its still hard to forgiving those who are no longer a part of your life. I once remember discussing this with a dear friend and she told me “Just say it aloud – I forgive you (name) and get it out. This person is not even a part of your life anymore and its taking a lot of wasteful room in your heart.” Well she was right! Even though it was a long struggle to genuinely let it be gone, it did free some space in my heart. So the restoration of trust proposition is not even applicable here. Considering my current understanding of myself and this issue, given a choice it would be easier to be the person who says “Sorry, I messed up, what can I do to fix this?” rather than the person who says “That's ok, I forgive you”. But given situations I have always failed at trying to switch roles or lash back as I realize it to be a feeble attempt of self protection. Ultimately, I think its very unfair that a person who has already gone though unfair treatment has to additionally go through the struggle of forgiving.   

So finally where do I stand on forgiveness? Well pretty much on the wall!
Though that some'thing' which I need to forgive comes at a struggle and very slowly to me, I shall attempt to practice it. Until then I hope to be better at pissing of people :P I'm kidding! I wish there was a way to get better at this kind of stuff though say some practical lab sessions than through real life experiences. To conclude forgiveness is not for the week hearted! 

Why?

Why can't we believe, love and dream like a child?
Why can't we be true to ourselves?
Why do we have to grow up to be what people want us to be?
Why do we have to grow up in the first place?

The best of innovation,ideas,inventions,emotions,art,harmony,peace and joy can only be conceived in a child-like mind?

Then why all the mad rush to grow up and be what you are not?

Heaven is real!

Here are some photographs from a place that is very special to me. It is a beautiful landscape that is called grass-hills. It is a high altitude grassland interspersed with shola forest (a forest of stunned trees, not more than 10-15 feet tall). This vegetation makes the landscape look "out of the world".The dark green is the shola forest and the light green is the grasslands.


Where the wind wooos and the clouds dance,
The sun gleams, The hills are the mute spectators,
and the streams applaud.



Waves of green reach-out to the sky,
Time stops and space is eternal.

The Nilgiri pipit is a bird found only in these grasslands. The orchid is also probably found exclusively in this kind of landscape.This is a place where nature rules and animals roam free. Also a place where it gets extremely cold (dew freezes in the night and forms icicles) and human are so awe-striken that they don't really care.




When i visited this place i realized that there are very few places that remain exactly the way they always were. Time has had no effect on a relative scale.The sheer grandeur and pure beauty of this place has left an everlasting impression. There was not a human apart from our team on those hills, and i got a chance to fulfill my longing to wander and ponder all by myself. I went climbing up the hills at dawn and watched the first rays of the sun climb down each mountain slope.
On the last night of our stay while i was trying to overcome the cold and try and get some sleep, i heard elephants outside my window. I could hear them hit grass stems on their feet to rid the mud before consuming it. Later when they almost walked into our front yard, we got out to announce our presence. We saw them in the half moon light and the supplementary torch lights. They heeded our presence and retreated. These experiences put me in touch with primitive human emotions that i never experienced in the past.Staggering awe, filled with respect for life and beauty. The feeling of being in touch with nature with nothing in between. These experience were enhanced with the company of few tribal assistances who guided our team in field work. Their relationship with nature is truly amazing.Their folk lore, culture and way of life is colored with the essence of these thoughts and emotions.

Finally a few hours before returning, when we were walking to our destination (where the work was in progress) we came across a lone Sambar stag out in the grasslands. A sight i will never forget - a solitary deer on the grassland surrounded by the earth and the sky.

Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned
and the last fish been caught
will we realize that we cannot eat money.
- Cree Indian

The declaration of dusk

The cool air resonates with the Malabar Whistling Thrush's Good Night Note,
The frogs follow in the orchestra,
The Swiftlets zig-zag overhead finishing their evening meal,
The crickets officially announce the breaking of dusk
(If Dawn can break,so can dusk)
The last ray of fading light brings the first ray of bats on the horizon,
The stars twinkle into position,
The spiders set their dinner plate webs for the great feast,
The fireflies flicker the party lights on,
The moths do their fluttery dance,
The moon smiles away at itself in every still pool.

Fireflies remind me of one of my favourite Tagore quotes, here it is -
The starts are not afraid to appear like fireflies.

Dina.

Mammoth Loss

24May2009
Two elephants were found dead in the cardamom and tea plantations of Urlikal. The postmortem reveled poisoning due to consumption of pesticides as the cause of death. This was a herd which one of my colleges has been following for the past many years now. He informed that one more elephant from the same herd of 9, had died mysteriously 2 months ago. Now the strength of the herd comes down to 6.



We stayed on for the postmortem to collect tissue samples. Till this incident, I considered trade of animal parts as a serious crime. After i witnessed the postmortem followed by the removal of the tusks my idea of the criminal act of trade in wildlife parts changed completely. The removal of the tusks in this situation gave me an idea of how it would be when done in a different situation. The goriness of taking away an innocent animal's life just to chop trough its flesh, extract it's tusks, polish it and keep it in a showcase or use as a seal is revolting. Its the most shameful and ugly act any human can ever do.


The forest department collects tusks from dead elephants and their are emporiums where govt. Authorized ivory is sold. This looks like a very bad way to discourage the ivory trade. This means the lesser the supply and the rarer the availability, there is all the more demand for the trade to persist illegally.

The forgotten temple of knowledge

The wind rustles dead leaves and
termite wings through the deserted corridors,
The footsteps and shouts of children
are distant memories,
The only pupil now,
are a pair of nesting sparrows, a foraging myna
and an occasional goat.
The boards are smudged with remnants of
drawings and writings of little hands,
The windows and doors tightly shut
seem to be revolting in silence.



Sadly the above is not only true during the summer holidays, but symbolic of the school days too. A chat with the Head Master revealed the state of this school (Govt. Boys School, Valparai) where summer holidays doesn't really mean students have worked hard and, are ready to go to the next grade. The school management has asked to promote every student who attempts the year-end exam. This way there is a 100% passing rate until students face the 10th and 12th Std public exam. The external evaluation results in 0-1% passing rate. The HM said that students and their parents (mostly tea-estate workers) do not pay much attention to schooling, as a result hardly any parent turns up for PTA meetings. Now he does not know who to blame – the students if they refuse to inform parent about PTA meetings or the parents who refuse to turn up, its hard to say. The HM also complains about lack of enthusiasm, interest and a negative attitude in students working against their progressive learning. He also says that, no student out of this school can go beyond being an electrician or plumber.

People seem to be mechanically carry out their duties in this school,all including students, teachers and the management. We hope to initiate our nature education programs and manage to pump some energy into the spirit of learning through activity and fun based programs.
Enthusiasm in the key to the door of innovation and progress, without it, no productive headway is possible.

Bat Tunnel!!!

One of my very good friend here in Valparai is working on bat diversity. I had the pleasure of accompanying her on an exploratory visit to a 14 mile long man-made water tunnel that by word of mouth, contained thousands of bats. So we arrived at the mouth of this tunnel after an exciting encounter with a herd of Gaur and a common monitor lizard on our way. We walked into the tunnel nervously as we did not know the timings for the opening of the flood gates. As we entered, we were in for a bat bonanza!!! 30 meters into the tunnel we saw many clusters of bats roosting on the ceiling. They shifted away from the torch beams as we scanned the ceilings, crevasses and crannies. (The best i could get with a 1600 ISO)
Little into the tunnel the clusters gave way to a sea of bats.My friend confirmed the presence of at least 3 species of bats belonging to the genus Rhinolophus, Hypoderma and some fruit bats.

After about 600 meters into into the tunnel we could see a galaxy of eye shines and sensed vibrations that shook the surroundings. Our mind raced to the flood gates and we geared to face the rushing water......But the water level remained the same, instead a wave of disturbance was felt above head. Hundreds of bats were fluttering their winds and moving around to find darker spots. It was not a very pleasant place for people with a good sense of smell either. The floor was splattered with bat droppings. We were not too eager to meet the concentrated swarm of flying bats and so we decided to turn back. As the entrance of the tunnel came into view, we saw bats that looked like large black butterflies at the light end of the tunnel. (Black Butterflies)

On our way back we ran into the same herd of Gaur and got 2 see individuals play-fighting -


After a couple of days we returned to count the bats that exit the cave. A count of 1000+ individual bat exits were recorded. 1000+ entries were also recorded in a span of 2 hours after dusk.

10 Things to do before I die

1. Spend time in exploring and conserving natural treasures of the Western Ghats and Himalayas

2. Learn Swahili and spend couple of years in East Africa

3. Take a road trip from Manali to Leh through all the high altitude lakes

4. Spend a month meditating in a Buddhist Monastery

5. See and photograph spring in a desert (after rains most arid regions burst into blossoms)

6. Learn wave surfing

7. Make a wildlife documentary film

8. Learn sculpting

9. Scuba dive with wild dolphins and take underwater shots of waves crashing above.

10. See and photograph the mid night sun and aurora in Iceland

Flight to reality-

1 and 2 in progress.

What I love about Little Hill Towns

The stream gurgling in the valley,
The sparrows dust bathing in the street,
The church bell at 12,
The ferns on the old stone wall,
The ice-cream man on hot afternoons,
The road winding up the hill,
The lambs nibbling on the hedge plants,
The corner tea shop,
Waiting for hours in a scenic bus stop,
The white daisies nodding in the evening breeze,
Million twinkling stars in the night,
The owlet calling from the mango tree.

White daisy
One of the most precious looking things around here.

The above poem is dedicated to Mercy who helped me discover the joy behind little things. This perspective has really transformed my world.