Off to Kechala, Koraput district, Orissa .........

We are off to village Kechala, Koraput district in Orissa for our annual school trip.

Looks like it is going to be a good 40 hour journey, first part of the journey starts from Hazrat Nizamuddin station at 8.40 am in Samta Express, which goes through Bhopal, Nagpur, Raipur & we get down at Rayagada at 15.00 hrs tomorrow. Then another short train journey & then another short bus journey, then finally another by ferry to reach an island called Kechla !! Phew !!

There are 37 of us plus 4 teachers, we come back only "next year" on the 8th of Jan.

So it is Happy New Year to you all & wish you the best in 2010 !!

Adios amigos

Whisper of the Wings series.......5. Hoopoe

Hoopoe very rarely sits on my balcony, probably i must have seen it only about a couple of times in the last 3 years.

But i can always see it flying around, the wings flap in the similar way as the Woodpecker. I also see it in the park opposite my house feeding away busily on the ground, with its long beaks.

This photograph is taken when the hoopoe was sitting on a tree just outside my balcony.

At the movies again...... 3 Idiots

Was it 3 idiots or 4 idiots ?

If we include the professor also, then it becomes 5 idiots !!

I had enjoyed Munnabhai MBBS, so when i heard that the same director had made 3 idiots i wanted to go & see the movie. I wasn't disappointed, i quite enjoyed the movie.

The only unwanted part in the movie was the extended child birth drama, some how it did not make any sense to me, otherwise it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Lots of dialogues like the name of the dogs as megabyte, gigabyte etc, the definition of a machine among many other things were really funny, infact there were numerous laughter moments.

All of us had good fun !!

Merry Christmas !!

Merry Christmas to all.
Me & my friend K, who is staying with me got this Christmas tree decorated, it does actually look good, some friends did come over in the evening, it was a cold evening at around 7 Celcius, we had good food, cake & just chilled watching some movies...........
Untill next year !!

At the movies again.... to see Avatar

Me & my friends went to see Avatar. Overall i liked the movie very much, but the graphics & the 3D were too good.

Whisper of the Wings series.......4. Red Whiskered Bulbul

Looks like a rock star !!

Red Whiskered Bulbuls are a frequent visitors on to my balcony, here is one of the rock stars !!

Whisper of the Wings series.....3. Rufous Treepie

Rufous Treepie.

When this Dendrocitta vagabunda comes onto my balcony it is usually with a lot of announcements, all the 5 or so different musical calls are made. Its like look i am here or i 've come, every one else watch out or some thing like like that.

Whereas sometimes it sits very quietly on the Jamun Tree next to my house eating the small jamuns, sometimes one does not even realise it is there.

Its very difficult to say from male & female.

'Mirambika gang' at the Humayan's Tomb

As part of one our school project on the Mughal Empire we headed to Humayun's Tomb last Saturday.

The complex has among many other tombs; a main tomb for Emperor Humayun & for his wife Hamida Begum.

Humayun's Tomb is a show piece of Mughal architecture & Persian gardens. The main architect of of this World Heritage Site was Mirak Mirza Ghayas from Afghanistan.

There are several monuments leading up to Humayun's tomb & one of the most prominent among them is that of the whole family of Isa Khan Niyazi, which predates the main tomb by 20 years, built in 1547 CE.

By the way, this handsome looking man is not one of the Mughals !!!

Infact he is one of our favourite teachers, he is known to us as Kavi bhaiyya & here he is introducing us to all these histories & during one of our breaks he is explaining a few things to us & also reminding us that we have not come here for gallivanting & to be bloody serious !! (& that was in his own words)

These are photographs of the main tomb, please click on it to enlarge.

The stairways are so narrow & steep, I wonder why !!

Even Humayun had died (some where else) when he fell down a stairs when he ran to be on time to attend prayers !!
The Charbagh (four Square) gardens, spread over 13 acres changed rapidly since 1556. The decline of the mughals was a contributing factor, since the capital was already shifted to Agra in 1556, then the upkeep of the garden was costly & almost impossible. Then the British took over, 'though around 1903-1909 the Brits did try to restore a few things.

Again during the Partition of India, Humayun's Tomb was a major refugee camp for almost five years, then again the gardens were unfortunately considerably damaged & also there was serious damage to the water channels & chief structures.
First the Archaeological Survey of India & now Agha Khan Trust for Culture have been trying to restore Humayun's Tomb back to its original glory, with all the gardens & the water channels. Infact there were people from Agha Khan Foundation to guide us during the walk.

We ended the walk with a shared & sumptous lunch (nana had packed some Veg Paella !!) & there was also a birthday cake which was cut for one of my friends !!

I did enjoy the walk.......... so, until next time

au revoir to all !!

Whisper of the Wings series.....2. Purple Sunbird (female)

This is the Female Purple Sun bird, likes to come & taste a bit of honey from the flowers in the balcony.

Looks stunning against the red flower, isn't it ??

Sultanpur 29.11.09, with the Shrikes & Blue Throat among many others

Its been a year since we went birding to Sultanpur, so when we heard that there was a trip scheduled i was thrilled

An Yellow Crowned Woodpecker was doing hide & seek with us

Just as we were walking i thought i heard a noise similar to somebody clicking away furiously on the camera, then i realised it was a Blue Throat. It was bang in front of me on the pathway, i crawled on my knees to reach closer to it.

Then some Lesser White Throats, Hume's Warbler's, Common Chiffchaffs kept us interested. So was an over flying Honey Buzzard & a Marsh Harrier.

A Roller bird was looking delightful as ever.

Then the Olive Backed Pipits captured every one's interest

So were the Red Avadavats, who were posing for us

And so with the Silver Bills

The Southern Grey Shrike was not even bothered by my presence !!

The Minivets made a stunning splash of colour

We also saw Black Rumped Flame back, Horn bills, Tree pies, Coucals, a Black Shouldered Kite sitting & preening away. Stone chats, Plain & Ashy Prinia, Large Grey Babbler, Shikra, Drongo, Indian Robin & Pied Bush chats also made their presence felt.

Partridge's made their presence with their lovely calls. I tried to click a Common Quail, but stood no chance !!

At the water hole there was over 2,000 water birds Common teals, Gadwals, Northern Shovelers, Grey lag geese, Bar headed geese, Common Pochards, Northern Pin tails, Coots & Wigions.

The resident water birds included the Common Moorhen, Purple Swamp hen, Great, Intermediate & Little cattle Egrets, Purple & Grey Herons, Black Headed Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Painted Storks. So were the White Tailed Lapwings, Wood sand Pipers. Barn swallows & Plain Martins looked busy as ever.

Here is a video of an Egret Fishing & enjoying its meal !

Just as we came out some one told us, Great White Pelicans have flown in & also there was a pair of Sarus cranes. But we were tired & hungry, so will check them out next time.

From 7 am to 12 noon we saw almost 60 species of birds, now isn't that amazing ???

Jazz with Eric Vloeimans yet again & a good bye......

Was lucky to see Eric Vloeimans & Gate crash in action again. He was off to Japan after the concert.

I just loved their song titled Foot steps.

Here is a very poor recording from my mum's mobile phone (No Eric, her mobile was not the one which kept ringing !!)

Whisper of the Wings series.....1. Purple Sunbird

In my Face Book account i had posted photographs of the birds which visit the balcony of my house.

It had in fact kicked up quite a bit of interest among my friends. So from today i start this new series, which i have titled Whisper of the Wings, which will be exclusive of the birds photographed from my balcony.

A special thanks is required to my drawing teacher Joy, who had gifted me a tripod, so my camera is always mounted & ready to capture the whisper of the wings.

We start off with the Purple Sunbird (male), a really busy bird, never sits still. I hope to capture the changing colours of this bird as the season progresses

At the Jazz Utsav with Eric Vloeimans et al

For the first time i went for a live jazz program & i really enjoyed it.

Some of the musicians who performed are :

Eric Vloeimans who is regarded as one of the Europe's best trumpet players & the performance of his group Gate crash was simply awesome, Ulli Gudmundsson was also great on Bass

Wayne Krantz is one of the best guitarists

Anthony Jackson is one of the best in bass

Cliff Almond sets the mood alive with some of the best drumming

David Binney is supposed to be the one of the best saxophone players of present day

Brian Melvin ( Beatle Jazz), has a unique style in drumming

Andre Marcelli again is one of Italy's greatest drummers, he was amazing

Lorenzo Petrocca is known world over for his guitar playing

Amit Heri from India was also really good

I also enjoyed just watching some of them prepare for the show during the breaks, the way they set up their instruments & how they tune them etc

Until next year !!

sketches series.........7. Yellow Collared Lovebird

This is my illustration of a Yellow Collared Lovebird,

i've only used colour pencils

Oriental Honey Buzzard comes visiting yet again

Yippie !!

Few days back

once again she came outside our house !!

Warnings were sounded out to all residents

Keep off me or .......

And these two bulbuls were also watching the action with us from our balcony,

wondering whats all this fuss about ??

Why you not taking any snaps of me ??

Untill next time, bye, bye OHB

and the bulbuls ........ sorry !!

sketches series.......6.Purple Heron

The best way to liven up the backside of a book shelf is to do a drawing on it !!

Isn't it ??

That's what i did,

with an illustration of a Purple Heron !!

sketches series.......5. Racquet Tailed Drongo

This is a sketch which i made a few years back of the Racquet Tailed Drongo, after seeing this bird in Pangot, Uttaranchal.

The Oriental Honey Buzzard comes visiting again

For the last two years during these months, an Oriental Honey Buzzard comes outside our house. When this bird comes usually there are alarm calls all over from the the squirrel's & also all the resident dada's also get insecure & tend to hassle a new bird. All in all there is panic in the air when the OHB comes in.

Today morning i was in still in bed, suddenly i heard didi call out "Honey buzzard saamne baita hai," i jumped out of bed & there it was just outside our balcony. This one is a female, last year we had seen the male.

She started giving me the looks !!

When the crows were hassling her, she just opens her beak......

Then suddenly a Shikra swooped on her, look at her how she has puffed up herself & made her appear really big to ward off the Shikra. Unfortunately i could not get the Shikra in the same frame.

Then she went to another tree & again started eye balling me !!

After a good 25 mts she decided to go away

Tata, bye bye, au revoir, adios amigos.

Until next time

take care !!

At The Movies-again....

I went with few of my friends to watch wake up Sid

it was truly amazing !!!!!!!!

i loved the movie.

then we went to "city walk" a huge mall next to the theatre

and after the movie we were just roaming around the mall

we had hot dogs for lunch

and doughnuts from M.O.D (Mad over Doughnuts) for dessert...

and then returned home after a awesome day.

Listen & watch Kya karoon here

At The Movies.......

Up

I went with my mom to watch Up the movie
and really enjoyed it.
it was a nice movie and if you have an option you should watch it
watch the trailer here

Festival of lights

Happy Diwali to all.

That's my house on the top floor lit up with all diya's,

i.e a row of lamps,

since it is a festival of lights.

Cotton string wicks inserted in small clay pots filled with oil—

to signify victory of good over the evil within an individual !!!

No fire crackers for me

i hate disturbing the birds & dogs

In Landour.......... with the Mountain Hawk Eagle

During the Dushera break we had gone to Landour. I liked the place, the small streets, the house where we stayed, which was infact overlooking a valley, the wooded areas were much less, so the walks were quite restricted, also Rhesus Macaques did sometimes look very aggressive, we tried to avoid eye contact, but also had to be careful at the same time, also the weather which suddenly changes from sunny, to cloudy & rainy & vice versa.

It was challenging to identify the Raptors. They just seem to arrive so suddenly & also disappear also equally fast. Of course the high light was to see the Mountain Hawk Eagle sitting in a tree in just 10ft in front of us. We were also lucky to see a pair of Black eagles in a very playful mood

And also the flying skills of the Eurasian Sparrow Hawk was just awesome & how she took on the crows which were hassling her.

The birds we saw & were able to identify are :

Mountain Hawk Eagle

Black Eagle

Eurasian Sparrow Hawk

Himalayan Griffon

Verditer Fly Catchers

Ultra Marine Fly Catchers

Dark sided Fly Catchers

Brown fronted Wood Pecker

Brown Bull Finch

Grey Winged Black Bird

Bar Tailed Tree Creeper

Green Backed Tit

Black Lored Tit

Whiskered Yuhina

White Throated Laughing Thrush

Striated Laughing Thrush

Scarlet Minivets