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

'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 !!

Birds in Mirambika Campus

In school we are in the process of making a book about trees in our campus. We also decided to make a list of birds in our campus.

I spend a few days trying to take snaps of all the birds which live in & around Mirambika. The list is an impressive 50 plus varieties !!
1. House sparrow

2. Indian Mynah

3. Blue Rock Pigeon

4. Large Grey Babbler

5. Red Vented Bulbul

6. Rose Ringed Parakeet

7. Collared/Ring Dove

8. Brown Dove

9. Indian Robin

10. Hoopoe

11. Red Wattled Lapwing

12. Purple Sun bird

13. Magpie Robin

14. Pied Mynah

15. Brahminy Mynah

16. Koel

17. Tailor Bird

18. Ashy Wren Warbler

19. Indian Wren Warbler

20. Roufous Wren Warbler

21. Franklin Wren Warbler

22. Copper smith

23. Green Barbet

24. Brown Rock Chat

25. Tree Pie

26. House Swift

27. Black Kite

28. Green Bee Eater

29. Wagtail

30. White Breasted King Fisher

31. Shikra

32. Peacock/fowl

33. Black Drongo

43. Red Whiskered Bulbul

44. Spotted Owlet

45. White Eye

46. Grey Horn bill

47. Green Pigeon

48. Golden Backed Woodpecker

49. Yellow Fronted Woodpecker

50. Grey Partridge

51. Common Hawk Cuckoo

52. Golden oriole

53. Cattle Egret

54. Red Breasted Fly Catcher

55. Black Red Start

56. Lesser White Throat

57. Small Minivet

58. White Throated Munia

Pradip Krishen visits Mirambika...........

Our project on trees got a major fillip when the author of Trees of Delhi, Mr Pradip Krishen visited our school.

He was really nice & patient. We went for a walk with him on our campus, he was able to identify all the trees. Infact with one of the trees he had his doubts & all of us appreciated his honesty, when he said he will get back to us with all the details.

Now we are trying to work on making the database we have created of all the trees/ flora in the campus into a compilation. That will be done after the holidays.

As of now i would like to thank Pradip Krishen to have come to our school & spend time with us. It was really wonderful & useful. Also i got him to autograph on my copy of the book Trees of Delhi !!

Thank you...... sir !!

A very interesting three part interview with Pradip Krishen can be read here, here & here

Mirambika campus is more diverse than Yamuna Biodiversity Park

....................But the only thing missing in our campus is a waterbody, but there are more variety of trees in our campus, than YBP.

We started doing a project on trees & i am kind of smitten by it. We are using Trees of Delhi, A field Guide by Pradip Kishen to do our work. Today morning my father was telling me your school bag is getting heavy. Apart from the Trees of Delhi book, it had Asterisk & a couple of novels, apart from the usual note books. We do not have any textbooks in Mirambika.

Using this field guide we are making a list of trees in the Mirambika campus, which by the look of things is much more diverse than the Yamuna biodiversity park which we visited recently as part of our project work.

At the Yamuna biodiversity Park i learned to identify some butterflies like Brown Awl, Grass Yellow, Forget me Not, Striped Tiger, Plain Tiger, Blue Pansy, Yellow Pansy & Peacock Pansy.