around the pink city

more squirrels!

These quick and cute scampering fellows made it hard for me to keep the camera down;

I couldn't resist posting so many!

Jaipur's most adorable possessions

birds galore!

Lately I've been wondering how completely ironic life really is... our entire lives revolve around society and their crazy ideas of what an ideal lifestyle should be. No matter what people say, about originality, thinking out of the box or about being true to yourself and character, they all still just want you to do what's socially right and acceptable. Where is the uniqueness in every one of us - if each of us just wants to be like everyone else? Why do we have to be in our best form and behavior at all times? So that the others around us don't think we're absolutely insane? Why must we wear a smile on our face when we're unhappy? Why must we fix a completely rotten mood just to suit someone else? Why must we move on when we don't want to?

I'm a 16 year old in the 11Th grade and I'm thinking about the idiosyncrasies of life. Once again--Why? It's amazing, the number of unexpected surprises you find when your just trying to be normal-just trying to 'fit in' to that same like minded crowd i mentioned earlier. In the past two years, I've lost two dear, dear brothers. These two guys were my world. Without them, my life feels empty and dark, helpless and hopeless. I yearn for that extreme warmth of their company. I hate it when you're made to forget things and try to move on with life. My thoughts race back and forth--its pointless to grieve over irreversible changes like these--but then again, its a whole new life without them, and it seems close to impossible to even try living it.

One can't sit around moping for days, not getting anything done, inconveniencing other people dependent on you and making things awkward around others. And there again it all comes down to pleasing the people around you. No free, open window for you to just be lost in your thoughts and be with yourself--just purely yourself. You're always trying to be someone others will like and accept as one of their own.

It's mind boggling--trying to wonder how to move past these bizarre experiences and get a grip on life. In an ideal world, it would seem morally very selfish to go ahead and deal with things like nothing happened. But in reality, you'd be quite a pain if you didn't. The memories of both my brothers spring up within me without any warning at all very often and it depresses me terribly--and I've always wondered why the pain--that emotional pang never got any better with time. Perhaps its because I never fully got a chance to grieve. I was left to myself for one day-just one and the next-I was back to my studies. Off to classes and exams. Things don't change, they don't wait for you.

Death still freaks me out. Gives me the chills. It makes me go inside my shell and shudder. It sends a chill down my spine. I can deal with live and frisky roaches and lizards-But dead ones, I cant even go close to.

It's so funny how these incidents can change your whole perspective of things. How it makes you think differently and how it makes you grow. And then again, I feel stupid thinking about these things in such utter detail--It makes me feel weird and then again the thought that pops into my mind is--my friends will think I'm insane! And here we come round again--the human-a slave of society. My thoughts contradict themselves! Life-its ironic. lets just deal with it.

Predator or Prey?

My friend Shreya and I used to be regular morning walkers at band stand. On one such morning just as we began our daily round we noticed a big bird lying limp and helpless on the side of the promenade resting against the divider. Only when we went closer did I realize it was a kite. Its feathers were wet and it wasn’t moving. I was dreading it was already too late. But, when I knelt down beside it to see if it was still alive, it slowly opened its beautiful, orange eyes and stared right at me. It was ironic actually; the same bird that would strike terror in the smaller city birds was found crouched awkwardly on the ground, propped up against the promenade wall with crows circling overhead.

The bird already seemed distressed so I didn’t want to disturb it until we needed to. It amazed me to see the number of people walking past the bird, noticing it, but showing little or no interest in helping it. When they realized that we had stopped and it looked like we were going to do something about the situation, they began stopping and giving their advice on what should be done, displaying no signs of doing any of it themselves. In fact, one lady walked past without even stopping, screaming out behind her, “Take the thing to SPCA!” Not having to wait for her valuable input, we had already phoned SPCA but to no avail. No one was willing to get out that early in the morning to get a kite. We were told to call after 10; but at that point I knew I couldn’t leave it unguarded or the crows would have got the better of him, not to mention the number of stray dogs who would pounce the moment they got a chance. Finally, not knowing what else to do, I decided to take him home. But I couldn’t just carry it with my bare hands… I needed a towel and a box. Shreya lived close by and so she rushed home to get the necessary things. I think we both left her mom quite baffled! When she returned, I called a rickshaw before lifting up the kite. The kite may have been wounded, but it hadn’t lost its pride. It tried to resist the towel and ward me off, but it was too weak. Having gotten into the rick, I was just hoping with all my heart that it would sustain the bumpy trip home. But this was a big, powerful kite and it didn’t look willing to give up just yet. Had this been a pigeon, I doubt it would have survived.

On reaching home, I asked my dad to come downstairs to help decide what to do next. Being a bird lover, he didn’t hesitate in the least. We put him in the trunk of the car and tried to examine him more closely. Having got a little more room, he stood upright, on his guard, looking alert, almost ready to attack. Well, I wouldn’t have blamed him- after having broken his wing, he was tormented by smaller, inferior birds, draped in a thick, white cloth, picked up by two strange females, had a rickety auto ride and had been transported to the back of a car. Well what could I say? We were just trying to help!

We lifted his wing to see how bad it was…. It was much worse than I expected. The wing had completely come off from the shoulder bone and it was just hanging lose. The bone was jutting out and it had no control over its wing at all. It couldn’t even fold it back in place. We doubted that it could have suffered an injury as bad as this just by falling down or crashing into something.

A boy who washes the cars in our building got curious about what we were doing. When he realized it was a kite, he came round to our side and started examining the bird. He said he had rescued a kite himself once and he had had it with him in his house for quite a while. He was excellent with handling the bird and showed no fear of getting clawed. He opened up the wing to take a look and he managed to open it up wider and with much more ease than we did. He said that it looked like a classic case of a dog attack. That seemed to make sense, when we now looked at it; it looked like something that would have happened if a dog had got his teeth into it. What’s more, the boy said that this one was just a young bird and that it would still grow at least 1/3^rd its size! I could only imagine how magnificent this fellow would look fully grown.

We folded his wing back in its place and wrapped him up again. Left him a little water and bread and went upstairs to look up a vet. Through our family vet, I was referred to a number of people before I finally came across a lady who said she knows a kite specialist. She said she would call me back with his contact details. When she finally got back to me, I was surprised by the strange address. ‘Nandu’ the kite specialist worked in a garage near a fish market. But this lady seemed to have complete confidence in this man. So we set off, address in hand looking for him. There was no clinic, so there was no hoarding; just the reference name of a shop. After much looking, we found the shop and sure enough found Nandu there chatting up his friends. When we told him that we had brought a kite, he walked back to the car with us to see it. I was surprised when he lifted up the kite skillfully with one hand and started walking off in the direction of his house across the street, where perched on some bamboo sticks were at least 10 other kites! I was sure at that point that we had brought our kite to the right place. Nandu wasn’t the typical vet, but a simple man who cared for these numerous kites just for the love of them. As he walked back towards the shop, he smiled at us pleasantly and reassuringly.

Thanks to the caring hands of Nandu, the kite is now faring well.

I’m happy to have met Nandu, an unassuming, unexpected animal lover, who, with no attitude or show, continues to do what he loves. It was nice to learn about the boy who cleans our cars-who would have thought he would be an expert on kites? Life sometimes throws these situations at you and it’s amazing to see how much you can learn from them.

"pee pee" - ok - please

dogspot

doodling :)

There is nothing I hate more than useless people trying to show their supremacy over defenseless animals. A recent incident that took place right outside my building angered me greatly.Two dogs caught in a quarrel got my attention and I rushed to my window only to see the watchman threatening to stone the already frightened dog. What is the need to take out your life's frustration on a vulnerable dog?! Absolutely infuriating. I cannot contain my anger and in such cases it should not be contained either! There are hardly any people willing to stand up for them and I think that the few people who are willing to should speak up for them or they will always be treated like unwanted pests by idiotic "homo sapiens"! Such people should be put in their place.

urban perch

mongrel magnificence

calico express

Macro mode

(click on the images to see their intricate exoskeletons and bodies clearly)

the ant lion bug

tiny fellows that burrow in the soil waiting for their prey to fall into their trap

the red silk cotton tree bug

(thrives on the red silk cotton tree)

the praying mantis

camouflage extraordinaire!

we were lucky to spot this fascinating insect

had we been a little distracted it could have been easily missed.

wildlife as i see it

click on the pictures to see them in greater detail