Wishing you a joyous 2012

Dear Readers,

January 1, is perhaps just another date. But we do keep track of days with a calender. So here is wishing all my readers and their loved ones a joyous 2012.

Meanwhile, it is worthwhile to remember Janice Markowitz quote: Today is tomorrow's yesterday... make the best of it...for it will never come again.

So use each day wisely, use it to scatter joy.

Warm regards,
Lubna

Photograph taken by Shomita during our recent Ooty trip

A wild flower (Ooty)

William Blake in the opening stanza of his poem Auguries of Innocence has penned:

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour...

I cannot meet William Blake's standards, but here are my few lines
The Wild Flower
A rose, nods its sleepy head
Tended to, in a warm glasshouse
A wildflower, it sways in the breeze
Gazing at the sun, welcoming every hour
A wildflower, I rather be
Providing a burst of unexpected joy
To the true nature lover
-- Lubna Kably

Photograph taken by my friend Shomita Mukherjee in Ooty.

A green carpet

My tired urban eyes loved the spread of the lush green moss all around in Ooty. There were waterfalls everywhere (perhaps it had rained recently, it does rain in Nov-Dec in these parts) and the moss was soft and thick.

"S" took several pictures --- I had not taken my camera, as we would be using hers and I love this macro shot. Why, the serenity of it all, even prompted me to pen a few lines.

Softly caressing jagged rocks
The harsh edges it smoothens out;
A spread of soft green, is on view
For the tired soul to construe;
A feeling of peace
Of being at ease;
Ah, the softness of the moss....

Babbling away

Dear Readers,

I spent a day at Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, where my friend "S" is a scientist.

I had heard a lot from her about this Institute, which is set amidst the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve. As soon as you step inside the gates of this enormous campus you hear bird songs - a wide variety of them. It takes time for you to learn how to spot the birds hidden amidst the thick foliage, needless to say a good pair of binoculars help.

Oh, the campus also houses a very friendly white dog called Suzie, whom the students are very protective of (Suzie may need surgery soon for a tumor perhaps cancerous). I do hope she recovers soon as she is a very loving dog.

"S "told me the best view was to be had from the roof tops. So leaving her to begin her day, I took the steps to the rooftop.

A bunch of Yellow Billed Babblers (seven sisters as they are called) were sitting on the roof sunning themselves and chattering away. Their backs were to the staircase. However, hearing me climb up, a few of them turned and a cute extra bold one, came hopping right up to me and looked me up and down. Guess he/she was checking whether I was a worthy visitor.

As he/she flew off, I am sure tales were spread of this strange visitor from Mumbai, who had stumbled up the staircase and was taken aback by the sheer spread of greenery all around, including the thickly tree carpeted Nilgiri range which lay just ahead.

While I was not carrying my camera, "S" had a few days earlier photographed one curious Yellow-billed Babbler, I wonder whether it was the same one. One easy way to distinguish Yellow Billed Babblers from Jungle Babblers is that the former have bluish-white eyes (as opposed to white eyes of the Jungle Babblers) and also have a comparatively lighter breast feathers.

During this trip, both from the rooftops and a long walk where I just followed Suzie, I spotted -- Red Vented Bulbuls, Hill Mynahs, Babblers, Indian Robins, squirrels (tiny squirrels -- quite unlike the variety you see in Maharashtra) and a few pairs of parrots which were just a bright green blur as they screeched and flew in search of fruits. A solitary peafowl also ran across my path during my walk, taking both me and Suzie by surprise.

I had been warned this was elephant country, and mercifully I did not come across a stomping herd. Guess, if at all, the herds come into the campus area only after dusk.

I am sure the trees were teeming with birds, birds I could not spot, but at least I could hear their melodious songs. During the eight odd hours that I spent here, I drank deeply the fresh air, and took in the greenery. I am sort of starved of greenery, here in Mumbai.

Wishing you all a good weekend.

Best,
Lubna

Photograph of the Yellow-billed Babbler by "S"