The colours of a Madras summer

I see bright pinks, flaming reds and sunny yellows.

The tree orchids pine for their guardians who are away,

Bauhinia

Bougainvillaeas red ask to be photographed
Bougainvillaeas 

The whites creep over the neighbour's trellis, 
Bougainvillaeas 

and meet the pinks
Bougainvillaeas

while these orangey-yellows greet the early morning sun.
Bougainvillaeas 

This desert rose does not seem to mind the sun,
Adenum

while this ixora continues to hold its head up in the midday sun,
Ixora

Yellow laburnums all over the city
Cassia fistula (amaltas)

And copper pods too.
Peltophorum pterocarpum

The tabebuia are in full bloom, their purple and yellow trumpets celebrating the sun.

Tabebuia

But these palm fruits enjoy the shade of our car park.

The little periwinkles stand bravely and defiantly, even as the earth scorches around them.

Catharanthus roseus 

The tulip tree sunbathes, its blooms show off their lovely orange tan.

Spathodea campanulata

The quisqualis blooms with relief as the sun goes down, 
Quisqualis indica

and so do we, enjoying the sea breeze!

The "ambitious" keelback and the climbing perch

Baby olive keelbacks got eaten by a kingfisher at Vedanthangal, and now a checkered keelback is caught on camera trying to eat a humungous fish, at IIT, in front of forty kids on a birdwatching outing!

Read about it here!  Keelback steals the show

So many questions from this incident.

What was the snake?

A chequered keelback was the general opinion.  Its a common water snake supposedly and non-poisonous. But, folks, and this is an important but, it is an agressive, bad-tempered snake!!

I'm glad it was busy with the fish when the kids came across it!!  Its bite can be quite painful, and it also does not let go until its jaws are forced open.  Yeesh, all that does not sound very nice.

Chequered Keelback Snake
Originally uploaded by Naseer Ommer

What was the fish?  

A climbing perch, opined some.  I had heard of these fish, which supposedly "walk" on land, and IIT does have them.  Reportedly these fish can survive out of water for a while, and move with the aid of their fins and tail!

Why was the snake unable  to eat it?

Preston Ahimaz said, "In the case of snakes, the jaw bones are hinged with elastic ligaments which simply stretch to enable the jaws to swing way beyond any bone pivot would permit."

So, despite this elasticity that all snakes have, the keelback could not swallow this fish, and gave up after an hour, reported the observers.

Maybe it was not a full-grown keelback?

PS:  It seems to make a habit of biting off more than it can handle.  A search on Flickr, revealed various pictures of the snake with a huge fish in its mouth!!

The Black winged stilts at Pallikaranai

The Pallikaranai marsh at Velachery never ceases to amaze me.  People tell me stories of how it was a wetland with scores of birds ... but to me its just Madras' rubbish dump.

And as Madras went through successive summers with poor rain and the wetlands dried, we even decided to build huge buildings in it. And of course the rains came, and oops all the buildings were marooned. So, instead of removing the buildings we now need to drain the marsh don't we?!

The greenies shouted themselves hoarse, in an attempt to reclaim the marsh...and atleast no further development is to happen in the area that has now been declared as protected.

So what's so amazing? Well, quite oblivious to all these political battles are the black-winged stilts, who populate these marshes in their thousands. They take off as a flock, frightened by a marauding marsh harrier, and then land at a safe distance, their long red legs and black wings making them look better in flight than when they are wading in the waters.

Any time you visit the wetlands, these birds are a sure shot.

BWS - Photo by Skandan

And last month, Skandan came across this nesting pair. So, more stilties to follow!

Lets hope that the marshes don't die, and continue to be home to these birds and more.

...And my son could tell his kids, there used to be a garbage dump here, you know.

Deja Vu in Delhi

7am, and I'm walking the streets of Jorbagh. I'm not endowed with a good memory,and I was quite convinced I would not locate it.

But three years of roaming the streets seem to have seared themselves deep in the cerebellum (is that where its stored?) , and I was hit by deja vu in Delhi.

Here's the street we lived on, way back in the seventies.  It hasn't changed all that much.

And here's the maidan behind the temple, where my brother left his bike, overnight, and found it standing in the same place the next morning!
Oh and here's the temple itself.  It was much more derelict in those days.  See the bars behind the temple, well we girls used to use them as uneven bars, and swing from them and try all kinds of stunts, while the boys would run down that slope.  (OK, OK, I was much smaller and slimmer in those days, you know.)

Somehow, the temple-on-the-hill had seemed much higher in my memory than when I actually saw it this time, well I was shorter as well.

Was it an age of innocence, or am I just changed?  As ten year olds, my parents considered it safe for me to roam the streets, confident that I would be back before sundown.  I cant bring myself to do the same with my child now.

As I walked through Lodi Gardens, I remembered learning to cycle...barrelling into an old man, and falling down.  The man was full of concern for me, while my parents were profusely apologetic to him.  Politeness, concern and social connect all around.

Another cycling story.  My brother, who was my tutor-in-chief, decided that it was high time I learnt to get off the cycle on my own.  ( I couldn't), and the only way I would learn was if he did not come to my rescue.  So, while I circled on the Lodi Garden lawns, he stood there with hands crossed across his chest, stubbornly ignoring my pleas to help me dismount.  Round and round I went not knowing what to do, when a brainwave struck - I just let go off the handlebars!  I was on the ground in a flash, with the cycle beside me all in a heap, grinning triumphantly.  Said brother did look a trifle contrite.

And as I sat at breakfast, looking out of the window, a red-whiskered bulbul and a pair of oriental white-eyes kept me company.

The red-whiskered bulbul, with his mohawk crest
Oriental white-eyes

An encounter at Vedanthangal

This article is linked in I and the Bird #98.

White-throated kingfisher - Photo by Mr Ramanan

This is a White-throated kingfisher, common in my neighbourhood and familiar to me.

Less than a foot, with a beak that looks like its too heavy for its body, and with a cackling and long cry.

(Even as I write this post, I can hear it calling outside my window)

Olive Keelback / Atretium schistosum
Originally uploaded by kamalnv / Ophiographer

This is an Olive Keelback, or so I was informed.   (I found this picture on Flickr.  Do take a look at kamalnv's other snake photos. He calls himself an ophiographer - someone who loves to photograph snakes!!)

The olive keelback is  unfamiliar to me. Found in freshwater  water bodies like ponds, common in south India, and maybe a foot and a half when full grown.  

Mama keelback lays eggs - about 10-30 of them - generally between January and April, and the baby snakes are half a foot long or so.

What do you think would happen in an encounter between bird and snake? 

I would bet on the snake as victor wouldn't you?  But Mr Ramanan was witness to an encounter where the bird just decimated the snake, well in an indirect sort of way.  

Read on...

Mr Ramanan recounts,

27th March 2009:  Vedanthangal sanctuary visit.  1:45 pm.  3 MNS members, sitting on a bench under a tree, lining the tank bund.  A white-breasted/(throated) kingfisher lands a branch some 20 ft away.

The bird was looking intently at the crevices formed between the stones studding the waterside of the bund. Suddenly it made a sharp dive towards the bund, caught a wriggling animal and flew back to its perch where it started battering the struggling animal to either stun or kill it. 

We thought that the victim was a skink, but when the bird sat still for a brief moment we could see that it had caught a small snake. 

Photo by Mr Ramanan

After some time the kingfisher flew away with the snake still in its mouth. Thinking that the show was over two of us moved away while the third stayed back to rest for some more time. When he rejoined us after about 30 minutes he mentioned that the bird had appeared twice more and caught a snake each time!

We returned to the bench after another 45 minutes or so. A local man sitting there informed us that during our absence the kingfisher had caught three more snakes while one snake which had emerged from the crevice when the bird was not around managed to survive. He showed us this snake which turned out to be a freshly hatched olive keelback. It was being mobbed by black ants which were trying to eat the yolk material still adhering to its skin. We took some photos to help in identification. 

When we looked up the kingfisher was there once again! In the next 30 minutes it caught two more snakes and one snake managed to survive thanks to the bird’s absence. After 4 PM the bird did not appear again.

The mother olive keelback seems to have laid its clutch in the crevice formed by the dressed stones lining the bund. And the bird seems to be aware of the hatchlings coming out one after another. In 130 minutes or so the kingfisher had caught 8 snakes and taken them away, probably to its nest, whereas only two snakes managed to survive. It is possible that the bird had caught some more snakes before our arrival, and also a few snakes might have moved away to survive. 

Mr Ramanan further elaborated that this is the nesting time for the whitebreasted kingfisher, and during that period, in order to feed its young, it looks voraciously for food.  It is not like the shrike, which kind of build a larder of dead prey.

Now this report, generated a lot of dialogue and sharing among MNS members.  While newbies like me, went wow! and amazing! etc etc, other senior members had more experiences to add!!

Preston Ahimaz recalled that, "I once saw a white-throat pick up baby squirrels from a coconut palm where their mother was depositing them, one at a time, from her nest in our kitchen after the nest was disturbed. " 

Sripad wondered whether the varied diet of the KF could be a reason for its "success as a species?  What I would like to know is, do other species of Kingfisher like the Stork Billed KF and the Pied KF follow the eating habits of the White Breasted KF. I think if they did, even their numbers would be as high as the WB KF. I have only seen the Stork Billed KF once,
early last year in Chennai.It would be physically difficult for a Small Blue to catch crabs and skinks. The Pied KF seems to have evolved the hovering ability to exclusively catch fish,there is no  doubt that they are only fish eaters . 

For me, it also explained why the KFs are common around my home, where there is no water body and no fish.  They love my neighbour's garden - probably feasting on all the creepy crawlies there.

The olive keelback snake is one of the more benign snakes, and does not go around biting, supposedly, and also eats mosquito larvae.  

Arun's wry observation that they say that "the WBK is neither a King, (they are so common) nor a fisher, (they eat umpteen things other than fish)!" is an apt sign-off!

About Vedanthangal

Its a bird sanctuary about 80 kms from Madras/Chennai, off the Chinglepet-Trichy highway.  There is a central water body, with the bund all around lined with viewing towers and benches.  Water birds like open-billed storks, painted stork, cormorants and some pelicans roost here, though Nelapattu in Andhra Pradesh  is more popular with the pelicans.

Read more Vedanthangal stories here.

Read Charlie's (of 10000birds.com) account here.

Russel viper or Krait?

Both are venomous, but look rather different.

This is a Russel viperPhoto by Preston Ahimaz

This is a Common KraitPhoto by Preston Ahimaz

Now, please read the article below, and tell me which snake do you think that is.

The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Krait causes scare among residents

750 MW of power saved during Earth Hour in city - Chennai - Cities - The Times of India

750 MW of power saved during Earth Hour in city - Chennai - Cities - The Times of India

Hmmm, not bad I say!  Our household's two bits of savings are also there.  My husband and I went for a walk to the beach, rather than sit in a dark house or stare at each other gloomily with  candles.  (Yes, we are that age when candles are not romantic, only dim and gloomy!)

I was amazed at the number of families on the beach, and also realised that there's this whole world of post 8pm activity in my neighbourhood that I am unaware of.

So, Earth Hour made me -

1.  Save power

2.  Chat with my husband

3.  Enjoy the cool night breeze and the crashing waves

4.  Live without internet for an hour

5.  Check out the social life on the Thiruvanmyur beach

Maybe we should do this every month!!

And it doesn't matter what the sceptics say, switch off those  lights and give the cynicism a one hour rest too!

Suraj Mal and the 2,000 fountains

15th January 2009, Bharatpur:

One evening, hungry and tired, eating hot rotis and dal, there was talk among some MNS members to visit Dig palace.  (Its pronounced Dheeg, and not dig as in an activity of Snow white's dwarfs).  Intrigued, my friend Raji and I decided to pile on to the trio who were planning to go, and so we became a car load.  

So, we decided, that 15th, post lunch we would set off for a half-day recce of this place.  Of course, like a  typical tourist from south India, I clicked away everytime I passed a camel cart, always amused at their superior stares.

The way was dotted with mustard fields in bloom, and it was a pretty sight.  Some of the others remarked that there has been a definite greening of this part of Rajasthan - it was more barren and dusty on their previous visits.

The roads were good and our driver was safe, and (thankfully) there are no hair-raising road stories in this account.  More camels, several unlicensed, made-up people carriers on a tractor chassis, and brick factories later, we arrive at Dig, a dusty little town, like any other, go past a fort wall, and around the bunds of a large tank with an impressive looking large building in the background (Gopal Bhavan, I realise later), and arrive at the parking lot for the Dig Palace.

We enter via this impressive Singh Pol gate, armed with little guide books picked up at the ticket counter.  The book says that this gate is incomplete - look at the bare arches inside, but still there's lovely carving all over the place, welcoming us to this sandstone marvel.
Singh-Pol. Spot the 2 lions atop the arch

The map below is from the Archealogical Survey of India ASI guide book.  The red arrows are the route we took around to the entrance.  As with most palace complexes, there are various buildings and complexes  added at various points in time, leading to much confusion to the first-time visitor.

Click on the ASI map, and keep it open as a separate tab - it will help you to follow my trail!So it was that we wandered into the main complex, the Gopal Bhawan, first.  I was struck by the elegance and elevation of this building.    And it was in good shape and well-preserved!  What little treasures we have tucked away in every part of the country.  It never ceases to amaze me, how we chance upon history even when we are not looking for it!  How old and tired our lands must be.

My mind wanders as I gaze on that building and think of Suraj Mal, the Jat ruler, who built this Bhawan in the eighteenth century.  My visit here, exposed me to a sliver of Jat history, (oh, so not everyone in Rajasthan was a Rajput?), and how the Jat peasants revolted against the Mughals, consolidated various kinships and established the Jat seat at Bharatpur under Badan Singh, Suraj Mal's father.  

Badan Singh, Suraj Mal and son Jawahar Singh, it appears were the significant rulers of Bharatpur, and it was a prosperous and growing prinicipality during the century when these rulers ruled.  
Gopal Bhawan - front facade
Gopal Bhawan

We entered the Bhawan by an inconspicuous small door, in the side. and were told to remove our footwear.  A caretaker/guide seems to be compulsory to go around the inside, I guess this is to prevent any destruction of the lovely interiors of the palace.

There is also no photography allowed inside, but I took a picture of this "bed" before I was informed of this.

Now, according to that caretaker Raja Suraj Mal on one of his military sorties into Delhi, looted this stone bed, thinking it was the Mughal queen's, and returned to be told that it was the stone slab on which the deceased Mughal kings and queens were embalmed!!  Do you think that story is true?!

A door took us into a gasp-causing room.  gasp-causing because the stone-bed room was bare, and somehow I assumed we would be led through a spartan place, with some relics here and there.  But no, we had walked into a lovely, well-appointed drawing room, with large hand-drawn embroidered punkahs adorning the roofs, carved wooden furniture and intricate trellis work on the side panels.  The room was two-storeys high, and carved panels at the first-floor height partitioned the royal quarters.  The trellis work was clever in that we could not see into those areas from down below, but when we went into those rooms, we could look down into the living room!  

In the middle, was a lovely marbled pool with fountains - Suraj Mal, according to me, should be christened the King of the Water Fountains.  There are 2,000 fountains in the palace complex! 

The caretaker spun us another story - which I have not been able to substantiate - pointing to the marble figure of a woman dancer.  He declared that she was the court dancer, a foreigner, who was so "taken in with the king", that when he died, she jumped onto his funeral pyre and committed sati.  He mentioned a name, and now I have forgotten it.  Any of my fellow travellers remember??

We were taken up a narrow staircase to the king's room, with its king-sized bed, large ornate mirrors and paintings of Krishna on the wall.  There was also a mysterious looking "hole" in the wall, which turned out to be a hotline to the maharani's room!

Then there was a large marble Indian style dining table - when I first saw it, I thought it was a giant potty - with lovely semi-precious inlay work, a bit like the Dungarpur table where we had enjoyed a magical dinner.

I musn't forget the old-style air conditioning.  There was a room with a contraption, which blew scented water vapour through a system of pipes into the royal chambers!  So, the caretaker told us, a team of workers would work ceaselessly to turn the wheel that dragged water through a fine mesh, mixed it with fragrance and sent it to the rooms!  (It still works, by the way!)

As we spoke, we arrived at the royal verandah, from where we were allowed to take a few pictures, looking out, and this is what we saw.  In the picture above, you'll see that the lower-most floor is under water.  This was the method used to keep the palace cool in the summer.
As we looked to our left, we could see the "Bhadon" pavillion - we wandered into that open courtyard with arches that you see, and I'll describe it to you in detail further on.

Delightful sandstone carvings adorned every bit of  the facade, and as we stood in looking out, it was like a time warp - there on the outer edge of the tank, the town roads were filled with vehicles with horns blaring, advertisements for Airtel and Vodafone, and men dressed in trousers and polyester shirts.

At the same time, reminiscent of times gone by, the water's edge saw women washing their colourful sarees in the Govind Sagar, and children playing around their mothers, in and out of the water.

I idly wondered if Raja Suraj Mal allowed the washing of clothes in the tank in the old days.

I was brought out of my reverie by the sound of Mr Shivakumar's voice, as he dryly commented that he would've been quite happy as the Raja's secretary!!

The Queen's quarters were not open to us, and that was more-or-less the end of our tour of the insides of the Gopal Bhawan.  The caretaker was generously tipped for his services, and as we left we saw another bunch of tourists go off on the same tour that we had!

Emerging out into the natural light, the vast expanse of the Mughal gardens and the fountains stretched out ahead of us, with the Keshav Bhawan in the distance.

The caretaker had told us a story about how the fountains would be filled with colour-coordinated water, so that different fountains would spout different colours.  From what I could make out (I'm no Hindi pundit you see),  he said something about divers going into the large water tank that was between Suraj Bhawan and Kishen Bhawan, and stuffing different colour pitchkaris into different pipes that went to different fountains.  Now, that tank was 2m deep and as wide as a building, and took a week to fill, and if all the fountains were turned on, the display would last only a few hours!!

The main line of fountains with Keshav Bhawan in the distance, looking east from Gopal Bhawan

Leading in to the gardens was this gigantic "swing" frame.  The story goes that this frame was brought back as loot by Suraj Mal from one of his raids on Delhi.  there is actually no swinging swing, if you know what I mean, just this highly ornate frame.

Marble hindola stolen from the Mughals
Next, we decided to explore the Bhadon pavillion -  that verandah-like lower level in the flanking pavillions.  
Bhadon pavillion

In the picture below is the view from that level, but more than the view what was mind-blowing was the detailed arrangement and design of water flow.  In the middle of the rear wall was a strangely inclined slab of carved sandstone, which we discovered was a chute over which water flowed.  The carvings would produce ripples and provide a form to the flowing water, which then went underground via a drain and came into a kind of cistern in the middle of the hall, in the floor.  But more interestingly, above in the roof, there were pipes with holes through which water would sprinkle, creating a rain-like effect!

The Chatri rooftop
Suraj Bhawan - the marble complex
Suraj Bhawan

Marked "4" on the map, Suraj Bhawan is a marble, single-storied building.  This was built by Jawahar Singh and the conjecture is that the marble was brought back from one of the side buildings in the Delhi Fort.  It has a very Mughal look to it, with carved arches, inlay work and patterned floors.
Decorated archways

Inlay work

The rooms were a bit poky though, and the ASI book surmises that this bhawan was probably a place of recreation for the ladies of the palace, and not a residence.

As someone in our group remarked, "Where are the toilets?!"

Decorated floors

Behind the Suraj Bhawan is the two-storeyed Hardev Bhawan.  It was rather dilapitated when we visited, and there was a strong stench of bats, actively discouraging us from further explorations of its insides.  

Hardev Bhawan

I did like the roof, though.  That roof pattern seems to be a unifying factor for the various bhawans.  The book says that the Gopal Bhawan - now with a flat roof - also had a crowning "chatri" over it, but it has been ruined.  
Hardev Bhawan roof

Keshav Bhawan - the square pavillion from where you could hear mock thunder
As it looked - Pic from the ASI book
Then....

Once again, the water engineer of Deeg has to be marvelled.  See the fountains surrounding the inner set of pillars?  Along with that, there were pipes with jets circling the roof, and supposedly some of these pillars are hollow and water would be passed through them with such force, that a visitor would hear the thunder of the clouds, and feel the rain as well!!
Now...

Sadly, this was the state of the restoration work.  Ugly brick walls have ruined the aesthetics of the hall and the grace of the pillars.Keshav Bhawan & Purana Mahal. View from Shish Mahal, across the Rup Sagar. Pic from ASI book

The brick walls somehow destroyed our good cheer, and the group  of us sat and pensively stared across at the older parts of the palace complex, across the Rup Sagar.


Rup Sagar

The old fort walls and the dilapidated Shish Mahal suddenly took me back to the old crumbling yalis on the banks of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.  I was hit  by a moment of huzun, the melancholy of the Turks so well described by Pamuk.

The old fort walls
Shish Mahal

We lost our appetite for further explorations somehow, and headed back to our car.  Maybe it was the fever I felt coming, as well.  

Bats hung in plenty from a tree, and I stared in fascination as some of them, scratched their ears, all the while hanging upside down!  We stopped for tea and vegetable chaat, both of which were unsatisfactory.  the chaat was too expensive and the tea-in-a-matka, smelled of, well, mud!  It was probably our low mood.

As we returned, we spied more havelis in the towns in between.  The men stopped off in Bharatpur town, sampled gajar halwa (and brought some back for us - it was delicious!), went to a purana mandir in some back lanes, and then walked back.  We women were tired, headed back to our rooms, a warm bath and a reunion with the rest of the bunch who had stayed on at the bird sanctuary.  

How could I forget these beauties?

Meet Marianne and Pyrene, two sunny beauties I saw for the first time at Bharatpur, and I had completely overlooked.  Seeing the Blue Mormon at GNP last weekend, suddenly brought them back to mind, and I hunted through my 200-odd photos from Bharatpur.

And here they are!  They love to sunbathe it seems, and that suited me fine, as I could get really close to them to take these shots.  I was also double delighted as their common names actually were easy to remember.  (I actually didn't write their names down and I still recalled them!)  Pyrene here below is Yellow orange tip, 

Ixias pyrene

Ixias marianne

...and this is White orange tip!!  No crow, mormon, tiger or eggfly!  

And no butterfly mimicry to confuse me as well.