On The Go...

(Sometime around the end of Sharad rutu, early Dec 2009)

Early mornings, now-a-days, are slightly chilly, as if the waiting winter were slowly crawling upon me. With the weather Gods going crazy and all confused this season, winter seems to have resolved to put things back into their place and restore the familiar order in earnest. And so, with no more surprises expected and as a meek acknowledgement to the increasing cold, my reluctance at shedding my blanket and shrug out of my bed has increased in proportion; with that the repeated attempts of my mother to wake me up and get me moving and to my office; and so have come out my sweaters and the black Peter England coat. The winter giggles all along at me as I finally manage to hit the pedal. Me and my poor friend, who must have bore the cold brunt all night in the open, set about gulping distances by circumferences.

My friend is sent through violent shocks and jerks by the few metres of kuchcha road, and so am I with him; awaking both of us from the stiffness and dullness of the incomplete slumber. The landscape plummets down in front of us pulling down with it the quiet houses and farms, before the mountains far away lift it up towards the sky. They aren't very far away though, what with they almost filling up your sight and their essence percolating through your senses and soul. They surely do strike a pleasant, magical chord, almost enthusing a gladdening, familiar scent of the mountains all around you and within you. The winter, however, has played a beautiful trick on these harmless humps on the earth. It has brought all its mist clogging down, thick and dense, under the mountains to stay there, such that one can't see through them. The mighty mountains, as a result, appear to have been lifted nonchalantly up by the indolent congregation of the dense mass of vapour. It looks enchanting, I tell you. The sun's slowly peeking above the horizon, almost with a yawn, sending down warm rays to mix with and glisten the white mass of mist. If only I had my camera with me! Where, however, would I capture the smell and the cold feel of the winter that's tingling its way through me, perching on my nosetip, sprawling on my ears and setting into my eyes?

I pedal further down the now smooth road, breezing down the straights and around the bends. My numb fingers try to control my overjoyed friend. He is sprinting across, ignoring the undulations on tar. His bell calls are met with happy responses from his chums; the sparrows, bulbuls, mynas, crows, munias, shrikes and others and that's the cause of his joy. We pass the Krishna temple smiling our greetings to him. He smiles back at us, serene and healing as ever.

At the station, I bid a goodbye to my friend, promising to return at dark. I am amongst people now; my kind. The early morning crowd includes many youngsters, high-school students to college going teenagers. Everybody is geared up for the cold weather. From rural folks in plain dhoti and stained shirts to milk vendors and vegetable vendors with their huge cans and baskets to office going people like me to the teenagers, the station is buzz with activity and conversations. Herds are what I feel I am seeing along the length of the station and the faces wearing multitudes of emotion appear like ruminating on the daily dose of conversation and gossip. The newspaper guy is in the thick of action and everybody's more than eager to grab his/her copy. I always walk half the platform towards the far end to climb the train there. There's no reason for that, just a preference. I have a few minutes before the local train would arrive allowing me to take an easy stroll across the platform in my comfortable canvas pair.

My hand brushes my warm coat at its sides as I walk. I try to keep my head steady, but my fickle, flickering eyes give away my curiosity. I can't help but notice the girls whispering to each other. I cast a glance on the group and my eyes are held captive by a complimenting pair, pure, black and mesmerizing (as Onkar says, I think in my mind :-)). What follows is a strange status quo as far as expressions on both the faces are concerned as against a distracting and confusing hustle inside, behind the falsely held expressions. Both the individuals stuck in the deadlock become exceedingly wary of every movement and each sinew asks permissions before it can twitch. Intervened by a conscious mind now, my involuntary walking and poise suddenly assume proportions of a foreground process requiring extensive-complex-real time-stimuli based-decision making algorithms. Where the conscious mind sets in, I lose the fluidity of my sub-conscious self. She follows suit and her posture stiffens laying bare her own susceptible processes which have evidently gone awry by a little disturbance. Until my friend, ‘inertia’, thankfully carries me ahead and beyond the threshold distance disengaging the bond, we both go through a strange metastable state in our minds which can neither be defined as outright enjoyable nor as entirely uneasy. The effect sweeps across the group. Every individual goes through the brief wave trying to win attention and pleasantly sail with the occasion if it happens. Depending on various sensory parameters (primarily audio-visual) and their weights in position and time, any two individuals may get connected or there might be a sequence of multiple short connections. Let me accept that this is indeed a natural sociological behaviour in animals and the aforesaid events and effects form the normal protocol in mortal beings like me. Anyway, the point is that you feel for it. It is almost like an instinct driven by the irresistible laws of attraction and which renders every post-adolescence individual predictable and helpless in such situations. It pleases the heart and rides the mind and there’s not much one can do about it except wait for time to take care of and tone down this instinct, if it ever does. Besides, since I am no Yogi, I often follow the ritual and enjoy the uneasy transients and muse in the pleasant feelings that blot my heart as the experience trails. And so, I do the ritual today again. And boy! Am I not pleased! She looks beautiful, doesn’t she!

- Vindy :)

Lightning experiments

It was happening again yesterday. Heavenly flares and flashes were lighting up the backdrop behind that hillock and the immediate neighbourhood. Akshay came running to me, bursting with excitement at the spurts of illumination which were creating magnificent, isolated silhouettes of the hillock, the clouds and the tall receiver station, in an otherwise dark sky. As I broke into a beaming smile and let go a rapturous 'tokk', I realised that despite seeing this almost every other day here, at Talegaon, it still evoked a wonderous feeling. Far away, beyond the hillock and the mountain lines perhaps, a possessed clan of clouds and the crazy earth must be playing with their charges!

I have never seen before lightning with such regularity as I have seen in Talegaon. The location of this place between mountains on many sides and more importantly the vastness of perceptible space seem to make this possible. Unlike a metropolitan, where visibility is limited by structures and their immense density, this place is not that badly cluttered and not so populated as yet. Hence our terrace affords a lavish view across the countryside right until the horizon which in this case is largely undulated by mountainous hunches. And not just on one side, but in almost all the directions. The feeling, when I spend evenings sitting on the water tank at the top of my building, is akin to those I have had on numerous treks; a view spanning the earth as much as it could!  When I lift may gaze slightly skyward I see myriad and plenty clouds and realize their movements. Sample this – In cities, either there are clouds or there are no clouds; either it thunders and throws lightning or doesn't; it either rains or it doesn't. But here, I can see dense clouds, not here, but a few kilometers away over that mountain; I can sense the rains to my right and sunshine in front of me; I can sit down here without fear and still watch in awe furious lightning striking somewhere in a distance! I can sense nature at work in its various forms at different places at the same time, as if it were running numerous parallel processes, all of them distinctly visible to me.
 

Somewhere along this experience I thought I should try to capture images of lightning. There are, anyway, many spectacular images of this phenomenon already available across web and other literature, and still I wanted to experiment with my camera. Although this was a long cherished idea, I thought I had good chances of getting a good result here. I started with the first noticeable rains of this monsoon and have made a few attempts since. With a digital camera like mine, it is pretty simple. Trying to click at precisely that moment when lightning strikes is obviously not a very wise option. One might instead think of utilizing the features in a good enough camera. All you need is a fairly prolonged shutter speed (which means keeping the shutter open for atleast a few seconds) and loads of patience. Based on the other conditions, one may have to adjust other settings in the camera, like keeping the aperture small when exposing for a long time to reduce the insurge from other areas in the frame. With a long exposure, a steady surface for the camera is advisable while capturing the image. The lightning, if it strikes in exactly that window of time when shutter's open, is bright enough to create a reasonable impression, as also to leave the rest of the frame fairly illuminated. The settings may have to be adjusted bearing these things in mind. Patience is a very important trait in this pursuit and that can convert the matter of luck to a matter of time, before you get your desired result.
 

A few days ago, I felt, I finally got a satisfactory image. Hence this post :P
 

I would like to share some of the images of lightning that I have captured till now. Apart from scaling the images, I have worked around, slightly, with these images in GIMP, mainly modifying the picture curve to reduce unwanted illumination from lightning, of adjoining areas. (But believe me, the pictures look equally good with that illumination) 

The first one was captured on June 11, 2010. This one struck right behind the Harneshwar tekdi and I captured it from my balcony. Since it was pitch dark, the camera couldn't focus well enough.
 

The second one was taken on September 28, 2010. This lightning was snapped over the trademark mountain near Talegaon, around which Indrayani meanders. This lightning seems to be a cloud­-cloud discharge. I captured this from my terrace.

 The third one was photographed on November 21, 2010. This one's similar to the second in location. However I got really lucky with (wonder of wonders!) three lightning strikes in the captured frame. I was literally jumping with joy and singing merrily for the rest of the day!
 

Here's some of the exif data for this image if anyone's interested.
Exposure Time: 13 sec.
ISO Speed Rating: 200
Flash Fired: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode.
Metering Mode: Center­Weighted Average
Exposure Program: Manual
Focal Length: 9.9 mm
 

One interesting capture in this above image is the region in the vicinity of the mountain surface and the tail of the rightmost lightning. The air in that region seems to have been blown away or vastly influenced by the lightning strike. I wonder what the effect actually is! (Maybe related to streamers...or...impact..or..anyway) Here's that zoomed part.
 

Lalit had written a very interesting and informative post on lightning and related observations in his blog some time ago. Here's the link for that article.

- Vindy :)

एक विश्व!

परवा गौरव आणि सम्पन्नशी बोलतांना एका जुन्या रचनेची आठवण झाली. IISc , CEDTत असतांना बरेच nightouts व्हायचे. तशाच एका nightout नंतर मजा म्हणून काही ओळी लिहिल्या होत्या. आज घरी शोधल्यावर एका वहीत ती रचना लिहिलेली सापडली. एक timepass आठवण म्हणून इथे post करतो. :D 

एक विश्व!

Lab च्या एका खुर्चीवर, दमून थकून बसतांना
समोरच्या लाकडी कुशीवर, डोकं माझं तेकावतांना
सकाळचे, किमान ४-५ तरी, वाजले असतात जेव्हा 
निर्जीव सारे जिवंत, lab मध्ये होतात तेव्हा.


का नावडतो तुला तो transistor ?
तीन पायांवर एक छोटासा घर!
त्या घरात राहतात लोक अनेक
current लागल्यावर पळतात सगले, न दोन न एक!
धमाल उड़ते सगल्यांची तेव्हा, चांगलीच!
कामी येतो transistor, असो amplifier किंवा switch
पण त्यात पण त्यांचे प्रकार किती! बाप रे बाप!
लक्षात ठेवतांना वाटतं, 'डोक्याला नुसता ताप!'
"काय करायचे रे दादा?", विचारतात ते मलाच 
circuit चालायला लागल्यावर, प्रत्येक transistor वाटतो अगदी आपलाच!
त्या transistorच्या आत सुद्धा आहेत बरेच fundae ,
काम न धंदे, कुठून येतात असले बन्दे!


आधी वाटायचं ...
काही railway stations अच् फ़क्त, junctions असतात
हे ऐकून transistorच्या आतले, रहिवाशी हसतात 
ते म्हणतात,
"आमच्यात पण junctions p-n म्हणून असतात,
ज्या दारांमुले, घरातल्या खोलीत लोक अडकतात.
मग voltage दादा आल्यावर हे दार उघडतात
हसत, खेळत, एका खोलीतनं दूसर्या खोलीत,
लोक नव्या जोमाने फिरतात..."


मला तर वाटतं,
junctionच्या दोन बाजुला शेत आहेत दोन
जणू एका boundaryच्या प्रत्येक बाजूला, एक वेगलाच zone 
एका शेतात सूर्यफुले उगवली आहेत,
तर काल्पनिक चंद्रफुले आहेत दूसर्या बागेत
दोन्ही कढची फुलं, इकडे तिकडे बघत असतात
आतुरतेने सूर्याची व चंद्राची वाट पाहत असतात
जेव्हा सूर्य नी चन्द्र, पलिकडच्या शेतावर उगवतात 
सगळी फुलं त्या त्या दिशेला फिरून,
वेड्यासारखी पलायला लागतात!
डोळ्यांसमोर हे दृश्य जेव्हा मी बघत बसतो,
मनातल्या मनात मी, मजेत मस्त हसतो!

ह्या एक-एका घराने बनतात, 
अनेक societies, colonies आणि शहर 
ICs मध्ये तर ह्यांच्या संख्येचा होतो नुसता कहर
मग development boards सारे civilizations सारखे दिसतात 
पार आकाशातून काढलेल्या, satellite images सारखे भासतात 
मग त्या शहरात सुद्धा असतीलच की, आपल्या सारखे institutes ! 
तेथे पण मुलांना मिळत असतील, असंख्य assignments आणि tuts !
memories मध्ये तयार होऊन मुलं बसत असतील
आपली संधि कधी येते, ह्याची वाट पाहत असतील
processor मग बोलावणार प्रत्येकाला अधून मधून 
"मला job लागला रे लागला!", सांगत असतील ते नाचून!
Buses असतील शहरात, इकडून तिकडे जायला 
त्यांत पण solid गर्दी, होत असेल, चमायला!
आणि जातांना कोणाचा धक्का लागलाच जर चुकून,
की म्हणत असतील, "मेल्या! का येतोस मरायला!"
processor आणि memory सवाल fastest !
आणि रस्ते सुद्धा रुंद, सरळ आणि BEST !
Controllers असतील अनेक तिथल्या सरकारच्या under  
एकही बंद पडला, की समझा झालाच blunder 
आत बाहेर करायला, असतील ports चारीकडे
मग जहाजातन जातील लोक peripheralsकडे
ह्या शरात सुद्धा असतील mafias and thugs !
ज्यांना लोक म्हणत असतील viruses and bugs  
Debugger ने त्यांना काढल्यावर मग
आपली पूजा करत असेल, तिथला सारा जग!


आपलं पण जग, देवाला असच दिसत असेल
जेव्हा आपल्यासारखा nightout तो पण मारत असेल...


-Vindy

(व्याकरण चुकल्यास आणि typos बद्दल क्षमस्व :) )

Pied Kingfisher

I heard a splash, a loud one; as if some big stone had been thrown into the calm river. I turned my head in that direction, expecting not the least what I saw next. Cutting through the rippling river arose a flapping bird, much to my amazement. 'Just a bird and such a loud splash!', I wondered. It flew up and sat down on a transmission line running overhead across the breadth of the river from one bank to the other. Evidently surprised, I saw it settle down on the wire and the next instant my mind exclaimed 'Kingy!' The beak and the body structure were unmistakable! I couldn't be wrong. It had to be a kingfisher! However, I had never before seen a kingfisher of this colour. Black and bright white! As vivid as it could get in just these two! It was a pied kingfisher.

Pied kingfishers are amazing hunters, unique in their ways. They hunt mainly for fish. They hover over waters, biding their time, before drawing their wings back and making an almost verticle, spectacular dash towards their underwater prey, packing all their might into it. They cut the layer, beak first, diving down into the water to pick the prey with lightning speed. The heavy plunge was what had created the splashing sound. This one, however, had missed its target. For the next 15-20 minutes the female pied kingfisher kept looking at the waters under with a steadfast gaze. It was so focussed that nothing around seemed to matter to the bird. I, in turn, kept looking at it. I was waiting with bated breath for the kingfisher to make another dive. All my hopes to witness the spectacle whimpered away when the kingfisher flew away without making another attempt. Perhaps, it thought it wise to find another more suitable place to strike its deadly dive. I wasn't very disappointed though. Atleast I had seen the bird. Hopefully, I would also see the dive some other time.


Here's a modest cropped image of the bird, that I would like to share.

Pied Kingfisher (Location: Indrayani river, near Talegaon)

 - Vindy

Bayas

Not far from my home is an open field...

where grass grows without any care, where a pond shivers under misty layers, where lotuses meditate on slender stalks, where damsels and dragons hover as if lost, where shrikes perch on the trees veined, where robins and kingies feel just like a friend, where lapwings walk in the waving meadow, where bayas weave for the want of love...

to linger, to wonder, in every little glace, where I lose myself to this rhythm and trance...

When your senses yeild to the nature, its every form may spawn poetry. Every stroke of the landscape and its elements and their various stimuli seem to convey art, an unspoken art that just sinks in and wets the inner being. I realize that I am breathing and with every breath I feel a wrap of contentment drawing upon me. I have had and keep having many such moments here, in Talegaon, when I have felt like inhaling, in a single sweep, all the good air that descends from over the mountains and carries a maddening scent of purity. I wonder if my words do any passable justice to the effect, but I shall settle for this shortcoming.  After all, there's a language beyond words and logic, that can only be felt!

Of the multitude of things that have endeared me at Talegaon, one has been the varied clan of the winged beings here. Over time, due to a constant barrage of an urban scenario, my mind had reached a concious conclusion, nay submission, that all birds could be broadly classified into two simple categories – the 'Crows' and the 'Non-Crows'. I was tempted, often, to make space for another one for the 'Sparrows'. But the innocent, almost apolegetic, expressions that they seem to carry, kept me from leaving them alone in a family of their own and instead made me club them with the others to make up the non-crows. The crows, of course, stood by themselves in lofty numbers to earn an exclusive family for themself. Such is the abundance of the black bird in the cities and the towns that after some time my faculties had become indolent to any other bird form. Not that I was very interested, and perhaps that's the real reason, but I had stopped noticing the other birds altogether. Then, in IISc, due to the campus there and some of my friends I realized that there is more to the bird family than I ever thought. And when I landed in Talegaon, I had all the time and a new grown interest to watch the birds. And so, I do. I see many, try to photograph a few and read about some of them.

In the open field that I mention in the opening lines, there used to be a noticeable flock of Baya Weavers. Last monsoon, when I first went there, I was fascinated by the place and especially the flock of the Bayas. Bayas are the expert weaving birds, weavers like no other! Inverted retort shaped nests made out of grass strings and straw hung down from the branches overlooking the calm pond beneath. I and Appaji marvelled at the expertise of weaving the nest and also at how wisely the location was selected. It was such that no predator could reach it easily. Over the next few days I gathered some interesting information about the habits of this bird. As it turns out, the male Bayas weave nests and the whole purpose, seemingly, is to earn a mate. A male Baya tries to build his nest so as to woo females, who are prospective mates. Half completed nests are completed only when a female selects them, turning them into chambers of love and safe havens for the offsprings. It was really interesting to read on the research that has gone into undertstanding the nest-building tradition and the sexual selection process in these birds. One belief is that the woven nests help the female to compare and select genetically superior males, improving the chances of superior inheritance for their progeny. Seems reasonable, but I couldn't fathom the connotations of this to a satisfactory level. An alternate proposal, that I came across in a doctoral dissertation by S. Quader, suggests that the location of nest and its subsequent safety play a prime role in selection matters. A nest that is stable and protected from strong winds and predators seems to be preferred by the female Baya, since it lends that much convenience to the raising of the offsprings. This felt pretty convincing to me. Besides, some of the tendencies of the Male nest-builder seem to indicate an effort in this direction. The nestling chambers have been observed to be plastered by mud in many cases. Perhaps this lends some strength and balance to the nest. Every male Baya starts building multiple nests to ensure a good chance of finding a mate. It completes only those that are accepted so that no unnecessary efforts are wasted. The male Baya, thus, may land around 2-5 mates at a time. The raising of the young ones is majorly done by the female. Once, the responsibilities are over, the female may opt for another progeny with a new selection of a nest and the associated male. The importance of the expertly woven nests is more than evident from this critical cycle of reproduction. What might, however, be equally interesting is the role played by a Baya outside its mating cycle. I guess, from the way the flocks evolve and move and locate themselves strategically, there has to be some structure or tradition in the flock that directs such efforts. While thinking about all this, that I had gathered, I could not help feeling that the interactions in a flock seem to suggest a more involved societal structure and habits in the Bayas. Or perhaps, they just know!

Some snaps:

The pond

The Weaver colony 

Baya Weaver (male)

The weaver nest

-Vindy

उत्तरायणं

(The Sun completed his northward journey for this year on 16 July 2010. Here are some pictures from his journey. The snaps have been taken from my balcony)

The April Spring

I behold the nature's palette,
And my heart so yearns to write
It's this spring that blots my mind,
And drapes me in delight!

With its gifts of hues enchanting,
That the petals wear and beam
And in sprightly waves they shimmer,
Like my silly eyes would dream
It's those happy hundred hues,
That fill me and my sight
It's this spring of swinging colours,
That drapes me in delight!

The warm air seethes with passion,
To pluck the naked petals
Their fragrance wets the shadow,
Where the floral sheath now settles
I feel the silken layer,
With steps so soft and light
It's this spring of tender carpets,
That drapes me in delight!

The rays embrace the country,
Enthusing life and mirth
And lend all warmth and verve,
To the fertile rufous earth
Our plains and lofty mountains,
Bask in the sunshine bright
It's this spring of sprouting hope,
That drapes me in delight!

The restless birds of plumage
Call for their love to mate
And flit through cups of nectar,
With not a while to wait
On the wings of gleeful sunbirds,
My heart too takes a flight
It's this spring of love and laughter,
That drapes me in delight!

Clouds are too sparse and scattered
Their caravan's yet too far
And so the sky so blue and smooth,
Sails sans a single scar
The sun saunters and splashes,
Shades of orange at twilight
It's this spring that sings in silence
That drapes me in delight!

Then the night of moonlight murmurs,
As we sit on the easy chair
And we watch all the moonlit silence,
And sigh at the pleasant air
Upon two eyes so grateful,
Maidens of sleep alight
It's this April spring tonight,
That drapes me in delight!

-Vindy :)

Some Spring snaps from IISc taken last year...