Of People and Places

  Black-naped Oriole  in Bangalore - watercolor illustration This bird always comes at the same time in the morning and always sits on the same spot on a Ficus tree. On windy, rainy days, she looks just like the vivid fluttering leaves around her. Her striking green and yellow feathers look marvellous in flight. The most recognizable feature is the black band around the nape.  I am assuming it is a she because her wings are greener whereas males are supposed to have more yellowish upperparts. She doesn't stay for long, screeches like someone's throttling her ;D , sometimes ending in a long sneezing sound. She leaves just as quickly as she appears, no dawdling around.  More posts about birds and trees -  An Ashy Prinia on the balcony and hope  Black-crowned night heron at Madiwala lake   Whited breasted water hen in Belgaum The Saptaparni tree in Hoshangabad Fun with Babool tree pods, Bhopal The Baobab trees of Mandu Birds in Belgaum A love letter to th...

An Ashy Prinia on our balcony, illustration Right in the middle of the busy chaotic traffic junction that our apartment is close to, there is a tree. Unmindful of all that rushing and hustle and bustle around it, this placid tree stands like an oasis. There are tiny birds in this tree, which my mother tells me are called Ashy Prinia.  Sometimes they sit on the electricity wires that connect our part of the locality to the other side of the road and they look so pretty - like some kind of lively fairy lights, the way they twitter and weave their way. Specks against the sky, finally settling to a comfortable spot. There are too many of them and it is delightful to see their industriousness. They usually confine themselves to the tree. Only during sunrise and sunset and in the rains, they scatter about the terraces. We can see  them from our sixth floor apartment and through the binoculars, we can get a pretty clear view of what they are up to. My mother can often be found with h...

Belgaum always meant cozy holidays in mamama's (grandma's) house, Cable TV ( We didn't have it at home then, it was always a treat we looked forward to), stuffing ourselves beyond capacity with an equally enthusiastic grandmother who liked trying out new things she saw on TV and magazines and tried them on us. The days whirred by in a contented blur in front of the TV - pure bliss. Belgaum is a sleepy town, I think the air is filled with something that makes everyone indolent, or probably that was just me stuffed to the brim with mamama's delicious food wanting to laze about all the time. Belgaum to me meant buffaloes, continuous rains, hailstorms and beautiful colonial houses, wadas and Kunda. Every visit to Belgaum necessarily meant a half kilo of Kunda ( A brown colored sweet made with milk & khowa)   had to be taken back to school/office and shared with peers and colleagues. An illustration of Red Whiskered Bulbul My grandparents moved houses several t...