|
|
|
January 7th, 2010
deponti
 | 11:34 am - Spinning Fantasies....
There they sit, the two children of the hills of Namdapha:
She is, obviously, spinning stories for the younger one....what gossamer thoughts of far away princes, dragons and wonders is she weaving, that the little boy sits rapt next to her, gazing into the far distance, lost in what his childish imagination shows him?
Children live in fantasy, and to them, stories are part of the fabric of life. I felt lucky to be able to watch these two in their world, even if just briefly...sitting there in the sunlit meadow, free (for a while, at least) of the cares of household chores or school, being...just children...,
All these OTHER photographs from Assam and Arunachal mean...that I have not finished uploading the pics of the birds and the mammals (OK, I admit they are quite lousy, but I *am* going to post them here as usual!)
And meanwhile, I am off to Thattekkad today, with (in alphabetical order) ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) amoghavarsha, anushsh, and Sandeep ...so even more birds (hopefully) to add to the list... I am sure that in the next Bangalore Bird Race, (on Jan 17th) I am going to start identifying birds endemic to Assam, Arunachal, and Kerala!
When I come back from Kerala, it's a trip to B R Hills in Karnataka....I am laying up a store of wildlife memories for the long short, cold days ahead when I am back to GD-care in St.Louis, at the end of the month!
Current Mood: RUSHED
Current Music: chores to be done! chores to be done!
|
deponti
| 10:51 am - Beavis and Butthead!
I have asked asakiyume to make up one of her (pun intended) fantastic stories about these two goats I found in the hAt (weekly market) at Miao...
But...any of you can do that...what are the issues that these two are at loggerheads about? What has...got their goat?
Let me know what YOUR story is...
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) rushed
Current Music: none
|
January 5th, 2010
deponti
| 09:59 am - Ageism, but NOT everywhere!
Here I am, quoted in the Indian Express by Saritha Rai, a journalist whom I respect.
click here
I do agree to having faced ageism in Chennai...and often facing it in life...
..but I want to make it clear that for the most part, I said the EXACT opposite to what is quoted...I said, VERY clearly, that in Bangalore, and in wildlife and birding circles, I have never come across ageism at all. Between what one says to a professional reporter (even one who is a personal friend) and what that person hears and writes...there seems to be a very wide gap!
Let me state once again, that the birding community, the young-theatre-group community, the wildlife community, the cycling community,the quizzing community, the LJ community...all these seem to have NO ageism at all, and I find myself, and even older people, accepted for who they are, and indeed, age and its attendant experience is often given great respect.
I will be writing to Saritha about this, never fear. For my age, I am quite active, and so are my tongue...and typing fingers!
Deepa.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) happy
Current Music: thyAgarjAja Aradhana just concluded
|
deponti
| 09:38 am - Making jalEbis
This is for (a) my non-Indian friends, but it's for (b) my Indian friends too...jalEbis, as (b) and many of (a) know, are sweets, made of flour batter that has been fermented, fried and then dunked into hot sugar syrup. Which of us have not fallen for the jalebis at weddings, hot off the syrup kadAi....?
At DakshiNEshwar, in Kolkata, Geetanjali and I had just finished having bhAdEr chA (tea in those special mud pots...its taste is unique), singhAdA (the Bengali samOsA) and heengEr kochudi (kachOris made with asafoetida as an ingredient)...birdwatchers, these are the "endemics" of the Bengali snacks world!..... when I realized I could record the making of this delicacy.
The circular motion with which the halwAee (sweet-maker) starts looks as if he is stirring the batter...but if you notice closely, he's actually filling up a vessel which has a hole in its bottom (please, no dirty comments at this stage!)
Then, he positions the vessel over the hot kadAi (large wok-like vessel) and, extremely skilfully starts making the series of circles, in a spiral fashion, ending up in the middle of the oil. The batter is extremely slippery in the oil and when L-boards (er, you can guess one example of a person unskilled in this...yours truly) and can make terrible lumps and tangled squiggles.....it's NOT as easy as this halwaii makes it seem! Of course I *could* say that with daily practice I would also be as good....but that would be not true, I think!
At the end of the video, you can see him using the perforated ladle to turn over the earlier batch of jilebis, which is soaking in the hot sugar syrup (to his left.)
Jilebis (or jalebis, as you wish to call them) are one sweet that is no longer made at home, for the most part. In the south, we have a variant of this, called "jAngri"..the word is derived from "jahAngiri" from Mughal times! This sweet, too, is made the same way, but is substantially thicker and the batter is not fermented, and for some reason, is now generally bright orange in colour, as opposed to the golden yellow-to-orange variation for jilebi.
(many of the south Indian sweets have names derived from Mughal times..."pAdushAh" is derived from "bAdshAhi"!... interesting sideline that I am not going to follow right now...)
Oh, yes, we went back to Geetanjali's in-laws' place bearing some of the hot jilebis! And you can be sure that some of it is now smiling back at me from my waist and hip, when I look at the mirror....
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: thyAgarAja pancharatnam being performed live at ThiruvaiyAru
|
January 4th, 2010
nivedita_n
 | 02:01 pm - How TV changed my life
For nearly a year now, I have been hosting a show called ‘Pudhuppunal’ on India’s national TV Doordarshan’s Podhigai channel. It has been an absolutely wonderful experience and it has changed my life! Here’s how:
I belong to a family of nerds. I have probably always been the least nerdy of them all. I remember a time when the only television set we had at home was a small, black and white portable thing. It had an antenna that was about five feet long that we had to extend out of the house, in the hope that it would catch some semblance of a signal. Most of the time it wouldn't. We would watch the random black, white and grey spots that appeared on the screen and try our best to figure out what was happening. Which wasn't too difficult, considering the fact that we did not have a cable connection - there were only two channels, DD National and DD Metro.
A typical TV-watching session would invariably be like this:
It would be 8 pm and my dad would want to watch the news on DD National. So he'd switch on the TV, which of course, would display a random set of black, white and grey spots and some distorted signals that would run across the screen. There was no question of using the TV like a radio, because there would be a permanent white noise, until the five-feet long antenna caught the signal alright. So one of us would do our best to angle the antenna - we would bend it this way and that, angle it at 30 deg, 45 deg, 75 deg, even 32.67, until at some point, we would be able to make out vaguely what was happening on the TV screen. On some days, we would just give up and switch off the TV. Dad would read the news the next morning from The Hindu.
Also, my family was (and is) so nerdy that we never, ever, went out to a movie together. So, here I was, from a family that had never watched TV or movies, with no knowledge about any TV soap or block buster movie…sometimes, I found it difficult to make conversation with classmates in school because I would have NO idea what they were talking about! :D
When I grew up, I developed an interest in a plethora of things and did (and do) not have much time to watch TV or movies. In my 22 years, I have been to the theater about six times, the last time being in 2008. I’m sure I would like TV and movies if I did watch them, but I would invariably feel guilty for having wasted a few hours of my life, so I don’t.
With that background about my TV and movie watching experience, let me tell you how I got to be on TV myself.
Looking back, I cannot call it anything but a quirk of fate. In January last year, I got a call from someone in Doordarshan asking me to come over to their office. They had heard of me through a sabha secretary. They wanted me to do some music related interviews “on and off”. So I went, with a copy of my resume’ and a couple of studio photos. They seemed interested. I was immediately introduced to Mr. Bharathi, who was the producer of the show they wanted me to do. I had no idea that it was a regular show or that it was going to be entirely mine, until he fed me the details. It was to be a weekly one-hour show on up-and-coming musicians, to be telecast every Wednesday at prime time. He gave me the freedom to conceptualize the show, call guests, do my own research, prepare my own script and deliver it the way I want. I am very grateful to him for the freedom he has given me – something I cannot expect from anyone else. My producer, as I realized soon, is a wonderful person.
When I got back home that day from the Doordarshan office, I was skeptical about my dad's reaction. In a house where watching TV is taboo (although we now have a colour TV set with a cable connection), I had no idea if he would allow me to emote in front of the camera! Surprisingly, he seemed to like the idea himself! "So long as you don't have to shout "Stay tuned to XYZ program on Podhigai TV! Let's now take a short breeeeeeaaaak!" every few mins, I don't have a problem!"
So I said OK to Doordarshan. Shooting started in January last year during my end-sem study holidays. The show went on air on February 11th 2009. It is almost a year old now. Almost everyone in the music field has seen it. I have received numerous congratulatory emails, messages and phone calls. So has Doordarshan. Every time I’m in a gathering of TamBrahms or music rasikas, scores of people come up to me to congratulate, talk or ask for my autograph. If I travel by PTC bus, people offer to carry my bag! I get discounts in places where I shop, without my asking for it! Sometimes, the popularity and the adulation is fun, but at other times, it gets embarrassing!
I have loved every single moment I have spent in front of the camera. I so totally love meeting people. I love doing my bit for what I'm passionate about - Carnatic music. It has been great fun and I hope to continue saying “Neyargale Vanakkam!” into the camera, with a huge smile and folded hands, many many more times! :)
|
deponti
| 12:29 am - When were they modern?
I was mightily tickled by this one:
Talk about ancient! I hope those biscuits were not made back in 1883...
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/tired.gif) sleepy
Current Music: at half past midnight? all I can see is Cinderella's slipper!
|
January 3rd, 2010
deponti
| 05:52 am - The Idle Horse of Magori Beel
In Dibru/Shaikowa, we stayed on the banks of a water body called Magori Beel (beel is lake) which connected to the Magori river. As we went around looking at waterbirds, I saw this horse all the time:
Our guide Binanda told us that for some reason, this horse just does not like working and the owner pampers the animal, too! It was lovely watching the animal under that simple shelter...
Here he is, his coat shining in the misty sunlight:
We think being human is the greatest thing in life...but I'd like to be that horse in his house of hay....!
Current Mood: sleepless!
Current Music: none
|
January 2nd, 2010
deponti
| 09:49 pm - Oh, even sarees have them?
I thought only males possessed a pair, but apparently sarees have them, too....
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: lAgA chunri mEin dAg.....dil hi tO hai
|
deponti
| 11:28 am - I wasn't even looking for the butterflies....
I realize that Namdapha must be a sort of butterly heaven during the season...because I went out of season, I wasn't even looking for any, and yet I just could not resist clicking some of the common ones!
Let's just start with the beautiful HIMALAYAN JESTER:
( Here's a long Hanuman's tail of pics that will be of interest only to butterfly lovers (and I assure you there are NO rare finds in it!) )
I end with the WHITE STRIPED BARON:
I am not sure of many of the id's and would appreciate any help or corrections, please!
I have also decided that instead of hunting high and low for id's, I am just going to call these butterflies "Krishnamurthy", "Subramaniam", "Vahini" and so on!
I can only imagine what it must be like during the butterfly season in this remote corner of India!
Current Mood: rushed as usual!
Current Music: Allah Rakha tabla ..someone knows why!
|
January 1st, 2010
deponti
| 12:16 am - Health, Happiness, and Peace of Mind to Everyone...
Current Mood: sleepy!
Current Music: kamala haasan hits...AWFUL!
|
December 31st, 2009
deponti
| 09:00 am - Wotitiz.....
The answer to the
Wotzit of yesterday .....
There is a tree in the Namdapha area whose local name is "DhunA". This tree, when its bark is cut, oozes resin, which begin long "driplets" towards the ground, which can be snapped off. The resin is aromatic, and is often smoked upon coals to give off a pleasant smell.
Here's Bidyut Barua (Bidyut means electricity or lightning!), our really excellent wildlife guide, pointing out the sap on the tree-trunk:
I had taken one of the solid "drippings", held it up to the light, and taken a macro shot for that "resin-scultpure" shot! So I guess it was sharathm who came closest to the right answer, though I found dakini_bones answer very interesting!
The water bodies of Dibru/Shaikowa, the attendant marshland and reeds, and the forests of Namdapha had so many wonders to show....as I keep uploading my very-much-less-than-satisfactory photographs, I will share them. To me, the forests are a magical place....
And the best plus of the trip? After about 6 months...I had two weeks without even a TWINGE of pain from my teeth...thank you, Dr Sheela of R V Dental College! I am going back to complete my root canal/crown (yes, I am being crowned, you lot better bow before me soon or it'll be "off with your heads!") work....
Current Mood: waiting for the power to go
Current Music: arangisai
|
December 30th, 2009
deponti
| 12:48 pm - Another wotzit.....
Just got back home...and it feels wonderful!
So here's the first image from Arunachal Pradesh...wotzit?
Each one allowed one guess.....
And, I hope all of you who celebrate the festival had a very, very....
Current Mood: very tired
Current Music: none
|
December 26th, 2009
deponti
| 04:23 pm - Back in Gauhati....
It's been a very memorable trip, and I am back in Gauhati,Assam, for the long journey to Kolkata, and then the long journey back home.
I'd say my wildlife trip was superb, and we sighted so many mammals and birds and were even able to observe them rather than just look at them and move on....
However, one incredibly sad image remains....the Namdapha National Park (indeed, much of the North-East) is just a travesty of what it should be, in every way....every one says there are no tigers left, forests are still being cleared for tea plantations, infrastructure has clearly deteriorated badly....roads are in awful shape, tribals are at each others' throat for a few thousand rupees, and I can see that I am looking at what is left of an incredible place.
I have managed to take vast quantities of generally lousy pictures, but true to my tenets, will be sharing them with you soon....
Yesterday's train from Tinsukhia to Gauhati was 4 hours late, had NOTHING working, and it was pathetic to see the state of the passengers in the sleeper class; in the a/c sleeper, our lot wasn't much better. Southern Railways keep their services in far better shape, I must say, than, at least, the North Eastern Frontier Railways!
Couldn't send anyone messages for Christmas, but this goes out in a heartfelt wish from me to all of you who celebrated the birth of the Child...
All of you be good... or at least, enjoy yourselves!
Current Mood: very tired
Current Music: some carpentry work going in the internet parlour!
|
srusrid
 | 11:42 am - Room Pottu Yosi...
After seeing a guy bash up 24,
You come back home and the clock's close to 4.
You are suddenly writing in rhyme
and decide not to think about it. For now. It is not yet time.
But it is ok to think about things.
So you crawl to a corner and think.
You think about taking up art classes
Wondering why it didn't strike you in 29 years of existence
and don't like the answers much.
You think about the guy you had a crush on.
So long ago, very long ago, that it seems 'Once upon a time'.
And you wonder if you've lived that long that it merits a telling.
And wonder why the heck not.
And think if 'Why not' is the answer to normalcy.
Rather the answer to existence.
And then a chat window asks me, why didn't you tell him you had a crush.
I say, I was...and there's a moment.
I pause.
It is difficult to translate half-acknowledged truths. Especially in words.
But chat windows can't understand 'moments'.
So I try to type, very slowly, and find that it is easier than using your tongue.
And I say it was because I was content to be a wall-flower. An abundant wall-flower.
And I want to close the window. Fast.
And I realise I can't go ahead with the 4-line thinking then.
So the window remains open. For now.
And I fiddle with the latch and try peeking out.
I see lonely, I see sad. I flinch and see want.
So decided to do something about the want. And not want.
And didn't like the way these 4-lines were going.
It is about the self, but pity isn't my style. Now.
And found what had happened in those remaining of the 29 years.
Maybe there's something to celebrate tomorrow.
And then paused. In front of the open window.
And admitted in front of the open window. Nothing has changed.
Especially the fierce need to have happy endings. Always.
And found what had actually happened in those 29 years.
|
|
|
