Ashy Prinia

This post marks my return to blogging after a long break. I bought a new Nikon 200-500 mm f 5.6 ED VRII Lens to supercharge my bird photography. the entire month of februray was spent in clicking birds of Basai near Gurgaon and Sultanpur Bird Park on the Gurgaon-Jhajjar road. Of course, I'll share tose pictures on a seperate blog with the appropriate label. 

Today I would like to share with you the pictures of  Ashy Prinia.
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ASHY PRINIA ON AN APPLE BLOSSOM BRANCH

The Ashy Prinia is a fairly common bird in my surrounding.  It is commonly found near grass scrubs, crops and sparse jungles. They are primarily insectivorous. They have short rounded wings and long graduated tails often cocked and/ or loosely waved around.

THE DARK BROWN SPOTS AT THE TAIL END ARE DISTINCTIVE

The difficulty in photographing it is primarily due to its small size and rapid movements. All of 13 cms. the bird can be exceedingly difficult no notice in the first place, let alone photographing it.

NOTE THE ABSENCE OF THE SUPERCILLIUM IN THIS BIRD

  Several species are confusingly similar. Age-, season- and latitude- plumage variations add to the confusion. It is only the range, habitat and voice that can provide useful clues leading to their identification.

THE SAME BIRD PHOTOGRAPHED IN FOUR DIFFERENT POSES- ALL IN A MINUTE!

 I would sum up here, coming up next would be The Black Bulbul also known as the Himalayan Bulbul.

In Pursuit of The Bandit

BLACK THROAT TIT- THE BIRD WITH THE BANDIT MASK

So here is the Bandit Bird- and this was the first sight. what followed was a merry cat and mouse game between me and the 'bandit'. I wanted a nice click ; he was determined to evade capture.

The bandit resorted to acrobatics to forewarn me what I was up against. He was determined to take advantage of the cover available

The manner in which the naughty bird troubled me is vividly illustrated in the accompanying photographs.

It did, however allow me to take a few good shots, before flying off in pursuit of forage.

Siberian Stonechat Clicks

In Pursuit Of The Indian Peafowl

The Indian Peafowl was not something I expected to see when I was having Lunch with a few good friends. I left the food and this is all that I managed.

THE FIRST SIGHTING

The food and foraging habits of the Indian Peafowl is such that my habitat did not seem too attractive for the proud avian. So, I cursed my hard luck and got along with the normal humdrum of daily life. I was sure that this would have been a one time lucky sighting.

Then on one particularly lazy evening, my buddy suddenly reported the sighting of the peafowl family outside the kitchen premises. I managed to click some photographs using the kitchen window as a hide.

THE PEAFOWL EMERGING

As I waited with bated breath, I caught the first sight of the peafowl emerging from a fold of the ground. The bird looked awesome- to say the least.

THE PEAFOWL IN FULL VIEW

As the bird emerged from the the folds of the ground, I  clicked away to glory.

THE PROUD PEAFOWL

It was not too late that the bird realised that I had been photographing it and invading its privacy. The proud stance was back. It decided that it had had its fill of food for the day and now was the time to go back to its nest.

THE HURRIED EXIT

The bird may have left, the photos were not the best but I had my tryst with our National bird. 

Murphy's Law and the Power of Love- A Commentary on Interstellar

THE BEAUTIFUL POSTER 

PURE MASTERSTROKE-THE QUOTE

The Justification For This Blog. 

I had the opportunity to kill some time last night. and I ended up watching an arguable  masterpiece of a movie- Interstellar. While many have tried to understand the Science behind Interstellar, what caught my attention was the relationships between the protagonists- the father - daughter relation ship of Cooper &  Murphy and Dr Brand & Brand.

The Genesis of Conflict. 

Now Murphy is a troubled child- motherless and in constant conflict with her identity that she attributes to the infamous law of her namesake- Whatever Has To Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong. She loves her father, and in a difficult world on the brink of starvation, crop failures and imminent apocalypse, the last thing that she expects is a father who is on the verge of discarding farming, abandoning the family and heading into unknown space.

The Protagonists Coming in Terms. 

Meanwhile Cooper undertakes his journey with a steely resolve to explore the unknown and find finer pastures for the rest of humanity. Yet he yearns for taped messages from his daughter, what he gets is just the messages from his son instead. having lost a co flier in the quest for Miller's planet after the first inter galactic voyage, the crew has the choice to explore either Dr. Mann's Planet or Edmund's Planet. With logic supporting a journey for the previous ,I liked the part where Brand, his co traveller argues  in the complexity of 3D- 5D worlds that it is not space or time but love that transcends the various dimensions and hence her reasoning that they should head for the later planet instead. That led to Cooper actually seeing the greater common good and risking his own existence to unite Brand with Edmund. But landed up in a 5D maze as the Ghost pining to send the right signals for Murphy to discover her Eureka moment.

That struck me- this argument in support of love adds the philosophical touch to an otherwise oblique science fiction movie. 

The other important protagonist, Murphy never came in terms with the sense of abandonment, that was thrust unto her by her father. For years, she lived in the guilt of failing to tell her father to stay. it was only when she realised that his father had left without being aware that he would never return that she came into terms with the spirit of the Interstellar voyager. With her bitterness gone, she could finally make sense of the signals that her father had been communicating to her ever since she was a child. 

The Happy Ending. With happy endings being the norm,  the philosophy of love and hope takes centre stage at the climax again when Murphy exhorts her 124 years young father to go out in quest of Brand instead of being witness to the death of his child.

My Commentary. Readers who do not enjoy the proximity of their near and dear ones for a greater cause and the sense of duty would empathize with the difficulties of staying away from home. It is really difficult for any of our near and dear ones to get over the bitterness caused by such separations. Not everyone of us would be as lucky as Cooper or Murphy to be re united with a sense of hope and understanding. A few of us would indeed become sacrificial lambs in the first place, like Brand, who was handed over a one way ticket to the unknown by her own father and  ended up next on Edmund's planet due to the sudden change of heart of her co passenger- and thrust yet again into the unknown -all alone. Yet, undeniably, it is love that gives us the strength to stand up against all the forces of nature, the twisted irony of destiny and even the quantum physics of muliple dimensions. The  strength of love is far more powerful than any of the forces known or unknown to us. We derive courage, fortitude and perseverance due to the power of love. 

Endnote. To Love and be Loved is the Greatest Joy of Existence.

Broad Corporation,China and A Short Piece on Patriotism

1.   This Sunday afternoon I happened to come across a BBC World Feature program "Sky is the Limit" that showcased the growth of Broad Corporation, which specializes in sustainable air conditioning and prefabricated sustainable building structures.

2.  Founded in 1988, his group had built up a 15 story hotel in six days and caught world attention.The program showcased work philosophy of Mr Zhang Yue, who is the founder and chairman of the Broad Group. What caught my attention were certain aspects of his recruitment policy and work culture.

(a)   The aspirants intending to join this group undergo a two week military drill/ training course as part of the selection/orientation program.

(b)   The group has an anthem, composed by the Chairman himself that calls for loyalty to the group, prosperity for the clients, love for China-their motherland and above all sustainable development for the Mother Earth.

(c)   The group strives to make its employees put in that extra effort to master the mundane and boring intricacies of engineering science that will make them beat their own timelines and become world class in whatever they pursue. 

(d)   Not only does the group believe in a happy work place to cater for the various requirements of its employees in house, it also has a community service based organic farming system in place to meet the demands for the in  house food chains.

3. Most of the above mentioned points would indicate the private megalomania of a successful entrepreneur, However when one realizes that in 2013, this group undertook a seven and a half month schedule to build the world's tallest tower-the 838 METER/220 FLOOR SKY CITY-ONE BUILDING, ONE CITY. The project got stuck up with clearances yet the group managed to build a 57 story Mini Sky City. So not only is Mr Yue a man with a vision, he knows how to turn them to reality.

4. The Lessons in Patriotism. 

(a)  The man may aspire to be  world class, yet he has his feet firmly planted in China. He  uses patriotism and the Chinese way of life as the binder to keep his flock together.

(b)  Any starry eyed individual who joins the Broad Corporation does not do it fior the awe of its Chairman, but for the higher aim of being a part of sustainable development and for serving the nation.

(c)  The perks and privileges are not what draws talent, it is the pride in the Chinese example of Corporate ethos that draws talent.

(d)  It is not the sense of individual achievement that drives their employees, but the sense of responsibility as a community, is what I found remarkable.

5. The Indian Context.

(a)  A private organisation imparting military training would be enough to raise heckles here, getting the clearances for a 838 meter building based on untried technology may be another impossibility, so these may be left out of the purview.

(b)  As our individual gains make us hop from one branch to the other for want of better opportunities, why can we not imbibe a sense of belonging, togetherness, love for the organisation, patriotic fervor and responsibility towards the Mother Earth in the organisations that we serve. Why do we allow the Indian way of economic transactions be relegated to the lowest priority in a mad rush to ape the Western models.

Why cant we simply harness the strength that is within us as individuals and as a community for the betterment of our organisations and our nation

Yellow Billed Blue Magpie- a Regular Visitor

The Yellow Billed Blue Magpie has been one of the most regular visitors to my backyard. It has a buddy and they lose no opportunity to forage on the available foodstuff or to quench their parched throats.