Hornbill Lessons

You have to be very lucky to spot such a large variety of birds in the vicinity of where you live. My blogfriend, Sangeeta Khanna (who is also a antioxidants researcher, botanical expert, trekker, photographer, nutritionist and follower of traditional systems in food and medicine) clicked these two hornbills .

At first I thought this was a kind of Hornbill ballet. But there is more to it....

Turns out that there are at least 9 varieties of Hornbills found in India. They have such amazing beaks for a specific reason. Unlike some fashionable types we see around us today, these birds are monogamous.

They nest in holes in trees. When time comes to procreate, the female starts packing up the hole with all kinds of recyclable material, leaving only space for her to get through. She then goes in and packs the hole further, leaving space only for her beak to come out. The male, passes foodstuff to her through this system, as she sits in confinement , inside the dark hole, lays eggs, and then undergoes a spontaneous moulting.

Once outside, she thinks nothing of bending over backwards to straighten out an erring kid.  As you can see.

Real Hornbills,
are monogamous,
have very strong beak structures,
and make nests
for breeding in
holes of trees,
sometimes
used again and again.

The female starts
sealing the hole
with mud, dirt and fruit pulp,
leaving a small entrance for herself.

She squeezes in
and seals herself in
leaving an outlet only
for the beak,
so
the male can provide sustenance
as she
singlemindedly
lays eggs,
presides.
and
spontaneously moults
in the rich darkness.

One day,
her kid starts acting too smart,
and
unlike some folks i know,
she thinks nothing
of
bending over backwards
and clamping the kid's beak shut.

And then
we have those
with Siren Horns
who generate Bills,
(but never pay);
who create several households
and several off springs,
not to mention,
several non-hole-in-the-tree set ups.

Destiny urges a moulting,
but they refuse.

They must stay
the way they are
so
when the son
opens his beak wide
and demands,
they can actually feed him
in the darkness
without any
visible effort
more "black" stuff
than he needs.

Did they learn from the Parakeets ?

This wonderful interaction between parakeets and the mango fruit was clicked by my FB friend Nandan Tavanandi  . 

The first two  are  Alexandrian Parakeets, identified by the pink patch on the shoulder, and the third is the Roseringed  parakeet, displaying a delicate ring around the throat.

A great display of how different folks  behave when confronted with  fruits of someone else's labour.....

 I wonder if they learned from us,
or
we learned from them...
Some,
Spiffy movers
cutting through dense branches,
homing in on
targets
heard of from others;
seen to be contemplating
the pros and cons,
while actually finding it hard
to keep
both saliva
and ambition under check.

Then ,
some,
taking courage into ones wings,
get closer to the target,
infatuated by the
fruity perfume,
and smooth contours,
eyes alight,
mouth worldlessly open,
mobilising to attack,
and imbibe,
claiming it as one's own...

And some
proletarian greedy types,
who fly in,
and without thinking,
simply seize the moment,
along with the fruit,
and dig right in,
slurping, and chewing
eyes feasting
on the yellow gold,
unconcerned about
glaring eyeballs
of Alexandrian cousins,
of another party group
on another branch,
wondering,
if they should have done the same
and grabbed
what they could.

On the trees, these are parakeets,
Roseringed and Alexandrian.

In the biped world,
we call them politicians.

Symian thoughts.....लंगूर विचार मंच

Outstanding photograph of a thoughtful langoor, at the Bandhavgarh National Park. Clicked by Prasad Paranjape of Pune . See many of his other wonderful photos here.

I've never seen any animal with such a human like thinking visage/expression.

It's not entirely impossible, that given the sort of scam news we are hearing day after day, about crooks and crooked folk, maybe the langoors are doing a rethink ?

(Like before, the original poem in the Kings language (marathi), and a rough translation in the Queen's)

(photo by Prasad Paranjape)

आम्ही पण
उंचावर वावरतो ,
दुसर्यांनी लावलेली फळे ओरबाडतो ,
आमची स्वतःची मुलं पोटाशी घालतो,
देशाच्या राना कोपर्यात
सोपा खाउ शोधत उंडारतो,
पण
आजकालचे
राजा, बच्चा , बावळा (नाहीतर बलवा ),
आणि इतर चोर लोकान बद्दल ऐकलं
कि वाटत
आपण लंगूर राहिलो तेच बर आहे ........

We too ,
wander
high up there,
enjoy,
grabbing fruits
on trees,
planted
and nurtured
by someone else....

We too,
blindly,
offer our kids
something to latch on to,
when
inability wins.....

We too,
ravish and loot
the country
end-to-end,
for
easy pickings
of treasures.......

Now that
I've heard
of theives
like
Raja,
Batcha,
and Bawla ***
(or is it Balwa, never mind),
I am just
relieved
that
I have remained,
in the end,
a langoor........

***Ministers and scamsters currently in jail for looting the country outrageously in an unending shameless telecommunication corruption scam.

High ambitions

My friend NU posting her pictures on Wordless Wednesdays, had this view of Delhi from a descending plane.

Delhi implies some other visuals. (My comment, first in the King's language, Marathi, and then the Queen's...

(photo by Nupur Phatak)
बालपणीचा हट्ट,
बंगल्यातल्या चंदू सारखा
आग गाडीच्या सेट आण…
आज ,
पंचवीस वर्षा नंतर
खादीचा कुडता , सोन्याची चेन
घालून
विविध लागे बांधे जमवून
तो विमानातून
खूप मोठ्या खेळातल्या
खिसे खूळखूळवणार्या
शहराच्या सेटशी खेळतो …
का शेठ्शी?




Hankering after
and
pestering his mother,
for a train set,
just like that
of Chandu ,
from the Big House,
Today,
25 years later,
clad in Khadi,
a gold chain
at the neck,
nurturing his contacts
and links
he,
the boss man
sits
in a plane,
for an aerial tour;
playing
with the biggest
obscenely remunerative,
highway set.
of his life....

or should we say
a set
of "high" connections
in his life ?

The 'A' word

....Inner voice on austerity has spoken....Link



Wild expenditures
of power,
money,
and debit entries
for the account
called Integrity.....
There is
a recession
of Good Sense,
Honesty,
Altruism;



An Inflation
of Pride,
Lies
and Sick Money;
as they shamelessly
throw
their corrupt weight around.

And I sit,
despaired
on my haunches,
in the dark,
cursing
the angrily raging
capital-flooding
Yamuna;
looking up,
at these "leaders",
counting
1, 2, 3 , 4 and
5 stars
Hoping that
they finally learn,
amidst all the lies,
the
Austerity of the Mind