Woolly Necked Storks spotted at the Basai Wetland, Gurgaon

When I visited the Basai Wetland this Sunday passed, I was a little surprised to see painted storks surrounded by what seemed to be a few birds that were darker than them and had rather woolly necks. I initially assumed that the darker birds were none other than the juvenile versions of the painted storks, however, on looking closely, I noticed that they were a different sub-species. On researching further I came to know that they were none other than Wolly Necked Storks. When I checked on Wikipedia, I came to know that they are, according to an entry in Wikipedia  "is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies". 

Woolly Necked Storks, also known by their scientific name-Ciconia episcopus are residents of the Indian continent up to 1400 metres in the Himalayas. The bird apparently ranges from Africa all the way to the Asian Subcontinent! Unfortunately, in the photographs that I took of the Woolly Storks, they were hidden behind painted storks.

I was, however, able to take a few snaps of the Woolly Necked Storks in flight. There seemed to be little to distinguish them apart from the Painted Storks except for their distinctly woolly necks and their darker colour.

Male Bluethroat Bird Spotted at the Basai Wetland, Gurgaon

This Sunday when I visited the Basai Wetland in Gurgaon, I was in for a treat when a male Bluethroat bird performed quite a few antics before me. Surprisingly, this a bird that is normally very secretive! The Bluethroat bird, known by its scientific name as Luscnina svecica is a striking bird as it has a very colourful blue bib around its neck.

In all probability, the bird was not aware of my presence since I was shooting with the sun right behind me, and moreover, I was hidden behind a shed that the local fishermen had constructed to keep watch over their stock of fish.

On researching further about the bird I came to know that in India the Bluethroat bird breeds only in Ladakh, North Kashmir and Spiti. It is interestingly a visitor over most of the country during the winter season.

Great to know that this little bird has the wanderlust, especially since it has travelled a long way from the mountains on to the plains.

Lost Spring-Theme and Extract Based Questions

A Few Extract Based Questions

Answer the following questions in 30 to 40 words only. Remember to be as brief as possible.

Wherever they find food, they pitch their tents that become transit homes. Children grow up in them becoming partners in survival. And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art. Garbage to them is gold. It is their daily bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof. But for children it is even more.

1. Who are 'they' in the first line?

2. What impression do the words, 'transit homes' give you about the kind of life 'they' lead?

3. Why is 'Garbage to them...gold'?

4. Why is garbage 'even more' for the children?

For one who has walked barefoot, even shoes with a hole is a dream come true. But the game he is watching so intently is out of his reach.

1. What is the significance of walking 'barefoot'?

2. Why is it a big deal to have even shoes with a  hole? 

3. What game is 'he' watching so intently?

4. Why does the author state the game 'is out of his reach'?

The bag was his. The canister belongs to the man who owns the tea shop. Saheb is no longer his own master.

1. What was he carrying in the bag?

2. How is the sentence, 'The bag was his.' significant to the lesson?

3. Why is it significant that 'The canister belongs' to the owner of the tea shop?

4. Explain the statement, 'Saheb is no longer his own master.'

' "It is his karam, his destiny," says Mukesh's grandmother, who has watched her own husband go blind with the dust from polishing the glass of bangles. "can a god-given lineage ever be broken?" she implies. Born in the caste of bangle-makers, they have seen nothing but bangles'.

1. What is the prevalent belief that has prevented them from emancipating themselves?

2. Identify and explain one hazard of working in the bangle-making industry that has been mentioned 

    in the extract.

3. Why can't a "god-given lineage" be broken?

4. What is their Caste? What have they done all their lives?

Listening to them, I see two distinct worlds - one of the family caught in a web of poverty. burdened by the stigma of caste in which they are born; the other a vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and politicians. Together they have imposed the baggage on the child that he cannot put down.

1. What are the two distinct worlds mentioned in the extract?

2. Explain the meaning of 'stigma of caste'.

3. What does the word, 'baggage' refer to in the extract?

4. How have the two worlds prevented them from changing their way of life?

This morning, Saheb is on his way to the milk booth. In his hand is a steel canister. "I now work in a  tea stall down the road," he says, pointing in the distance. "I am paid 800 rupees and all my meals." Does he like the job? I ask. His face, I see, has lost the carefree look. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulder. The bag was his. The steel canister belongs to the man who owns the tea shop. Saheb is no longer his own master!

1. Why is Saheb on the way to the milk booth?

2. Does Saheb like the job?

3. What does the 'steel canister' represent?

4. Why does the plastic bag seem lighter than the steel canister?

Reference:

Flamingo: Textbook for class XII

(Core Course)

Lost Spring

(Stories of Stolen Childhood by Anees Jung)

My Mother at Sixty-Six in pictures

Virtual Reality is damaging our Psyche!

Just yesterday when my wife and I visited the dentist, we were in for a surprise! In the waiting room, a little boy of four or five years was sitting in a corner sobbing and weeping even as he held a mobile phone in his hands. At first, we thought he was sobbing because he was apprehensive about getting a tooth extracted-gradually, however, we realised that he had come with his grandfather and grandmother. His grandmother was being treated by the dentist while his grandfather shuttled back and forth from the operation theatre.

As time passed, waiting for our turns, we realised that the little boy was talking to someone on a voice call and he was first addressing his mother speaking to her sobbing and asking her to come and get him, then the next moment he would be on the next line talking to his "Dada", Daddy. He was adept in calling both his parents on their separate mobile phones. All this while he sobbed, promising that he would be a good boy, even as he wept, huge drops of tears that dropped from his eyes, rolled down his cheeks and then splashed on the screen of the phone. It really wrung my heart! Strangely enough, boys can be so vulnerable and definitely closer to their mothers than their fathers. The mother on the phone cajoled him soothed him most calmly, she told him she had to cook dinner and listening to her voice and her image on the screen. He seemed calmer when talking to his mother than to his father!
Perhaps the greatest cause for concern was that the little boy was fully engrossed in a virtual world where he could see his parents, hear them and respond emotionally to them. Here was a little child, cut off from the rest of the world ensconced in his own virtual world, weeping and sobbing, least affected by the presence of others! Internet-enabled gadgets have created a situation where the users are capsulated, insulated and cut off from the real world even when they are very much in the real world. I have seen how children playing PubG, sitting in a corner might suddenly should out to their online mates loudly to run, fire, or board a bus without realising that they might have been heard by others.

It is a strange world indeed, that gaming and live-streaming have created. It is addictive, engrossing, and strangely unsettling for others to hear instructions being shouted sometimes, if not often, with complete disregard to others in the vicinity. A few years back, this glimpse of the virtual world thanks to the cell-phone was brought about when we saw men and women talking loudly on the road, gesticulating, exhorting, pleading and sometimes shouting instructions seemingly into the air. We often thought that people who talked to themselves or the air were raving crazy, hallucinating, delusional, doped guys! But then, ... on looking closely we realised that this rather strange act on the roads was thanks to the ease of communication brought about by the glorious hands-free earphones. These earphones were initially tethered to the mobile by their cords but then even these went away, replaced by wires-free, blue-tooth earphones that were perched, rather precariously on top of the ears. The antiques were to become more vigorous with each advancement in technology!
In a world of virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence, we are fast losing touch with reality as it really is! Imagine having to look at the world through the eyes of Artificial Intelligence which decides which colour tones to mute and which ones to highlight. The images that you see on the screen of a DSLR Camera is an electronic image, a re-created image of what has been received from the objective lens. The real image can be seen from the view-finder. It is for this reason that the image[s] that the little boy was seeing on the display screen of his mobile phone was a synthesised virtual image of his mother or his father. The same can be said about the voice of both the parents. We all know that anything that is synthesised out of the real world is virtual and thus definitely an electronic synthesised version of the real world.
The unfortunate fact is that nothing can replace the experiences of the real world, not even virtual reality because no machine can re-create the world as it is and depending on machines is equivalent to accepting an ersatz world rather than the real one! Imagine how that little boy at the Dentists would have reacted if he had been played back a video of his parents instead of a live stream! He wouldn't have been able to make out the difference, and that is what virtual reality does to you! The increasing dependence on smartphones, tablets and laptops has led to a growing disconnect with the real world. The dependence on a synthetic version of the real world has resulted in a warped perception of reality.
Our dependence on technology has affected us like never before. It is a matter of concern today that this has become a vicious cycle from which there is no escape! Sometimes one wonders if this dependence might not be intentional! As a result of our dependence on technology for almost everything, we have become disconnected from reality. We are at a further remove from the real thing when we send birthday gifs and memes from our mobile phones than when we actually talk to our dear ones to wish them a Happy Birthday. A matter of concern is that this dependence on technology and a virtual world created thereby is making us less authentic, more artificial and insensitive to the finer human emotions. We have lost the ability to express our love and affection in words when face to face with our family members, relatives and friends. One wonders if we are headed towards an Orwellian world or even a Huxleyian world where everyone is forced to conform to fixed patterns. It is like forcing square pegs to fit into round holes or even vice-versa! The almost infinite variations in the genes of each human being have resulted in the uniqueness of each individual. Even identical twins are not exact copies of each other. Even clones might have difference brought up by their experiences. It is for this reason that it is important for each individual to experience the world as it is, not a world interpreted and perceived by machine intelligence.
We are all aware of the psychological impact of virtual games like Wolfenstein and Mortal Kombat that altered the mental health of those who were addicted to them. Virtual games like Pokemon Go and PubG have come under a lot of criticism by educationists counsellors and parents. Children who were playing Pokemon Go would often cross streets and roads without being aware of cars rushing up and down. Children and even adults playing PubG are known to shout out loud commands to their online cohorts, exhorting them to shoot, escape or help them after they've been hit! One might wonder if these virtual games might not lead to aggression and emotional instability in people who are exposed to them in excess!

Photographing Birds, Challenges and Tips to overcome them

1/2000, f/5.6, focal length 250 mm, Focus mode AI Servo ISO automatic

Ok, so you wanted to take a few snaps of birds in flight but came away disappointed and disheartened. You used a tripod and even your zoom lens but then the eyes of the birds were blurred. Perhaps the greatest and most important factor is light. Many a time, photographing birds in flight can be a challenge especially when the lighting changes every minute. Moreover, the angle of the sun can affect the quality of the photograph. In the mornings, when the sun is rising, you might be able to get better snaps of birds that are flying rather than those that are on the ground. This is something that I learned, the setting of a shutter speed of 1/2000, f/7.1 and an AI Servo focus option gave me dark photographs of birds that were on the ground. The same setting worked fine when the birds were flying! A few examples of slightly darker photographs is given below.

Shutter speed 1/2500, f/5.6, focal length 250mm, ISO Auto, focus mode AI Servo

Shutter speed 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO Auto, Focal length 250mm, focus mode AI Servo

I use a Canon 1300D with a 55-250 mm lens. I don't generally carry a tripod as I feel carrying a tripod hampers movement. I like panning the camera to catch birds in flight. Moreover, I feel more comfortable shooting snaps as single shots and not in bursts. Somehow, it requires one to be more alert and one needs to be able to anticipate the bird's movement. Some of the most pleasing sequences of flight come through panning the camera to follow the bird's flight path.

Shutter speed 1/2000, f/7.1, focal length 250mm, ISO auto, focus mode AI Servo

Shutter speed 1/2000, f/7.1, focal length 250mm, ISO auto, focus mode AI Servo

However, some of the snaps that are most pleasing ones are the distant shots of birds in flight where you to look more closely in order to identify some of its features. In the case of the Black Ibis, it was on zooming in that I could make out its beak. This, of course, is a personal observation!

Shutter speed 1/2000 f/7.1, focal length 25mm, ISO auto, focus mode AI Servo

Shutter speed 1/2000 f/7.1, focal length 25mm, ISO auto, focus mode AI Servo

Sometimes you might have to be stuck with a fast shutter speed and yet decide to take a snap of landing birds. In the case of the white heron with the fish in its beak, I decided to shoot without making a change in the shutter speed. The result was good, probably because I had allowed the camera to decide on the ISO. The only thing that I tweaked was the zoom.

Shutter speed 1/2000, f/7.1, focal length 146 mm, focus mode AI Servo

Shutter speed 1/2000, f/7.1, focal length 208 mm, focus mode AI Servo

Shutter speed 1/2000, f/7.1, focal length 225 mm, Focus mode AI Servo

For still photographs of birds perched on branches or sitting on the ground, it is often OK to have a smaller f-stop number and you could also reduce the shutter speed to anything from 1/200 to 1/800. Also, you could turn to the Single shot focus mode. Here I would like to add that selecting a focus point in the camera could prove a boon. For the photographs of the white-throated kingfisher, I also used a fill-in flash especially because of the poor lighting, and to give the eyes a glint.

Shutter speed 1/200, f/9, focal length 250mm, forced flash, focus mode single shot

Shutter speed 1/200, f/9, focal length 250mm, forced flash, focus mode single shot

Not all birds in flight come up well, unfortunately! Those that are still and unmoving, though ready to take off can be eye-catching too! This black cormorant gave me one of the best stance I have observed so far! The webbed feet along with its bad hair day look seemed to attract me the most!

Shutter speed1/640, f/5.6, ISO Auto, Focus mode single shot

There is something that is graceful about the movement of birds in flight, somewhat like dances gliding on the dance floor. I have posted a photograph below the values of which, I would like you to guess.

The photographs were taken at the Sultanpur National Park close to Gurugram one fine Saturday morning after the fog had lifted up somewhat.

Note: The Auto ISO was limited to an upper limit of 800.

Shutter Speed, 1/2500, Aperture f/5.6, focal length 179 mm

Analysing Kamala Dass' "My Mother at Sixty-six

Theme

The poem, My Mother at Sixty-six explores the theme of ageing, bereavement and loss. In this poem, the narrator who is travelling to another city, probably another country is suddenly struck by the thought that she might be seeing her mother for the last time. 

Kamala Dass explores the fragility of human relationships that are limited by time and the process of ageing. Bereavement is a childhood fear that all humans harbour. No one imagines that one would lose one's dearest one to old age. We take the presence of our dearest ones for granted. 

Message

The message delivered in the poem is that ageing and bereavement are inevitable. The loss of our dear ones is inevitable and a natural process. life and death are universal; although one's grief is painful, it is, however, personal and that the world moves on in spite of our grief!

Style of Writing

The whole poem is written as a single sentence. A single thread of thought is contained in the poem, (the thought of losing her mother) and this thought is interspersed with observations of the real world around the narrator ( trees sprinting, children spilling airport's security check). It is rather like a stream of consciousness where the narrator keeps drifting from deep inner thoughts to the world outside. It is as if to suggest that one needs to see the bigger picture - although one's grief is painful, it is, however, personal and that the world moves on in spite of our grief!

Figures of Speech

1. The poem abounds with similes throughout. A few of the examples are listed below:

  a) Simile 

     i.  "Her face ashen like that of a corpse"- her mother's pale face is compared to that of a corpse.

     ii. "Wan, pale as a late winter's moon"- the mother's appearance is compared to that of the moon.

  b) Contrast

     i) "Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling"- energy and youth as contrasted with old age.

  c) Repetition

      "All I did was smile and smile and smile"- the repetition of the word "smile" brings out the
         artificiality of the expression meant to reassure her mother that they will meet again.

  d) Irony

      "See you soon Amma"- this is ironical as the narrator is not very sure about seeing her mother
        when she returns from her journey abroad.

  e) Metaphors and symbols

      i) winter's moon - end of life cycle, old age weakness
      ii) merry children - dynamism, youth, energy
      iii) trees sprinting - relativity, movement as opposed to stillness

Reference to context questions and their answers:

I. Lines 1-6 "Driving...with"

  

   a) Where was she driving to?

        She was driving to the Cochin Airport in a car.

   b) Who was she driving with?

         She was with her mother who was rather elderly.

  c)  Identify the figure of speech in lines 5-6 and explain why and how it has been used.

         The figure of speech is the simile. Her mother's appearance has been compared to that of a  
         corpse.

 d)  What did she "realise with pain"?

         She realised with pain and grief that her mother had grown old and that she might lose her.



II. Lines 9-18  "that she...felt that"

    a) What "thought" did she put away?

        She put away the thought that she might lose her mother.

    b) Why did she look away from her mother?


        The thought of losing her mother was too painful and distressing. She wanted to divert her sad 
        thoughts by looking out of the window. 

    c) What did she see from the car windows? How did the scene contrast with that of her mother?

        She saw trees that seemed to be sprinting and children who were running out of their homes, 
         probably going to school.

    d) How did her mother appear in line 16?

         She looked pale, lifeless and weak.

     e) What figure of speech has the poet used in lines 17 and 18? Why?


          The poet has used a simile to compare the weak, pale and lifeless appearance of the mother to 
          that of the late winters moon. Both the moon and the mother look pale and weak. They are 
          nearing the end of their life-cycle.

III. Lines 19-24 "old familiar...smile..."


       a) What was her "familiar ache? my childhood's fear"?

             The fear of ageing, the fear of losing her mother, the fear of bereavement. 

       b) Why did she say, "see you soon Amma?" Did she really believe she would?

            She wanted to reassure her mother that they would get to see each other when she returned.
            The narrator was not very sure that this would be. But then she didn't want to distress her 
            mother into thinking that she was going away leaving her mother to die!

       c) Identify the figure of speech used in lines 23-24. Why has the poet used this figure of speech?

            Poet has used repetition to lay stress on the word smile. This is intentional. She wants to 
            highlight the artificiality of the smile.

       d) How does the statement, "see you soon, Amma" contrast with the "childhood fear of the
           narrator?

 
          She was afraid that since her mother was already frail and rather sickly, she would probably 
          not get see her when she returned. However she did not want to distress her mother with her 
         own apprehehension. Thus to reassure her mother and, perhaps to assuage her own sense of 
         guilt she kept smiling.

A few of my Favourite one or two line bird posters