The Basai Wetland is our own backyard Masai Mara!

Wildebeest-ahem, Buffalos feeding on succulent grass

Spot-billed Ducks

A Heron flies overhead

Purple Herons flying towards each other

If you thought this is Masai Mara or one of those exotic, commercially promoted tourist destination, you are wrong. Tucked away, on the Basai-Jajjar highway, right in the backyard of sector 9, Gurgaon is a hidden paradise of birds, slowly disappearing a slow and torturous death! A paradise it is, and it is a stretch of Wetland known as the Basai Wetland, a paradise that the government continues to dispute though it continues to support a large number of exotic species of migratory as well as resident species of birds. 

Wire-tailed Swallows

This time when I visited the Wetland on the 23rd of August, an off-day for me, I was pleased to spot a trio of Dabchicks (Little Grebe) wading along looking as unconcerned as ever! Little Grebe, especially those that are breeding have a distinct rust-red colour on their heads and necks. Even more fascinating was the stately flight of a common pond Heron and then the frisky Wire-tailed Swallows that are distinct from Swifts that lack the bright bluish-purple coat of their cousins. The Wire-tailed Swallows moreover have long parallel wire-like appendages in their tails, rather like radio antennae.

Dabchicks or Little Grebe

Weavers are very artistic, especially when it is about weaving a nest to lay eggs in. They, incidentally end up tying up long stalks of grass to form a single nest. And, yes, they try to mislead you about the presence of their nests even though there is a tell-tale sign of stalks of grass bending down to a knot.

Weaver Bird

Weaver Bird

If Wire-tailed Swallows are frisky then so are Bee-eaters! Spotted in two or threes, Bee-eaters seem to be wired for action. I sported quite a few of them darting to and fro.

Green Bee-eaters

Bee-eaters

Wire-tailed Swallow

The larger birds like to congregate on the ground next to the water surface. Cattle Egrets, Common pond herons, Ibis, and Lapwings like foraging for food in groups. One might see a significant congregation of assorted birds foraging together for food at the Basai Wetland in Gurgaon most of the time!

Egrets

Egrets

Perhaps the greatest attraction of the Basai Wetland is that the entry is free all the year-round and it offers an exclusive opportunity for bird-spotters and wild-life photographers to test their skills in wildlife photography. I guess there is a slight advantage in the authorities not identifying the Basai Wetland as a Wetland because then the entry would be restricted. 

A pair of Purple Herons

Gandhi's Leadership qualities included an ability to Convince and Persuade others

The lesson Indigo describes the leadership qualities of Gandhi. It describes how he used tact, negotiation and tacit argumentation to secure justice for the oppressed people of Champaran.

Gandhi was a man of few words and he used them with tact and skill. Take for example the manner in which he convinced the lawyers to stay back and go to prison with him in Motihari. When the Lawyers felt that Gandhi might be arraigned or arrested for contravening the Police Superintendant's order to quit Champaran, "They conferred with Gandhi. What would they do if he was sentenced to prison, Gandhi asked." They replied that if he went to jail, there would be nobody to advise and they would go back home. To this Gandhi, asked them "What about the injustice to the sharecroppers"? This was enough to make the lawyers feel ashamed of abandoning the cause of the sharecroppers and Gandhi. They realised that if they left Gandhi, it would be tantamount to "shameful desertion". After all, Gandhi who did not belong to Champaran was ready to go to jail for the peasants whom he did not know while they, the lawyers who belonged to Champaran were not even ready to do so though they belonged to the district.

Gandhi was ever the negotiator. His skills in convincing others come to the fore especially when we are told that he had four protracted interviews with Edward Gait, the Lieutenant Governor of the province. It was a result of his persistence and his ability to convince the other that the Lieutenant Governor agreed to the constitution of an inquiry commission into the plight of the sharecroppers. One remarkable evidence of Gandhi's skill as a leader is the fact that in the official commission, Gandhi was the sole representative of the peasants and yet he could take matters towards their final conclusion.

Gandhi's acumen as a leader is yet again reflected in the incident where the landlords try to enter into a deadlock with him about the percentage of the amount to be paid back to the peasants. They, the landlords had believed that Gandhi would demand the full amount. He asked only 50 %. To this they tried to bargain further, they offered 25 %. Surprisingly, Gandhi agreed, thus pre-empting the landlords' tactics.

In yet another example from the lesson, Gandhi's lawyer friends thought it would a good idea to get Charles Freer Andrews, an English Pacifist to join their movement. Gandhi "vehemently opposed' the idea. He said, 'This shows the weakness of your heart. The cause is just and you must not seek a prop in Mr Andrews because  he happens to be an Englishman." It is clear that Gandhi had through this incident attempted, like a true leader to teach his followers, the lawyers "a lesson in self-reliance."

Gandhi, therefore, was a leader who led through example ( he was ready to go to jail for the peasants), he was tactful, mature, he was a teacher who taught his followers important lessons (lessons in self-reliance), he chided the lawyers and convinced them that taking the peasants to court and charging fees would only confuse them further.

Important extract-based questions

Gandhi’s lawyer friends thought it would be a good idea for Andrews to stay in Champaran and help them. Andrews was willing if Gandhi agreed. But Gandhi was vehemently opposed. He said, “You have an Englishman on our side. This shows the weakness of your heart. The cause is just and you must rely upon yourselves to win the battle. You should not seek a prop in Mr Andrews because he happens to be an Englishman”.

“He had read our minds correctly,” Rajendra Prasad comments, “and we had no reply…”

1. Who was Andrews?

Answer: Charles Freer Andrews (also known as Deen Bandhu) was an English Pacifist and a devoted follower of Gandhi.

2. Why did Gandhi oppose the idea put forth by his lawyer friends?

Answer: he believed it would make them seem weak and helpless. He would appear as a ‘prop’ in their struggle for independence for the country.

3. What lesson was Gandhi able to teach his lawyer friends through this episode?

Answer: Gandhi had been able to teach his lawyer friends a lesson in self-reliance. He taught them to be self-confident and to have faith in their cause which was according to him a ‘just’ cause.

4. How does this anecdote shed light on Gandhi’s qualities as a leader?

Answer: This anecdote shows how Gandhi chose to lead by setting examples and his uncanny ability to “read” the minds of his followers. He never imposed his ideas on others but made others see logic and reason in his ideas.

You might also like to read:

1.https://rodrickwrites.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-relevance-of-gandhis-experiment.html

2.https://rodrickwrites.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-was-champaran-episode-turning-point.html

Church of The Epiphany Annual Convention-2019

The Annual three-day Spiritual Convention of the Church of the Epiphany, Gurgaon took place from the 16^th of August to the 18^th of August 2019. The theme this time was, “Walk with Jesus” and the speaker was Revd. Dr John Jaswant.

A gist of what we learned during the three-day convention from the speaker was that Walking with Jesus might not be an easy task especially for those who are not able to be consistent in their prayers. Walking with Jesus has a lot to do with prayer and to walk with Jesus one needs to know how to pray. According to the speaker, Dr John, it all depends on the kind of relationship one has with Jesus. For a prayer to be effective one needs to understand what kind of a relationship one should have with Jesus. It is a relationship that exists between a father and his son or daughter.

Dr John Jaswant likened an effective prayer to a Superhighway to God. To be on this Superhighway, one would have to ensure that in order to pray effectively one should pray with a clean heart, not an unclean one. A clean heart is often reflected in the visage. The speaker went on to state that an effective prayer pre-supposes that the supplicant is fully devoted to the Lord.

The speaker talked about three kinds of prayer that play an important role in the Spiritual life of a Christian and they include a Morning prayer that provides us with freshness to face the day with, an Evening prayer and a whole-night prayer. Dr John Jaswant impressed upon the gathering how Prayer is like a Royal Telephone that works without a SIM and helps the supplicant to speak to God. This, according to him is a two-way communication in which God responds in his own ways.

Dr John also spoke about the importance of developing a sound prayer life. To do so it is important to be in the spirit of prayer, to persevere, be steadfast and earnest in prayer. In all these instances, the speaker supported his observations with numerous references from the Holy Writ.

The Speaker also talked at length about the importance and meaning of the Holy Communion. He spoke about how important it is for a partaking of the Communion one should be transformed. But then for the Holy Communion to really have its impact one should have undergone through a process of spiritual cleansing. Dr John talked about the need to examine one’s self, ensuring that one was clean while speaking with others-ensuring that one’s blessings were not mixes with curses; to beware of the potent tongue that boasts and kindles fire. He stressed that if the lips honour the Lord, then the heart also needs to be with the Lord, not away from him. The eyes need cleansing for eyes that spew anger would render the partaking of the Holy Communion ineffective. The need to clear one’s ears of all that prevents the supplicant from hearing the Lords voice is equally important. Having metaphorically clean hands, hands that have not committed wrong, feet that have not gone the wrong way is required as a preparation for the Holy feast.

We were also graced by the presence of Revd. Sunil Ghazan on the third day of the convention which was also part of the Sunday Mass. The Choirs (both Hindi and English) created the right tone and atmosphere for the convention.

A few snaps of the Convention are posted below:

The three-day Annual Spiritual Convention of the Church of Epiphany, Gurgaon was held under the guidance of the Presbyter In-Charge, Revd. Daman Rodgers.

Woolly-necked Storks make the Basai Wetland their home

This month when I visited the Basai Wetland in Gurgaon, I saw a couple of Woolly-necked Storks at home! I have been seeing Woolly-necked Storks for a whole year now and they seem to be less inhibited than the Painted-Storks that are shyer and tend to avoid proximity to the paths on which people walk.

Although I was on the spot for a good half an hour or a little more, I didn't see the Storks hunt for fish. It was morning, a little after eight in the morning and the lighting was not so good. One very evocative photograph was that of the birds on the path with a man in the background. Both were least bothered and, I guess more tolerant of each other! Another, rather touching snap was of the crow on one side, seemingly talking to one of the storks.

It is clear that the Woolly-necked Storks are resident for the season and apparently will breed here. The Basai Wetland in Gurgaon is an important breeding ground for a large number of birds. Although the shrinking size of the Wetland poses a serious problem, migratory birds, however, will continue to visit the place.

As long as the Basai Wetland exists, the Woolly-necked Storks will continue to make an appearance. These Storks are quite big and yet graceful in appearance. I am glad to have been able to look at them at close quarters and hope that they continue to have a breeding ground to visit. The Basai Wetland is truly a valuable gift of nature to Gurgaon. Herein lies a treasure-trove that no money can buy!

Basai Wetland Circa AD-14/08/2019

This is a visual diary of the birds spotted at the Basai Wetland in Gurgaon dated the 12th of August, 2019. Each time I visit the place, I notice changes. This time I noticed a walled up enclosure at one end of the wetland. Moreover, there were fewer weeds and most of the birds stayed out of sight and out of reach on the extremities of the Wetland.

Far out on the edges, I was able to spot painted storks and spot-billed ducks. Close at hand, however, were a couple of Woolly-necked storks, innumerable kites, swallows, weaver birds and the red-wattle lapwing. A couple of pheasant-tailed Jacanas did a fly-past and when they perched amidst the weeds on the ground, they made a pleasant-sounding call to each other.

The ubiquitous coot and purple swamphen could be seen in abundance and the white-throated kingfisher waited patiently for its catch. The swallows were as frisky as ever, and the green bee-eaters fidgety as ever!

To top them all was the Common Pond Heron that tried to fight off the wind that ruffled its feathers like mad!

The purple Herons, however, kept their distance apparently spooked by the kites that were swooping on the African Catfish bred in one of the fish ponds.

Sinkhole - A Short Story

They began appearing in random places, the sinkholes. In the first instance, it happened close to Artisan's College main gate. A hawker who had been selling boiled eggs and savouries was swallowed into the depths along with his cart, his screams would haunt those happened to be there. The municipal corporation filled up the sinkhole (burying the hawker and his cart forever) with rocks, soil and debris and the matter was soon forgotten. The second incident happened a few years later, on the road leading to the railway station at a point where a side road connected to it. People blamed it on a private contractor who had been drilling underground channels to feed fibre-optic cables through. What the people did not know was that the problem went deeper than the private contractor's excavator's drill bit could reach. The third incident took place when a huge chunk of Tarmac disappeared into the depths the bottom of which could not be seen. It was fortunate that no lives were lost. What rang alarm bells though, in this incident was that it had happened very close to the now drained out wetland. The wetland, known as the Berton Wetland had once spread over ten acres of land. It had been host to a large number of birds, migratory as well as native. Now it had become a prime real estate location. Geological experts had warned against the destruction of wetlands, because of the fact that they were important aquifers that according to them, helped recharge groundwater reserves.

But then it was a tragedy that the administration had ignored the early signs that something was wrong. The number of cave-ins had increased and soon there were huge holes in the ground. Scientists and experts had concurred that depletion of groundwater reserves due to rampant extraction coupled with the steady elimination of wetlands and water bodies had caused the hollowing out of the subterranean structure. The cave-ins and incidents of subsidence were the results of the subterranean structure's inability to support the weight of the surface layer. The added stress of construction activities, vibration caused by industries and vehicles had made things worse. When it rained, large amounts of water runoff was forced to flow over the already weakened surface forcing it to collapse into the already hollow spaces that had been vacated by the receding subterranean water levels.

I had prepared my report about the whole situation and my work was almost done in the town of Gojjam. Ravi and I had been sent by the International Institute of Geological Studies in Geneva. I was going through the whole report in my mind waiting for the traffic to ease when the ground beneath us began to vibrate. It was as if a freight train was passing by. And then there was a loud crash! A huge portion of the ground in front of us had caved in, taking with it a few vehicles, two cars and a bus. Ravi moved towards the door handle of SUV and had just opened the left side when I shouted, "Where do you think you are going?" He answered, "People hanging to the edges!" And I saw with horror that it was true. Even as I stepped out of the SUV, I saw with fear that the hole was steadily increasing in size and it was moving towards the SUV. I ran towards Ravi and grabbed his hand shouting into his ear over the noise, "We need to get out of here right now! The sinkhole will be upon us." 

Thankfully Ravi responded to the urgency in my tone and we had barely covered a brief distance when the sinkhole was upon us taking with it the SUV and the car behind it. 

"My goodness!" Ravi screamed, even as we clawed our way from the sinking earth, snatching at our heels. When we were on safe ground, or so it seemed, we turned back to look at the devastation and were terrified to see that the sinkhole spanned a good two hundred feet. Blinking his eyes with disbelief, Ravi turned to me and said, "This is worse than I thought, we need to get out of this place!" 

"Yes," I agreed, "But then we'll have to leg it out as our transport is gone" With this, we began to trudge our way away from the destruction. Fortunately, our cell phones were in our pockets and I called Dr Julian at the International Institute of Geological Studies. He picked up immediately on the first ring and asked me, "Hi, Ronin, how are things over there?" And I replied, Sir, it is really bad over here worse than we thought! The whole town is subsiding. It looks like the subterranean structure is steadily collapsing. We have just escaped a large cave-in, a huge sinkhole has appeared taking away our SUV and a large number of vehicles on the road. Even as I speak, the sinkhole is growing in size, taking away structures, vehicles."

"Get out of there!" Dr Julian replied in a terse voice. "Your work is done, and nothing much can be done to save the town." "Yes, Sir," I replied and then turned to Ravi to give him an upshot of what had conspired between our department head and me.

We walked away from the scene even as the emergency vehicles screamed towards the scene of the destruction. It was clear the Mother Nature had wreaked her revenge on the town of Gojjam for having caused great damage to the environment because of the greed of the people who would willingly destroy the wetlands and freshwater bodies for money. I recalled seeing the unscrupulous tanker owners extracting water from underwater wells to sell to builders for construction purposes. The Green Tribunal had passed strictures against such activities but without any serious conviction. The law enforcement agencies had been lax in enforcing the rulings of the Green Tribunal, thanks to greased palms and a general lack of knowledge of the implications of excessive depletion of groundwater levels. The common man had been equally at fault for the lack of responsibility towards the steady deterioration of the environment. 

The moral of this story is that we are all responsible for the degradation of the environment. When we drain out freshwater bodies and fill up natural rainwater runoff channels and resort to indiscriminate construction of buildings without assessing their environmental impact, we are only inviting the wrath of nature.

Photographing Clarence the Spider

Some things happen all of a sudden and this was true of Clarence the spider! I spotted Clarence while he was going around on the seat of my motorcycle and I had to rush to grab my camera. Since it was evening and the light was falling, I had to push the limits and bumped up the f-stop to 29. Of course, I decided to use a fill-in flash. I guess, Clarence must have been a bit blinded to the light, but then all those compound eyes came up glaring at me.

I grabbed hold of one of my older DSLRs, a Canon 1100D since an 18-55 mm lens was attached to it. I had no regrets although I had to get rather close and personal to the veritable critter. I did crop the snaps in order to get the tiny creature into size. My focus as always was the eyes. What I liked about the eyes was the five-pointed star of the flash that was reflected in them.

Many a time, chance and luck play great importance. Most of one's memorable snaps are a matter of luck and chance. Planned ones rarely turn out to be really good. In this case, it was probably a matter of chance that Clarence happened to be on a visit. And, well, he had a full belly and so could afford to be on a leisurely stroll.

Somehow it appears as though Clarence might have travelled great distances in a spaceship as the photographs below show an object that looks like a flying saucer. In reality, it is a rounded nut with a washer on a bike seat meant to fix a cowling.