Teal Factory

I did not know that Common Teal duck could have such a beautiful colour scheme. The blue-green colour scheme on its head, a green speculum, a white line below and above its eyes makes the male distinct from the female. It was a joy to photograph the ducks when I visited the Sultanpur National Park this January. 

Looking further into the distance I was able to spot a whole flock of these ducks dozing in the weak winter sun, probably too lazy to move around! I was to notice that they seemed to stand out from the clutter because of their distinct colour scheme. Perhaps, the beauty industry could take tips from these birds about eye-makeup.

I spotted this pair a little apart from the others even as they seemed to be cosying up. They apparently did not seem to be bothered about being photographed by me. Yes, it did take me some time in identifying these ducks as Common Teal Ducks.

Glimpses from the Confirmation Service of the Church of the Epiphany, Gurgaon

Once again it was a moment for reliving one's own confirmation service all those years back. They were all a bit nervous, anxious and, well, following a dress-code. As always, I sensed it would be a good idea to capture a slice of the moment for all of them to see.

The confirmation service was led by the Bishop of the Church of North India, Diocese of Delhi, Rt. Revd. Dr. Warris K. Masih and assisted by Revd.Daman Derrick Rodgers, Presbyter in charge of the Church of the Epiphany Gurgaon and Evangelist Christ Anand Beck, Evangelist from the Sadhu Sunder Singh Church at Sohna.

It was a cold Sunday morning and the Church filled in gradually, a task no doubt for quite a few of us to drag ourselves out of bed. The 12th of January, 2020 would have been a day most awaited by those who would have been preparing themselves for this important day. They would have learnt different prayers and responses by heart and perhaps even prepared themselves to serve at the altar. But then, there was also a bit of a festive atmosphere in the air as all of us gathered after the service to share greetings and to partake in a fellowship meal. I have pasted a few of the snaps in this post hoping that they will rekindle similar memories in all those who have been confirmed!

On a lighter note, I would like to add that sitting in the warm sun (that finally peeped out of the overcast) finally showed its bright side, we all gathered in the lawn to share bits of homilies and good cheer.

And where was I? Well, look carefully into his sunglasses, if you zoom in you will see not just one of me, but two of me! Don't blame me for the exaggerated and rather contorted stance, but then I had to make an impact.

Untraced-A Short Story

It was a wedding gift from her parents - a honeymoon package trip to the Kincaid hill-station. Dheeraj, 28 and Monica, 26 college friends who had fallen in love and had gone steady got married on the fifth of October, 2016 after a courtship of five years. Dheeraj had been working as a Content Developer with an upcoming Content Marketing firm, while Monica had been working as a teacher in one of the well-known schools in the national capital region of India. Dheeraj, who stood six feet four inches, had married a woman who was just a few inches shorter than him at five feet nine inches.

The couple was a perfect match and they complemented each other in nature. While Monica a Punjabi, was a more patient and seemingly mature girl, Dheeraj, a Haryanvi was a little bit impatient and impulsive. What Dheeraj liked about Sakshi was her maturity and ability in making educated choices, she was the restraining factor for him, the reality check that he needed in life. A woman with delicate features that belied an inner strength - the perfect example of an Indian woman was how one would define her. Dheeraj, on the other hand, was a strapping young man with over proportioned shoulders, the result of his being a regular at the gym, a bit more likely to pick up quarrels with others. People blamed his ‘hot blood’ for making him what he was, his male relatives thought he was, ‘cool’ and nothing was wrong with him, while the women shook their heads with disappointment and a sense of disapproval.

The couple left for Kincaid from Delhi having booked tickets in the Volvo bus. They had left Delhi at five in the morning and after a six-hour drive reached their destination. Their hotel had been pre-booked and their room had been as described in the brochure. Being tired of the travel they decided to rest for an hour. After unpacking and taking a bath, they went out for a stroll on the Mall. Even as they were exiting the hotel lobby, Monica noticed a  heavyset man sitting in the lobby, he had worn a rather loud shirt, crimson in colour with the buttons open revealing a rather thick gold chain, he was staring at her, and it made her shiver involuntarily. She decided to inform Dheeraj about the man, but then when they stepped out of the hotel, it was to be greeted by a mesmerizing panorama of snow-clad mountains glinting in the distance under a clear blue sky. That day, both of them wandered hand in hand, the typical lovelorn couple lost in themselves, just living in the moment, a moment that was magical and too valuable to be squandered.

They stopped at the One Up Restaurant, a joint that served exemplary Mughlai and continental food. It was while they were having their food that Monica suddenly exclaimed to Dheeraj, ‘, I think I saw that man sitting at the table close to the door, at the hotel lobby, he seems to be taking too much interest in us.’

Dheeraj sneaked a look across Monica and looked at the man sitting by himself at a table close to the entrance to the joint. He looked a bit shady, but then he thought that perhaps Monica had been getting a bit too imaginative – ‘Look I don’t think he might have come after us, you might be mistaken, Monica. Anyway, let him not spoil our meal!’

They resumed their meal quietly, savouring the spicy Biryani and the Rogan Josh. After they had had their meal, they stepped out and did lots of window shopping, buying things that were probably cheaper in Delhi, but then did it just for fun, and the shopkeepers were most welcoming. Two days passed away slowly with them going off to bed late, tired after just wandering on the Mall Road, waking up late in the morning, and then returning to the Mall for more window shopping. In the afternoon of the second day, they visited the Company Garden and spent time photographing the flowers and having pictures taken of themselves with the flowers as a backdrop. That day they decided to have dinner at the Hotel itself. It was while they were having an early dinner at eight that Dheeraj’s mobile began ringing consistently. Monica nudged him when he seemed to ignore the phone. Looking at the display, Dheeraj’s face wrinkled in apprehension. It was his boss Arjun Thakur, calling up from Delhi.

Rather reluctantly he took the call. ‘Hello, Arjun, what is up?’ - Putting the question before he could say anything.

‘Sorry, Dheeraj, this is rather urgent, you need to return to Delhi at once!’ there was a pause, and then he continued, ‘Our website has been hacked, and we are being robbed black and white.’

‘Sorry, you know how it is, I am in Mussourie and well, Sakshi is with me, come on, Arjun, it is not going to work out.’ Dheeraj replied.

‘It is only for one day, Dheeraj,’ Arjun went on, ‘you could bring her with you, moreover, I will do you a favour, fund a honeymoon trip to Singapore next month, all expenses paid. Take the late-night Volvo for Delhi, work for the day on the firewalls!’

All this while Sakshi stood by him looking anxiously at him. A sense of foreboding was writ large on her face.  He nodded at her trying to put her at ease. This was wrong he thought and wondered if he should refuse. But then here he was, stuck in an ugly middle position.

‘OK, let me discuss this with Sakshi,’ Dheeraj replied, ‘I will call you in five minutes.’

‘Ok, call me back in five minutes!’ Arjun responded before cutting the connection.

Dheeraj turned with a heavy heart and told Sakshi all about the conversation he had had with Arjun. She was supportive and suggested that he should go alone to Delhi by the late night Volvo bus while she stayed back in Mussoorie. She was sure that he could be back the next night and they could resume their one week stay in the town. They rushed back to their hotel room where he quickly changed into a fresh set of clothes. They walked together to the bus stand. What they did not notice was that while walking to the bus stand they were watched by a stranger lurking in the shadows. He boarded the bus and Sakshi returned to their hotel room. She did not feel hungry so she decided to go off to sleep.

The next morning would be different for both of them. At about two in the morning, the mountain range was hit by an Earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale. The town was cut off from the rest of the world because of the roads that were completely buried under tons of debris, whole mountains collapsing on them.

Dheeraj was dozing as the bus drove downhill when the earthquake struck. The driver attempted to stop the bus even as the mountain ahead of them erupted into a shower of big rocks and dirt. The bus slewed and skidded half on the road and half stick over the bluff onto a hundred foot chasm. Dheeraj was flung out of his seat towards the rear door which had come open.  He was helpless and in spite of grabbing for seat struts, he slipped out of the open gate onto the chasm. Surprisingly enough, Dheeraj had accepted his fate, but as things would have it, he came to a stop on a ledge that was comfortably wide enough. It was dark and so he thought not to move too much until morning. Thus it was that he lay on the ledge waiting for the approach of dawn. He wondered about Sakshi, how she was doing and whether she had been spared by the earthquake. He looked at his watch and saw that it was three 0’ clock. Then he felt in his pocket for his mobile phone and breathed a sigh of relief. He would call Sakshi first thing in the morning.

He must have dozed off for an hour or so when he heard a scream! Waking up with a start he realized that he was not alone on the ledge, for there in the morning light he saw a woman who had been in the bus lying on a narrower part of the ledge ahead of him. He crawled to her and noticed with horror that her part of the ledge was jutting out over a slope that plunged into a sickeningly deeper chasm. The woman had been somehow clinging onto tree roots that somehow protruded over the ledge. It was clear that she had lost all her strength and that she would soon slide down the slope into the chasm. Already part of her torso, her legs were hanging out of the ledge over the chasm.  

“OK, just look at me, Miss!” He said, “Can you hold on a little more?”

“Just hurry up, Mister, “ the woman stated, “ I have got a cramp coming on, and can’t hold on any longer.”

“Alright, listen, what I am going to do is to take out my belt which I want to loop around your waist. I will grab hold of the loop and try to drag you to the broader part of the ledge. However, I will have to  buckle the belt myself if it is alright with you.”

“It is fine with me,” she said nodding towards him.

He undid his belt and then edged towards her, not looking at the looming chasm beyond. Hooking his feet onto a couple of rocks jutting out the ledge he managed to loop the belt around the woman’s waist. He knew that if he didn’t hurry up, the woman would lose her strength and sweep both of them down the chasm. Struggling hard he buckled the belt and hooked one of his hands into the loop and said to the woman, “Alright ease off, I am going to drag you to safety now.”

The woman replied, “Ok, I will let go, by the way, in case I don’t survive, my name is Monica, and I teach English at the Modern School in Mussoorie. I was going to my uncle in Delhi for my Niece’s sixteenth birthday.”

He replied, “ I am Dheeraj and my wife and I had gone to Mussoorie for our honeymoon. I was called to Delhi for an emergency when this happened. OK, now ease off, easy does it!” He exclaimed even as he took on her weight with his left hand.
Morning found them seated on the ledge with their backs to the mountain wall. It was six o'clock when Dheeraj's mobile phone rang, it was Sakshi.
"Hi, Dheeraj, have you reached Delhi?" She asked anxiously.
He thought for a moment and then decided to delay telling her that he was stuck on a ledge on the mountainside with a stranger. Instead, he said, " How are you, what about the Earthquake?"
"Dheeraj, the town has been totally destroyed, the hotel is gone, and I have taken shelter at the bus stand. The only electricity supply is at the bus stand."
"Hey, Sakshi, just hold on, I was on board the bus just above Mandi when the earthquake struck, I was thrown over the road and landed upon a ledge. But don't worry, I am sure people will arrive to rescue us."
"Dheeraj, just take care of you, I will call you every morning at six, by the way, I've got to go, it looks like that man, along with a few more have been shadowing me. I am a little scared. Just in case, I am going to merge with the crowd at the bus stop so that I might be safe."
"Fine, just take care of yourself, I will try to get back to you!" He replied, trying to assure her.
Dheeraj and Monica were rescued by the Disaster Management Team, and they were taken to New Delhi for treatment. After a brief recuperation of four days, they were released and went back to their hometowns. Of Sakshi however, there had been no information.
When I got to meet Dheeraj a couple of years after all this had happened, he was still looking for his wife, Sakshi. The authorities, unfortunately, were of much help. Dheeraj continues to hope that his wife might be alive and in good health. Once he even got a call on his cell phone that he thought was from her. He had pressed the answer button and even heard the sound of someone breathing softly into the mouthpiece and then the call got disconnected!

Bar-Headed Geese Spotted at The Sultanpur National Park

Bar-Headed Geese are the only birds that can fly at a height of 22,000 feet and that too without Oxygen! How these migratory birds manage this feat is not only baffling but also a matter for research by scientists.

This year I spotted them at the Sultanpur National Park one foggy morning on the eleventh of  January 2020. It was foggy and the visibility was not really conducive for photographing these amazing birds.

The only other time I spotted them was a couple of years ago at the Basai Wetland even as they had gathered in the morning on a field.

Bar-headed Geese are among the most elegant and graceful birds I have ever seen! They are built for cruising at great heights. They are also a most 'socially' integrated species and I noticed some of them touching beaks after they had landed on a lake. One appreciable step taken by the National Park authorities has been flooding areas on the outskirts of the park with water forming different lakes for migratory birds to settle on.

Bar-headed geese make a lot of noise as they fly and you might be able to hear them before they appear. Once they land on water, they move as one even as they flew in formation in the sky. To enjoy the snaps I suggest you zoom in on them. The fog made clarity a challenge, but then, I guess it is the experience of having seen these beautiful birds in flight that makes up for the snaps.

Polarization, a reaction to Digitization, has made the World a difficult place to live in!

A lot has been happening in the world after the end of the second world war, and it is as if polarisation has always been with us. The arrival of the Internet promised to make the world a global village, but unfortunately, it has probably ended up with each one of us being as distant from each other as we would have been in ancient times separated by continents and oceans. The Internet and information technology might have shrunk distances in some senses, but then it has left humanity alienated, emotionally detached and dysfunctional, individual entities looking for an identity that makes us different from others. A student of mine, studying Economics at Berkeley who visited me recently, in fact, agreed with the idea that the Internet has indeed distanced individuals like never before! There is, today, a very strong tendency to compete, prove one's self better than others, a desire to compare one's beliefs with other beliefs, the world has become one huge rat-race in which one keeps winning. In the classroom or even out there in the world, we tend to exclude those who are different from us. You are either with us or you are not! There is, unfortunately, no middle path. We have become so binary that for every problem you have to have a yes or no. We have become so 'digital' in nature that we have become straight-jacketed in our beliefs, attitudes and even perceptions. Humanity, unlike the binary world, is much more complex. The polarization that is taking place in the social fabric is because we have begun thinking like machines. We have become so binary in our thinking that we can't see beyond black and white or even right and wrong.

The polarisation of people, communities and even countries has resulted in the growth of suspicion, intolerance, lack of patience and a feeling of grievance against almost every other person. We have become as a community, society, and even world so conscious of our own rights and identities that anyone who is different becomes an outcast, a usurper of our rights and thus to be excluded in all ways. What has triggered such exclusivity is probably Information Technology! The Internet has brought us closer in virtually but not in a social sense. Ironically enough, digitisation, data science, and information hunger have probably reduced each one of us into a mere data point. This increasing amount of intolerance in the society and even between different religious communities (countries included) is the result of the human psyche rebelling against what goes against human DNA! Digitisation is robbing us of our unique healthy individuality making us 'bricks in a wall'! One of the reasons Socialism petered away by the beginning of the 1990s was that it discouraged free enterprise, freedom of speech, and somehow promoted a very unhealthy unitary and polarised world. Human beings are designed for competing with each other, and we need to provide each one of ourselves a healthy competition, free opportunities, sportsmanship, sports and even the opportunity to travel, move around and socialize with each other. There is a great need for actual social interaction, proper social relationships, not emojis or even cryptic short messages. What is lacking today is a better understanding of each other, appreciating differences, tolerating dissent, respecting diversity, individuality and thus we need to develop a culture of inclusion. Information technology has brought us closer in a virtual world, it has enhanced commerce and communication, it has shrunk distances, provided us with information, catered to collaborative learning, but it has not made the world more inclusive. The Internet, Data Science, Information Technology might have informed us about our rights but at the same time, nothing much has been done to promote a duty consciousness. One might suggest, to this effect, the world has become a very sterile one, one that is devoid of values, ethics, morals and even, perhaps a healthy kind of Spirituality. We claim to be religious communities without really being Spiritual. We claim superiority on the basis of the size of the community based on caste, creed, language and race and try to exclude others who don't belong to us.

The World is fighting against an 'otherness' a 'distinctness' anything that threatens our beliefs, accepted notions, practices and rituals not just for a sense of identity, but because we are afraid of stepping out of our comfort zones, we are afraid of being challenged about all these things, we are afraid of what might be 'different'. Pol Pot pre-empted dissent by eliminating potential dissenters, this was because they challenged his belief in Communism, not that Communism was bad. Unfortunately, dictators like Pol Pot use a particular school of thought, a Philosophy as a tool to silence dissenting voices. Technology, unfortunately, has become a handy tool for oppression in the hands of those who would like to use brute force to force 'others' to follow them, their ideas and philosophies. You either belong to us or you are outcasts. Imagine how much more potent, Mengel would have been in the 21st century or how deadly 'the final solution' would be today, what with IoT, IT, and Data Science assisting such people. Technology in the hands of dictators can become a tool of oppression, brute force that promotes polarisation or compartmentalisation.
It has become perhaps more relevant for us today to turn towards the 'middle path' advocated by Budha, adherence to the Noble Eightfold Path as a middle way of moderation between extreme thoughts. There has to be a middle path for everything. There have to be grey areas. There has to be an alternative to black and white. The problem here is that we have, in the twenty-first century become rigid in our beliefs. We are not able to tolerate the 'otherness' of people, we don't appreciate diversity and we simply cannot accept a different point of view! We have become insular in nature, we don't appreciate colours, we don't respect nature, we don't care for ideas, culture and are not interested in the viewpoints of other people. We have become restricted, narrow-minded and blinkered. It is because of all this that we have become a polarised society, a society that accepts or rejects others based on its own narrow set of rules.
Perhaps the time has come for us to adopt 'digital minimalism' and step back from all that innovation and technologies that are shifting our values and belief systems. We need to go back to our 'collective values', maybe even revisit the teachings of our scriptures, ancient teachings, literature and art and see if they might not have some advice, some suggestions on how to combat this intolerance for 'others'. Human beings are not meant to be bi-polar, let alone live in a bi-polar, binary world because human beings are much more complex than machines. Human beings are creative, non-linear, multi-dimensional, they use both deductive reasoning as well as inductive reasoning. It is when you force human beings to think in a particular linear manner that things go wrong. It is quite possible that this lack of patience, tolerance for other communities, this fight against inclusion, this fight for identity, culture, creed, language and race might, after all, be a reaction to the digitization of the whole world. You don't want to end up as a mere data byte, a digit in the virtual world, so you mistakenly fight against people of other beliefs mistakenly believing that in this fight for individuality and freedom from living in a virtual world (where you are nothing but a slave), the 'others' are to blame. Bipolarity and polarisation are in fact 'back to the drawing board' movements where people try to go back to their scriptures, fundamental principles, beliefs and culture as a way of finding meaning in life. It is a way of finding identity, a sense of belonging, a sense of being wanted.