Practicing Mindful Wildlife Photography

I have often heard from other wildlife photographers, stories about other photographers and their partners pelting stones at wild birds simply so that they could get the quintessential shot of birds in flight. This, unfortunately, goes against the ethics of wildlife photography. Wild birds, especially migratory birds that visit wildlife sanctuaries, wetlands, and other habitats are sensitive during the nesting season. Throwing objects at them, for the express reason that you want to take a shot of them in flight is a highly despicable action. Such actions also make wildlife nervous and fidgety when they spot people in their surroundings. No wonder, such birds and wild animals take flight (pun intended) even before you have lifted the lens to photograph them!

A Wild Jungle Cat Photographed at the Sultanpur National Park

Baiting wild ducks and wild animals is equally bad because the food you give them might not be healthy, exposing them to health risks, and perhaps even affecting their feeding habits. Imagine feeding Ducks and Geeze junk food, chips, wafers, and even bits of biscuits and cookies, along with the non-biodegradable wrappers! When tourists visit a lake and feed ducks and geese junk food, simply so that they might photograph wild birds from a close distance they are insensitive towards nature. A large number of wildlife photographers do encourage the feeding of wildlife simply to draw them closer for a better shot.

Keeping one's distance from wildlife is very important, not only for one's safety, but also to avoid startling nesting birds, or to that effect,  and nursing wild animals. Using a zoom lens will help and choosing wisely what to shoot can help. Also, avoiding rapid movements, keeping still, and merging with the surroundings can be a good idea as accepting the limitations of your lens and moving to something else could be a good solution. 

Native birds including migratory birds are very sensitive during courtship rituals and they don't take noise and disturbance by visitors. Unfortunately, the entry of noisy visitors with toddlers and even some adults can be very disturbing. For this reason, most wild birds move away from the edge of the wetland or brush abutting the dedicated paths on which visitors can walk in National Parks and forests. 

A pair of Sarus Cranes enjoy each other's company

Important Symbols and Metaphors in Poetry Lessons of grade 12 CBSE English

The poem, Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda contains powerful symbols, metaphors, and motifs. Perhaps the most powerful symbol Pablo Neruda uses in his poem, Keeping Quiet is the clock face. The twelve divisions on the clock face describe the twelve months in a year and twelve hours in the day. When the hour hand and the minute hand touch the 12th division on the clock face, it symbolizes a split moment when time on the Clock face comes to a stop, a pause, even if it is for a split moment. The second most important symbol used by Pablo Neruda is that of Mother Nature, nature as a teacher, and the Earth as the bedrock of life. The whole poem discusses, among other things the need to learn from nature, and the need to protect nature for example he says, 'Perhaps the Earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive.' Earlier in the poem, Pablo Neruda talked about how keeping quiet would thwart 'Those who prepare green wars', suggesting that keeping quiet would prevent the destruction of nature - 'green wars'.

My Mother at 66 is another poem that contains symbols, motifs, and metaphors. For Kamala Das the 'late winter's moon' symbolizes old age senility, and is a metaphor marking the end of a life cycle. The poem describes the fragility of relationships, especially when faced with old age, bereavement, and death. Birth, aging, and death are inevitable processes of life; the same that the moon goes through a continuous cycle of waxing and waning.  Trees and children symbolize youth in contrast to the 'late winter's moon'.

A Thing of Beauty, an extract from Endymion, written by John Keats contains important symbols, that represent Earthly beauty and the source of Spiritual Beauty. The 'flowery band' mentioned in the extract represents Earthly Beauty that is both fascinating, enthralling, and yet enslaving, trapping, and imprisoning. The poet's warning is that one should not be trapped by earthly beauty lest one should be blinded to the spirituality behind it. It is as if he is saying, don't be blinded by earthly beauty lest you might see the hands of the creator. Another important symbol in the poem is the 'endless fountain' from which the 'immortal drink' of beauty flows down from Heaven. The 'fountain' is the source of spiritual beauty, the source of inspiration, the source of the elixir of life that is sent for us by the Creator of life.

In A Roadside Stand, Robert Frost uses symbols and metaphors to highlight the gaps and divides between the people living in the countryside and those living in the cities. The theatre and the store are symbols of vices of the city folk, enforced on the gullible and innocent people living in the countryside. 'Polished traffic' symbolizes the rich people rushing by in their 'selfish cars'. 'Selfish cars' also symbolize the insensitivity, heartlessness, and vanity of city people who rush under the veneer of prosperity and affluence. The roadside stand itself is a symbol of the poverty, helplessness, and economic backwardness of the people living in the countryside.

Adrienne Rich has used a few interesting symbols in her poem, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers. These symbols represent the aspirations, difficulties, and tribulations of a married woman who is living in a marriage that is overwhelming and debilitating in nature. The tigers on the cloth screen in the poem represent  Aunt Jennifer's aspirations, they represent art that transcends time, and the ivory needle represents the chores and duties that Aunt Jennifer needs to fulfill as a married woman. 'Uncle's Wedding Band' represents a difficult marriage, a marriage that is exploitative, debilitating, and enslaving in nature. The 'world of green' represents an ideal world where tigers live peacefully with 'men beneath the tree'.

The use of three Kinds of Irony in Kalki's The Tiger King

Kalki makes use of three different kinds of irony in his short story, The Tiger King. This is done intentionally to expose the deficiencies, weaknesses, and hypocrisy in the Maharaja's character. Satire as a genre makes liberal use of irony to highlight important social issues subtly.

Kalki uses three types of irony in his short story verbal, dramatic, and situational. The most common of all is verbal irony. 

Verbal irony might be defined as an expression that means the opposite of what is being expressed. In the third paragraph, the author writes, 'Everyone who reads of him will experience the natural desire to meet a man of his indomitable courage.' The words, 'indomitable courage' are ironic in that the Maharaja, far from being courageous, was so scared of the astrologer's predictions being proved right that he wanted to pre-empt the prophecy by exterminating the tigers that threatened his life.

Dramatic irony can be defined as an expression that highlights the fact that the character or the actor is not aware of the outcome of an event but the audience or the reader is. The first paragraph of section III reads, 'From that day onwards it was celebration time for all the tigers inhabiting Pratibandapuram.' Little do they know that they are going to be exterminated in totality by none other than the Tiger King himself! The reader knows that the tigers have no reason to celebrate, rather they need to be prepared to die. In fact, the third paragraph in the third section of the story states, 'Initially the king seemed well set to realize his ambition', meaning that by then, a large number of tigers in the state had already been exterminated by the Tiger King, himself! Another interesting example of the use of dramatic irony in the story is when the Tiger King takes aim at what he thinks is his final tiger, he fires at it, it falls and he leaves, happy that he has finally defeated fate. He states, " I have killed my hundredth tiger. My vow has been fulfilled."- little did he know that his bullet had missed its target and that the tiger was quite alive, dazed by the loud report of the gun, but quite alive! But then, the reader and the hunters know better!

The third type of irony used by Kalki in his short story, The Tiger King is that of situational Irony. Situational irony can be defined as dealing with a situation that has an unexpected outcome. One example is when the Tiger King's arm gets infected by a splinter from a wooden tiger and three surgeons are brought from Madras who operate on him. The outcome of the operation is that the Maharaja 'is dead'. The outcome of the operation was not to cure the Maharaja but to kill him.

One must agree that the entire lesson is built upon irony. The very manner of the Marharaja's death is ironical, the lesson ends on an ironical note when the writer concludes, 'In this manner, the hundredth tiger took its final revenge upon the Tiger King.'

The Moon - A Poem

 I saw the Moon floating in the distant sky,

Squashed a bit, fiery red, as it went by.

Its surface is pockmarked with craters,

A battle-hardened veteran boasting scars!

In a firmament of twinkling stars, it sails

Dwarfing others, center stage it takes.

Like a beacon, it floats, a guiding light 

For those who journey in the darkest night.

And in the firmament of twinkling stars,

It takes center stage, dwarfing others by its

Light and size. What was a red beacon earlier,

Now lighter in colour, having shed its fever.

(I wondered if a fever had rendered it red,

Or had it risen from a fiery burning coal bed?)

But then as it rose into the dark firmament,

It burned like a beacon across the continent.

And so it went sailing steady, jaunty, and  merry

Across the sky on its  unwavering daily Journey,

As it HAS done to  guide with blessings a host

Or fill with hope those who all hope have lost!

Often seen, and missed, it beckons to the poet,

The scientist, astronaut, and the cosmonaut.

A celestial globe lighting up a world so busy,

With its craters, secrets, and all its mystery.

Curiosity and the Rover did wander across its

Surface, to unlock its origin, sand, and rocks.

Did HE wonder about its purpose as he lonely

Lay in a cave glancing at the globe in the sky?

I saw the Moon floating in the distant sky,

Squashed a bit, fiery red, as it went by,

And wondered if it did not have much to tell,

Mysteries to unravel, and much more to tell!

A Masterpiece so grand, an artist would need,

The Hand that fashioned it, the purpose I plead,

To reveal its cause, to connect distances apart?

Lovers to gaze, hope for those that depart?

Celebrating Success at the Virmani Public School, Roop Nagar, Delhi

When I was invited to the Annual Day Function of the Virmani Public School, Roop Nagar by Mr. Anil Virmani, Chairman of the Virmani Education Trust, I simply had to accept it! I started my career in education as an employee of the trust nearly 29 years ago when I joined the Dhanpatmal Virmani Sr. Secondary School at Roop Nagar, Delhi. Both the Dhanpatmal Virmani Sr. Sec. School and the Virmani Public School (both sister schools) have been close to my heart since they nurtured me during my formative years as a teacher of English.

What I noticed when I visited the Vrimani Public School on the 17th of February was a total transformation, it has become a model of what an ideal public school should look like and what aspiring schools should look up to.

The colour decor of the classrooms was light and pleasing, the display boards were bursting with loads of exemplars of student work, a swanky and well-designed computer lab, and a pleasing and spacious library, all grabbed my attention! All the classrooms had a small metal placard mentioning the name of each member of the trust as a tribute to each member's contribution to the pursuit of education. All of these changes are the fruits of the efforts of  Mr Amitav Virmani, the Manager of the school, and of course the CEO of Education Alliance!

Dr Rekha Sharma, the Principal of the Virmani Public School oversaw the flow of events very efficiently. Her professional approach and growth mindset attitude have, without doubt also contributed to the school's transformation.

I was particularly impressed by how well-groomed our student guides were as they took Avtar Singh (the HOS of the Dhanpatmal Virmani Senior Secondary School) and me on a tour of the classrooms, labs and library. The students who were presenting their displays spoke fluent English and were confident in their approach.

It was simply amazing to see how one of the oldest schools in Roop Nagar has transformed itself, breaking out of the cobwebs of time and typical stereotypes that affect educational institutions, especially government-aided schools! It is truly a model and an example of how out-of-the-box thinking, rational policies, the System's approach and some effort can create models of excellence.

And the best of all was the release of a book titled, 'Tiny Tales, Big Dreams' by students of class 6 A of the Virmani Public School. Students of the class were encouraged to write stories on characters in the lessons they had read in English. In his address to the gathering, Mr Amitav Virmani attributed the success of the school to the positivity of the teachers and the 8 'Cs'. The eight Cs according to him needed for success include: Courage, Curiosity, Creativity, Critical thinking, Consciousness, Collaboration, and Consistency.