Trails of Nature - 4

Everlasting flowers


For a South Indian, Everlasting flowers invariably means nostalgic memories of visit to Ooty or Kodaikanal. No one returns without buying a bunch of them.

Ladies selling white and yellow colored paper daisies are seen everywhere in these hill stations, most of them grown in their tiny cottages. It is the livelihood of many families.

I was lucky to click these flowers from the garden of my hotel. These flowers remain dry and preserved for a long time.

Growing Everlasting flowers is a big business in Australia. One day I would like to visit one of these Gardens

Thanks for the visiting Trails Of Nature
Have a nice day...

Pillar Rocks and Devil's Kitchen

Little did we know about these places when we visited Kodaikanal. It was a bright sunny day and the sun too strong for mist or fog to appear in the background.


Our first visit was to the Pillar rocks, 8 kms from Kodai Lake.

Three boulders standing tall in the midst of breathtaking greenery.

There is a beautiful garden nearby and plenty of picnic spots in the shades of the Rocks.

Between the pillar rocks the ravines are called Devil's Kitchen.We heard some creepy stories about youth getting trapped in those caves never to return. Out of curiosity we visited the Devil's kitchen. It had an eerie atmosphere mostly because the people around kept on telling the stories of 12 boys who fell into the cave and only one could be rescued. The mouth of many caves are indeed narrow and its difficult to imagine someone falling inside and getting trapped. However locals swear that they are very deep and rescue will be difficult.

Government has closed all entrances and every possible crevices to prevent further bad incidents. You see barbed wires and metal fences all around; your guardian angel greets you with a ravishing smile. So you must have realized that we had a Devil's kitchen minus danger zone expedition.

Interestingly the place is now called Guna's caves after the Kamal Hassan movie 'Guna'.

View from Devil's kitchen.



Thanks for visiting. Have a nice day.

Trails of Nature - 3

So 2010 Tiger statistics in India were in news last week. Some people are pointing to figures and beaming that the Indian Tiger population has come up(from 1411 to 1706). Skeptics believe that the rise in figures is apparent since the latest count has included a few more forests(previously naxalite invaded). We won't know the truth for sure! Thats all I have understood. This was followed by a new cry from Animal lovers that leopards are also in trouble. Now that tiger population is on the verge of 'safety' they might be able to concentrate on leopards....


Talking of tigers,


I met him at Singapore Zoo along with his two siblings. We were informed that his father is 'Mohan',father of many cubs, all having blue eyes. Mohan was captured by an Indian Maharajah in 1951 and lived in his palace all his life. I was curious about the secret of the white fur coat and so did a little google research after return.

The genetics is quite complex and the white fur is attributed to an Autosomal recessive gene. These white tigers are actually mutants and not a subspecies. They also exist among the Bengal tigers. Those which live in captivity are not pure Siberian tigers. They are instead the result of Siberian tigers breeding with Bengal tigers. Estimates show that only around one in 10,000 wild tiger births will result in a white tiger.

Due to the popularity of white tigers, they are used to attract visitors to zoos and will hopefully help raise awareness about all tigers and their situation.

So will Tigers survive this century?

Kodai Lake

Where do you plan to go during this summer vacation? Of course The answer is "somewhere cool"! In the scorching summer heat, Kodaikanal turns out to be one of the most sought out tourist location in South India.

In Kodai the most beautiful attraction is invariably the Kodai lake itself.

Located at an altitude of 2285m, the lake appears star shaped when viewed from a height. The Palani hills are also seen in view.

The walk way around the lake is pretty and well maintained for driving or trekking. There are also facilities for bicycling and horse riding.

The lake is sprawled over some 60 acres with a boat club.

It is a surprising fact that the lake is man made, the marshy area was developed into the gorgeous lake by Sir Vere Hentry Levinge, the then Collector of Madurai in 1863.

The garden around is well maintained and you could spend hours trekking around the lake simply admiring the beauty.

So what is your favourite Summer retreat?

Again Thanks for visiting....

Trails of Nature - 2

Dear friends,

Today you are welcome for birding in my own courtyard. There is a window in my study overlooking a combined bush of Hibiscus and Ixora. I never found both these plants interesting, but in the afternoon they are frequented by some visitors for nectar.

On separate days I could click Mr and Mrs Loten's Sunbird. These birds are 10-12 cm long and seen extensively in Southern Peninsular India and Srilanka. They feed on tiny insects and are often seen hovering around flowers for nectar. Their long bill distinguishes them from Purple Sunbird.

The male birds are glossy purple colored with grey brown belly. He was closely followed by his girl at that time. They must be having a nest nearby which I couldn't find (they flew off hastily sensing my intrusion).

The females lack the purple color altogether. They are yellowish brown with yellowish underparts.

It seems the female enjoyed the photoshoot with me! Look how she is posing for me.

The breeding season is Nov to March in India (Wiki information), the nest is often seen as a suspended bag of cobwebs, twigs and grass.

Look out for them in your garden and I am sure you will find them.

Trails of Nature - 1

Dear friends,

Do you know me?

I am a Malayan Tapir, right now living in Singapore Zoo.

Mine is an endangered species mostly owing to the loss of habitat, rainforests . We are extremely sensitive to changes in our environment especially due to human habitation.

We are herbivores mammals. One reason for our extinction is due to the fact that the females reproduce only once in 2 years and the gestational period is quite long - 12-13 months. Most of the times it is a single baby.

The babies look plump and cute with stripes and spots over the body that they are called walking watermelons. The spots help them for camouflage.

We have a trunk that is formed by fused nose and upperlip. It gives us a powerful sense of smell.

We are good swimmers as well as runners inspite of some 200-300 kg body weight. We manage to escape from most of the predators except one, that is human beings!

Many organisations have been formed to protect us from extinction like Tapir specialist group. This picture has been saved from tapirs.org to show you the other tapirs.

One last word from me, SAVE RAIN FORESTS..... and save the many homeless unfortunates including me and my family.
Thanks for stopping by.

Trails of Nature

I love nature, don't you?

I am starting of series where I introduce to you a little bit of nature. It might be a flower, a bird, an animal or anything that is intricately related to nature. My photographs are taken by my companion cam Mr. Nike - the Nikon P 100 , and forgive us if they do not come upto your standards. If you are up for a bit of fun you are welcome aboard, I shall take you to new nature trails.

PS: Not necessarily jungle safaris, but also shots from my own courtyard, zoo,parks and wherever green comes to life. I shall meet you with nature trails on all Wednesdays.

My Rain Drenched Singapore Trip

We are back after our first Singapore visit. Yes, it is the first one and hopefully there will be more. Though the purpose of the visit was to write an exam it was much awaited and much planned for months. We were literally thrilled right from boarding the flight till our return.

We expected so many things to be seen in Singapore. Much to our dismay the last thing we expected and what we found was simply RAIN. Well, Mr. Sun decided to take a short break and we were welcomed at the airport by a downpour. After the exams we had exactly 2 days and one night at leisure for sight seeing. Nevertheless we made the best of the trip and as soon as we returned to the sunny hometown my husband has started his search for 'vacancies in Singapore'. So you can imagine how we feel.

To summarize the tours, on Day 1 we went to Singapore zoo and Night Safari. On day 2 we visited the fun packed Sentosa island. I will be back with details soon. Hope you will find time to visit me.

What is the best birthday gift you ever received?

Today is my birthday and I sit in my room reminiscing the Kodai trip of last year. Kodai is a hill station located in the Palani hills, Dindigal district, Tamil Nadu. To my pleasant surprise the trip coincided with my birthday.

Though I am a late riser I was woken up well before sunrise by the chirping of tiny birds heard over the balcony. I opened the windows to see this amazing sunrise through the Palani hills and rushed for the camera to take pictures. What could be a better gift than this marvelous scene ravishing my eyes on my birthday?

Today morning I peep out of the window to see that sun is already up. The rays of sun infiltrate through green leaves of the innumerable trees in my neighbor's courtyard. The gleaming young leaves of this gooseberry tree caught my eyes and here it is.

I thank God for the simple gifts that he shower upon us everyday; they make our life worth living.

From Bandipur diary 2010 - 3

If you have missed out the earlier parts, you can read it here- Part 1 and part 2


Jungle Safari

By 3.30pm we got ready and rushed to get Safari tickets. There were 2 options- one was to go by bus at Rs.190 per head. Then the next is Jeep Safari at Rs.2000 and double rate if you are a foreigner. We didnt need much time to chose. We were not exactly interested in being chased by a herd of elephants or a tiger who suddenly decided to eat man for a change and opted for the bus ride.

The bus that guaranteed a bumpy ride if not the possibility of seeing many wild animals.

There were plenty of monkeys around the place, more in number than men, all addicted to Lays and Kurkure. They are being potato chips fed and spoiled by man for generations aganist the rule of mother nature.

They were arrogant,naughty yet affectionate.


The safari began sharp at 4’o clock, thanks to Karnataka govt. We were warned that we may not see any interesting creatures at all, and that we will be returned safely in 45 min time no matter what we manage to see. So the Safari began after the driver was able to hush down the loud noices of children.

Spotted deers were seen in plenty- the favourite food item of the mighty tigers of Indian forests

Then we saw a group of Bisons or Gaur. They are hugely muscular pure vegetarians, a variety of wild cattle. They were having a small party at that time in mud.

Disturbed by our intrusions and shrieks of children they decided to split off and we had to continue with our ride.

His majesty was too busy having an early supper. He concentrated mainly on his diet till he got distracted by the shouts of children.

Now the driver cum guide of the bus was angry and he warned these kids as they were spoiling the fun of co-travelers and wild animals.

Mighty elephant families were seen in plenty. After seeing the captivated animals in town it is a relief to know that free ones do exist in forests.

Finally a tiger in sight. Now everyone was curious to know whether it was alive or just a dummy!!

Well, it was an insult to him and he turned his face to prove himself.

The driver was contented now that we had spotted enough animals for 190 rupees worth and he turned and drove back nonstop. The ride was fun but put a lot of pressure in my ear labyrinthes. I was giddy and quite happy when the ride ended.

Special mention : on our way back to resort we saw wild boar twice. First time, we had an argument and John was not convinced that it was wild boar, it was only an ordinary pig. The fellow escaped our sight and I didnt get to photograph him. The second one turned out to be shy and was very fast. John was convinced this time, still I couldnt get to shoot him. As a big fan of Asterix and Obelix comics the disappointment was huge for me. The Indian wild boars are smaller than European ones and you will get some information here.

We made it on time for tea in the resort. I took this photo as a memoir for the nice time spent there and the photo was John's idea(clicked with fill in flash).

The next day we left the place in the morning with a lot of nice memories. Our special thanks to Karnataka Govt

From Bandipur diary 2010 - 2

You can read the part 1 here

I woke up to a wonderful day in Bushbetta. I opened the door in the morning to hear birds chirping and monkeys squeaking with delight. There is always breeze. Sometimes gentle caressing your cheeks, sometimes strong enough to hug you tight. We could see plenty of tiny birds around, many of them unfamiliar to us. These days urbanization is making the small birds extinct for they are losing their habitat. I began bird watching right away clicking them with my ultrazoom Nikon coolpix P100. As you can see the image quality is not so great, but few of the birds were good enough to pose for me in a nice way.

The red whiskered bulbul

Now I was really losing my patience. Shooting tiny birds without a tripod is really frustrating. There were plenty of robins and other tiny birds which skillfully evaded my camera. We went to have our breakfast at 9.30am. The tables were relatively empty by the time we finished our breakfast. We were surprised to see a lot of winged beauties chirping in the nearby table fearlessly. They had come for the left overs and were not bothered by the shooing of the waiter boys. I rushed to the sight for some quick snaps and the boys had to wait to clean up till I was done.

After breakfast we loitered around the resort for sometime and then decided to go for a drive to the nearby villages.

All I wanted was to see sunflower fields and John drove a few kilometers to find them. I voraciously shot a lot of pictures till he was bored.

They stood majestically facing the sun in unison, an impressive sight.

Several other crops were there including onion. We were stopped many times by boys waving frantically at us to buy onion. Soon we were back to the resort for lunch and a short break. Jungle safari was due by 3.30pm. I resumed bird watching from the balcony and John took a short break.

I will be back with the rest of my stories soon, till then Bye....

From Bandipur diary 2010 - 1

So began our journey in a rush on one of those rainy days of Monsoon in June, after the busy morning. We started around 11am by our car- Maruti Esteem. The holiday feel came once we crossed the familiar places along the NH17. We went via Calicut and then took right turn and entered the NH212. It was late afternoon and we were still far from border. We sped through the unknown places in anticipation. Soon we reached Adivaram meaning the Valley. From there began uphill climb through the mighty Nilgiris. As you might be knowing Nilgiris or Blue mountains got their name from bluish hue.

The Nilgiris....



There were 9 hairpin bends in total. The climb was breath taking. It was green all around which dissolved into blue in the far hill tops. It took some 45 min and we had reached high range. We didn’t dare to stop or even slow down. Vehicles were less frequent in this route. There was a panting transport bus that was struggling to reach top. The far off valleys looked blue and so tempting. Travel through Ghats made my day! Now we were on almost level road, no down hill journey was there as expected.

We had reached the Wayanad district. If the Ghats were splendid then this came as a bonus. The place is simply green and beautiful. We made a mental note to come here at some point of time for a visit. Finally we reached Sulthan Bathery and we called the resort people for directions. Soon we crossed the Kerala border and were traversing the forest sections of both states. It was late evening past 6 pm and we rushed past the green on both sides. Thank God the roads were good, straight and smooth, we could go at 100kmph and reach the resort by evening. We were greeted by herds of deer and a peahen on the way!

The forests and the roads of Bandipur.

Spotted deers are very commonly found in Indian forests. They walk fearlessly near the roads, but in large herds.



Thus ended my Day 1 in Bandipur. And soon I will come be back with rest of the stories.

A Bird's eye view from the watch tower in the resort. Unfortunately I forgot to click the picture oftower itself.

Living on an island

I had told you in the previous blog that my car has been sold. It turns out that I am not the only person who is carless now; our second car is waiting in a workshop over the last 10 days for spare parts to come from Mumbai. John is desperately going through every available car magazines as if our next trip is going to be to the nearest car showroom and that he will be forced to take an immediate decision on what car to buy. Well, truth is far from that, we won’t be visiting any car showroom in another few months time except for window shopping. While he is drooling over the pictures of latest SUVs I will take you for a walk through a small group of islands in Ernakulam.

Well, your guess is probably not right; we are not going to Fort Kochi. I am taking you to the Vypin islands where we had stayed for 2 years- a haven of back waters and serene unexplored beautiful beaches.

A king fisher with his evening catch.














Previously before the opening of Goshree bridges in 2004 these islands were connected to main land of Ernakulam through boat service and a small segment of land near North Paravur to Aluva. So imagine, if there is an emergency in the middle of the night people have to travel for hours to reach Ernakulam or wait until the next day early morning for the first boat to come and take you to Ernakulam Jetty in hardly 10-15 min time. The tiny islands are connected by tiny bridges hardly allowing one bus at a time to pass through.
Our story began much later after the completion of Goshree bridges and the real estate boomed in the tiny islands which became part of Ernakulam with direct access to main town. Land prices were rocketing, general population was exploding, the number of vehicles were statistically increasing, but the roads and bridges still belong to the prehistoric, I mean pre Goshree era. The result being horrendous traffic congestion.
Our decision to stay in Paravur hardly 2 kms from Cherai beach was out of convenience rather than our desire to live near a very charming beach of South India. We both being intense humidity haters would rather have preferred a hill station or high range. But the option was simply not there and that Cherai was half way between both of our work places we rented a house in Cherai.

Fisher men at work on a large Chinese fishing net.

When you think of beaches what comes to your mind first?
Nostalgia? A lost love? Or a future thats far yet colorful and bright? Well the mood here is nostalgia for me.











In the morning we left home in different directions, John towards Ernakulam and me northwards along the NH 17. I wonder if it fascinates you, I was traveling daily over the many bridges and serene backwaters. I was always awed by the beauty and the best part is that the same backwaters manage to look different at different hours of the day and in each climate.

Those months were my busiest in my career with heavy work schedule and lot of traveling. On the top of that not a single day passed without ourselves complaining of humidity and mosquitoes. But looking back I realize that I do miss the daily colorful sunsets created by humidity. Any one living in the heart of a city or town will know the feeling.

Evening view from my terrace...













We went to beach occasionally when we came back early from work in the evenings. We drove through the long and narrow stretches of road between the backwaters to reach the beaches and sometimes there will be water alone all around. There will be fishermen standing on the roadside with fishing nets plunged in water, their routines were a matter of delight to us. The main beach of Cherai is always crowded in evenings with plenty of natives, visitors, occasional foreigners, plenty of shrieking children and icecream and peanut vendors.

Daily commotion in Cherai beach

The backwaters are breathtakingly beautiful in many locations.













However if you prefer to relish the beauty of sky and the sea in some quiet locations, you can explore innumerable tiny beaches along the vast stretch of coastal line. I shall introduce you to a few of them.

This is Njarakkal beach, one of the Tsunami hit areas of South India. Breakwaterwalls were constructed as a future protection to reduce the impact of water in case Tsunami decides to strike again.

The break water walls once again, Is man capable of resisting the mighty nature?

Kuzhuppilly beach – a small beautiful beach 3-4 kms from Cherai.












If you get a chance drive through the roads parallel to sea.The roads are all connected to each other and to the highway so its less likely that you get lost. And one last word, smear yourself lavishly with a mosquito repellent cream.

Thats all about my story about Vypin Islands.
Have a nice time.