Brahminy kites

Our apartment on the 13th floor in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia overlooks an enormous golf course where two Brahminy Kites(in picture) hover at exactly 5P.M. everyday. Not a day has been there when the two love birds (we presume) have not been seen flying in the sky, nestling in a particular tree for around 10minutes and finally landing on a lamp post of the golf course.
The Brahminy kite or the Red-backed sea eagle is a medium-sized bird of prey found in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia & Australia. Adults have a reddish brown plumage and a contrasting white head and breast which make them easy to distinguish from other birds of prey. It is primarily a scavenger, feeding mainly on dead fish and crabs, especially in wetlands and marshland but occasionally hunts live prey such as hares and bats. They may also indulge in kleptoparasitism and attempt to steal prey from other birds.
Young birds may indulge in play behaviour, dropping leaves and attempting to catch them in the air (observed by us). They roost communally on large and isolated trees and as many as 600 have been seen at just one location. They may mob larger raptors such as the Aquila eagles. In some incidents where Brahminy Kites mobbed Steppe Eagles, they were attacked and injured or killed. A number of ectoparasitic bird lice in them have been reported.

A matter of honour

A MATTER OF HONOUR

Honour killings are blight to the society. Innocent young couples are slaughtered in the name of honour, their only fault being that they fell in love with someone who unfortunately hailed from a different caste or the same gotras of the same caste as theirs. Honour killings are usually carried out under the guidance of a Khap Panchayat to pay the price for assaulting the society by inter-caste or intra-gotra marriage.
We have demonstrated the damage caused by this menace in a short play named “A matter of honour” where a Sarpanch of a village panchayat who initially shares the beliefs of Khap Panchayat and honour killings but undergoes a change towards the end. It starts off in this way.
Suresh, a young man is in love with Ashwini, who alas belongs to the same “gotra” as his, and this happens in a society, where such kind of matrimony purports a nuptial bond between a brother and a sister. Here, we have Suresh conversing with Naren, his friend.
SCENE 1:
Suresh: They will never accept our relationship, and the only solution is to run away.
Naren: But, why do you need to run away?
Suresh: We belong to the same gotra. Do you know what that even means? That makes us brother and sister in front of the society!
Naren: Is the risk worth it? I’m really worried.
[They walk out of the room. But, Suresh’s sister Geeti overhears them.]
Geeti(to herself): Oh my god! What is my brother up to? I must tell Ma and Baba right now!
[Without taking a breath, she rushes to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chaurasia.]

SCENE 2:
Geeti: Ma! Baba! Bhaiyya is planning to run away with a girl of our gotra!!
Mr. Chaurasia: What? You must be mistaken.
Geeti: No Baba, I heard it with my own ears. We have to stop him right now.
Mrs. Chaurasia: My son! He can never do such a thing. He has always been high on his values.
Mr. Chaurasia : Whatever it is, we cannot let our son spoil our reputation.
Geeti: Baba, let’s hurry up.
[They rush to the next room to find their son packing his bags.]
Mr. Chaurasia: So it is true! You ARE running away! How dare you put your family to shame?
Mrs. Chaurasia: Beta, didn’t it hurt your conscience even once? Think about us and your little sister!
Suresh: Ma, Baba! I did not mean to hurt you, but she’s a very decent girl and most importantly I love her.
Mr. Chaurasia: Enough is enough! How do u even have the nerve to argue with us? Now only the Khap Panchayat can give us justice.
Suresh: No Baba.....Please listen....
[They confine him to a room and head off to the Khap Panchayat.]
SCENE 3:
Mrs. Chaurasia: A great misfortune has befallen upon us. Our family’s name is at stake.
Sarpanch: What’s wrong? Tell me!!
Mr. Chaurasia: How to begin? I’m so ashamed of my son’s deeds.
(They tell the Sarpanch what their son has been planning to do.)
Sarpanch: This has never happened in this village and as long as I am alive, I will not let it happen.
Villager 1: They should be banished from the village itself.
Villager 2: Technically, they are brother and sister, the girl should be made to tie a rakhi to the boy.
(Everybody nod in unison.)
Sarpanch: There is only one solution to this disgrace. They should be killed so that nobody dares to take such a heinous step again and defy the society.
Mr. & Mrs. Chaurasia: But we don’t even know who the girl is!
(Narrator: The Sarpanch sends policemen to find out the whereabouts of the girl in question.)

SCENE 4:
Policeman 1 (beating up Suresh): Who is the girl? Tell us.
Policeman 2: Or we’ll crack every bone in your bone in your body.
Suresh: I’ll die but won’t tell you who she is!
Policeman 1 to policeman 2: Search this place. We might find something.
(Narrator: After searching down Suresh’s room, they finally find a photograph of the girl and the boy but have a hard time believing their eyes.)

SCENE 5:
(The policemen rush to the Sarpanch’s house. The Sarpanch is having a good chat with his only daughter who is none other than Ashwini, Suresh’s lover.)
Policeman: We found the girl, Suresh’s lover, Sarpanchji. She is.... er.... she is........
Sarpanch: She is?
Policeman: She’s your daughter Sarpanchji.
Ashwini: Suresh, what has happened to him? Is he all right?
Sarpanch(shocked) : Ashwini!! How could you betray your father? Is that what I have taught you all these years?
Ashwini: Baba, I didn’t want to.... I just don’t know how....(cries)...
Sarpanch: Get out of my sight!
Ashwini: Baba I really love him! I can xplain....
Sarpanch: OUT!! NOW!!
SCENE 6:
(Narrator: The Sarpanch is in a dilemma. We all realise the intensity of some misfortune happening to somebody only if we are at the receiving end. Ashwini, being the Sarpanch’s only daughter whom he has raised singlehandedly, after her mother’s demise, she means the world to him. On the other hand, he cannot be a hypocrite in front of the society. But is his self-proclaimed ethics worth his little girl. It is now that he recognises the plght of others who have been through the same. It is now that he decides that the menace of honour killing should be curbed. He goes to his daughter who has been packing to leave the house.)
Sarpanch: Beti, I have committed a huge blunder by letting my emotions get the better of me. But now I realise how wrong I am.
Ashwini: Baba, I too am sorry for keeping things from you. I really love you and never wanted to hurt you. But Suresh is a decent guy and we are confident about our future together.
(Narrator: This is what had happened in a small village where the Sarpanch got rid of one the biggest current social evils. Hope this serves as a message to many.)

How much pain I had to go through to get my driving license -

I'm talking about the phase between when I arrived at the court and when I actually gave the test. It was torture, trust me. I arrived at sharp 12:30PM at the court as instructed by the person from Taraknath Driving School who taught me to drive all these days to find a huge crowd, waiting. I asked one of the instructors from the driving school, "When will our test start?", after half an hour of waiting in the sun. He told me that the people giving the test for the bike's license will start and finish off soon. So I waited & so did everyone else. After another half an hour, the bike test started & around 120 men and women with their respective bikes gave the test. Another hour passed and we stood, waiting. Right then, it started raining & right then they said the 'ladies' will give the car-driving test first. So, few of the the ladies jumped into the a common car which would be the vehicle on which our skills would be tested. And I, with one more girl, waited in the rain, thinking that it'll be our turn next, while the examiner disappeared somewhere.

When one and a half hour had passed and there was no sign of the examiner, off we all went to his office to protest only to find him peacefully having lunch while we were waiting for almost 4 hours. While others revolted, I went back to the venue of the exam and rushed to a Chaat stall with only ten bucks to spare and bought something and was on the verge of gobbling the whole thing up when the examiner called the 'ladies'(I had to throw one-fourth of the Chaat) and started asking them questions whose answers they had no clue about and the examiner failed most of them (including me) (Nobody had taught me or told me to learn HAND SIGNALS!). Actually, he was angry about the fact that we protested about standing for four hours in the sun and then in the rain while he ate lunch in his comfortable office.

In the meantime the men giving the test quickly learned the hand signals from an instructor and after a while the examiner stopped asking questions altogether and passed whoever could drive a bit. So again we went and requested him to let us give our tests and told him about how unfair he had been. Finally, he let us take the test which turned out to be nothing but pressing and releasing the accelerator and pretending to look backward when in reverse gear. Relieved, exhausted, wet, slightly embarrassed & hungry, we thanked him for giving us a second chance and finally left the court, pledging not to come back for a long time.

Well, I haven't got my license yet nor will I get it until mid-September! So until then I can't drive as they've taken away our learner's licenses as well. Let's just hope for the best.

This time for Africa

This was my first visit to Africa and I instantly fell in love with it (& no I didn't go to South Africa to watch the world cup, I went to Kenya for a safari). One word is enough to describe my trip- amazing! Well, it was not perfect (keeping in mind the mega-fight between me and my dad and the almost inedible food at Masai Mara and the broken aeroplane which we traveled in), but who pays much attention to these when you are lucky enough to see the Cheetah and the Leopard and when you can ogle at the king of the jungle for as long as you want to without fearing that he'll attack you.

During the trip, we got to see millions of animals, birds and flora. On the first day, in Nairobi, we went crazy when we set eyes upon the Malibu stork and crazier when we could feed the giraffes. Ben, our driver and tour guide assured us, the next day, that this was just the beginning. And truly it was. The next day was in Mount Kenya Safari Club which used to be a getaway for many well-known Hollywood stars. There, we saw two zebras and started clicking pictures vigorously, only to discover later that zebras were as common in Kenya as cows are in India. The third day, when we went to Lake Nakuru, I was bewildered to see what lay in front of me. Trillions of flamingos which had migrated earlier made the whole lake look pink, and there were several wild buffaloes(one of the big five), zebras, storks, cranes, ibises and others birds which enhanced the beauty of the surroundings of the lake. Later, that day we saw the rhinoceros(two-horned white) and a leopard (which made it three out of the big five). According to the guide this was the 'day of action' and rightly said so. Off we went to Masai Mara the next day and spent the next two days either in a modern tent or safariing on the 'Safari Trails' jeep. Excitement is what it was when we went in search for the other two among the Big Five and complete satisfaction is what it was when we got to see the whole silhouette of big-eared African elephants and the Lion (and his wives and kids), completing the quest for the big five. I also won't forget to mention the numerous hippos with their ears and nose sticking out of water that we saw or the ostriches, vultures, hyenas, jackals, hyraxes and various kinds of bovines(Wildebeests, Hartebeests, topis, elands, antelopes, gazelles, impalas, black bucks, etc.)

I love Africa's wildlife!

Photography

Photography is not just an interest, it is a skill. Not everyone is blessed with it. Fortunately, I am, to an extent and that is why I like it. Whenever I get hold of a camera, I feel like clicking away. Photographs not only capture objects, places and people; it captures thousand and one memories. It captures people’s souls. It creates nostalgia, after years of having been to a lovely place or having clicked a snap with your then best friend. That is why I like it even more. And the most important reason for me loving photography is that I’m not photogenic, so I like to click others’ photographs but don’t line it have my picture taken.

It’s become a hobby lately, since my parents bought me a new camera and I love it. Photo-editing may sound more interesting, but photography is more thrilling. Therefore I have vowed to keep clicking until and unless the camera stops functioning. Photography is my passion!

Tomato-basil fish curry

Ingredients:
4 piece any firm fish
1 and a half cup tomato puree
6-7 garlic cloves
1 onion(small)
4 basil leaves
1/2 tsp. carom seeds(ajwain)
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 chillies(slit into two)
salt and sugar to taste
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1/4 cup coriander leaves
water

Method:
Heat 1tbsp oil in a saucepan and fry the finely chopped garlic and onion till brown. Add the tomato puree and stir for a while. Add carom seeds, chillies, basil leaves, salt and sugar and mix well. Add about 1 cup of water and let the sauce boil for 6-7 minutes. Meanwhile, the fish should be marinated in lemon juice and salt for about 15minutes. Heat a tbsp. of oil in a frying pan and place the fish pieces after the pan in heated and fry till both sides are golden brown. Now, the fish pieces are placed in the sauce and cooked for 2-3minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with boiled rice.

Bon Appétit.

Driving Lessons

DAY 2: Yay! I'm learning to drive. In another 13days, I'll get my license. Now, I know what a clutch does and what the different gears mean! The clutch provides driving force to the driving mechanism. In other words, its just the antonym of a brake, which inhibits motion. And gears change the speed, magnitude, and direction of the power source.
Today was my second day and I did pretty well, I guess, because an auntie sitting on the backseat (who is a co-learner) was telling her son, "Yo baini le kya majja le gaari chalaaunchha." ("This girl drives so well.")...Hehe! Well, though it requires a lot of concentration while driving and I have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to go for the driving sessions, I'm loving it! In few days presumably I will be an acceptable car-driver! After all, all that's left is to master reverse driving :D

DAY 3: Yesterday was a Sunday and I had no idea that we don't have classes on Sundays. So, I went carrying my brand new polka-dotted umbrella at 6 in the morning to the pick-up place and stood like an idiot and came back after waiting for half an hour! Today, I was taught by a different instructor and hated him because I figured that he's the 'interfering' kind! He grabbed my hands many a time to show me how the gears are moved and I hated that! Plus, he interfered with the steering wheel. I didn't like driving today!

DAY 4 & 5: Day 4 and 5 were uneventful except the fact that I almost hit a bus on day 4.

DAY 6: Yay! The instructor praised me. He said, "You're driving well today!!"

DAY 7: Well, the session didn't go all that well because it was raining cats & dogs that day! To top it all, I got wet head to toe!

DAY 8: That stupid kid aged 14 whose is a co-learner hit a Bolero. Thankfully, nobody was hurt!