Looking forward..

In the blogging front, I had only one goal set up for the year 2017 and that is to keep the blog active as much as possible and to keep it focused on positive things. I am happy I did that. Personally I close this year with mixed feelings and I was introspecting a lot as the year came to an end. Out of pure chance, yesterday evening I joined my nephews and niece for a movie watching session. They were watching Kung fu panda 2 for the first time, I had watched it once before and did not care to join until the climax and thought of sitting with them for a minute finally and that is when I heard this dialogue. It was as if he was speaking directly to me...It was as if the Universe was sending me this message.

Po: Shen, you've gotta let go of that stuff from the past because it just doesn't matter! The only thing that matters is what you choose to be now.

This is what I will take from 2017.What I choose to be now!. No more fretting of the past, no more complaining. My conscious effort to improve will someday come to fruition and I hope in God. 

Thanks to every single person who visited this space this year, especially to those who kindly left a comment and said hello. Enjoy the new years eve and I will see you in 2018. Bye for now.

Books read this year

A quick post on books I had read this year. I had always been an avid reader. I try to read anything that is on print and that comes into my hand. I remember back when I was in school I used to read every bit of information in the package covers. Those days they mostly used only old newspapers for packaging groceries and once my mom had unpacked all of the groceries,she would hand over the interesting ones to us to read.I used to revel and feel very happy whenever we get packages done with the siruvar malar paper. And from there I moved on to weekly magazines and comics and then small novels and my reading habit slowly grew. I always make sure I have a book in my bag whenever I travel. As this year comes to an end, I started thinking what all I read this year. I had indeed bought many books this year but I could read only a very few.I opted to read leisurely and only a few pages at a time this year and read only in those late night hours when I couldn't catch some sleep.Normally it takes me only a week to complete a book. This year having taken it slow,here is the list of books I completed this year..

1.Agatha Christie:

Three act tragedy : A quick read and though I did not guess the murderer right away I had a hunch which turned out to be right at the end. 

Lord Edgware dies: A good mystery, liked the way Poirot solved it but felt a little dragging in the middle.A strong start and the finish made it a worthwhile read.

Hercule Poirot's Christmas : Guessed the suspect right away and proved right at the end. An average and a one time read,maybe because I had high hopes before I started reading it.I was hoping the novel will detail many festive scenes but it was very dry.

2.PG Wodehouse;

Right Ho Jeeves:  Jeeves decides to leave Bertie's employment.Bertie stays in a country house where he meets his ex fiancee whom he decided to help without Jeeves assistance. A hilarious read as usual from PGW.

The girl on the boat : I did not enjoy this one as much as I did the other PGW books I had so far. But still made it through till the end.Luckily this was an ebook and I did not spend any bucks buying it.

3.  A lot of TINTIN comics and TINKLE books : When I was searching for good ebooks I came across a blog which turned to be treasure trove for quality ebooks and one of the links had all the TINTIN comics in the ebook format. I was elated, it even had the very first TINTIN comic that ever got published. I downloaded them all and read one per month, so six done so far. In the book fair that happened in the city I was fortunate to find old tinkle books for a reasonable price. I had good time reading them through out this year.

4. The alchemist : I bought a tamil version of this Paulo Coelho novel and gave it to my mom. She enjoyed the book. I read it too even though I had read the english version loads of time before.

5. Sacred hearts : I wrote about it before in a post, listing it here for the count.

Thats all I could recall, I think I am missing one but the mere fact I couldn't remember it should say a lot about the the content of the book so its best to leave it,me thinks. So all in all , an average year for book reading but I had originally intended to not read anything at all this year, so I am happy with the average count.

Calvin and Hobbes

This will be the last of my Calvin posts for this year. Here is one that got published on a Christmas day (1988)..

It's Santa...

Published Dec 24,1987

Bird watching

Though I had spotted many new(i mean new to me) birds all through this Summer and clicked a quick snap too, I never had a chance to blog about them.So let me show some of the pics from my collection before this year ends.

First, the brahmini starlings. I had spotted quite a few of them this year. They were always flying together as a bunch(atleast seven in number). Here is a couple that were sat on the neighbor's water tank.

A yound Shikra sitting in the drumstick tree and this will mark my first sighting of a bird of prey in wild.

A black drango in the electrical pipeline. He is not shy,always on the lookout for worms and never gets scared of the camera.

A woodpecker that often comes to feast on the papayas growing in our neighbor's tree. So far I have spotted only a couple of them in my area.

Indian Robin.Though I have seen plenty of them around, it is very hard to photograph them. Very rarely they oblige with a non-shaky photo. This particular robin was sitting in a far away pole and thankfully did not notice me roaming around with the camera.

I might have a few more bird pictures lurking in some folders,its just a matter of finding and posting them.

Calvin's Snowmen

Published Dec 15,1995

If you are new to C&H and wondering who the ''she" here refers to, it is his mom.

Mushrooms

Last week I went on a long drive outside the city to visit a temple and feel really pleased that I did the trip coz for the first time in my life I saw a wild mushroom. I have seen plenty of small mushrooms coming up occasionally in the garden containers but never one growing in its natural habitat. I have earlier written in my garden blog about my fascination with mushroom foraging and how it is very difficult to go for edible mushroom hunting as I live in a place very remote to wilderness. 

Ha.. finally one of my wishes came true.These mushrooms were not found near our destination but actually on the way where we decided to stop for a minute to take rest. I stopped under a tamarind tree which had a patch of grassland in front and not far from my vehicle,were these mushrooms snuggling happily together. I took a few pictures and cut a few of them off their roots(hope thats what they are called) and bagged them to take home for proper investigation and possible identification. The mushroom had a mealy smell (means like a wet flour) so I guessed it could be one of the good ones.

Later on at home, after noting down the color,gill structure and the stem shape I went online searching its name and all pointed me to this ..Calocybe Gambosa. I tested the characteristics listed for this mushroom against the one I had and all checked okay.

1. A cap that is initially round, becoming irregular when bigger

2. A cap that is slightly inrolled at the edge

3. A stem that is stout and bulbous at the base(the latin word "gambosa" means "club-footed").

The most important things to check are ...

4. Flesh is firm and cream-coloured and does not change colour when cut - CHECK (did not change even after a day)

5. Gills that are cream, very crowded and "emarginate"  - CHECK (I had to search and find what does emarginate mean but it matched as well)

6. A white spore-print - CHECK (cut the cap off,lay it on a clean paper and leave it for 24 hours and observe the spore color and pattern)

7. The smell - very mealy and very distinctive - CHECK

Calocybe gambosas are said to be edible and a very tasty one at that and apparently much sought after by chefs. I did not try eating it nor will I do ever in the future without getting a mushroom expert's opinion on it first. The ones I took home, I have tossed them randomly in the garden and in the frontyard grass patch in the hope that the spores spread and the mycelia starts growing in this area.

I do not know if they will ever grow in this method but I can be sure whether they do or not in a year's time provided it rains plenty as well all through the year. Lot of ifs there but I just wish and hope these spores take life in the garden. I have also marked the place where I found it growing, so I will be surely checking it out the next time I go there.Even though I have said it twice above, I will say it again I am very pleased that I found this mushroom. I just like the simple pleasure of having a keen eye and the luck in spotting a good one at my very first opportunity.

Calvin and the Christmas tree

Its Friday evening and here I am with another one of my absolute favorites...Calvin's dad's sense of humor at its best.

Published 1989 Dec 4th...

At their best

Looks like the new arrivals to the container garden that are the rose plants are loving this rainy season.A single day's haul pictured below and I am actually wondering if I could make a bouquet and put them in the vase. The only problem is the plants are still very small and dont have that long stalks to stick out of the vase. Sooner or later I will try making one and see how that goes..

Pretty aren't they...

Supermoon 2017

It was raining continuously all through the week but somehow the clouds cleared on Sunday giving us a glorious view of the Super moon.

With the Karthigai Deepam lights sparkling everywhere and the moon glowing in the sky, it all made for a wonderful experience yesterday. I was able to take a few pictures of the moon with my mobile phone and all turned out to be a little hazy.This is the best of the bunch, nowhere compared to what I clicked last year. Well, something is better than nothing, right..

Visiting the native town pt 1

During my childhood days visiting my grandparents house for the Summer holidays had always been a regular fixture. Later on as we moved to the higher standard classes we could not visit the place often and the visiting gap slowly grew to months, a year and then many years.Very recently when I learnt my parents and my siblings were planning a trip to the native town to attend a function I felt I had to join. After-all this kind of journeying together as a family has become a once in a blue moon occasion these days and I do not want to miss one such opportunity.

We met many of our folks and relatives(whom I could not remember very well) and spent a day well chattering and pondering around. But the main highlight of the journey for me came the day after when my brother suggested we visit the vaaikaal(canal) nearby. When we were kids we had spent many a happy days and hours playing and bathing in the canal river. The canal was atleast a kilometer from my grandparents house and we used to walk the entire distance to reach the canal. Most often we would be accompanied by our grandfather and my parents will also be with us. All those memories came flushing in my mind at the mere mention of the canal and I never imagined I would have a chance again to go visit the river canal after all these years.

Later on I suspected the plan to visit the canal might get dropped so I borrowed a two wheeler from my uncle and with my sister accompanying me set out to see the canal.I did not go to the exact place where we used to jump in but knew the river is easily accessible at place called Moolavaaikal(nearby the NH) and drove to that area.I had heard the curve where the river flows at moolavaaikal is a beauty to look at but never imagined it would be this beautiful and scenic.

When we were there a couple of kids were fishing with a hook but could see they did not have any luck till then. We used to try fishing too when we were kids and sometimes we were successful too at catching some small fishes.The river still has many fishes teeming nearby the banks just like the olden days.

I was pining to get my legs drenched but we didn't as we weren't sure of the current of the river flow.Well I am happy at least I was able to see the river without any prior planning and surely hope another opportunity will arise in the future to visit the good old place and jump in.

So close ..

I wanted to do a quick post and when I was thinking about it realized I had not shared even a single Calvin post this year at all. My love for Calvin and Hobbes knows no bounds and I love especially the strips that detail Christmas time at the Calvin household.Fortunately I have all of the Calvin comic strips that ever got published (Calvin ran from 1985 till 1995) so it is easy to read a few whenever I wish. I am planning to post one Calvin strip each Friday all through December.

Today I pick year 1988 and the strip published on December 1st (29 years ago on the same day) ...Enjoy.

Oh poor Calvin..! 

So whats been happening in the garden...

We had a major hiccup in our gardening prospects this year. We renovated our property and painted the house in Summer but in the process lost many of the container plants and few others in the ground garden. Our garden is an organic one and we have absolutely not used any chemicals in the past three years. We guess the odour from the new paint did not go well with the plants and also suspect the workers did throw some of the washed paint water nearby the plants,we know not for sure but there were a lot of casualty this year.

We had around 15-20 rose plants but only around four survived,that too, only after many valiant efforts. For the past few months we have been picking out the dried plants and trying to nourish the soil again and re-start everything. We have bought new rose plants,around ten I guess and they are slowly settling in. We lost all our mint (both in the ground and the containers) and just recently I have planted a few stalks in a grow bag.

October is a good month to start growing methi/fenugreek and we just harvested our first batch. We had plenty of methi in just one harvest actually.

The lone chilli plant that survived is giving few chillies then and now.

The flat runner beans are only now coming up.We normally do it on Aadi amavasai day that comes in late July/early August but the seeds that we sowed on that day were all lost in our renovation activities. These three plants are the result of our fifth attempt to grow them and fingers crossed they start flowering by Jan at the least.

The rose plants that were newly planted are thriving thanks to the recent bout of rains.The jasmines are still blooming even though the summer is long over.

The part of the ground garden where we grow our snakeguard plants are ruined given the fact not one of twenty seeds that were planted over there in these three months took life. My very last attempt did work and now there is a tiny single lone sapling of snakeguard climbing up and we have procured a marigold plant to help in curing the soil off the paint chemicals. It is like almost starting over all again but we are enjoying the process nevertheless.

Salt dough ornaments again!

A year back around this time we made our first salt dough Santa. I half expected for the ornament to loose its color and vigor after a month or get damaged soon..I am surprised to say that the Santa has stayed in the same color and shape even almost a year after. We struck a magnet behind the Santa and he is currently adorning the cupboard door. 

Making the salt dough ornament was such a fun and happy activity, we decided to do it again sometime and did a batch of ornaments over the Summer holidays when my niece had her cousins visiting her. We followed the same method and let our imagination take flight and made many different toys..

A cute duck..my nephews drawing

A constellation set

Fruits

All were colored,dried and then stuck with a magnet behind and went straight to the cupboard door. 

Its been six months and am happy to say they are staying very pristine still.I can't stress enough how much fun we had while making these ornaments and they sure make a wow statement as a display piece. We made a few more different items other than the magnets but this post is long enough already :) ..I will show them in another post soon. Till then ..ciao.

For the first time ever..

... the weather men said that the Northeast monsoon shower will start that day and it did.I can't believe it.Never has the local meteorological department been this right with their predictions. Surely there is a first for everything.

The showers started a couple of days ago and it has been a very pleasant climate since then. Mild rain and cloudy sky are my favourite things and from what I heard this is also the first time the northeast monsoon rain is on time. Looks like it will go on to put up a good show and am loving it.. :).

Picture from the archives.. Plants enjoying the rain back in August.

The weather Gods..

..always have different plans than mine. Tonight the Orionids meteor shower will peak and it is supposed to be a good year for them and I had a plan in mind to wake up after midnight and witness the shower. But right from afternoon it has been cloudy and just now it became completely dark (and it is only 4'O clock now) and started raining. 

I doubt the clouds will clear .. there are too many cumulonimbus clouds currently adorning the sky and a heavy rainfall is predicted in parts of the country. Too bad for my plans .. but good for the garden plants, so I'll compromise and wait for the Leonids meteor shower.

                                       *my first search result on Orionids shower in you tube and really liked it..

Celebrations

I couldn't do a detailed post at this point of time but I will say this.. we had a glorious deepavali celebrations at our sweet home this year. We had so much fun playing, dancing, firing crackers and feasting. I am very grateful for this wonderful festival and for all the fun we had this past week. If time permits I wish to do a detailed post but for now I will stop with a snap of this double sangu chakram that fired up in the terrace.

Lets talk about books - part 2

Has it been a month since I last blogged?

I never intended for this gap.. this blog keeps me sane and one of my goals is to keep it active as much as possible.

So without delay, let me jump to show you the treasure I found in the book fair that happened in my city. As I mentioned in part 1 of this post, this is the second book festival I had attended this year. I was disappointed when I learnt of the venue, the place could hardly hold 40 stalls and when I reached the venue there were 35+ stalls all crammed together with hardly any space to move. It was nothing compared to the book festival that happened last year here. And it looked even minuscule compared to what I saw in Chennai.

On the other hand, the quality of the books that were present were far superior this year. There were varied topics available in each of the stalls and the english book stalls had excellent bargains that I still can't imagine finding such bargains anywhere else.

The below books were bought for 20 rupees each. Some of the authors aren't in my reading list but for 20 rupees I am ready to give them a try and the Jack Reacher novel is brand new and came with the plastic wrapper on.

My favourite Wodehouse was as usual little pricey even for a second hand book but I couldn't let it go. Alexander McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies detective novels were something I had been hunting for a long time and I was surprised to see them being sold (almost brand new) for just 20 rupees. I was able to get hold of only 2 books, the shopkeeper told me there were atleast ten books earlier.

Monte Cristo and the Jeffrey Archer are from another shop for 50 rupees. Monte Cristo is the first english novel I ever read(back in fourth standard) and this latest edition will go as a gift for a my sister.

We also found great deals on children books. A shop in particular sold children books in a bundle deal - 10 books for Rs100. Most books were brand new and had some rare books that could not be hunted even in higginbothams. We were astounded. We bought many pop-up books, disney tales,a couple of 'Where is Wally', Noddy, Postman Pat and good number of Twinkle books.

My intention is not to show off but to highlight the great deals on books in a book fair that somehow felt like not publicized properly.I often read about book fairs happening in various cities but there was no talk at all about it when it happened here and even most of the local media ignored covering it. Avid readers did turn up to take the haul but with proper notice and a good venue it would have been a great success.

Okay enough rant, let me finish off with a cute find. I got this brand new book for my niece for 25 rupees(the original price was 299).. It is about a cute little dog Spot and his activities on a Snowy day. I really like how he pops up through each page and..

..finally after a fun day's work sits in a cozy sofa for a cup of coffee.An instant hit with the kid.

Instant Pizza

I have been making my own version of an instant pizza often in the recent months.I was skeptical when I first made it but since then I have fallen for this pizza for good. The main pluses are that it takes very little time to make them and tastes just awesome.

There is only the assembly effort that is required to make this instant pizza and the idea for it dawned on me one day when I was really craving for pizza and finding a way to bypass making the pizza base from scratch.

There are many alternatives available in the market for making the pizza base - ready made pizza base, instant pizza base dough and so on - but I dislike the taste of many of them.There are also other recipes available online that include the use of  a bread slice as the base (toast pizzas) or stuffing the toppings in between burger bun and baking the pizzas. I liked the burger bun version but disliked the stuffing part.

So instead I decided to buy a burger bun, cut it into two halves and use each one as a base.

Lightly toast the bun for a minute. Then add a generous helping of tomato sauce, followed by mozzarella cheese, topped with sweet corn kernels and a sprinkle of herb mix.
Bake in the oven for 10 minus at 200 deg C and pizza ready.

Once ready the pizza base ie the burger bun will be crispy on the outside and very soft and toasty on the inside and together with the toppings it is an absolute delight to eat and the taste is on par with any authentic pizza.

I have tried many other topping choices too (mushroom,paneer,bell peppers) and all of them go well with the base.Dare not I forget to say, very inexpensive too :) .. Do try them if possible..

Lets talk about books - part 1

This year I had the privilege to attend not one but two book festivals in two different cities. The first one I attended was in early January when I had the opportunity to attend the Chennai book festival with my kin. It looked a mega event with hundred of stalls and thousand of people thronging around but we had very little time in our hands due to some other commitments. We spent just over 30 minutes but still I was able to buy a few good books.

The first stop was at a comic book stall and to my surprise there were so many comic books for a very nominal price. I bought two english comics - one for me and one for my new-to-the-book-reader's-club nephew. I snatched this tamil comic book randomly but later found out I had read the exact same book during my school days ( in my fourth standard summer vacation days to be exact).

This is one of the first few books I have ever read in my life and I was stunned to see I recalled this particular page after all these years.I had something similar to a Anton Ego's surprise moment when I saw this page..

I remembered this page so well because that was the exact moment I understood the story of the book and was surprised with myself on my book reading improvement.Wow, what were the chances I would be picking the exact same book after all these years!!! When I read the book again this time, I found it to be a dud but during those early days it looked like a mega adventure to me.

The next book stall I stopped at was a used book store that sold English novels for a flat rate of hundred rupees each. I was surprised to find a Le Carre there(A man most wanted) and picked it and also bought the Sacred hearts novel as I knew I had seen postive reviews of that book somewhere before. I read it shortly after.Interesting premise and good story telling made for a quick reading.

I asked my bro to pay for the books with a promise I will pay back later but I still haven't and he hasn't asked and now I am happily going to consider them gifts :)..

Apart from the above, I also had a surprise gift offer from my sister. She offered a New year gift of my choice and asked me to pick anything I liked from Amazon. I picked this Le Carre novel (The Spy who came in from the cold) which I had been wishing to own for a long long time now. It was on a moderate discount and arrived in the first week of Jan but still waiting to be read..I must sure read it before atleast the next new year.

A masterpiece

Last Saturday saw us getting up at 3.30 in the morning and going to the Srirangam temple. These days this is the norm to be followed if you wish to get a good darshan of the Lord even with an entrance fee. You can still try the expensive line anytime during the day (Rs 250) but I am willing to do the early morning darshan that gives a calm and serene and a divine experience for a modest entrance fee of 50 rupees with no hassles and rushing.

A few months back I was able to see the Lord this way with just above two hours waiting period. Last Saturday even though we were at the main inner shrine door at  around 5'o clock in the morning, we still could not go in further as the doors were closed and a board display said darshan was cancelled  for the entire day,with no prior announcements and any reasons mentioned.

We felt a little bad but we reminded ourselves of the popular saying in tamil 'You can see the Lord only when he calls you' . There is a consolation price though--the early day's start gave us an opportunity to roam around the vast premise of the temple freely.Almost half way around the thayar sannithi, we saw the west side door left opened and a sign directing towards the thousand pillars hall.Often we have visited the temple in the past and almost all those times we had never seen this door open. Instantly we decided to go in.

This is where the title of this post comes in. The moment we entered the lane through the west door and turned left we saw this big elephant statue in a distance.We were the only ones in that area and the sun had not yet risen.The light was dim and I had only my mobile phone which did not have a good flash effect but I still took a decent photo or two.

I have vague memories from a long long time ago,of sighting an elephant statue in a big temple but was not sure of exactly which temple. Recently I read an article in a well known magazine about the elephant statue present in Srirangam temple and showed it to my folks that that was the statue I had been talking about occasionally. I had seen it during a visit in my school days and recalled that it was quite big.

After reading the article I thought it would be impossible to locate the statue again in the vast temple premise after all these years and I was happy to spot it all by co-incidence in my second visit after reading about it.


Its astonishing to note that the elephant,the trainer and the patron are all of  life size. The sheer size of the elephant itself floored us.

Here is my father serving as a scale to show the statue size

The statue is atleast a thousand years old.It was made in the 10th century AD.The craftsmanship shown even in the minute designs is just so marvellous. The statue is present at the rear end of the thousand pillar hall and is part of a twin set. The other identical elephant statue is present within ten feet of the first one along with a trainer and a patron.

The elephant on the other side of the wall

There are notable damages visible in parts of this monument viz the broken trunks and the elephant rider's head missing in both the statues. What a stunning view it would have been had it been complete!! It was paining to see the damages on such a masterpiece.

We were there for atleast twenty minutes looking at it and a dozen or so people passed us in the meantime but many did not even turn in the direction of the elephants. A couple of people stopped to take a selfie and thats that.Not their mistake..This is how the society is these days and there is no action being taken by the authorites to protect or spread knowledge about our ancient architectural wealth.The often seen headlines that our statues of deities are being sold for hundreds of crores in the international market by thugs are the best example of how the temple authorities work.

At this point of time, those things are beyond my say.. but I am very happy I was able to view this masterpiece and make some happy memories that too at that Godly hour in the morning.This post is my two cents to spread awareness about this extraordinary masterpiece. Do try to see the statue when ever you get to visit Srirangam temple. I assure it will be worth your time and effort.

Silhouette sunrise

Only twice a year I could catch the Sun rising in this spot.
It is worth the effort to remember the weeks and catch the Sun at this place at least once, for it is a view to behold with a glorious silhouette of the roadside tamarind tree.. 

In company with clouds

People who knew me better,would know that the moment I step out anywhere outside I immediately look up to the skies. If I don't then I most certainly had an horrendous day.

Luckily the clouds don't come in single shape and size, so there is a sure chance of finding something new every time and that instantly cheers me.

These are the very interesting ones that I caught this June. 

Rainbow clouds just before dusk

Cirrus clouds during a mid morning

Rainbow in the clouds

Rains pouring from a distant cloud

Sun rays piercing through the dark clouds.It started raining a little while after

Thank God for them I will never know boredom. 

Do you watch the clouds..?

Indian Golden Oriole / Maanguil

My bird watching hobby started only a couple of years ago. I do not go to lengths to keep up this interesting hobby because of mainly time constraints and also I am not the most patient person you can find anytime and in bird watching patience is a must. And my limited knowledge related to bird stuff could add in a factor too. 

Thankfully I dont have to go to lengths to see different birds as there are a variety of local birds living in our neighborhood and just a pop into the house terrace will give me a good view of many of them when they stutter around for food.I think the hobby became more interesting when one of my google searches led me to a link containing the name of all the local birds of the state and a clear picture along with to identify them. Most times all you find in many websites is either the name or the picture of the bird and so it becomes difficult to identify a bird that you dont know.For this reason I considered the link perfect for me and had it downloaded immediately in case the link ever disappeared.

One problem that arose after the link discovery is that I started secretly wishing for a very particular bird to appear in nearby area. Earlier I was content with whatever bird came in sight and trying to take a picture but after going through the link I picked two of the 'color fullest' birds and wished to see them. One of them is the Indian Roller/Panangaadai which I soon found to be very common here and flying in thousands during the autumn evenings. There were literally thousands and all flew at a great height so making photographing very difficult and did not perch anywhere nearby but instead choosing to sit on the electric lines near the distant rail lines. I was happy to see them atleast though that too in that large numbers. 

The other one is the Indian Golden Oriole known as Maanguil in Tamil. This was the only yellow colored bird in the entire local bird DB and very pretty to look at and I thought what a fantastic sight it could be if it ever came here. A year went by since wishing so,with no sight of the yellow colored bird and then I came to the conclusion that it would never happen and that they don't live nearby. I generally do not go into lengths researching about the habitat of any bird and left the matter at that.

A couple of months ago one day I was watering the plants and suddenly heard a bird cry that was deeper than the croaking of a crow.I will put it bluntly- it was such a horrible voice.I was alarmed and then looked around and stunned to see the very bird I was looking for so long sitting in a tree in the opposite compound.Wow, who would have thought such a pretty bird would have the most horrible of voices? Also it was as if the Universe heard my wishes and sent this one to come and sit in a place just directly in front of me with a perfect view to photograph. I slowly inched back into the house to get my camera but when I was back out again it was long gone. I did not bother.I was just excited to see it atleast once in real life.Now knowing that it lived nearby,I had confidence that it would come again as the (drumstick) tree in which it had sat was infested with caterpillars and guessed that it had come for feasting on the worms.

I told my mom to keep an eye on the tree (or an ear exactly coz nobody would have heard that horrible a bird cry before- the voice will certainly alert anyone).More than a week went by and then it came again and sat in the same exact place.Perfect to view and photograph. This time again it was its voice that showed its presence first. I also liked the fact that it was not photophobic like the Kingfisher at all. The moment I took my camera to view,it gave a stern look at me then the lunch in front of it and then a look at my side again and decided its lunch was more important and ignored me completely. I took loads of pictures but it never bothered to look again at my side.

Okay that said, this is how the bird finished its lunch, after giving me that stern look.

You can see the big worm in front of it. The bird took it and flew to another small branch nearby giving me a much better view.

First it started beating the worm to death. First right ... 

then left ...

note the force with which it was doing the task. Pretty sure within seconds the worm was beaten to pulp..

and just as we were looking,with one gulp it swallowed the worm

After finishing the lunch, it sat still for sometime giving me a good view of its feathers. Guess it is a male bird from what the internet says on the feather pattern. Then off it flew and never came back. This happened in March and after that I have not seen it anywhere nearby. 

I am not sad in anyway that it had not come back as I had the best bird watching session I ever had and from such a vantage point. The tree had been cut too as it was obstructing the road.Thinking back, I think things happened as if to make my wish come true and if only the Universe listens to some of my other wishes soon I will be ever grateful, :) ...haha.

Don't you think how pretty the bird is .. If you enjoyed this post, there are some more bird watching posts that I have posted earlier - you can find them easily using the search feature.Also please do leave by your comments if you like the post or you have your own bird watching tales to share.