Do you know why I like those flowers above, those yellow ones standing in the mulch on the top of the page?
Sometime in 2010- I think it might have been Feb- there was a gigantic blizzard in Pittsburgh. It was supposedly among the worst. Snow many feet high, roads closed, no food in the stores- that kind of blizzard. I was pregnant with Ani at that time, maybe 7/8 months along, and desperate to finish up some work for the doctorate before maternity leave.
So the first day of the storm (snow storms are very quiet and mostly peaceful, none of the sound and light effects of a regular Indian thunderstorm), RK took skis and walked 3 miles from our apartment to his residency (he might have been on call). And the second day onwards, so did I. I trudged to lab, bundled up in a few dozen layers, grabbed on to roadside shrubs and hedges on the downhill parts where the road might be slippery, but made it up and down okay. One of the best things about snow is that when it is snowing, the temperature is actually not very cold. It's much better than once the snow has stopped and everything freezes over.
I have no clue what work I did in lab, but I recall amazingly clearly how beautiful it all was: there was snow of so many types on the road and on the trees and leaves: Soft, crunchy, icy, flaky- they were all there! It was completely white, the trees were bending down from the weight of the snow, there were kids sledding on the sideroads, no traffic whatsoever, and bright red cardinal birds on trees. It was like straight out of a postcard from the 1800s.
Even almost a decade later, I love remembering that pregnancy and those walks in the snow. I might have been waddling like a penguin, perhaps there was some danger of me slipping and falling and breaking something in the snow, but for the most part, what I remember is the calm white peace and the general happiness all around.
So anyway, those flowers up there were the first flowers of spring that I saw that year. They had popped out on the driveway of my favorite Indian restaurant and I took that pic sometime in May, after Ani was born.
---------------------*-------------------------*--------------------------*
Post script:
So, I had a vague recollection of writing a blog around this time and went hunting through the archives for it and found it. Clearly, my recollection now is rather drastically different from what I'd written then. I'm a bit startled by it, to be honest. How odd that what was seemingly so frustrating at that time should be so beautiful now!
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Pleased with myself and the world
The kids and I braved Spar Hypermarket on a Sunday evening (the very definition of hell on earth) and bought a white board, chess board and scrabble board.
Today, when playing scrabble with Ani, I won because of "YOD"(a Hebrew alphabet)... not just YOD by itself, but YOD on the Triple Word square.
*Feeling very smug*
Today, when playing scrabble with Ani, I won because of "YOD"(a Hebrew alphabet)... not just YOD by itself, but YOD on the Triple Word square.
*Feeling very smug*
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Remembrance and Relief
Last time I was at NCBS, a few months ago, I felt so anxious about some things that I had to get myself under control by staring into the koi pond and imagining I was a fish whose only concern in life was to flit gracefully through the water, munching on whatever koi munch on.
Once I'd finished with koi, I also wished with all my heart that I had a job like one of those M &B heroines: have you noticed that a majority of romance novel heroines have jobs like secretaries, hair dressers, cupcake bakers and food photographers? Very few M&B novels have:
- businesswomen (ok, some do, but they usually run family-owned businesses)
- physicians (always, ALWAYS, doctors are male; brilliant (naturally); wealthy (because all heroes in romance novels have to be... when I was younger, they had to be millionaires. Nowadays, who cares about a million here or there? We only care about billionaires); grumpy, because they are oh so tired and impatient with the antics of the vast brainless populace they have to tolerate (invariably they mistakenly categorize the heroine as brainless initially, but when their equally brilliant/ good looking/ wealthy colleague hits on the heroine, suddenly realize that hey, she's The One!); stupendously compassionate (there always HAS to be a sick kid/ baby/ old lady in these books- it is a rule); and exceedingly good-looking... show me one doctor who has acne spots, bad teeth and hair on his back....(oh, if he has hair on his back, you're in the wrong genre... you need to be in the fantasy section where the hero is actually a werewolf. You're welcome). Women are ALWAYS nurses in M &B.
- scientists (unless you count one book where there was a scientist who had the brains to invent a magical solution that could do something powerful... either suppress high emotions in mobs, or infertilize people for population control or some such thing, but didn't somehow realize that it could be abused in the wrong hands until gently pointed out by the hero- because, get this, she only saw the best in people. *Sigh*)
- policy analysts... well, to be honest, I don't know too many women in real life who are policy analysts, so... plus, imagine the poor author trying to figure out what kind of policy her creation should be analyzing.
- any field where she has to take decisions or disagree with a man's decision... maybe I'm being pessimistic here, but I have to be honest... can't recall a single M&B where a woman takes a decision that would affect anyone other than herself... unless you count the books where she has a baby (usually illegitimate and belonging to the hero, who somehow doesn't know that he has fathered a child), or a kid (if she's a widow).
Not all romances are M&Bs, of course. and there are thankfully many many romance novels that shatter these norms: G. A Aiken's books (usually have very bloodthirsty female warriors), most books by Susan Elizabeth Philips, all of Penny Reid's books, my forever go-to-authors Ilona Andrews (yes, it is authorS, not author, since it's a husband-wife duo), Sherry Thomas (who has many books with fantastic female protagonists: physician in the 1880s! Chinese warrior! Detective!) One of my current favorite series is the Wrexford-Sloane series by Andrea Penrose, although her series with chocolates is kind of awful.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so today when I was at NCBS and I happened to find myself back at the koi pond, I couldn't resist taking a picture to remind me that hey, I ought to celebrate the feeling of non-anxiousness!
Thank you, my beautiful Wednesday! I enjoyed you immensely!
Once I'd finished with koi, I also wished with all my heart that I had a job like one of those M &B heroines: have you noticed that a majority of romance novel heroines have jobs like secretaries, hair dressers, cupcake bakers and food photographers? Very few M&B novels have:
- businesswomen (ok, some do, but they usually run family-owned businesses)
- physicians (always, ALWAYS, doctors are male; brilliant (naturally); wealthy (because all heroes in romance novels have to be... when I was younger, they had to be millionaires. Nowadays, who cares about a million here or there? We only care about billionaires); grumpy, because they are oh so tired and impatient with the antics of the vast brainless populace they have to tolerate (invariably they mistakenly categorize the heroine as brainless initially, but when their equally brilliant/ good looking/ wealthy colleague hits on the heroine, suddenly realize that hey, she's The One!); stupendously compassionate (there always HAS to be a sick kid/ baby/ old lady in these books- it is a rule); and exceedingly good-looking... show me one doctor who has acne spots, bad teeth and hair on his back....(oh, if he has hair on his back, you're in the wrong genre... you need to be in the fantasy section where the hero is actually a werewolf. You're welcome). Women are ALWAYS nurses in M &B.
- scientists (unless you count one book where there was a scientist who had the brains to invent a magical solution that could do something powerful... either suppress high emotions in mobs, or infertilize people for population control or some such thing, but didn't somehow realize that it could be abused in the wrong hands until gently pointed out by the hero- because, get this, she only saw the best in people. *Sigh*)
- policy analysts... well, to be honest, I don't know too many women in real life who are policy analysts, so... plus, imagine the poor author trying to figure out what kind of policy her creation should be analyzing.
- any field where she has to take decisions or disagree with a man's decision... maybe I'm being pessimistic here, but I have to be honest... can't recall a single M&B where a woman takes a decision that would affect anyone other than herself... unless you count the books where she has a baby (usually illegitimate and belonging to the hero, who somehow doesn't know that he has fathered a child), or a kid (if she's a widow).
Not all romances are M&Bs, of course. and there are thankfully many many romance novels that shatter these norms: G. A Aiken's books (usually have very bloodthirsty female warriors), most books by Susan Elizabeth Philips, all of Penny Reid's books, my forever go-to-authors Ilona Andrews (yes, it is authorS, not author, since it's a husband-wife duo), Sherry Thomas (who has many books with fantastic female protagonists: physician in the 1880s! Chinese warrior! Detective!) One of my current favorite series is the Wrexford-Sloane series by Andrea Penrose, although her series with chocolates is kind of awful.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so today when I was at NCBS and I happened to find myself back at the koi pond, I couldn't resist taking a picture to remind me that hey, I ought to celebrate the feeling of non-anxiousness!
 |
| Staring down the koi pond from the 1st floor. Today, I'm glad I'm not a fish. |
Thank you, my beautiful Wednesday! I enjoyed you immensely!
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
My epiphany and thoughts about wealth
When I think about how wealthy people become wealthy, until recently, I used to think that presumably, their salaries were large enough or their businesses were successful enough that they were able to take back large sums of money as remuneration.
Today, in the course of some other conversation, I was struck with a brilliant thought: wealthy people become wealthy because they want to be wealthy.
This may seem obvious, but the critical point to note here is the agency: in the first paragraph, the idea is of some external force making it possible for one to bring back home large amounts of money. In the second, money comes because the person wills it. If the person wills it strongly enough, they will do whatever is needed to get that money.
So my next questions for myself are: how much money do I really want? And just as importantly, Why?
When I ponder this question, my first instinct is to say, I need enough money for day to day expenses, a little bit put aside for the kids, some for a rainy day.
I have been watching Greenleaf on Netflix, and as the good folks on that show might say, Why limit the Lord's largesse with your small thoughts?
So, why limit myself? And why is my first instinct to shy away from wanting a huge ultra-large load of money that will make me hyper-rich?
Do I want to be hyper-rich? Again, why?
This is a deeper question than anything I've asked myself. Money without a purpose, or gathering money for its own sake, is a bit like eating without a purpose: ultimately, you will fall sick. You need to make money towards something, and at the same time, ensure that it doesn't just keep collecting in one place.
These questions are so difficult that the urge to quickly open a romance novel and lose myself in its pages is very strong...
Today, in the course of some other conversation, I was struck with a brilliant thought: wealthy people become wealthy because they want to be wealthy.
This may seem obvious, but the critical point to note here is the agency: in the first paragraph, the idea is of some external force making it possible for one to bring back home large amounts of money. In the second, money comes because the person wills it. If the person wills it strongly enough, they will do whatever is needed to get that money.
So my next questions for myself are: how much money do I really want? And just as importantly, Why?
When I ponder this question, my first instinct is to say, I need enough money for day to day expenses, a little bit put aside for the kids, some for a rainy day.
I have been watching Greenleaf on Netflix, and as the good folks on that show might say, Why limit the Lord's largesse with your small thoughts?
So, why limit myself? And why is my first instinct to shy away from wanting a huge ultra-large load of money that will make me hyper-rich?
Do I want to be hyper-rich? Again, why?
This is a deeper question than anything I've asked myself. Money without a purpose, or gathering money for its own sake, is a bit like eating without a purpose: ultimately, you will fall sick. You need to make money towards something, and at the same time, ensure that it doesn't just keep collecting in one place.
These questions are so difficult that the urge to quickly open a romance novel and lose myself in its pages is very strong...
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Soya Chunk
You are ugly
You taste of moist cardboard
Your feel like wet wadded tissue paper
Yet millions faithfully masticate you
In the eternal quest for your
Fabled protein-ness.
You taste of moist cardboard
Your feel like wet wadded tissue paper
Yet millions faithfully masticate you
In the eternal quest for your
Fabled protein-ness.
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Yuksom
Yuksom Yuksom!
Others may blacken,
Call you small and boring
But you showed me colors I cannot even imagine
You showed me beauty I could only dream of
Where else in the world could I have so easily seen
A sibia, a leiothrix and a red-billed chough?
I am not sure if I can enumerate all the things we saw in Yuksom. There was just too much beauty- the place, the people, the birds, the trees.
Yuksom has one main road, called the Yuksom Bazaar Road, which is where all the shared cabs/ private vehicles etc stop. Most home stays, hotels are also right there. It's not easy getting to Yuksom from Gangtok- you either need time or money. Since we were short on the former, we had to ditch our low-budget travel so far and invest some money into getting us a car that could drive down to Yuksom. It cost us about Rs. 6000 (including a tip for the driver), but looking back, it was worth it because a) the main roads were all crowded and this driver took us through the back roads of his village so we could circumvent the traffic b) Most roads closer to Yuksom were actually dirt paths, since the rains had caused landslides and there was some significant damage. It still didn't stop various vehicles from plying to and from Yuksom- one just needed money and many many prayers.
A lot of our activities in Yuksom consisted of experiencing the culture, the food and the place. I don't have too many pictures, but really rich memories.
We stayed at a place called the Yak Hotel and ate all our meals at The Traditional Inn (which is where we got all the alcohol shown above). My favorite food item has to be the Tibetan bread with yak cheese. So good!
We trekked a lot while successfully avoiding the large parties of trekkers going up to Dzongri or Geocha Pass. We meant to go a couple of kilometers up the Dzongri way, but Ani was our line leader (as he likes to call himself) and he missed a turn and we ended up going to Dubdi monastry- the oldest monastry in Sikkim, built in the 1700s.
At this point of time, does it really surprise anyone that the stray kittens in the temple were temporarily adopted by the kids?
One of the best successes of this trip was how Durga changed her attitude to leeches. The first day in Fambonglho, she had thrown a major fit when she saw them. She, in fact, refused to come trekking the next day because she was so scared. But with sufficient counseling and love, and most importantly, a plan, she overcame her utter petrification really well.
This was the plan:
a) Have salt at hand at all times to control leeches- A baseline way of getting control over the situation. Ani was our solver of this problem.
b) If one understands the enemy, one is less afraid of what might happen. Towards this, she drew up a series of questions for herself. This was her survey instrument:
RK was so impressed with this initial instrument that he bought her a book at the bazaar for her to note down all her questions and answers after her research.
c) Finally, to empower herself, she appointed herself the remover of leeches. So anytime any leech would try to get into our shoes and socks, she would get the salt, sprinkle it liberally everywhere and carefully remove the leech with a stick.
So, I must say, we are all really impressed with her.
A few days later, once we came back to civilization, I learned that apparently salt isn't to be used for leeches and it's better to flick them away with the pad of one's nails. But the sheer negative psycological effect of leeches and the definitively empowering effect of salt is significant and I, for one, will not stop using salt.
Ok, so now for some of the most beautiful birds we saw in and around Yuksom:
The minla, sibia and leiothrix are all supposed to be closely related. They don't look it, do they?
We managed to spot some warblers! For those of you who are interested in warblers, I've blogged about the difficulties in spotting or identifying these birds here and here.
Of the possibly dozen different warblers we must have glimpsed in Yuksom, we identified 3:
See the minute differences between them? They are all grey and yellow or a yellowish-green. To identify them requires standing still for long periods of time, tracking them without losing them, and making careful notes on exactly what's on the head and near the eyes, and what the tail might be like and what the beak might be like and so on. Most times, what results is a bad crick in the neck and nothing much to show for it.
Three black eagles followed us during our trek to Dubdi- magnificent birds.
And Ani tracked and spotted a green magpie (an endangered bird in the NE)
We trekked back to Yuksom just in time for a thunderous storm began just as we reached our favorite inn. Amidst the darkening sky, surrounded by clouds, we had masala chai and hot lemon-ginger-honey water. Right next to us were numerous trekkers who had just managed to get back from a week-long trek to Goechla Pass and who informed us that it had been raining on the path almost every single day at the higher altitudes and it had been a huge disappointment to them that they had spent so much money only get literally rained upon.
For us, though, it was a fantastic trip.
One thing to remember for next time: carry plenty of cash, for most of W.Sikkim does not have functional ATMs and any other source of payment is not accepted.
Others may blacken,
Call you small and boring
But you showed me colors I cannot even imagine
You showed me beauty I could only dream of
Where else in the world could I have so easily seen
A sibia, a leiothrix and a red-billed chough?
I am not sure if I can enumerate all the things we saw in Yuksom. There was just too much beauty- the place, the people, the birds, the trees.
Yuksom has one main road, called the Yuksom Bazaar Road, which is where all the shared cabs/ private vehicles etc stop. Most home stays, hotels are also right there. It's not easy getting to Yuksom from Gangtok- you either need time or money. Since we were short on the former, we had to ditch our low-budget travel so far and invest some money into getting us a car that could drive down to Yuksom. It cost us about Rs. 6000 (including a tip for the driver), but looking back, it was worth it because a) the main roads were all crowded and this driver took us through the back roads of his village so we could circumvent the traffic b) Most roads closer to Yuksom were actually dirt paths, since the rains had caused landslides and there was some significant damage. It still didn't stop various vehicles from plying to and from Yuksom- one just needed money and many many prayers.
 |
| The great Buddha at Rabongla on the way to Yuksom |
 |
| Phamrong Falls. There's a nice trekking trail from here to Yuksom. We need to do it next time! |
 |
| Because Sikkim is so mountainous, every time it rains, it gets a waterfall. |
 |
| Tea at Yuksom. Yum yum! |
 |
| The trail to the birds |
 |
| Millet alcohol. Mild and warmth-giving. |
 |
| Organic rhododendron wine... amazing stuff, but more like juice! |
A lot of our activities in Yuksom consisted of experiencing the culture, the food and the place. I don't have too many pictures, but really rich memories.
We stayed at a place called the Yak Hotel and ate all our meals at The Traditional Inn (which is where we got all the alcohol shown above). My favorite food item has to be the Tibetan bread with yak cheese. So good!
We trekked a lot while successfully avoiding the large parties of trekkers going up to Dzongri or Geocha Pass. We meant to go a couple of kilometers up the Dzongri way, but Ani was our line leader (as he likes to call himself) and he missed a turn and we ended up going to Dubdi monastry- the oldest monastry in Sikkim, built in the 1700s.
 |
| The entrance to Kanchenjunga National Park perimeter. |
 |
| Glades like this are great for birdwatching |
 |
| Yaks! |
 |
| Durga makes notes of leeches and insects she's seen |
 |
| More wildflowers! |
 |
| Dubdi Monastry, Yuksom. Built 1701 |
 |
At this point of time, does it really surprise anyone that the stray kittens in the temple were temporarily adopted by the kids?
One of the best successes of this trip was how Durga changed her attitude to leeches. The first day in Fambonglho, she had thrown a major fit when she saw them. She, in fact, refused to come trekking the next day because she was so scared. But with sufficient counseling and love, and most importantly, a plan, she overcame her utter petrification really well.
This was the plan:
a) Have salt at hand at all times to control leeches- A baseline way of getting control over the situation. Ani was our solver of this problem.
b) If one understands the enemy, one is less afraid of what might happen. Towards this, she drew up a series of questions for herself. This was her survey instrument:
 |
| Where are leeches found? On the pavement, on trees, on leaves, on stones, in water, on her shoes, on fruits or on her ear muffs. She would put a tick mark wherever she found them |
RK was so impressed with this initial instrument that he bought her a book at the bazaar for her to note down all her questions and answers after her research.
 |
| Durga's research notebook :) |
c) Finally, to empower herself, she appointed herself the remover of leeches. So anytime any leech would try to get into our shoes and socks, she would get the salt, sprinkle it liberally everywhere and carefully remove the leech with a stick.
So, I must say, we are all really impressed with her.
A few days later, once we came back to civilization, I learned that apparently salt isn't to be used for leeches and it's better to flick them away with the pad of one's nails. But the sheer negative psycological effect of leeches and the definitively empowering effect of salt is significant and I, for one, will not stop using salt.
Ok, so now for some of the most beautiful birds we saw in and around Yuksom:
 |
| Rufous sibia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Rufous_Sibia_from_Sikkim,_India.jpg |
 |
| The red-tailed minla https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:RED-tailed_Minla.jpg |
 |
| Red billed leiothrix |
 |
| Yellow-throated fulvetta https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Yellow-throated_Fulvetta_-_Eaglenest_-_Arunachal_Pradesh_-_India_FJ0A0417_(34232515961).jpg |
 |
| Blue winged minla https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue-winged_Minla_(34365059820).jpg |
We managed to spot some warblers! For those of you who are interested in warblers, I've blogged about the difficulties in spotting or identifying these birds here and here.
Of the possibly dozen different warblers we must have glimpsed in Yuksom, we identified 3:
 |
| Ashy throated warbler https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Ashy-throated_Warbler_-_Bhutan_S4E8811_(19079890158).jpg |
 |
| Grey cheeked warbler https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grey-cheeked_Warbler_Khangchendzonga_National_Park_West_Sikkim_India_18.02.2016.jpg |
 |
| Grey hooded warbler https://nv.wikipedia.org/wiki/E%CA%BCelyaa%C3%ADg%C3%AD%C3%AD:The_grey-hooded_warbler_at_Deoriatal.jpg |
Three black eagles followed us during our trek to Dubdi- magnificent birds.
And Ani tracked and spotted a green magpie (an endangered bird in the NE)
 |
| Hello, you striking creature! https://pixabay.com/photos/green-magpie-magpie-3160688/ |
For us, though, it was a fantastic trip.
One thing to remember for next time: carry plenty of cash, for most of W.Sikkim does not have functional ATMs and any other source of payment is not accepted.
Friday, October 18, 2019
Grace
I hear you but I don't see you
An exercise in frustration
Gazing up at treetops
Straining for any sign of motion
A flicker here; a flash there
Under the broad leaved canopy
Behind the thin bamboo criss-crossing
Between the zebra-ed branches
You are a master at hiding
Leeches slither into my socks
Mosquitoes sting through the cloth
While I stare into the woods
Gazing up at treetops
I hear you, but I just cannot see you.
Yet I can't stop myself from pausing
Every time you call out clear
Nor the leap of my heart
When I think you are near
When you permit me
A glimpse of you
Your colors, your grace, your antics
I hear you, and how thrilled I am to see you!
Truly, going out into the nature and turning off one's phone makes one think differently. I am not particularly a poem-loving person, but somehow, this one above came out of some depth of my mind I am not even aware of.
An exercise in frustration
Gazing up at treetops
Straining for any sign of motion
A flicker here; a flash there
Under the broad leaved canopy
Behind the thin bamboo criss-crossing
Between the zebra-ed branches
You are a master at hiding
Leeches slither into my socks
Mosquitoes sting through the cloth
While I stare into the woods
Gazing up at treetops
I hear you, but I just cannot see you.
Yet I can't stop myself from pausing
Every time you call out clear
Nor the leap of my heart
When I think you are near
When you permit me
A glimpse of you
Your colors, your grace, your antics
I hear you, and how thrilled I am to see you!
Truly, going out into the nature and turning off one's phone makes one think differently. I am not particularly a poem-loving person, but somehow, this one above came out of some depth of my mind I am not even aware of.
Adventures in Gangtok
Sikkim is truly green and clean. It's full of mountains, waterfalls, trees and teeming with bird, insect and plant life.
I have mentioned many many times that my greatest desire would be to wake up and go to work in a place that isn't full of garbage and plastic and that I long for greenery. Maybe I should move to Sikkim.
Gangtok is a nice place- it's crowded and has narrow roads so there are frequently traffic jams (which kind of kills the mood a bit), but the city is quaint, friendly and has a distinctive character to itself. The whole city is carved out of the faces of mountains, so the roads can be quite steep and many times border along precipices. You might be traveling along a crowded section and then you take a turn and all of a sudden, there is nothing in front of you except for clouds, steep drops and cliff sides. I think it would be quite difficult to drink and drive here... not that I would drink and drive anywhere else.
Only tourists drive everywhere though. The locals walk. And climb. A LOT! The walking paths are sometimes by the road, but many times, you will find stairs cut along the mountain face to hasten your way up or down. These stairs can be extremely useful, if they don't lead to dead ends or to someone's house.
I was happy to see some new species of birds in my early morning walk down the street to the District Court House.
The Fambonglho Wildlife Sanctuary is about half an hour or so from Gangtok.The WLS is right next to the GB Pant Himalayan Research Center.
A lot of the houses there have their own little gardens and cows. It was very idyllic.
Fambonglho was also the first time we saw leeches crawling everywhere- they got on our shoes and were impossible to flick away. Durga had a traumatic experience the first time she saw one get on her shoes and she screamed so loud and long that a few people from a neighboring village came by to see what had happened.
We didn't have salt with us and so had to proceed rather cautiously through the WLS. Durga at some point refused to walk and insisted on being carried so she wouldn't get the leeches on herself.
By the time we walked for an hour or so, we could start hearing the birds, but very frustratingly, they remained invisible for the most part. We would catch a glimpse of a bird flying here or there, but they would be completely hidden amongst the thick foliage by the time we focussed the binoculars.
The one bird that I managed to see was the white-tailed nuthatch. Don't get me wrong- it's not like I actually was able to observe this little thing properly while it showed itself off to me. It flew by in a streak and what I did see was the mustard underbelly and the dark blue/black back. And I could estimate the relative size. Based on this, I assume it was the white-tailed nuthatch, because that kind of mustard isn't seen elsewhere in the bird book. So given these disclaimers, I present the white-tailed nuthatch to you:
RK and Ani spotted a striated laughingthrush during the time I was consoling Durga after her leech scare:
During our trek in Fambonglho, we met Mr. Nikhil, a zoologist from the Zoological Survey of India, who was studying moths from the Nolidae family in this region. Why the interest in Nolidae, you may ask. Apparently, they are sort of indicators for the richness and biodiversity of the ecosystem as a whole. The last moth survey done in this region was decades ago in the 1960s (?) and had not included the Nolidae species. So there is an urgent need for finding out some sort of baseline as to just how many and what types of Nolidae exist in this part of the NE Himalayas.
Nikhil was super-cool: he answered dozens of questions, he was so passionate about conservation (he almost cried when describing the reasons why the Indian bustard is almost extinct) and most excitingly, when RK asked him if he could observe his work, agreed instantly. Nikhil's work takes place in the night. He sets up a light in the middle of a pitch dark forest and a white screen. Hundreds of insects fall on the screen in their attempt to get to the light and then he picks the Nolidae moths then, carefully kills (poor moths!) them, and processes them just right so taxidermic classification can be made.
Nikhil goes from forest to forest doing this work and he finds other central govt institutes where he can dump his luggage, get food etc. At night, he says, he doesn't feel scared of most large animals: tigers, leopards etc. leave him alone. But the animal that scares him the most is the bear, because it tends to be very aggressive. In fact, one of his seniors was mauled and almost killed by a bear.
While RK spent the night collecting moths, the kids and I enjoyed Gangtok central market. Guess what's amazing about it? No traffic! All motor vehicles are prohibited from entering it. Instead, it resembles some Parisian or Florencian street, with fountains, musicians, bubble blowers etc. My mental habits being what they are, it took me a long time to comfortably walk in the middle of the street and not huddle to the sides.
The next day, we went back to GB Pant, picked up RK and headed to Yuksom, the original and oldest capital of Sikkim and one of the southern most regions of the Kanchenjunga National Park.
I have mentioned many many times that my greatest desire would be to wake up and go to work in a place that isn't full of garbage and plastic and that I long for greenery. Maybe I should move to Sikkim.
Gangtok is a nice place- it's crowded and has narrow roads so there are frequently traffic jams (which kind of kills the mood a bit), but the city is quaint, friendly and has a distinctive character to itself. The whole city is carved out of the faces of mountains, so the roads can be quite steep and many times border along precipices. You might be traveling along a crowded section and then you take a turn and all of a sudden, there is nothing in front of you except for clouds, steep drops and cliff sides. I think it would be quite difficult to drink and drive here... not that I would drink and drive anywhere else.
Only tourists drive everywhere though. The locals walk. And climb. A LOT! The walking paths are sometimes by the road, but many times, you will find stairs cut along the mountain face to hasten your way up or down. These stairs can be extremely useful, if they don't lead to dead ends or to someone's house.
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| View from the hotel window |
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| View from a street corner |
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| Morning sunlight filters down some stairs between houses along the mountain face |
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| A pretty moth in our hotel room |
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| Courtesy: Uajith https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_black-lored_tit.jpg |
This is the Indian black-lored tit. I'm always a bit conscious when I use that word. Tit means "little" in Anglo Saxon English and no doubt, when birdwatchers in the 19th and 20th century called this bird so, they meant it with affection and without any fore knowledge on what tits would come to mean by the 21st.
But, no matter their name, these birds are awfully cute. Slightly larger than a sparrow, I first spotted them on the sunshade of a multi-storey building. They are not very shy and in fact call quite loudly.
The other odd thing I saw in Gangtok was the type of sparrow found there. You find tree sparrows in abundance, not house sparrows. What's the difference, you ask? Tree sparrows have a reddish tinge to their hair on top of their head, making the whole sparrow look just a tad bit redder. House sparrows have a mostly grey-ish hair. In behaviour, noise levels etc., tree sparrows are just about the same as house sparrows.
The Fambonglho Wildlife Sanctuary is about half an hour or so from Gangtok.The WLS is right next to the GB Pant Himalayan Research Center.
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| Wildflowers like these grow by nearly every house. So beautiful! |
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| Durga on her quest to befriend every dog and cat encountered on her way. |
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| Look at Ani reading his bird book while petting the cat! |
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| Where we went |
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| Checking out snails! |
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| Utterly and absolutely impenetrable forest on either side of the road |
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| A clearing in the middle of the forest |
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| Cloud-covered mountains from Fambonglho |
The forests in Fam were incredibly thick- there was no way one could penetrate it- you would be covered in leeches, or in mosquitoes, and perhaps even snakes. There is a narrow, very rocky road leading inside Fam. It's not very well-known, so there are no sounds of civilization, let alone people, on the road. It was a bit frightening, to be honest. The only thing we could hear were various insects, many of which would fall silent as we passed the trees upon which they were, so there was a constant feeling of being watched. I really felt like we were in some version of Fanghorn Forest.
John Claude White, in his book Sikhim and Bhutan: Twenty One Years on the North-East Frontier 1887-1908 had described his efforts to cut through the forests of Sikkim while trying to build roads. He said the forests were stunningly beautiful but the leaves of each plant would be fringed with leeches which would start swaying as soon as they detected any movement. It was apparently very common to get multiple leeches stuck on you and he also said that it wasn't unheard of someone bleeding to death in the forest floor in case they happened to have an injury that prevented their swift passage out of the forest.
We didn't have salt with us and so had to proceed rather cautiously through the WLS. Durga at some point refused to walk and insisted on being carried so she wouldn't get the leeches on herself.
By the time we walked for an hour or so, we could start hearing the birds, but very frustratingly, they remained invisible for the most part. We would catch a glimpse of a bird flying here or there, but they would be completely hidden amongst the thick foliage by the time we focussed the binoculars.
The one bird that I managed to see was the white-tailed nuthatch. Don't get me wrong- it's not like I actually was able to observe this little thing properly while it showed itself off to me. It flew by in a streak and what I did see was the mustard underbelly and the dark blue/black back. And I could estimate the relative size. Based on this, I assume it was the white-tailed nuthatch, because that kind of mustard isn't seen elsewhere in the bird book. So given these disclaimers, I present the white-tailed nuthatch to you:
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| The White-tailed Nuthatch http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?Bird_ID=2624&Bird_Image_ID=87719&p=33 |
RK and Ani spotted a striated laughingthrush during the time I was consoling Durga after her leech scare:
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| Striated laughingthrush https://www.hbw.com/ibc/photo/striated-laughingthrush-grammatoptila-striata/striated-laughingthrush |
During our trek in Fambonglho, we met Mr. Nikhil, a zoologist from the Zoological Survey of India, who was studying moths from the Nolidae family in this region. Why the interest in Nolidae, you may ask. Apparently, they are sort of indicators for the richness and biodiversity of the ecosystem as a whole. The last moth survey done in this region was decades ago in the 1960s (?) and had not included the Nolidae species. So there is an urgent need for finding out some sort of baseline as to just how many and what types of Nolidae exist in this part of the NE Himalayas.
Nikhil was super-cool: he answered dozens of questions, he was so passionate about conservation (he almost cried when describing the reasons why the Indian bustard is almost extinct) and most excitingly, when RK asked him if he could observe his work, agreed instantly. Nikhil's work takes place in the night. He sets up a light in the middle of a pitch dark forest and a white screen. Hundreds of insects fall on the screen in their attempt to get to the light and then he picks the Nolidae moths then, carefully kills (poor moths!) them, and processes them just right so taxidermic classification can be made.
Nikhil goes from forest to forest doing this work and he finds other central govt institutes where he can dump his luggage, get food etc. At night, he says, he doesn't feel scared of most large animals: tigers, leopards etc. leave him alone. But the animal that scares him the most is the bear, because it tends to be very aggressive. In fact, one of his seniors was mauled and almost killed by a bear.
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| RK and Nikhil at the GB Pant Institute |
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| The intrepid duo on their moth quest |
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| Moth collection at a particular time point |
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| Every couple of hours, Nikhil would check the moth population and pick up any new moths that he hadn't already |
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| Surprisingly beautiful, no? |
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| Just check out the diversity! |
While RK spent the night collecting moths, the kids and I enjoyed Gangtok central market. Guess what's amazing about it? No traffic! All motor vehicles are prohibited from entering it. Instead, it resembles some Parisian or Florencian street, with fountains, musicians, bubble blowers etc. My mental habits being what they are, it took me a long time to comfortably walk in the middle of the street and not huddle to the sides.
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| Gangtok market rocks! http://shahtour.com/blogs/2017/01/07/15-things-you-must-want-to-buy-while-travelling-in-gangtok/ |
The next day, we went back to GB Pant, picked up RK and headed to Yuksom, the original and oldest capital of Sikkim and one of the southern most regions of the Kanchenjunga National Park.
Sikkim at last!
At last, 5 days after we left Bangalore, we reached Gangtok.
To get here, we took a shared cab from Siliguri to Darjeeling and another from there to Gangtok. In Darjeeling, we were supposed to take a toy train ride in the steam engine version of the Himalayan Railway (there is also a diesel version). After waiting for more than 2 hours in the railway station and watching Durga make friends with every stray dog in sight, we were told that the train was cancelled. So instead of waiting for another one, we decided to ditch the whole thing and leave for Gangtok.
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| Darjeeling is entirely covered in fog |
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| Stray dogs in Darjeeling are cute! |
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| The river Teesta, near Kalimpong, about 3 hours from Darjeeling |
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| Gangtok! |
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