Wind Travel

You learn so many new things when you do a photoblog. I found these things on the ground, on my way home and brought them home and clicked pictures.

 The next step was to find out what these things were called. Since I click a lot of insects,my mother thought these were some insects, at first. A Google image search didn't yield any useful information.

Till we posted it on Facebook, and got into an informative chat with our friend Sangeeta Khanna who is a veritable practicing plant encyclopedia herself. Turns out that this is the dispersing seed of the Calotropis plant, called Crown Flower in English, Madar in Hindi, as well as Rui, or Aak. (Another FB friend Anand Amembal also identified it for us , as the same plant ).   And the various parts of this Rui plant are of great medicinal value , in healing wounds, and migraines and many more things.

The seeds of this plant are dispersed by the wind. And basically, I interfered with the process. :-(

(Thank you Sangeeta Khanna and Anand Amembal)

 Clicked on my Canon EOS 1100D

Burning Away The Evil.

Holi, the spring harvest festival, has many origins and meanings.  It signifies, the advent of spring and the end of winter.  It welcomes the season of color. It is also associated with the burning away of evils, and has several stories associated with it, relating to the Demoness Holika, who had a boon that made her fireproof;  she grabbed her Godfearing nephew and sat with him on the pyre, only to get burned to a crisp herself, while he survived it all.   

We celebrate Holi by having a symbolic burning  in our building compound.  And we use only dried deadwood and branches already fallen to the ground. No trees are ravaged. Holi is also celebrated by playing with colors. (Rangapanchami).

 Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the Indian lunar month Phalguna .

Clicked on my Canon EOS 1100D

Burn !

Burn !

The full moon watches it all through the trees and flying cinders.

These are actually the emanating sparks in long exposure....

     At the end , a fire slowly dying down,  and the burnt wood in its skeletal glory .

Smooth as silk....

The trouble with buying things in supermarkets  versus  your friendly neighboring vegetable vendor, is that you end up buying all kinds of stuff packed well, but with no life, as such ... 

Saw some baby corn in the local daily market yesterday . Along with some broccoli. Bought some to do a stir fry with greens. 

When I peeled the baby corn covers, these tresses of corn silk spilled out.  Real golden silk. 

Clicked with my  Canon  EOS 1100D...

 

DUCKS IN THE TIME OF ELECTIONS....

It was election season in Mumbai recently.

 And I am sure the ducks housed in our guest house premises by the lakeside and pondside, were, as they say, "seized" of the matter.

 One kept hearing about election commissioners, codes of conduct, candidates following it, some defying it, and so on. 

It even affected the ducks.

 Clicked on my Canon EOS 1100D

As commissioner, I must remain alert at all times. Never know what these ducks

are up to.

   A quickly organized cleanup by the candidates, before the TV people come. Earlier we scratched each others backs.  Now it's difficult to reach our own ....

          We always, but always, Follow Our  Leader....

Of course there are same money minded unscrupulous types, who fly the coop to other parties...

And then some really nice, quiet, obedient ones, who quietly sit and wait for an opportunity to shine

Of course, even there, there are some restless types who gossip among themselves  right under someone else's nose.......

     And finally, an observer-duck ! This guy takes rounds around all the voting booths to ensure there is no hanky panky happening.   Amidst all the qualified candidates, sometimes, you end up  hearing a loud quack !

Captions by Suranga Date 

Art at the Fair.....

Jewellery captures at the Kala Ghoda Art fair on February 11, 2012. 

Went to the Fair and was so thrilled with all this traditional jewellery for sale in many stalls .   Bangles, pendants, necklaces, anklets, armbands, and hordes of young girls and women crowding around . The prices though, were not so user friendly. 

Though the visuals were....

Clicked on my Canon EOS 1100D.

Kashele Trees .....

We walked a good 45 minutes between Kashele and Kavthewadi, to do some tests with a contraption designed by my friend, which would help with  the water carrying load of the adivasi and rural women of the region. More photos may be seen here. 

We normally do not have an autumn season, but one such, seems to be running late (into February)  here. Our walk between Kashele and Kavthewadi  was full of  so many leafless trees, standing tall.   So many bearing flowers, all in earth colors.

The first one here almost resembles a  classical dance pose .  

Clicked on my Canon EOS 1100D .

 

Kashele Blooms......

On a visit to the Kashele area in the Karjat region (in the district adjoining the Mumbai district), here are some flowers from the garden, of an NGO called Shabari Seva Kendra.  We were on a visit to Kavthewadi and this NGO .

Many of these NGO's work with rural and tribal children and women. There are facilities, and people, who help in the education of the local youth , as well as conduct all kinds of useful training for girls, whereby, they learn a skill. I saw a big room, where students were busy with studies, and another where some girls were getting training on sewing machines. Did not want to disturb them, so did not take photographs there. 

But their garden was full of color....

Photographs clicked on my Canon EOS 1100D