Tag: South India

Ruby

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Street dog Update

Ruby was first adopted as a puppy by one of the neighbours. I asked them to deal with her skin problem when it first arose. But they first neglected it then threw her out when it became a real problem.

Ruby disappeared.

She reappeared last week in a sorry state. We’ve always been friends so today once she’d appeared during the day, I managed to catch her.

Here’s the rest of today’s adventure.

Vasanth and I took her in the auto

. She stunk! But settled in quite quickly. Our destination was PFA – People for Animals. Right over the otherside of Mysore. It’s a great place, we know them well 🙂

I left a donation. The vet will fix her and neuter her. I’ll check how she is when I get back from the UK in August. We can’t have her because of Lucie and she’s unlikely to get adopted. So, she’ll be let back into the street where she was found (it’s the law) we’ll adopt her from a distance.

Lucie was of course very put out and jealous, as you can see. But where is Billi?

Will it, won’t it?

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The bet is on! Each year we have a lovely array of Brahma Kamla flowers.

Here’s the buds.

Manjula reckons they will not flower before I leave on Monday. I believe they will. The wager is 1000rs.

Here’s what it will look like

The nest is bare

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Where have they gone?

Its an incredible job giving birth, raising your children, being there for them, setting them up with the right skills, having to let go, being there to support whilst pushing them to be independent… its difficult to get the balance right.

There are so many risks

 

The fledglings have flown

yes, our latest guests have left home.

It was not an easy process, as you might imagine.

Mum and Dad found a great place to nest, in a hanging basket under the driveway roof. It was so quiet at the beginning (were they ever here?) so much so we thought they were being neglectful but the eggs were hatched and three fledglings made their appearance.

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One seemed to be a tad bigger than the others, the BIG BROTHER

 

 

Today however, just a few days later, has been really hectic.

They flew the nest and ended up all around the drive. We’re using the term ‘fly’ a little liberally, it was in fits and starts… but they were moving and perching……

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It did help us realise what a relatively safe place it is and thats maybe why we’ve actually had THREE nests here this season.

Nevertheless in the chaos in the drive there was one fledgling missing and the parents (and us were frantically looking).

 

they are still hungry guys

But the lost one was found

The parents managed to corral them, get them perched and fed, on one of the plants behind the chair near the front gate!

Where they still are.

sorry about the standard of the photos, can’t quite get a great shot, there are three there

Manjula

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I’ve been toying with the idea of having a portrait painted of the beautiful Manjula. Fact is I’m trying to work out if I can afford it. As part of the process I’ve pulled together a few of the photos taken of Manjula over the years, they’re mainly my photos but there are some crackers taken by friends.

 

Occasionally someone or something else gets a look in…..

 

 

and there’s even more here

Manjula caught me doing this earlier and has no idea about the portrait. it occured to us that she’s had hundreds of photos tasken in the nine years that we’ve known each other and to her knowledge just a handful in the thrity six years beforehand.

If I decide to go ahead with the portrait, I’ll send the link to the photos to the artist (my daughter-in-laws sister) who will use them, not to copy but to help her create something that reflects the real person but also emerges from her artistic insights!

Water

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We all need water, obviously.

Lucie has a regular stop in a ‘paddling pool’ at a neighbours house. Jains in particular will leave out water and food for cows, birds and dogs.

One of our big problems locally is there just isn’t enough water for drinking or agriculture, let alone industry. So you’d think we’d be a tad more careful with it? Nah….. The re is a massive dispute with the neighbouring state. The Kaveri river passes through Karnataka (our state) before reaching Tamil Nadu, there’s insufficient water so do we find a way to share the problem? Nah, we’re first in the queue so we take what we want. This is a worldwide problem, look anywhere: California, Australia, wherever, same problem.

What is is about us? We know the problems, we know we need to act but do we, not in any significant or meaningful way. As highlighted in this insightful book our empires collapse for many different reasons but almost always because we do t recognise what’s at the end of our collective noses and do something about it.

Water is of course a massive problem around the world.

Same here in Mysore.

Close to where we live new borewells are being drilled because that house needs it, of course. Let’s look after our own.

So who cares?

Banana Republic 2

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It gets worse.

So to remind you. The BJP who got the largest number of seats has been given by the Governor (BJP) fifteen days (now shortened after the intervention of the Supreme Court) until today? To demonstrate on the floor of the house that they have an overall majority, (which they didn’t get at the election so they will have to poach Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) to increase their numbers).

Are you still awake?

Now the president (BJP) , remember he’s supposed to be independent and above politics has appointed a temporary speaker (chair of proceedings) also, you’ve guessed it, from the BJP. This is completely against protocol as it’s usually the senior most MLA that gets the role but he’s Congress so that won’t do, will it? The newish speaker has been in the job before who was censured by the Supreme Court for his….. partiality in a previous situation, involving the same main character Yeddyurappa and corruption.

You seriously couldn’t make this up,

More here

In despair, I’m turning away from this soap opera of unbelievableness to some light entertainment.

Coconut palms

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The two lovely palms in our drive whose tops form a backdrop for our rooftop garden have been removed by the owner of our house. I’ve managed to hold off the inevitable for a year or two. I’ve used every argument you might imagine, to no avail.

THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED FOR THEM TO GO.

So is this…. Idiocy? Stupidity? No it’s probably not those things.

You might see this as a gross over-reaction on my part and maybe it is. It does in my view reflect something that diminishes all our societies. There are at least two key issues. The first is about the ‘trees’ themselves.

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Looking around our area, where beautiful trees are regularly chopped (I’m the one that will go out and challenge, when I see it happening, credibility gone there then) where people dump rubbish (another key question for our guests will be covered on the blog) on the road verges, its a mess, one eyesore after another. You’d think it’s lack of awareness of environmental issues or appreciating what is beautiful. It is those things and it’s depressing.

Its also impractical. Trees are useful they provide amenity. They help freshen our air, create oxygen and now we’ve realised, a week after the carnage we’ve experienced here it provides well needed shade to reduce the temperature and make life bearable in the heat of the summer.

Yes the giving has gone.

Dysfunctional state

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This might seem a big jump but…. when I first began to realise how senior civil servants were appointed and shifted at a moments notice, here in Karnataka …. I just couldn’t believe it. I previously was a senior manager in U.K. local government. I just couldn’t have done my job if I was continually looking to protect my own back to check that a politician wasn’t going to ‘punish’ me if I’d acted to challenge unacceptable practices or somehow crossed an invisible political red line. How does someone such as a District Commissioner locally manage on a day to day basis or for example challenge corruption, especially where politicians are concerned if in an instant they can be effectively demoted and sent to the back of beyond!

I write this at a time when we’ve just gone through a period when civil servants have been regularly changed as if passing through a revolving door. I mean very senior people shifted every few months, even weeks! How can an organisation function? Maybe that’s the point.

I write this as today we will get the results of the Karnataka state elections.

Check here to see how it now works in the US

I blame my parents

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I was there……

In the middle, to the foreground with the wings….

No, not actually in the photo. This is Butlins holiday camp pool in the early 1970’s when I most definitely was or had visited with my family. Take in the photo. Look at how white we were and slim! How things have changed.

So why do I blame my parents? A convenient excuse? A contradictory mix of experiences that helped me prepare for the consistently inconsistent life that is India. On the one hand we’d be pioneers driving through England and France to holiday in Spain. Visiting quaint villages that are now over fifty years later, Temples to package tourism. That was in the early 1960’s when I was a little nipper.

My holiday education did also include ten years later the decided working class holiday at this very holiday camp. Rows of cabins, knobbly knee competitions for the Dads, beauty completions for the mums, activities for the kids, soooo non pc. In terms of my working class upbringing, let’s not forget the ultimate: Charabanc (coach) trips to Blackpool illuminations and Skegness from our home in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England., organised by the archetypal ‘Working Men’s Club’

So why am I telling you all this?

It helps make up who I am.

Check the Guardian article that relates to the photo.

Coincidentally Martin Parr, who’s exhibition this all refers to, lived in Hebden Bridge early in his career probably shortly after this photo was taken. In 1986 when Liz, Ben and I moved to Hebden Bridge we bought the very same house where he’d lived.

It’s Election time

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Spot the differences with your elections!

The local paper has news about politicians bribing locals to vote for them. Police/army checkpoints are in the look out for large amounts of money, as in the first news item. Alternatively offering chickens!

But it’s a secret vote so voters can accept bribes, maybe from more than one party and vote for whoever they want! 😉

A common practice is to show images of politicians alongside projects they claim to have initiated. During election campaigns they have to be covered as seen here at a shop for selling generic drugs at cut price. An initiative of the Modi Government.

So what difference does it make?