soliloquies of a footloose
Falcons are little assassins that operate rather discreetly as the larger birds of prey hog the (higher perches and the) limelight… eagles and their kin carry an air of regalia, hunting with a pomp that comes with a bulky, imposing gait… hawks prefer to lay an ambush, letting the prey do a bit of the …
Spring in the mountains, a time when the sun is finally emboldened enough to begin scrubbing away the vestiges of winter, the cold begins to lose its bite and the canopy starts humming to the wind… the brooding dark winter is a time to contemplate, whilst on the other side of the vernal equinox, ‘tis …
Musings on a Pallid Harrier and Eurasian sparrowhawk, Tal Chappar Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan, India
Musings on the the similarities and differences between Steppe & Tawny eagles, Tal Chhapar wildlife sanctuary, Rajasthan
the cat is a contradictory phenomenon, a pet you don’t really own, an existence that baffles Schrödinger, symbolic of witches or exuding the air of a wiseman… if the canine is warmth of attachment, the feline is cold of detachment… bereft of anxiety, it basks in the aloofness that comes with predatory instincts… the cat, …
pensive are the avifauna that predate… especially at dawn or dusk, when not hunting for food, there’s an expression on their face that is enlightened yet forlorn at the same time… once saturated with crocs, we started scouting the banks of Chambal, and ruminated on a grey heron and an Egyptian vulture that were relatively …
Birds are one in the faunal realm that share the joie de vivre of running, meandering (out of breath) just for the sake of it (and some foraging, maybe), a seeming purposelessness that is whimsical and resolute at the same time… while other animals chase you, or recede into the thicket at the sound of …
crocs, in a sense, are a perfect faunal representation of the landscape of Chambal… there’s an overarching sense of the sedate punctuated by violent outbursts of activity… badlands – geography seeping into the society… serrations in the terrain and caste divides… law of the land that once caved in to dacoity, dregs of which still …
musings on Indian stone-curlew (Burhinus indicus), Chambal, Uttar Pradesh
‘twas perchance that we got to know of Chenap valley, which we did as our original plans went awry at the last moment… tucked in ‘twixt religious fervours, highways and hydropower more hedonistic that utilitarian, and the never-ending scrapes of JCB for last-mile connectivity, ‘tis purported to be a quieter alternative to Valley of Flowers, …