WEAVING AN EXTRAORDINARY TALE

DISCLAIMER: The author of this article is not an Arachnologist, or for that matter has no idea what spiders are (except that they are eight-legged creatures), what they are made of, where they all come from, etc. The author hates them, but loves capturing them on cam. She has not, in the process, hurt them, killed them or eaten them.



The Dryad silently embraces them into her bosom. She listens to their extraordinary tale, spun in delight. She pleads for more and watches them grow. Life moves on but their legacy retains its flavour in the coffee estate, where the following photographs were taken in a bid to capture the saga woven by the spiders.

It had rained heavily the previous night. Spider webs, I thought, could never have withstood the downpour. A trek down the coffee plantation (in Karnataka), taught me a beautiful lesson - Life can always have a fresh new beginning.



Millions of these creatures had begun their journey all over again. A few even went one step further!





And you cannot miss this huge species, so regal in its black and gold outfit. It would be a while before you continue the trek.



The plantation is full of this species. And most certainly it is not dangerous for the workers show no fear as they wade through its webs everyday.



The other fascinating species can be found on trees or dangling in the air. In fact, it requires a pair of sharp eyes to spot this one, beautifully blended with the bark of a tree. While it would take me some time to get this species identified, here are a few pictures taken right outside the estate's drying ground.





For about two years in Chennai, spiders and I lived under the same roof and shared the same bed. A few, though, felt my expensive Reebok shoe a more cozy option to spend their days.

My warden was quite anxious to get rid of the domestic spiders and she did triumph. My roommate and I, however, decided to give this Mrs.Wiry a chance to lay eggs.



I left my hostel soon after and I do not know what became of them. And if you are asking me, if I've ever been bitten by one, the answer is yes! A 1.5 cm long spider pricked my shoulder to declare its presence on my body. And no, I did not transform into a spider-woman with green eyes the next day!

"ORANGE MOON? DON'T KID!"

A couple of days back, I watched a programme on Animal Planet called MOONPOWER, on creatures using our natural satellite as a beacon to hunt, mate and migrate. Fantastic show, after which my stream of consciousness led me to dwell a bit on moon exploration by humans, rites and rituals as per our scriptures, poetry and more, until a fact hit me hard - it has been a while, a long while, since I saw the orange blob!

When I was four years old, for the first time, I saw a bright orange hue in the sky, and mistook the moon for the setting sun! Ever since I've been fascinated.

Over the last two years, on every visit to Bangalore, I'd observe an apparent elevation in the "horizon" caused by high-rise buildings. This is in fact a rather mild way of putting across the point that even a minute speck of the actual horizon is no longer visible and in the process, the orange blob has disappeared too, behind those skyscrappers. And for children, supper would have to wait an extra few minutes, before they crane their necks heavenwards to say "MOOOOON!" Sadly, my own house has contributed to this phenomenon.

I'm not going overboard here, but my kids might just ridicule my "imagination" if I ever told them of the red-orange moon.

There are of course two ways to prove its existence. One, chalk out a controlled city/town expansion and development programme. And as for the second, continue polluting the atmosphere at just this current rate, only thing - our children may not be alive to see the orange moon.

Couple of blogger awards have come my way! :) Presented to me by my cousin Aaarti! Thankies, gurl!! How about a moonlight dinner sometime? :)



Remember this pic? We shot the moon precariously through a four square centimetre grid! :D

"A" FOR "APPLE"

Subs has tagged me again!

RULES -

The Tag name is A for Apple

Give preference for regular sites
Ignore your own blogs, sites.
Tag 3 People.


ALL SET!

A
http://www.adamdiaries.blogspot.com/ - Jag's (a.k.a Thathankamon) Tale of Three Cities.
http://ask.com/ - Ask, and it shall be given you.
http://www.abc.net/ - Links to good-to-great articles.
http://www.asklaila.com/ - India's local information service.
http://ashwinspeaks.blogspot.com/ - Busy Ashwin hasn't updated his blog in a long while.

B
http://www.backpakker.blogspot.com/ - My cousin Lakshmi's travelblog. Must see!
http://blogger.com/ - Thanks to which you are reading this!
http://www.bookmyshow.com/ - Book tickets online for plays, movies, concerts.
http://www.blackle.com/ - Energy-saving google!

C
http://chennaikaran.blogspot.com/ - What a prolific thinker-writer-reader! Check out his Bata Thatha stories, Dad-daugher dialogue, Short stories, loads more.
http://www.contests2win.com/ - Who doesn't wanna win goodies!

D
http://www.dictionary.com/ - Handicapped without this site!

E
Err..!!

F
http://www.freebookspot.net/ - Incredible collection of ebooks. What more, download them for free!
http://www.4indianwomen.com/ - Write and get paid.

G
http://www.google.co.in/ - including its offsprings minus Orkut.

H
http://hotmail.com/ - An account lying dormant there.

I
http://www.invariablyconstant.blogspot.com/ - Prabha's blog. Work keeping her busy!
http://intelligentwins-lifeandme.blogspot.com/ - Now reading!
http://irctc.co.in/ - No more standing in queue and waiting!

J... K... :'(

L
http://www.lyrics.com/ - Why hum the tune when you have the lyrics to sing along!

M
http://www.mumbaichaat.blogspot.com/ - Hilarious movie reviews.
http://www.msn.co.in/ - Opens automatically after logging out of Hotmail. What to do!
http://www.mugamudi.blogspot.com/ - Harish's blog - The Mask!

N
http://nivi30.wordpress.com/ - Now reading!

O
http://www.123greetings.com/ - Craze for ecards fading away.

P
http://poetryinstone.in/ - Vijay makes stone monuments speak their saga through his website.

Q
???

R
http://www.rediff.com/ - Quick news stories, Raja Sen's reviews (readers' review of the review :D) and email.
http://www.randomphilosophie.blogspot.com/ - Peru's independent (and interesting) perspectives, contests and more.
http://www.randomblissitis.blogspot.com/ - Peru again and Bliss it is! World, like you've never seen before!
http://www.rsubras.blogspot.com/ - Kalakkal Kirukkals! Chance-se illaadha thanglish stories. My favourite - Guys must be crazy!
http://www.raaga.com/ - All suttufication of songs happens from here ;)
http://www.reuters.com/ - For top world news and business news. Check out Oddly Enough and their photo gallery.
http://reeltreat.blogspot.com/ - My cousin Aaarti's book, music and movie (never heard before ones too) review blog.

S
http://www.sitemeter.com/ - Just to quench the curiosity factor
http://www.space.com/ - Universe in words, images and imagination.
http://sagittarian-ramya.blogspot.com - Romie's blog. Chiselled words, warm stories. Must read Freshly Brewed Love.

T
http://telegraphindia.com/crossword - A time-pass tickler.
http://www.taurusblogs.blogspot.com/ - Prabha's travails as an IT Professional.
http://techmanic.blogspot.com/ - From zero to geek in a day!

U... V... :((

W
http://words-flow.blogspot.com/ - Aaarti's blog on the crazy things she's upto ;) and her words, they just never dry up!
http://wordsfloweasy.blogspot.com/ - Aaarti's short stories, poetry and more.
http://www.wikipedia.com/ - Just wiki "wikipedia"!

X
http://www.xsmail.com/ - I miss this email provider! :'(

Y
http://www.yahoo.com/ - Yahoo! and its family.

Z
http://zpub.com/ - I visited this link just today! Site for unusual articles.

My addition - 'A' for 'Analysis'!
* Lack of vitamins E, J, K, Q, U, V
* No social networking sites
* No site for movie downloads
* Blogs dominate the list

'C' for 'Conclusion!
* Expand the list - visit and bookmark more sites

'T' for 'Tag'!
* Peru
* Lakshmi
* Aaarti

SOMEWHERE... OVER THE RAINBOW...

Wish I could observe every inch of the universe and feel the sights in my blood.
Listen to every sweet melody, novel note and lilting tune ever created.
Imbibe all the knowledge that there is ever to be learnt.
Live through every possible experience and experience every possible emotion.

H.m.m.. I sound like Dr Faustus, don't I? ;)

But what better day than today (my birthday!) to wake up and smell the coffee!

So, here's my "Things-to-do-before-I-die" list and some resolutions as well:

1. Make a mini telescope of my own and be an active star gazer
2. Participate in a half-marathon
3. Learn carnatic music and identify ragas
4. Learn salsa! And at least one musical instrument
5. Join yoga and meditation classes
6. Learn Telugu, Kannada and at least one foreign language - Spanish, perhaps
7. Go bungee jumping, para gliding, river rafting etc
8. But before that, learn to ride a bicycle!
9. Read Fundamentals of Physics and understand the (basic) workings of nature
10. Attend Astrobiology courses
11. Visit Ladakh and verify UFO claims
12. Read books more often and completely! Specially by Bertrand Russell, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Richard Leakey
13. Identify fields, crops and flowers instantly
14. Try out at least one new recipe every week
15. Visit as many places as possible – snow-capped mountains and the aurora borealis are a must
16. Learn pencil sketching and painting
17. Watch all the James Bond flicks (I haven't seen one till date!)
18. Capture spiders on camera and identify each of them
19. Start an NGO
20. Blog more often and update this list regularly!

As I pen this post, the song echoes in my mind - 'Somewhere over the rainbow... dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.' And mine will too! :)

JUST A PALE BROWNED-OFF BLOB

Recluse - am I one? Of the indifferent, ignorant and insouciant type?

Humans - their endless expectations. Work - its materialistic nature. How they asphyxiate and clog my cranium.

I dream. I walk. I write. I sit under a tree and watch the aurorae. I speak with them. I see young children play - inventing games along the way.

The chants beckon. The air resonates with idyllic intonations.

I float. I drown. I taste ecstasy. Water makes all burdens light.

Life searches for life. I scan the skies. Light-years I wait. And a glimpse I get.

Flames of restlessness engulf me. I wonder. I wander. I'm just a pale browned-off blob!

PS: I confess. I have no clue what I wanted to write. Heavily inspired by Carl Sagan's book. Au revoir.

THE IMMISCIBLE ENTITIES

These days, all the time I wonder what makes life worth living. Is it the people around you – your friends and family... Your job... Your dreams... Or merely knowing what you want to do, how you want to be known and where you want to be. Of course, life never finds a solution for you. In fact, never even lets you find a solution. And then life – the big four letter word – becomes bigger than yourself. You begin to fight with it and try to clobber it into a small dark obscure corner of your heart. And when your own life can’t understand you, not one among those friends and family can either. That is when you begin to realise, it is not your life that is in the dark obscure corner of your heart. It is you.

THE DELUGE...

Today was unlike any other day in my life. Today was special. Today, I felt the pangs of nostalgia strike me once again, only this time, of an immeasurable magnitude. The day began with the newspaper, a cup of Bournvita and instructions from amma to clean up my room. I had books strewn all around me. The clutter. The chaos. Was all this a reflection of my mind? I couldn’t answer for a feeling of being suffocated set in. Music can heal this mess, I presumed. With my PC playing songs from the movie ‘Swades’, I began with the intention of discarding unnecessary books and papers. The mistake that I made, ‘fortunately’, was that I had not defined the concept ‘unnecessary’.

Among the rubble were my LKG and UKG progress reports. My standard one report too – 497/500 yet I had managed only a Fifth rank! No way I should discard these, I convinced myself. Couple of note books followed – standard seven Geography and standard nine Hindi. I caressed those pages, hoping to revive a few fond memories. By my side were Physics texts – ninth, tenth, PUC and my favourite – Resnick, Walker and Halliday. “I lived and loved them all. Please amma, don’t force me to dispose them.”

“Fine… But of what use are these GK books now, when everything is available over the internet?” Amma was determined to make me part with half of my treasure as much as I was to safeguard them. “Appa got these from Delhi, more than 15years ago. These would stay.”

I had constructed a tower of Competition Success Reviews, Wisdoms, Chandamamas, Amar Chitra Kathas and Panchatantras. “My kids would read these,” I told amma.

“And all these books on the Bhagavad Gita?”

“Those I would read when I find time...”

“Hmm... Do what you want.” Amma knew and I did too, that not a square inch of paper was going to make it to the bin. She left me, while I sat waiting for the deluge of memories to flood my mind.

I flipped through the pages of my B.Sc Physics practical observation notebook – Newton’s Rings, Biprism, Ballistic Galvanometer... and my heart grew heavier. The calculations, the amount of time spent on them, the manipulated results... Shut them out, shut them out... I screamed. I closed the book and then, my eyes, waiting for the accustomed slide show of my college days. They whizzed past me, in rapid succession – the wooden stairs, giggling girls, basket ball court, noodles pakkoda... And I saw myself, singing ‘Yunhi chala chal’ with my friends... Friends, who had been by my side only yesterday and gone in different directions today… and perhaps never to meet again... The smell of wet mud, the parched earth, the hugs, the warmth, the mirth, the fun... All lost in time...

The rustle of a gift-wrapper brought me out of my séance. “To a lovely guide and philosopher,” read the card on the cover. I stared at it. The ice-breaker, the first SMS, the summer course – images crashed in. ‘Yeh jo des hai tera’ played mildly in the background. “The song makes me want to go back to where I belong – my land, my people,” I heard him say. “It’s a calling, I can feel it.” And within a few months, he left. “Do you still think of the incidents that unfolded 2-3 years back?” I asked him one day over email. His reply shook me violently, “Don’t remind me of my past...”

“Don’t remind me of my past...” I heard myself say today. “Don’t remind me...” A cold wave swept over my body, snapping me out of my reverie.

I held tightly the wrapper and observation book. “Amma, Ranjith would be appearing for Board exams this year. Handover my Physics texts to him. He'd need these more than I do... And the rest...will stay...”