A year around Barath

My nephew Barath – cousin’s son, turns one today. And he’s such an adorable child I ever met in my life alive and he was four months old when I first saw him. He was a very happy child and laughing Buddha, anytime anyway and in-between cries he smiles like there isn't sorrow anymore and his crystal clear eyes beholds for transparent relationship at heart. He is gem at expression and his each gesture embarks upon unpaved terrain with no more violent imprints.

The kid has grown to stand on his foot now, never waits for someone to get things and his pursue has become challenge for the adults to follow him. He also shows interest on mechanical front these days to check anything suppose to be wheels and whatever troublesome he was troubleshoot his kind heart and innocent smiles. I don’t know what to write more about him and he’s a kind I could not find resemble and perhaps his present has been cheerful and get relief out of  inherent storm.

I wish him all the very best and good health – since he has a weak immune, often capture with illness – hope he drives away anything hold on his pursuit of happiness, and earns more strength and nutrition as well enough wealth and knowledge. Happy Birthday dear Barath: the following greeting cards were created by me and I am also going to present a video CD on him along with it, while there’s a birthday party at their home this evening. I’m not supposed to attend since they hold it on their terrace which is hardly possible for me, my parents will pass it.

Btw I was also caught between severe cough and cold for a week now and so was my absent here these days. I had visited doctor two times this week and feeling somehow better now to play with normal. I had constant cough and spending time on laptop was very low and overall the dry throat restricted me from reading. Hope to be back in normal few days. 

(click pictures for enlarge)

If you had time pls do check the video on my nephew (below)

Saturdays and the sound of squirrel

Until reading Keith’s post on ‘my favorite sound on earth’ I didn't had much thought about sounds that are my favorite. Just before started to write this post (on Saturday afternoon), I was hearing the shrill of squirrel somewhere from the nearby trees and this sound always set my mood somewhere into the past. I could recollect a couple of moments as series from past which has relationship between Saturday and squirrel. Both were a phases took place in my childhood and age less than 12.

My father, holding great devotion toward gods, usually takes us to the Pillaiyar Kovil and Anantha Padmanabha Swami Temple near Adyar junction in the neighborhood. And just about a km from home, he used to take us in his bike or sometime walkabout. It used to be our first outing on weekends being Saturday morning; the priests in the Pillaiyar temple were so familiar with us since father never misses visiting their temple then on Saturdays. (The stories where different after shifting home to another area (Thiruvanmyuir) seven years before)

Even he occasionally visits the Adyar Pillaiyar temple, he never miss going to temple on Saturdays still.  Thankfully there’s a Pillaiyar temple at our street end, so he doesn’t needed to traveling 4km to worship his favorite god always. Unlike the Adyar Pillaiyar temple that stood on the middle of the road by splitting a lane, and got disturbed by both sides of passing vehicles; the Padmanabha Swami Temple lies quiet few meters away from there.

I always enjoyed visiting Padmanabha Swami temple, since it has a spacious corridor and courtyard and very less people visited then, we take it as advantage to experience our liberty.  I really liked placing the lord’s headgear (which is a practice in all Perumal temples, to place or make touch our head with a silver headgear, similar to the one on god’s head); even they keep it only for a second, I look for one more time and I don’t know why but I liked it then. I also like having the holy water they drop on the extended palm which taste delicious.

In this temple the lord was seen on a lying position.  Behind the main shrine and on the corridor, there’s an Almond tree and it is where I used to hear the squirrel squeaking and they even run across the corridor leaving their calls behind. To my knowledge it is where I first saw squirrels, to be chased by me. Another place I used to hear the squirrel calling was where I studied tuition, a street away from us.  And she’s was an Anglo-Indian women who took tuition for me and another girl on her own interest and I need to acknowledge, only because of her my English improved much better.

I attended tuition for my fourth and fifth standards to her and she lived in the first floor of an apartment on a dead end street. Almost isolated from noise disturbance, she lived alone with a servant maid aid and occasionally her uncle or aunt visits her. Unlike the weekdays where I usually go to her house in evening, after coming from school, on Saturdays I visit her in morning the time close to our present at temple. Here I hear only the shrill of squirrels rather seeing them in action inside the temple premises. Every time I hear the sound of squirrel I couldn’t avoid touching those memories in mind. 

PAP – Best Water Resource Development

Water, the chief ingredient of life is reliance upon rain. We can live even without eating for few days or a week but no life is survived without drinking or sucking water fall as rain. Life becomes trouble in case we took refrain drinking water for whatever reason such as hunger strike; though however noble it might be. Today obesity has drive people to drink plenty of water – which eases digestion and helps removing toxin from body. The advance technology in desalination has made alter routes for getting drinking water from sea, but the natural rainwater still holds lot of benefit on health enhancement.

It’s apparent that no life exists in earth without water and it’s a cycling process where trees help producing rain and rain as its resource. We man disrupt either by placing our self in front row, driving others as much possible aside by building endless homes and business to extreme anti-environment and producing immense population shrinking our  sources. The water was sought not only as a life source or health benefit but also to gain trust of vote in election. The politicians bear water as a vital element to score higher in election, no matter how people suffer or fought for life.

In Tamil Nadu the best water resources developments took place during the Kamaraj’s administrative – the former chief minister of TN; who widely known as Kingmaker in Indian politics, who’s tri-tenure or the nine years administrative (1954-1963) as CM of TN were considered as golden period. During his regime witnessed number of dams built across the state and each one of them were an engineering marvel. The uneducated genius - Kamaraj - plays a pioneer on interconnecting rivers and his head of administration has dug number of tunnels diverting the water to utilize fully.

Among the many major plots he charted on irrigation front, feeding thousands of acres of lands across the state, the 'Prambikulam Aliyar Project' is notable! Carried out on the state boarders of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, PAP is a multipurpose and interstate river valley project diverting and integrating the eight west flowing rivers to the east side to the then drought pone area of the Coimbatore and Erode districts of TN and Palghat of Kerala.  The irrigation network consist of seven major canals, comprising one diversion weir,  seven storage reservoirs, conveyance system and interconnecting tunnels to divert water impound to the plains of Coimbatore and Erode.

Except the three reservoirs slip into the Kerala state, I have drawn to five of the seven reservoirs lie at various elevations ranging from  +3800 feet and +1050 feet across the Anamalai Hills. Lying at difference in elevation has also made it possible for these reservoirs to generate hydro-power. The Aliyar Reservoir built across the Aliyar River at the foothills of Valparai has its source in the Anamalai Hills. Apart its own catchment area of about 76 Sq. Miles, water to this reservoir is diverted through the Aliyar Feeder canal and the Contour canal from the Parambikulam group of reservoirs.

What you see in these photos is the Contour canal rode from Parambikulam, which is one of the major canals running for a total length of about 250 km. apart various branch canals, distributaries and minors through which about 4.25 Lakhs acres of lands get irrigated. About 5 km from Aliyar Dam, we saw the contour canal crossing the road to Valparai, and this canal carries water to Thirumoorthi reservoir about 35 km from here. The water was at its full fledged during our uphill ride and we stopped there for a while, while our relative explaining its progress. It felt something wonderful when looking at the fresh water rushing through the canal and fact that they pass number of tunnels lasting certain kms into hills. 

It seems one of the best sharing projects so far between the states with no major issue based on sharing. To note a point, the PAP project had carried out quite throughout IndiraGandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park which beholds number of endanger and wild animals. It doesn't sound easy for me to dug deep tunnels into the haven of wild animals and infectious insect bites… and in time when everything was suppose to done manually. I couldn't stop praising those heroes involved in this project and the engineers with amazing talent on finding routes. 

Pykara - Reservoir & Waterfall

Pykara is a picturesque picnic spot 20 km away from Ooty on the road to Mysore. There are two things one could do here rather simply sightseeing, taking a boat ride around the thick sholas on the Pykara reservoir or walk down to waterfalls on the opposite side of dam on Ooty-Mysore main road. I have visited the Pykara reservoir once while past the village couple of time, the water level of the lake was at bottom when I was there on a midsummer day or monsoon that suppose to begin.

I couldn't take a boat ride on the reservoir and well you no need a reason why, as u could see in the picture above I took from the road, the water and boat jetty were at lowest ever seem.  The stairs leading down to boat jetty were stared at developing a terror which really needs courage for a normal being to climb up/down.  But the sight of the deep reservoir and fenced sholas beheld into mine and being summer holidays there were number of tourist thronged the place drove through a brief forest woods.

The boat house runs by the TTDC (Tamil Nadu Tourism & Development Corporation) is a secondary yet fabulous option to who like boating in Ooty, other than the one mainstream rower into the town. There’s also a restaurant attached to the boat house and the reservoir’s maximum level were seem to measure through conceal of the soil bank. But I just wonder will the reservoir behold its spellbound reveled through its dept rather watched or riding boat at its FRL (full reservoir level).

The Pykara reservoir is also a river, which is considered very scared by Todas – the tribal of Nilgiri (Blue Mountains). The river rises at Mukurthi peak, flows through Pykara and Glen Morgan dams forms an inherent part of the Pykara hydro-electric power plant – one of the oldest in the country. Mukuthi is the second largest peak among the Nilgiri and one of my dream was touching its foothill.  

On the picture above u could see a herd of buffaloes grazing on the other side of the reservoir. Buffalos are the main livelihood of Todas, who also does crop business these days, breeding of buffaloes and milking and making butter were their source then. The buffaloes named after the Toda’s were a unique breed and genetically isolated population among the Indian breeds of buffaloes  confined to the Nilgiris. Apart Todas, other communities such as Badagas and Kotas also maintain buffaloes in small numbers.

The Pykara waterfall is another wonderful place to visit, where many Indian films shot their duets and action here. But the path to the waterfall doesn’t seem disabled friendly so I could make a visit to its roar, unlike my parents and cousins who enjoyed the scenic location. The photo beneath was captured by them. 

Brahminy Flight Show

It’s not a regular flight show that happens during national events, where air force planes fly at a terrific speed and display their daring feats. And fighter jets adorn the blue sky by releasing colorful smokes and creating various symbols. And coming down very close to ground and take off vertically into the sky. A stunt that never been stunning and delight seeing flights at touching distance. But the flight you see here was pioneer to airplane aviation and had been inspiration for man to build his own wings to fly.

It’s a flight over stunning blue sky and close to sparkling sea. A pleasure watching it peacefully took off into the sky and leaving cheerful lighter movements rather heart throbbing dare feats. And like a patrol aircraft, the flight flies over the Danish colony while spy for prey. 

This kite doesn't need any permission to fly and no one could ban it as threaten to lives. It flies fearlessly very close to land and on ocean surface, seeking its prey. Takes off to untouchable high and fly unlike many other birds flapping its wings frequently. The Brahminy Kite you see in these pictures are captured during my last year visit to Danish Fortat Tranquebar and this kite had constantly looped around the area and sometime coming close to sea. Gave me some wonderful opportunity to capture the bird at near distance and it was first time for me then to shot on birds of prey.

I think the Brahminy Kites are a resident of Nagapattinam distinct of Tamil Nadu, whereas I know Point Calimere is home to number of this species, they are well spread around the area. I found a bunch of kites  at Point Calimere Bird Sanctuary and the bird can be easily distinguish from other birds of prey as adults own a contrasting white head and breast. I also saw the juveniles who are fully browner. The Brahminy kits are no different in size compare to Back Kite and until browsing the net I though it as an eagle! 

Low flying kite

Landing over ocean terrace