Red-Whiskered Bulbul

Derive its name from the red whisker patch below its eyes was caught at Kodaikanal during one of my visits to the hill station and the bird was perched on a small shrub next to our cottage.  The Red-whiskered bulbul is a passerine bird found in Asia and being a member of the bulbul family, the bird is found very common in hill forests and urban gardens within its range and it feeds on fruits and small insects.

The bird about 20 cm in length, has brown upper-parts and whitish under-parts with buff flanks and  a dark spur running onto the  breast at shoulder level. The distinctive tall pointed black crest and the red-vent and whiskers make them easy to identify. The bird’s calls are a loud three or four note call and they conspicuously perch on the trees but are often heard than seen. 

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Friday Review: Thozha – A Reliable Friend

Thozha aka Oopiri (in Telugu) is a neat Tamil movie I watched from the drive-in and the drama deals with the relationship between a quadriplegic and his caretaker. The film is an official remake of the French film, The Intouchables, and the Tamil-Telugu version was directed by Vamsi Paidipally featuring Karthi, Nagarjuna and Tamanah. The film opens with Nagarjuna and Karthi inside a car, racing through the streets encompassed by police chase, traces the past on the journey they come together and the bond shared between them.

Seenu is a culprit comes out on parole and seeks jobs that could showcase his humanitarian and thus attends the interview for the caretaker of a quadriplegic billionaire, Vikram Aditya. Though he was attracted to the magnificence of the house and prettiness of Keerthi (personal secretary of Vikram), the obvious reasons he confronted wants Vikram to go for him and what happens from then becomes a life changing for both.

Although the film concern about things happening between them, it goes beyond and touches the lives of their individuals and personal feelings so well. The film carries emotions in lighter manner yet reached the sense and makes come out of theatre without any compassion and sorrow to keep us down. Though Karthi showcase cool attitudes always, the director and the script has utilized him so well and his pair with Tamanah is not new but looks afresh on screen, perhaps because she does look like over makeup!   

Nagarjuna, who is always seen as action hero in Telugu movie and last seen in Rathamohan’s Payanam (in Tamil) as a commando, chose to do the role of commanding from a wheelchair. I anticipated some actions scenes by him, at least in flashback scenes, but just stills to go. The car racing in Paris city was stunning and funny with paragliding. The comedy with paintings and the character of Prakashraj as Naga’s personal advocate was very good.

The music and songs were enough kind, but somehow sprinkles Telugu essence. The camera work was good and the lightning in darkness of Paris and the interiors of the house captures the mood of romance and loneliness well. The expressions and feeling of a wheelchair bound was nicely navigated, without making any negative impact and impressions. The attitude of making surprise and indifference make sense and I also liked the way the character of Nagarjuna was displayed to see apart from compassion and sympathy.

Thozha – stands as a reliable friendship! 

Air con and tighten throat

I was pretty active with blogging and new found interest on craftwork but sudden throat tightness   over a night keeps me away sometime. I was uncertain what is happening with my throat but I was feeling difficult and sleepless night and it even continued through the day where I was going through the sensation of vomiting and was normal only by next night after doses of antibiotic.  From the time I was confined to bed for more than a month when I had my femur facture in 2013 I’m going through some difficult at night, related to throat, before I get into slumber. This time I’m certain that it was perhaps the effect of air con’s cold breeze, since the temperature started to raise our usage of AC has been increased slightly at night. I believe it is the brand that we chose for AC has been an issue lately.

Until we used LG for last 8 years, the device was in our control and it made the entire room cool and only after an hour and some it would feel chilly. But the Samsung AC blows cold air and it feels chilly in 10-15 minutes and once switched off the coldness goes away immediately. It wasn’t the case with us now; we have a Samsung AC already and it used to be like that. So when we shifted home we put it into my brother’s room and we settled for old LG, and when the blower goes off last year we had no option but to go for a second’s blower and that moment Samsung was available and we quite forget about the way it blows and got stuck now. Even one of my uncles has a Samsung AC and they complaints same. I would say it not air con but air cooler, and I will not recommend this to anyone. An air con should be cosy, but just being compact (Samsung) it gives trouble in other ways.

Though back to normal, the air con threats me now and going to sleep under its cold wrap make me wonder what impact it hold for next night! Lol Btw. I have couple of photos to show u the house I was making with Popsicle sticks and here it was incomplete. I plan to do some painting after working on roof. 

 

a tiny bench and dinning table

Spot-Billed Pelicans @ Kovalam

The couple of pelicans in the photos below were shot at the backwaters of Kovalam, about 30 km from here on the ECR. Pelicans are among the many birds visit this backwater area and the ones that supposed to be migratory birds has been spotted no matter what the season was.  I have seen pelicans, painted storks and other water birds like pond heron, little cormorants, egrets… during many a time I crossed the backwaters on ECR.

(click images for enlarge)

The pelicans that were shot from a bridge across the backwater channel on the road led to Fisher-mans cove are spot-billed or grey pelicans. The birds of large inland and coastal waters breed in southern Asia from southern Pakistan across India to east Indonesia. At the distance they are difficult to differentiate from other pelicans in the region although it is smaller the spots on the upper mandible, the lack of bright colors and the greyer plumage are distinctive at closer look.

Kovalam aka Covelong is a fishing village and holds a beautiful curvy beach, which has lately become a favourite spot for water sports and activities esp. surf! Kovalam has a surf school and conduct international surf competitions and many young fishermen from the village has transformed to surfers. 

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Ride to Elliot’s Beach in Wheelchair

Last month I went to Elliot’s Beach couple of times in my new powered wheelchair right from the home. First time I was accompanied by my uncle and cousin and later with my uncle, it feels wonderful taking advantage of the powered wheelchair with more power than the older and riding all the way to the beach on my own. Though I was accompanied by my uncle, there’s so much difference in the way watching the beach (or visiting any other place) from the cabin of a car and wind boring open landscape.

It’s been long time I took on the promenade of Elliot’s Beach and moving on the pavement in tiles was caressing taking along the cool breeze from the Bay of Bengal. I went there in the evening between 4 and 6 to keep away from the road traffic and rather going on main roads I take some narrow streets to reach 4^th and 5^th avenues and move into the promenade near Urur Olcott Kuppam. Only from that side one could climb into the promenade where it slides to road surface. It’s really disappointing to see there’s no ramp facility to climb that one step that separates the road and pavement.

Other day we went earlier and the sun wasn’t settled down and sharply hitting the forehead, so we halted near the police booth where the sun was blocked by the KFC restaurant on the opposite side. There I find a silver fence or rail making a neat presence along the small space of green devote to the beautification of beach, but except the bougainvillea in red and white all are withered. But what really bothered or make me feel disgust was the stray dogs that were lying here and there (you could see one lying on the sand in the above image) and causing menace to the public visiting the beach. I won’t have minded if they were looking good but they were all lookalike expose to some severe skin disease and infectious.

I am not against stray dogs, and there are enough stray dogs in my neighborhood and not all are threatening, but the once with rashes and skins disease could cause trouble and also affect other healthy dogs. Wish the authorities take some step in controlling stray dogs or removing the ones in bad state to some rescue centers that could treat them and left free somewhere.

Karl Schmidt Memorial (the white monument, built in memory of a Dutch sailor who saved a drowning girl from the sea by giving away his life) is peeped through the fence

For those unaware about Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar, Chennai, it is the second most visited place in Chennai next to the world famous and second longest beach in world, Marina Beach. The Elliot’s beach is about 2 km from my home and this is the first time I making it through powered wheelchair. 

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