a chicken wing gets hot when you turn it on

a chicken wing gets hot when you turn it on

Joy of Birding

Perhaps, like me, you started birding recently; perhaps you have to check your field guide to remind yourself how to tell a brahminy kite from a green bee eater. If you too are among the roughly 10 percent of males who are colour blind, you find it impossible to identify a bird on the basis of descriptions like “in a green bee-eater the entire plumage is bright green and tinged with blue especially on the chin and throat. The crown and upper back are tinged with golden rufous. The flight feathers are rufous washed with green and tipped with blackish. A fine black line runs in front of and behind the eye. The iris is crimson and the bill is black while the legs are dark grey.” If ,like me ,you find it nearly impossible to stay silent even for few seconds, then you probably are vaguely embarrassed going out birding with pros who can stay still and silent as thuralli rocks for hours together.

If so this column is dedicated to you. Often when I bird with Poorna Chandra, “birding” consists mostly of saying”where, where? Yello sisya kansthane ilvallo” as he patiently guide my line of sight to a small tiny bird. Sigh!!! “Just look up in the left tree in back, below the two dark green leaves [there are some thousand leaves to the left of the tree]. No, no, just follow the thin branch up to where it converges and the warbler is sitting there” [at last I spot it].just the same I’ve a hell of a good time birding-and so will you, even if we both never become experts.

First of all I bird for myself, not against the experts. My ambition is to see almost all Indian birds alive in the field. This self set goal is achievable because I travel a lot and trekking is my passion. But if I don’t reach them, I’ll have no regrets-the joy is in trying. It’s very similar to the old art of flirting; you never stop flirting after one good flirting spree or a bad one...

Just watching mynas outside of my classroom has increased my understanding of how nature works. One day I was wondering how funny was the little hair growth on a myna’s bill. After some time poorna Chandra told me that this little growth of hair helps in pollination was amazed by how well everything is designed in nature. But the point is that all action isn’t in the television [NGC], or along the western ghats.Birding at home can be an adventure too.

In this post, I concentrated on how to have fun watching birds-even if you ,too, have trouble remembering where barn owls are and how sharp is the bulbul’ s call . I assume all birds are telling something about the state of our planet. Many rare and distinctive species of birds have become extinct,

I suppose the loud and evocative call of the birds is “man, ma timz ova, nextz ur turn”

Meanwhile, the next time you can’t tell whether the bird you are watching is a oriental magpie robin or a white browed wag-tail (aren’t scientific names such as Motacilla maderaspatensis fun???) relax!!!

Imagine that it is 1988, before the species were “split” and both were called Indian robins .besides, if you‘re as bad a bird identifier as I am, it’s probably a robin anyway. Just remember that most birders are non experts, and enjoy watching little flycatcher hunt for insects.

Both kind of birds [the real ones and girls] come into your backyard and stay for some time and fly off.

This is philosophy of birding…happy birding!!!!!!!!

An elusive birder and an innocent flirt.

Shrikantha.hs

Poison Envy

In this post of mine I want to talk about a breed of people who have this bad feeling called envy. This feeling is the desire to have something good or valuable possessed by others…You must be wondering what is wrong in having this desire!! Nothing is wrong , but the effects of jealousy are worst. It’ll lead to unfair criticism, unhealthy ego and self-intoxication . People with this disease called jealousy tend to look down on others and try to be an obstacle in their path to success.
You can find the symptoms of this disease in people around .It is generally Critical attitude (without the sense of helping others),high ego(I know everything on this earth)and want for undue attention .I hav’nt studied much of psychology to go deep into this subject but I do have an interest in learning behavioral attributes of humans..
I want to share a story with you. A man had a dog which could walk on water. He called some of his friends to go hunting in the nearby river for ducks. He shot many ducks with his gun and the dog walked on the river fetching the dead ducks. His friend neither had a comment nor a compliment on the bizarre dog. So the man asked if his friend had noticed something strange about his dog. The friend replied, ‘yes your dog is strange .It can't swim.’
Humans with this attitude are ‘energy drainers’ all through their life. God help them!!
The only way to face jealousy is to take it as a compliment in disguise .Remember this quote, the tree that bears the most fruits also gets the most stones.

THE MAN IN THE GLASS

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And world makes u king for a day;
Just go to a mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that man has to say.
For it is’nt your father or mother or wife,
W hose judgment upon you must pass;
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life,
Is the one staring back from the glass .
Some people may think you are a
Straight –shooting chum,
And call you a wonderful guy;
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum,
If you can’t look him straight in the eye .
He’s the fellow to please,never mind the rest,
For he is with you clear up to the end;
And you have passed your most dangerous,
Difficult test,
If the man in the glass is your friend .
You may fool the world down your pathway of years,

And get pats on the back as you pass;
But your final reward will be heartache and tears,
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass .
-anonymous

Food for thought

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
-FD Roosevelt
Those who wish to sing, always find a song.-
Swedish proverb
Maturity is knowing when to be immature.
-Randall Hall, composer
You aren't wealthy until you have something money can't buy.
-G Brooks
Courage isn't the lack of fear. It's acting in spite of it.
-M Twain
Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.
-Edgar Allan Poe, poet
A man without humour is like a car without shock absorbers.
-Unknown
Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.
- Shakespeare
That it'll never come again is what makes life so sweet.
-E Dickinson
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
-Leonardo da Vinci
Happiness is nothing more than good health & a bad memory.
- Albert Schweitzer
To know what is right & not to do it is the worst cowardice.
-Confucius
Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.
-Mark Twain

Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal"

Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, who comes to New York only to discover that during his flight, a political rebellion occurred in his homeland. Unable to return home until the US government recognizes the new government in his country, Viktor is ordered to stay in the airport. Amazed by the airport's glittering arena and glass-and-steel international transit area, Viktor patiently goes about making airport his home, while the story evolves into a satire of the dilemmas of immigration. Viktor hardly knows any English and roams in the airport as a silent observer. The role offers Tom Hanks the best opportunity to prove his ability to perform comic scenes with a great ease. His East European language accent is fun to observe. Spielberg’s attention to detail of certain aspects in the airport must be appreciated.
As the story proceeds, Viktor meets Catherine zeta Jones and then cupid strikes an arrow. Jones is unhappy with her present life due to an affair with a married man. Viktor‘s simplicity and humility is acknowledged by Jones. She does not really care about the new found feeling of love as she is busy and she does not have time for things that seem to be small but very important.

Spielberg has tried to expose and enlighten a philosophy, “RULES ARE MADE FOR HUMANS, HUMANS ARE NOT MADE FOR RULES”. Rules, laws, regulations and policies are made in order to bring in a proper system with discipline. I don’t deny the fact that we should follow these rules for the system to run properly, but these rules should not be prioritized higher than humanity, compassion and mercy. In the movie a person, who wants to carry a life-saving medicine to his country, is stopped as there was no proper prescription by a doctor. Viktor helps him take home the medicine with his wit and smartness.
The most amazing thing shown in the movie is the fact that humans still respect and believe in emotions such as love, friendship, care, compassion, kindness and affection. The kind of emotions that gets exchanged between airport personnel and Viktor takes you to that perfect world filled with simple love and affection that we have all been dreaming about at some point of time in our life.
Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal" is a movie I always want to see again and again. It is a must see movie.