Love spiced with curry leaves

Love, love, love on the small Kari patta (curry leaves) tree. The tree with aromatic leaflets adds a delicious aroma to various curries. It adds taste to the precious moments of this tiny bird couple, a cute pair of Oriental white eye.

In the afternoon I spray water on the small tree, and they usually come and take a rubbing bath against wet leaves, prancing around, twitching their square tails, flapping their greenish yellow coats. Then they peck and cuddle each other with their slender, pointed, slightly curved bills. Love is never enough. They raise their little heads in supreme abandonment, while the partner is busy cuddling in the fur with its beak. Goosebumps, all pleasing and tinkling!

Let there be wars, hate, jealousy and bigger human issues around. Here they are, etching out a tiny, colourful love tale, with small dreams of a nest in their eyes which have a beautiful white ring around them. They really love this afternoon bathing by the way. I have to spray water so that they don't miss it. There are more important things to attend to as well. After the lovey dovey moments, they hunt gregariously among the foliage for insects and take sips of nectar from the overblooming sadabahar flowers around. And of course in between are their softly jingling conversational notes, possibly taking birdie jibes at human follies of wasting time and energy in unnecessary hassles, while all that is needed is just to be in league with mother nature and uncountable happiness showers by default, as a rule of nature.

Universe: The one song

Look at your body and think, whether it exists in abstraction. It doesn't. This ecosystem is your extended body. Then earth is this ecosystem's extended body. Solar system is earth's extended body. The Milky way is solar system's extended body. Supergalaxy is Milky way's extended body, and so on so forth. Now can you guess what is the meaning of "universe"? It is "one song". If you still didn't get it, no need to waste time, carry on like before, but don't forget to smile and have fun. This is just one harmonious, ever evolving song to which you can definitely add your melody and composition by being in tune with natural laws. Closely watch nature. You will see the miracles happening with such magical effortlessness that they appear more mundane than even the simple task of you lifting your hand. And one more thing, like you see around, it's nothing but dynamic exchange and transformation of energy and matter, your own purposes in life always fall short of the universal will unless you link them to the causes beyond your own self. So while you strive to be happy and successful, try to do it in a way that it is harmonious with the same desires of not just human beings but all of ecosystem. Even a genuine prayer for someone will do. Enlightenment doesn't mean skies will shower flowers and earth will part and you will get a halo around your head. It happens when you become commonest of the common and see you in the natural scheme around. 

The best bridge between science and spirituality

The strongest bridge ever built to connect Eastern mysticism and Western science. The best digestible concoction prepared by mixing the two apparently contradictory, antipodal substances. Eat this porridge, walk on this bridge and you will realise there is absolutely no difference between spirituality and science. A must read for all educated people out there.

The bulb of life on an electric bulb holder

Well, this bulb holder was lying idle for too long, till it got the attention of natural intelligence. A mud fort in the making. Hope it will cherish the bulbuous fluid in eggs that will sprout the light of life. A wire tailed swallow pair is busy making their mud nest. They pick up mud from rain puddles and deposit it layer by layer, slowly mixing their saliva and droppings in the mixture. During the breeding season their glands have extra salivation equipping them with a suitable adhesive. This is what I call environment friendly birdie cement. My mother has a problem though. She finds it disturbing because at this stage it appears a mud sling on the painted wall. I have convinced her that it will be a very nice, decorative wall hanging once it's completed. Best of luck beautiful birds. They have very bright colours of metallic blue and white.

Awakening the dead

It was a dry, dead branch at the top of an acacia. But that was before the monsoon touched with watery pout, to kiss and infuse greenery even in an otherwise prickly, irritatingly imposing silhouette of the acacia. Overblown life from the surroundings is creeping into the dead wood. The creeper is handing over its extra greenery by climbing over dead pricks and crown the treetop with a symbol of life. The canopy is getting its leafy top. Wonderful greenish encroachment. The birds though may not be happy because this dead branch at the tree top used to be their favourite sentry point to look around.

Dry branch after leafy donation by the creeper

Dry branch when the monsoons arrived and birds had their bare watchtower