Little Green Bee-eater

The first bird that I spotted on my window was the Little Green Bee-eater, a very colorful and pleasant bird. I'm adding a little more information about it below.



This species is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is about 9 inches (16-18 cm) long with about 2 inches made up by the elongated central tail-feathers. The crown and upper back are tinged with golden rufous. The flight feathers are rufous washed with green and tipped 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.

We can see the Golden Crown clearly in the image below.



The neck can be seen in this image, asian green bee-eaters usually dont have a prominent blue neck like their Arabian counterparts, but the shade of blue can be noticed.




Just as the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and ants, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch.






Ref: Wikipedia, Google.
Motivation by: http://klishmaklaver.blogspot.com/

The New Year's Moon

We had such a hype of the blue moon on the new years eve, that I couldn't fight the urge to stay inside, and despite of the eclipse and I found myself out on my terrace clicking pictures of the moon. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when I saw that the moon was not "Blue". A bit of research told me that the moon is not really blue but then the eclipse occurs twice so its called a blue moon. I still clicked the "Blue Moon". And I clicked a half moon too a couple of days back, so thought I'll post both of them.

I personally like the half moon, how about u ?

Birds from my window

Its been a while I got a new SLR and I've been experimenting a lot with it lately but most of the pics that i had clicked were of family only. But only in the new year I started to click random stuff. The very first ones were the cutie pie birds that I clicked from my window, which reminds me of my Director Mr. Nishikant Mukherjee, who was clicking pictures for his book, 'Birds from my window', I hope I can be half that lucky to find enough birds on my window too.

These are some from the first week.

P.S. :I'm really very new to photography, please feel free to criticize or applaud.

The Bus Journey

‘Hi Sameer, you are looking really happy today, is it love or is it dove?’ mocked my colleague as I entered my workplace.

‘Neither’, I said with a smile ‘I’m going back home for a week.’

‘Even better, enjoy the holidays.’

It was my first leave after 2 years and I was delighted. The day went as usual and I completed my work by 5 in the evening. I carried my luggage to office that day not knowing if I’d be able to finish my work early. I had forgotten my mobile charger and the battery was already a bit low. I left office and started for the bus station. In about 30 minutes I was at the bus stop. I had booked my tickets for the 7 p.m. bus and was sitting idly reading my book. Almost 1 hour passed and the bus arrived at 6:45. As I was getting up, I saw a well dressed man hurry to the ticket office. The bus cleaner took about 10 minutes to tidy the bus and by that time I called up at home and told them the bus number MH31 5055 and the time of arrival 7 am. As I was about to pick up my luggage to board the bus, I saw that man again, this time right in front of me.

‘I know I am troubling you, but I really need to get on this bus. I have an emergency and the next bus is at 10 pm. Please help me out. I would pay double the amount for the ticket, please let me travel on your seat.’

‘But even I need to be home early tomorrow’, I tried to argue.

‘I have purchased the ticket for the 10 pm bus, you can take this too.’

‘Not a bad deal’, I thought and agreed, took my fare and the 10 p.m. ticket and started reading the book again.

I had dinner and boarded the bus at 10 p.m., tuned in my IPod and went off to sleep. At about 2 a.m. the bus stopped in the jungle due to a flat tire. With nothing more to do I dozed off. In the morning I got to know that they took almost 2 hours to repair the puncture and we were about 3 hours off the scheduled time. When I reached the destination it was almost 1 in the noon.

The bus stop was walking distance from my place, so I decided to walk. When I reached home I saw a big crowd gathered around my house. A chill ran down my spine. What must have happened? Was papa alright? He didn’t keep well these days and that was one reason for me to come home. Even my younger brother rides the bike rashly? Did anything happen to him? I almost ran to my house, trying to push everyone aside as I tried to go in.

I could hear murmurs all around me.

‘He was such a good man.’ ‘How can god be so ignorant to good people?’ ‘God bless his soul.’ ‘This is such a great loss to the family.’

And suddenly I heard a shout from behind me, ‘Sameer’s here.’ There was pin drop silence for a moment and everyone turned to look at me.

The murmurs started getting louder. ‘What happened?’ I asked ‘tell me, is everyone all right?’

I glanced around the room to see my brother and my mother sitting at the far corner of the room. They stood up and ran towards me. I could see multiple emotions on their face at once. ‘What happened?’ I thought trying to clear my mind. And then I saw a small framed photograph on the table besides them. I squinted to see it clearly. It was my father’s photograph. He passed away this morning when he heard that the bus number MH31 5055 had met with an accident.

I wish I had not been ignorant and charged my mobile. I wish I had informed my family that I had changed my schedule. I wish I was responsible enough to understand why my father would always tell me ‘Keep calling, wherever you go.’


Epilogue: This story is dedicated to the several youngsters who get irritated when their parents ask them where they are. They feel the parents are not giving them the ‘FREEDOM’ they deserve. Please think twice before you switch off you mobile or ignore calls from your parents.

The Last Meeting ...

It had been 4 years today. On first thoughts, it felt like it was just yesterday, when they met each other and as he drove down to the florist to buy a bouquet for her, all the memories rushed back in his mind. He distinctly remembered the way they first met. After all, it was the same day, 4 years back.

That was one accident he didn’t regret at all, although he had a hairline fracture, it was worthwhile because that was the first time he had met her.

It was about 7 in the morning and he was going for his tuition classes. Standing at the traffic signal waiting for the lights to go green, he was casually glancing around, when he heard a loud scream accompanied by screeching of tires. And before he knew what was happening, he was on the ground with his bike over him. He turned around and was about to throw a volley of obscenities, when he saw a girl flat on the road with her scooty over her. She was carrying a couple of books and some flowers and was dressed like she was going somewhere important. As he got up pushing aside his bike, he saw the girl struggling to get up, tears running down her face. He felt a pang of guilt, not knowing why, and he went over to help her. Maybe the guilt was because he didn’t like to see the tears in her eyes. Her eyes were beautiful, dark and big. She had put some mascara too, which emphasized the size a bit more and as the tears ran down her eyes, the mascara left a dark trail all along her cheeks.

‘I’m sorry’, he said instinctively and what happened afterwards made him realize that he was in love. She gave him an innocent and confused look, tears still running down her face. Without saying a word she stood up and started gathering her things. While helping her, he saw a greeting card too, a birthday card.

‘I’m sorry’, he said again, ‘I spoiled your birthday.’

‘It’s not your fault, I couldn’t control my scooty. It’s me who should be sorry; I hope you are not hurt.’

‘No, I’m ok.’ I said but by then the pain had started to overpower all the other emotions. He saw one more rose lying on the road. He picked it up and handing it over to her, he said ‘Happy Birthday.’

She couldn’t help but smile and he realized that he had a crush on her. She invited him to her party in the evening and he obliged. Days went by and they fell deeper and deeper in love.

‘Here’s your change’, said the florist, pulling him back out of his memories. ‘Do you need a card over it?’

‘No, Thanks’, he said and walked out of the shop, heading to the destination of the meeting. It was just 5 mins walk from the florist’s shop. He reached quickly and walked directly to her.

‘Happy Birthday Sweetheart, how are you? It’s been so long since we last met but I’ve missed you with every passing day. I can’t tell you how I’ve desired to be by your side, to hold you and be close to you. I’ve missed your smile, your touch and your fragrance. It becomes difficult at times to stay away from you and I feel like crying but you know na, I’ve promised you that I would never cry. I love you honey’

Saying this he put the bouquet down over her grave and tears ran down his cheeks as he made the long walk back out of the gate.