Rewind 2014

Coming from 2013, this has been a fast year...a very fast one indeed :)

2014 has been exciting in more than one ways for me and I personally am ending it on a high and very well looking forward to 2015.

January - A start to the year with a visit to my personally favorite destination, Dandeli. A solo trip and a nice meet up with some wonderful travel bloggers. Another trip back our favorite jaunt, this time with the group and the year starts with a bang with a much cherished sighting of the Great Hornbill, something that I was waiting for years.

February - A special day when your blog is recognized as the 'best travel blog' by BlogAdda here. Bird survey at Melagiris and a much awaited visit to the Seethanadi camp kept be busy through the month.

March - Awed by the sight of congregation of more than 5000 Bar headed Geese at Magadi lake, Gadag... a conservation success story indeed. Bird estimate in Nilgiris (around Mukurthi) and some fine birding there at Ooty.

April - June - dry months for the year... probably a first time witnessed such a lean period due to hectic work schedules.

July - A long pending trip to the heaven, Kashmir/Ladakh, courtesy Amith, the traveler and a wish fulfilled and a dream accomplished... way to go!
After the Adda award, a quick weekend to Goa to test drive the new Tata Zest as a top blogger, an event where I met a lot of awesome bloggers from different worlds.

Aug-Sep - 2nd set of dry months for the year... well...!

Oct-Nov - the volunteering work started in full force... volunteering for crowd/traffic management at Bandipur during Dasara/Deepawali and jaathre (temple fair) times, lots of appreciation and new learnings.

Dec - Closing the year with yet again a trip to our favorite jaunt, the Old Magazine House at Ganeshgudi.

Been a hectic and a fast paced year that had a lot of challenges for me and ending the year on a high with an apt change in the professional life and looking forward to 2015 with a lot of plans and hopes.

Being true to self, blogging took a backseat and I appreciate all the readers/followers who have steadfast been with me, trust and hope will be posting more content on regularity henceforth :)

Three Cheers!

Volunteers Training Program (VTP)

Sometime last year (2013), I got an opportunity to attend the Volunteers Training Program (VTP) conducted by the Karnataka Eco-Tourism Development Board (www.karnatakaecotourism.com) in association with Jungle Lodges and Resorts (JLR - www.jungelodges.com), a week long extensive program with theoretical as well as field sessions to train an individual as a eco-volunteer to assist the forest department in their various activities.

Course content: A diverse course covering all aspects of forests, wildlife, conservation, role of photographers and much more that enables an individual to grasp what happens on a day-to-day basis and what are the challenges than an forest department employee faces and the field sessions like walking the beats along with the forest guards helps you gauge the amount of hard work they put in to conserve the forests and wildlife.

Sitting in air conditioned rooms and blasting out the keyboards on the laptops, we post, like, dislike, comment, share and are very critical of any happenings related to forests or the staff or the tigers or elephants etc.. It's only when you get out on to the field, get in the shoes of a daily wage watcher, eat what they eat and sleep where they do (cut off from their families for months together), you realize how important their role is and how important they are to conserve of what is left today; It literally strikes you in the face the harsh, raw realities that they go through day in and out.

We had various topics that we were briefed on and I'll list out some that I recollect...
> National Parks and Sanctuaries
> History and Role of National Parks
> Mammals  - Introduction and Classification
> Birds - Identifying them
> Reptiles and Amphibians
> Lesser Fauna
> Life in an APC
> Tracks and Signs
> Role of a Eco Volunteer and Expectations
> Tools of the trade

We had talks too by various personalities ranging from park directors to botanists to conservationists to wildlife experts and let me list few that I can recollect
> Role of a Wildlife Photographer and Ethics
> Photography as a tool for Conservation
> Nature Inspires
> Taxonomy of Plants

> NTCA protocols and guidelines
> Wildlife Protection Acts and Schedules
> Man-Animal conflicts
> Wildlife crime
> Poachers and their operative methods
> Initiatives so far

Field sessions
> Walking the 'beats' along with the forest guards on their regular routine
> All about Camera trapping
> GPS tracking
> Bird watching and notes

It was an eye-opener for me and an opportunity to learn many new things (that I never knew) and improving on knowledge of many other facts and at the end committing ourselves to help the department in their various activities and protecting/conserving what we are left with.

To sign up to be a Ceritified Volunteer, please follow this link.


coming up next: Interesting learning's and what are we doing as volunteers now...

Dasara Dolls

Dasara is one among the important festivals in India spanning over a period of 10 days symbolizing the victory of good over evil. Dasara is also the state-festival of Karnataka.

Keeping dolls is a tradition that has come along with the festival since a long time and displaying your collectibles and in themes is a time consuming and patient affair. Whilst this practice has dwindled over the years owing to the lack-of-time generation that we are in, some do put in their efforts in keeping this going.

While we didn't have this practice all these years, we have started this over the last couple of years that keeps the kids engaged and enthralled and is a wonderful way to narrate stories and events of our wonderful mythology that is so fascinating how many ever times you get to know about it...

Let me show you our setup since the past couple of years...

(2012 arrangement of the dolls in 4 steps)

(2013 arrangement of the dolls with few additions)

(2014 setup was much more extensive than seen here... bigger than the previous years with multiple new sets displayed)

If you have any similar collections, do let me know through a comment below.