Agumbe - Rainforest Rendezvous Recurs II

Completed my annual pilgrimage tour to Agumbe rainforest, here is the link to the photo essay.

 

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/09/agumbe-rainforest-rendezvous-recurs-ii.html

 

Would love to hear your comments and critique.

Sample Photographs

Cheers, Monish

Contradictory proverbs:

Credit to Srikant from my TM Club who compiled this list for one of our TM Sessions.

Contradictory proverbs:

· If at first you don't succeed, try, try again 
Don't beat your head against a brick wall

· Absence makes the heart grow fonder 
Out of sight, out of mind

· You're never too old to learn 
you can't teach an old dog new trick

· Don't judge a book by its cover 
Clothes make the man

· Birds of a feather flock together 
Opposites attract

· The pen is mightier than the sword 
Actions speak louder than words

· The squeaking wheel gets the grease 
Silence is golden

· Many hands make light work 
Too many cooks spoil the broth

· It's better to be safe than sorry 
Nothing ventured, nothing gained

And my mom added to the list :)

Practice makes a man perfect but all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

I call these Indianisms

A forwarded email on the various Indianisms that we use…

"Do one thing ... take this piece of chalk ..."

We are a unique species, aren’t we? Not humans. Indians, I mean. No other race speaks or spells like we do.

Take greetings for example.

A friendly clerk asking me for my name is apt to start a conversation with, “What is your good name?” As if I hold that sort of information close to my heart and only divulge my evil pseudonym. Bizarre.

I call these Indianisms.

Which got me thinking about a compilation, a greatest hits of the most hilarious Indianisms out there. And here they are. The most common ones, and my favorites among them.

1. 'Passing out'

When you complete your studies at an educational institution, you graduate from that institution.

You do not "pass out" from that institution.

To "pass out" refers to losing consciousness, like after you get too drunk, though I’m not sure how we managed to connect graduating and intoxication.

Oh wait … of course, poor grades throughout the year could lead to a sudden elation on hearing you’ve passed all of your exams, which could lead to you actually "passing out," but this is rare at best.

2. 'Kindly revert'

One common mistake we make is using the word revert to mean reply or respond.

Revert means "to return to a former state."

I can’t help thinking of a sarcastic answer every time this comes up.

“Please revert at the earliest.”

“Sure, I’ll set my biological clock to regress evolutionarily to my original primitive hydrocarbon state at 1 p.m. today."

3. 'Years back'

If it happened in the past, it happened years ago, not "years back."

Given how common this phrase is, I’m guessing the first person who switched "ago" for "back" probably did it years back. See what I mean?

And speaking of "back," asking someone to use the backside entrance sounds so wrong.

“So when did you buy this car?”

“Oh, years back.”

“Cool, can you open the backside? I’d like to get a load in.”

4. 'Doing the needful'

Try to avoid using the phrase "do the needful." It went out of style decades ago, about the time the British left.

Using it today indicates you are a dinosaur, a dinosaur with bad grammar.

You may use the phrase humorously, to poke fun at such archaic speech, or other dinosaurs.

“Will you do the needful?”

“Of course, and I’ll send you a telegram to let you know it's done too.”

5. 'Discuss about'

“What shall we discuss about today?”

“Let’s discuss about politics. We need a fault-ridden topic to mirror our bad grammar.”

You don't "discuss about" something; you just discuss things.

The word "discuss" means to "talk about". There is no reason to insert the word "about" after "discuss."

That would be like saying "talk about about." Which "brings about" me to my next peeve.

6. 'Order for'

"Hey, let’s order for a pizza."

"Sure, and why not raid a library while we’re about it.”

When you order something, you "order" it, you do not "order for" it.

Who knows when or why we began placing random prepositions after verbs?

Perhaps somewhere in our history someone lost a little faith in the "doing" word and added "for" to make sure their order would reach them. They must have been pretty hungry.

7. 'Do one thing'

When someone approaches you with a query, and your reply begins with the phrase "do one thing," you're doing it wrong.

"Do one thing" is a phrase that does not make sense.

It is an Indianism. It is only understood in India. It is not proper English. It is irritating.

There are better ways to begin a reply. And worst of all, any person who starts a sentence with "do one thing" invariably ends up giving you at least five things to do.

“My computer keeps getting hung.”

“Do one thing. Clear your history. Delete your cookies. Defrag your hardrive. Run a virus check. Restart your computer... .”

8. 'Out of station'

“Sorry I can’t talk right now, I’m out of station.”

“What a coincidence, Vijay, I’m in a station right now.”

Another blast from the past, this one, and also, extremely outdated.

What's wrong with "out of town" or "not in Mumbai" or my favorite "I'm not here"?

9. The big sleep

"I’m going to bed now, sleep is coming."

"OK, say hi to it for me."

While a fan of anthropomorphism, I do have my limits. "Sleep is coming" is taking things a bit too far.

Your life isn’t a poem. You don’t have to give body cycles their own personalities.

10. 'Prepone'

“Let’s prepone the meeting from 11 a.m. to 10 a.m.”

Because the opposite of postpone just has to be prepone, right?

"Prepone" is probably the most famous Indianism of all time; one that I’m proud of, and that I actually support as a new entry to all English dictionaries.

Because it makes sense. Because it fills a gap. Because we need it. We’re Indians, damn it. Students of chaos theory.

We don’t have the time to say silly things like "could you please bring the meeting forward."

Prepone it is.

There are many more pure grammatical "gems" in what we call Indian English. Perhaps in time I’ll list some more. And perhaps in the near future, we’ll get better at English.

Till then, kindly adjust.

Jungle Lodges Features Monish Matthias

Lucky to have Jungle Lodges feature me in their blog and showcase few photographs shot in Bandipur during April this year 2011.

 

Article - 1

http://www.junglelodges.blogspot.com/2011/07/bandipur-unplanned-getaway-1.html

 

Article - 2

http://www.junglelodges.blogspot.com/2011/07/bandipur-unplanned-getaway-2.html

 

The original article with videos on my blog

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/bandipur-unplanned-getaway.html

 

Have a look and do share your comments,

 

Cheers,

Monish

Biligiriranga Hills a.k.a BR Hills – 2 Wild Days

Superb sightings and a peaceful trip to BR Hills, read the journal and view the photographs and videos on my blog.

 http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/07/biligiriranga-hills-aka-br-hills-2-wild.html

Some samplers of what you can expect :)

 

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/07/biligiriranga-hills-aka-br-hills-2-wild.html

Bandipur - An Unplanned Getaway

Had been to Bandipur National Reserve last month and spend the weekend at JLR. Bandipur the land of tigers and other majestic animals.

Here is the entire trip report with photographs and videos, made a video of a Streak Throated Woodpecker Courtship.

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/bandipur-unplanned-getaway.html

Comments and critique are more than welcome.

m.m

[Educational Field Research] If you are a parent or a teacher we just need 5 minutes of your time.

A few friends are doing a market research for a potential start up, please help.

Can you please fill this up if you are a parent or teacher and forward it on to all your friends.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From:
To:
Sent: Mon, 14 March, 2011 9:25:40
Subject: [Educational Field Research] If you are a parent or a teacher we just need 5 minutes of your time.

Mark Twain once said I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Sir Ken Robinson always maintained that education in many ways dislocates many children from their natural talent.

We need your help for a market survey that's being done to evaluate the quality of field/educational trips conducted by schools for their respective students. We assure you that your five minutes spent here will be well spent towards a goxd change in this area. We thereby request you to fill in the details of your child's excursion trips organized by your child's school. If you have another child please don't think twice open the link again and provide the additional inputs, the more information the merrier.

You could fill this form if you are a parent or if you are a teacher.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop. Mark Twain

Please ask your child if they would like to share what they missed, or what would they have loved to have.

We have already taken 30 seconds of your time, please click on the link below and provide your valuable information (please remember the more you tell us the more you will help us).
Market_Survey_Form_Link
or
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dC1TcjNhSmhUdVU0Ykltc1BsUUtpWlE6MQ#gid=0

PS: Please remember to forward this to all your friends who are either parents or teachers, the more information we have the more effective our analysis can be.

Trust us your few minutes can make a lot of difference in the way your Child sees this World.

Warm Regards,
Market Research Team
(EEE - Educative Exploratory Excursions)

Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read. Someone once said of him: "He doesn't wear socks and forgets to cut his hair. Could be mentally retarded."

Snakes, A Love Story

Recently had been to a 3 day Herpetology Workshop with Gerry Martin, loved it.

Do visit the link for the trip report and the entire set of photographs – here

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/02/snakes-love-story.html

Naja Naja / Spectacled Cobra

m.m

National Geographic Daily Dozen - Agumbe Vine Snake

What Exactly is the Nat Geo's - The Daily Dozen?
The explanation on their website says - "Check back weekdays to see the editor's selections. From the Daily Dozen, a selection of photos will be published monthly in National Geographic magazine."

I am sure there are tons of photographs that are submitted everyday under the 'your shot' category and the great editorial team goes through the photographs and have a dozen photographs finalized for each week of the month. I am really glad they selected a photograph of mine shot in August 2010 in Agumbe, very close to the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS), it is a Green Vine Snake - Oxybelis fulgidus.

This photograph featured in the daily dozen of National Geographic for the week -3 of January 2010
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/daily-dozen

So as I share the photograph I thought I must share a few facts collected from several sources on the web and offline.


> A vine snake is a reptile it is about 1.5-2 meters.
> A vine snake is a remarkably slender snake. It is almost the skinniest snake in the world.
> They lie amid the branches of forest trees, and are almost indistinguishable from the abundant creepers and vines.
> They have sharp rear fangs with mild venom. They are slow moving predators, but in the morning they are very active they snack mainly lizards (sometimes baby 'tiny' birds which are alone in the nest).
> Only two species of green snake exist, known commonly as the rough and the smooth green snake. Five subspecies of green snakes exist, and all are distinguishable by their characteristic bright green color that allows them to easily blend into grass and other vegetation, protecting them from predators and even human detection.
> They track prey using their tongues to detect scents of prey and can even capture prey flying through the air. Green snakes of both species hunt during daylight hours and rest at night.
> A vine snake can extend half of its body into midair when crossing a branch.
> Snake’s scales are made up of something called Keratin, which is the same thing that our fingernails are made from.
> Vine snakes are remarkable because they appear to have binocular vision.
>The green vine snake stays high on trees and looks down to the ground. When a mouse, lizard or nest is found the snake follows the prey a short distance and smells it carefully. If the snake is content with it, it bites into the head and lifts the prey 20–40 cm from the ground. With this the snakes prevents the prey from using its physical strength.
> The vine snake has two larger teeth at the back of its mouth; these teeth permit the toxic saliva to penetrate the wounds and to immobilize the prey. Then it is rapidly swallowed. Once the prey is completely in the snakes body, the vine snake searches for a resting place, usually in the highest point of a tree.
> They usually concentrate on a slow moving prey and concentrate on it for as much as 10 - 20 minutes and keep coming lower to the ground towards its prey and suddenly strikes and gets its prey.

Myth: Vine Snakes are commonly found. It is greatly feared and almost always killed when seen. In many areas, it is unwisely believed that Vine Snakes will nip at a person’s eyes and peck them out. In fact when I around 12 - 14 years and I was in my native place Nagercoil a district in Southern India, my cousins and me saw a green vine snake and instantly few people told me to shield my eyes and move away as they would nip at our eyes, I believed it and moved away, now I can only smile at the myth.

The shots:

m.m

http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.com/2011/02/national-geographic-daily-dozen-agumbe.html

PS: Watch out for my article on the herpetology workshop by Gerry Martin with pictures of several kinds of Snakes.

Furs Fins And Feathers Agumbe Article

Very happy to say that few pictures from my Agumbe Rainforest Expedition with Amogh has been published in the Magazine -'Furs Fins & Feathers' January 2011 Edition. Few quotes attributed to me are also present. Attaching the scanned version of the article, hope you like it.

PDF Document

The Link of the pdf download is here

The entire Agumbe Rainforest Trip Report with pictures and video is here

m.m

Generosity Grace & 2011

Just encountered a small incident and wanted to share it with you all,

I went and bought an Elaneer-neer version - tender coconut with no coconut version, the vendor was sitting by the road side with a towel on his head to protect himself from the surprisingly scorching heat of Bangalore. He cut one and accidentally spilled a little juice out maybe 20%, I wasn't perturbed and I started drinking the juice. He quickly started cutting another small tender coconut and I noticed that I was the only guy there, he offered it to me and I asked him WHY? he said Sir, by mistake I spilled the juice from the first one and hence cut the second one for you. I was pleasantly surprised by his extremely cultured behavior, by his superior customer engagement skills or must I say as in Management parlance Customer Delight, by his generosity (from a man whose margins are in numbers of coconut inventory held / sold), by his grace. Maybe like in the book alchemist, these are all hidden messages for all of us to grab, adopt, learn & use.

In that note may I wish you all a healthy wealthy prosperous successful joy filled active new year 2011. May we all be generous and filled with grace in all activities that we do.

m.m

IIMB-GMITE-2010

I am one of those guys who grew up with the notion that good pieces of literature / write ups are rare and it takes a full moon with streaks of light, free flow of liquor, few acres of green well manicured lawns and finally the winds playing the notes of Mozart. With this notion I have been whiling away time without writing about my one year well spent at IIMB. Publishing few decent shots of IIMB has been delayed a lot due to this laziness well masked behind such conjured notions.

A few years back I applied for this executive management program from IIMB called GMITE - General Management Program for IT Executives with full knowledge that I wasn’t passing the experience criteria. I was just wishfully praying that the selection committee get temporary blindness while going over the experience column on my application, but nothing like that happened and my application was rejected. This program is almost similar to an eMBA or executive MBA. The next year again I threw in the application form sitting at a customer location in Godalming, UK and nothing did materialize. The third year not due to any particular interest but more of a habit I dusted & modified my Statement of Purpose and my Job Profile and filled the application form and sent it across. I remember it was Christmas season and I was in Chennai, the year was 2009. I was checking my mails on the mobile browser and voila I had made it through the selection list. Shock & Surprise were the initial reactions followed by joy, happiness and then finally followed by checking my bank balance for the fee aspect. I was sure I was going to be one of the youngest members of the class at around 4+ years of total experience. Told the happy news to my better half, family & friends and was waiting for the first class to begin in January. Went to IIMB to pay the first term fees and was amazed to see the HUGE (make no mistake H U G E) campus, green (really green), beautiful architecture and bang on the ever crowded Bannerghatta Road. First day was orientation, group photograph, and an awesome session on psychology, human mind & the brain, the session was taken by a qualified doctor from UK. Moral of the session other than lots of amazing facts and informative anecdotes was the fact that the brain can take what ever is thrown to it and hence please learn all the subjects that were to follow in the two semesters. A polite and informative way of getting the point across.

The class was a mix of people with varied experience, starting from 3++ to 20+ years of experience. There was representation from about 40+ companies in our batch.

Following were the major subjects that were part of the program:

Course Map (courtesy Sharath)

Most of the subjects were core for business, management & career growth. We struggled to understand few aspects of core subjects from the Finance & Economics domain and had to put in quite a bit of effort.

Companies (courtesy Sharath)

Now just looking at this map of companies, you can visualize what kind of perspective, knowledge and experience the group brings to the table during discussions, informal chats and table topics. Mind blowing array of unique work cultures, best practices etc.

Every Friday my day started at around 6 early morning to wake up, get ready, check the time table and pack my bag and get to college. Breakfast was at college combined with discussions with friends on the week that went by and the class ahead. We also caught up on several interesting discussions on the entrepreneurial aspirations of many and yes, about the assignments as well. Classes began at 8.00 am and the professors would start their wonderful delivery of the subject. The beauty of such top notch colleges stem from none other than the professors and the students. The professors were unbelievably awesome and yes we students were decent too (hope so :P). It was tough during the initial few weeks to get used to sitting long hours at one place and listening to lectures, it was like we were revisiting school after gaining some experience. We also used to have some eventful discussions moderated by the Profs. Then slowly the assignments started, few assignments used to take up weekends and threw my travel schedules out of the window. After class we used to be treated to some soulful food, it was some kind of penance from the college for the day long sessions. After that I used to leave to office.It was quite strange to reach office at 3.00 pm as it was the time people generally leave on Fridays. I used to walk into office amidst a few weird glares from people.

Eventually May came and my birthday went without a big bang as it was also exam time, nights became short, coffee became stronger and my eyes widened. I somehow managed to do decently well in all my papers. A week or two was our holiday break a.k.a summer vacation. We were back to campus and the same schedule started and before we realized we had hit upon the electives. I chose Strategic Marketing and Business Intelligence and had fun. The Final week was hellish and had few friends compare it to the Army Hell Week. We had classes in the morning and exams in the late evening. I travelled around 400 kms in one week, my day used to start at 5:30, used to get ready and reach college and we used to have class from 8 -5 and then exams from 5:30 - 7:30 -- 8:30 and by the time I reached home it used to be 10 and then study for a few hours for the next exam and sleep. Whoa it was fanatical but I really loved and lived up to the challenge.

Last few weeks, a bunch of like minded photographers got together and walked around campus clicking, shooting, and capturing anything that moved & stood still - almost everything. We couldn’t do too much justice to the great campus of IIMB. Anyways I am sharing the pictures below; please do share your comments and critique.

I call this set the

‘Battle between Light & Darkness’
‘The Dance of Light & Shadow’

All the pictures and the video have been shot with a 5 year old P&S Canon S3 IS camera. Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
Monish