Chunty aur Putti

Two days back I read in newspapers that some people kill squirrels for their `fur’ and skin in Bangalore. Well, this is a different story. Just read on…

One day I received a call from my poet friend LP. He wanted to know how and what to feed squirrel babies. I had read about people rearing squirrels and also that when they grow up they go out into the trees but still visits their foster parents once in a while. Though I knew that they eat nuts and since they are mammals they sure would drink milk. He asked me whether milk can be fed using a dropper/ink filler. I contacted one of my veterinarian friends. He also suggested a dropper but it should not be forced for it may choke the baby. My friend asked me to visit their squirrel babies. I rushed with my camera.



LP's rendezvous with the baby squirrles happened by accident. That morning LP and wife C left their home to the bus stop. They heard high pitched cries of squirrel babies near the gate of a house. They saw two squirrel babies. They also saw a crow on the gate. They sensed danger and chased the crow away. They waited there for some time hoping for the return of the mother squirrel. It was getting late for them. They knocked on the door of the house in front of which the squirrel babies were screaming and they requested the lady of the house to keep the squirrel babies in a basket and to release them if their mother comes around. If their mother fails to come, they said they would take them to their house in the evening. Carefully they placed them in a basket.



On their return in the evening the lady said that their mother has not arrived and she was doubtful of mother squirrel’s survival. She also said the babies have not eaten anything though they were given banana, rice etc. LP and C took the squirrel babies to their house and it was then they called me.



LP brought an ink filler and tried feeding milk. They drank a little bit. To improvise it, he wound a rubberband in front of the ink filler. It acted as a grip for the babies to hold on with their front legs while drinking milk. They recovered slowly and in a few days they became milk guzzlers. Though the quantity of milk they were drinking was less, they needed to be fed frequently- once in 3-4 hours. LP stopped going outside and even if he went he would return with in 3 hours to feed them. His midnight sleep also was in breaks as he used to get up in the night 2 times to feed them. LP said that one was a male and another female and he used to call them Chanti and Putti. Chunty was very weak and they were very much concerned about its survival and they used to take special care of him. Gradually they graduated from milk to bananas, apples. They tried all types of fruits. However rice flour was their favourite food.



They were scampering all around the house. They were recognising the voice of their foster parents and used to respond whenever they called. LP rolled a mat and kept it in a corner and were allowing them to climb them so that they can practice tree climbing. After 2 months they used to leave them on their balcony. Whenever they saw a shadow of a crow or heard the voice of a crow they would rush inside the house. Later they started to go out in to the terrace and return in the evening to the house. One day they did not return and C was worried. LP comforted her, saying they were no more babies and it is inevitable that they should leave them. After 2 days they returned, but not together. Now Chunty and Putti were living seperately on their own.



It is more than One year now. They are fully grownup and have their own mates. They visit LPs almost everyday and respond to their calls. Still today they buy a lot of eatables for them- corn, peanuts, rice flour and leave them outside where they regularly come to eat. They recognise their foster parents and eat from their hand. Now, who adopted whom is not yet clear.

Music of the monsoon

There were all the signs of arrival of the monsoon. As I left office cool breeze consoled my parched body. I was waiting to hear the music of the first rain. Even in burning summer I enjoyed getting drenched in `Garjat Aaye' and `Badarwa Barsan lage' in Raga Sur Malhar by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Madhu Malhar by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.
But, what I was going to experience was a different music- thunder, lightning and the lashing first rain of the season. Soon after arrival at home I went to the terrace with my camera as if it was my first rain of my life. How many rainy seasons I have seen in my life! Each one totally different!



Memories of my rain drenched days at Virajpet, Kodagu are still wet. Though my physical health did not enjoy the seemingly perpetual rain, my mind enjoyed it to the brim. My experiences of bike rides from Virajpet to Madikeri and back in nonstop rain- probably I would never get that back. Rain in Kodagu- where it was raining for almost 6 months in a year is totally of different sort compared to our plainland rains. There was no thunder, no lightening and no variation in the downpour. No variation is little boring, but it is the giver of life! All the life depends on rain. People grumble about sweating heat, trees silently shed their leaves, but all life waits for it. Fans and airconditioners are deceptive and a mockery of cool monsoon breeze.
On the terrace of my home, I saw enveloping dark clouds and pouring rain at a distance. Can my camera catch the coolness of the comforting breeze? Can it smell the aroma of soil aroused by the rain? The darkness of the clouds is neither gloomy nor sinister; in the depths of its darkness hides the light of life and the music of monsoon.

Cartoon!

Here is another of my cartoons. I am trying to learn coloring in photoshop.

This time let us get down to monkey business!

Of all the simians Bonnet macaques are an interesting lot. They are amazing creatures because of their inordinate ability to successfully adopt to almost any kind of environment and the intense love–hate relationship that they enjoy with the people of southern India. They are ubiquitous in India. They have a tendency to settle in and around human habitations, may be because of easy availability of food. This tendency has often naturally led to serious conflict between the monkeys and the people whose crops and homes they raid; such situations continue to remain problematic even today.
As a kid I was very afraid of them. They were there every where in town and occasionally snatched our school bags thinking it contained eatables. They snatched eatables from our hands too. It was still horrible at Antharagange Hills. We were never allowed to have a peaceful outdoor meal. They were so experts in snatching the food, they come from behind and before you notice and raise an alarm your food is gone. They are a nuisance and a nightmare.
Inspite of all this, people call them as monkey gods and very rarely kill them. Dead monkeys are given a ritual burial. Watching them is an enjoyable experience, particularly young ones- they are very playful, naughty and very `human'. I tried to photograph a pair of playing macaque infants on Nandi Hills. They were so agile and active, I could never freeze in my camera. Children many a times are scolded for `acting like monkeys'. Mother macaques with babies are so graceful and protective.
I tried to photograph them whenever I had camera. This snap was taken at Mysore Chamundi Hills


This one at Lepakshi, Andhra Pradesh



and this one at Tirupati.



Rest of the snaps were taken at Nandi Hills.
And now for some scientific information. Scientifically they belong to Family Cercopithecidae and its scientific name is Macaca radiata. There are two subspecies in it. Bonnet macaques as their name suggest, appear to be wearing a hat, due to the peculiar lay of their fur. They have a life span of over 30 years. They live in multi-male, multi-female groups with up to 12 males and 15 females.



This species defends territories and moves as a cohesive group. They are diurnal, and spend their time in the trees and on the ground. After a gestation period of 165 days, females give birth to one young, which weighs about 400g at birth. The tail is two-thirds the length of the body. They are omnivorous and eat almost everything- fruits, seeds, leaves, flowers, and animal prey, including insects, lizards, and frogs.



Male and female behavioral differentiation is part of infant socialization. The infant monkey builds its social network through the contacts it makes with others in its society. Male and female infants begin relatively early to emphasize different relationships and activities. Bonnet macaque infants are integrated into society by developing a social network including virtually all members of the society. Females develop their network primarily through grooming and remain closely associated with their mothers. Males rely more heavily on the play group, which includes participating subadult and adult males. These contacts with adult representatives give models for the developing behavioral roles.
They have various signals for communication and expression. Among tactile signals the most important one is the grooming; among visual the body movement, more particularly the face and jaws; among auditory the groaning and shrieking; among olfactory the sniffing. Analysis of such a study reveals that the bonnet monkeys have a communicative system and an organization of their own, which though principally are the same as in other primates, do entail a few minor differences. These features though primitive from the standards of human consideration, are developed to their full advantage, but still remain at a primitive level. By far, the greatest part of the whole system of communication seems to be devoted to the organization, of the social behavior of the group, to dominance and subordination, the maintenance of peace and cohesion of the group, reproduction and care of the young.



Young ones usually remain in their natal group throughout their lives, and during adulthood, form strong, linear, matrilineal dominance hierarchies with daughters occupying dominance ranks just below those of their mothers. Females usually develop close affiliative relationships, with high levels of allogrooming exchanged between genetic relatives as well as between unrelated individuals across the dominance hierarchy. Juvenile and adult males usually emigrate from their natal troops, another typical cercopithecine feature.

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In terms of sexual behaviour, bonnet macaques are typically promiscuous with ample mating opportunities for both males and females. Adult males appear to follow different sexual strategies, with some males forming consortships of varying periods of time while others simply copulate opportunistically with the available females. Finally, although bonnet macaque females appear to be remarkably undiscriminating, mating freely with males of all ages and ranks, females often actively exercise mate choice by rather subtle manipulative strategies. Bonnet macaque females also clearly prefer to sexually solicit new immigrant males over resident males, even if the latter are much more dominant.
Reference:
Anindya Sinha, Kakoli Mukhopadhyay, Anirban Datta-Roy and Sunita Ram, Ecology proposes, behaviour disposes: Ecological variability in social organization and male behavioural strategies among wild bonnet macaques, Current Science, 89, No. 7, October, 2005.
Anindya Sinha, The Bonnet Macaque Revisited: Ecology, Demography and Behaviour, Envis Bulletin: Wildlife and Protected Areas, 1(1), 30–39, 2001.

Footloose in the mystic mountains

It was the time when summer and monsoon meet. It started raining when we reached Mallandur enroute to Muthodi forests from Chikmagalore. Just two days rain had changed the weather, geography and as well as our minds. The single road, sharp curves and deep gorges had brought on us an unexplainable fear and everyone was silent. We had to reach that place before sunset and there was a sense of hurry in our silence. The sound of the water flowing in the adjacent valley, rain dripping on our car and the various bird calls was like an archestra playing a new nature `raga'. The last three kilometres stretch road to Shigekan where the forest guest house stood was still trecherous and slippery because of incessant rain. The huge trees which were burnt down by lightning stood like pillars watching us. Fresh elephant dung on the way increased our heartbeat. We thought our vehicle wouldnot make that stretch and the journey seemed unending, but everyone let a sigh of relief when we finally made it just before sunset.



We were dumbfounded by the amazing sight of the forest and the blue mountains. A sea of green forest on all the sides and hills covering them as if not to let them go out. Our minds crumpled by the unexplainable fear and exhaustion burstout in joy and the exclamations were as varied as the chirping of birds.



The mystic beauty of the mountains- was it because of the rain which had drenched everything in sight? Or was it because of the misty clouds which had formed a bridge between earth and heavens? One becomes silent and engrossed and the pleasure of enjoying nature which cannot be explained surrounds the soul.



The different windows of the mind keeps opening till you are amazed at their sheer number and you see a new and different sight from each of them. We surrender without murmur to the complexities of the nature's mysteries or is it as Mahatma Gandhi said because of the simplicity of the expression of nature itself!

There was no electricity in the guesthouse and no television which made us more sensitive to the sounds of the forest. It rained whole night and strange sounds created strange images in our dreams.



Early morning before sunrise I woke up and sat in the balcony to watch the play of sunlight and shadows. As sun cast his glow hills turned to strange blue- mystic blue- the sight I had never seen anywhere before.

Mystical Blue!


I began to wonder at my perception- how much is truth and how much of it is illusion? When the innumerable windows of the mind are open to the mysteries of nature, what you see through them is not important, rather how you see through them becomes important. The perceived truth is relative and that truth becomes a fact (to you and only to you) only when you live it.

Bison


In the forest we saw a lot of peacocks, bisons, deers and a three hundred year old teak tree with an enlightened new vision.

Three hundred year old teak tree


While returning from the deep forest to the guest house, road was blocked by the uprooted trees which was cleared by all of us including children.

Road Block


Rainy poured incessantly

Rain did not stop. We had to move out of the forest. While on our way back I remembered a Zen saying: `Before enlightenment forests were forests and mountains were mountains; After enlightenment forests are still forests and mountains are still mountains'. The experience which we may call mystical is the experience of of the heart. The vision that transforms us transforms the world. Or is it the otherway round?