Welcome to my jungle!

It's been almost a year, to the day, since my last post! I have to put it down to a combination of blogger's block and photographer's block, I guess. Poor excuses, no doubt and thanks to my good friend Balaji for bringing the Rambler home!


Over the years, we have all had reason to bemoan the price that we have had to pay for urbanisation and the virtual disappearance of several things that were such an integral part of our childhoods. Large open spaces, the ubiquitous sparrow, the ‘Rita’ ice cream push cart, ‘Drive-in’ Woodlands and the milling crowds at first division cricket matches, are but a few of the sights and smells of Madras, that now belong in history books.


Inevitably, the old single and two storey houses have given way to apartment blocks and Madras has emulated its ‘metro’ cousins, Bombay and Delhi in becoming a concrete jungle. Thankfully, however, Madras still has more green cover than most cities in the country - at least that’s the impression you get, when you see it from the air. Perhaps, it has to do with the expanse of the Guindy forest, from IIT to the Raj Bhavan and equally, to havens like the Theosophical Society. But it is true that we still have the luxury of tree lined avenues, public parks – several of them well maintained – and private homes that usually boast of a couple of coconut trees, a mango tree or perhaps a neem tree, plus a smattering of flowering plants.

Over the years, as I have lamented the above chronicled changes, I have also had occasion to observe and welcome (??) a few visitors of the non human variety, as they have chosen at various times, to make the trees and shrubs around our house their temporary abodes and on occasion, gone a little further too!! From squirrels that chose to nest in the cups of our ceiling fans and a cat that chose my son's cupboard to litter in, to a baby mynah taking her first flying lessons and a certain slithering green reptile who took a liking to our wrought iron staircase, we've had some variety for sure; And then of course, the amazing array of birds and their music!


To this day, I am blessed to awaken to a chatter of sounds and birdsong and momentarily forget the concrete jungle around me. At dawn and the hours immediately preceding and succeeding it, you would almost believe that you were some place else. Welcome to my jungle! As always, please click on the images to see full size images.

Black rumped flameback

Love is.... sharing a meal!

To fly or not to fly?

Green vine snake

Indian Koel female

Indian Koel male

rufous treepie