Of birds and beasts, but mostly birds

Greater One Horned Rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park (Photo credit: WWF)

The first conservation area that I remember going to is the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in Rajasthan, India. The first one I’d ever been to, however, was when I was very young. We went to Kaziranga National Park in Assam, famous for its Greater One Horned Rhinoceros. My family went on safari on elephant back. I, unfortunately, have no recollection of this treat. Besides, as it turns out, the elephant ride and the rhinos didn’t capture my interest. According to my father, who loves to tell this story, I was more interested in the cow that was crossing the road in front of our jeep on our way home, squealing “Ow! Ow!” with delight as soon as I saw it.

The Bird Sanctuary was one of my favorite things about living in Bharatpur. You could take a rickshaw through it – something I did, sandwiched between my grandmothers. There are two memories that stand out more that the others however.

Nasty creatures (Photo credit: WWF)

The first is of when we had family come to visit us, my maternal uncle, Sammy, being among them. My parents planned a bicycle ride through the Sanctuary for everyone. I got to perch on the crossbar of my uncle’s bicycle. Somewhere half way through the Sanctuary,while I was enjoying the view, the wind snaking its way through my braids and the view and stuffing my mouth with sweeties that I got the fright of my young life: A baboon, taking a fancy to my treat, jumped onto my uncle’s arm. Whether it jumped up from the side of the road or dropped down from an overhanging branch, I don’t know. All I  do remember is turning my head to find myself within 30 centimeters from a pink bottomed beast with its mouth wide open, fangs dripping saliva.

Presumably his mouth was watering with the anticipation of stuffing the remaining sweets into his mouth! I was too startled to do anything but stare. Before I could digest the fact that I was close enough to be well and truly mauled by a wild monkey that was probably rabid and carrying a number of other diseases, my uncle shook it off his arm and into the bushes. How Uncle Sammy did that without getting a single scratch, I’ve never discovered.

The second memory I have involves snakes:

Gi’e us yer money!

It’s for a good cause, I promise.

Toronto has been experiencing a heat wave. It started the same day I began my first job in over six months. Seeing as this new job was as a door to door salesperson, I wasn’t particularly pleased about the sudden hike in temperature. Perhaps I should have recognized the heat wave for the bad omen it turned out to be.

Note to self: If a heat wave begins on the same day as your new job, make sure you have a backup plan for employment.

Besides, a job as a door to door salesperson/promoter is exactly as you would have imagined it to be. I like to think I`m a pretty good sales person. I should be; I have enough experience in the field, nevertheless, I was a little nervous. What if I was unable to convince people that they should give some of their hard earned money to me? I felt better about the fact that we weren’t selling some horribly product no one actually needs. Instead we were promoting a rather worthy cause, one in desperate need of support from the community.

But let’s face it, door to door salespeople are treated only marginally better than telemarketers. So the butterflies weren’t completely unwarranted, heat wave or no.

Summer flowers

People in my neighbourhood take a real interest in their gardens. Nowhere else in Toronto have I seen such a variety of beautiful flowers.

A mystical creature

It came ambling out of the darkness, a fairytale creature only seen on warm, dark evenings.

An illustration by Meredith Bonsall.

Inspired by the post “Late night strolls in a city”. http://goo.gl/zyJlg

I remember cassettes. Oh and the original Footloose is way better than the remake!

 As a kid it used to really annoy me when I used to watch movies or listen to songs and my step-dad, Chris, would say, “Oh, so-and-so sang the original.” This would inevitably be followed by something along the lines of ”Have you ever heard/seen it? Can’t beat the original.”I would feel the urge to roll my eyes and snort at how some old movie/song could possibly be better than the new one! With songs at least I used to end up listening to the original and for the most part (possibly out of stubbornness) preferred the remake.

I remember when ‘It’s Raining Men’ by the Spice Girls was on the radio all the time. Only it’s not

Divorce and the Scorn of Religion

Reblogged from homophilosophicus:

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Last year I came across an article about a proposed two year marriage contract in Mexico City. There is a fifty percent divorce rate in the city and on average these take place two years after the wedding. By having these two year contracts, couples can choose to either renew the contract or call it quits. Or so the idea goes. 

Read more… 649 more words

Written for homophilosophicus.wordpress.com

Plastic money

It’s taken over our lives.

In her song, The Fear, Lily Allen sings “I’m packing plastic, And that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic, And I am a weapon of massive consumption, And it’s not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function”. I have to say since I started packing plastic (once I’d headed to university) I’ve felt pretty damn good too. I’ve been far too dependent on my bank cards, and have been using them like magic wands. If I were to say “wingardium leviosa” while holding my debit card, I half expect things to start floating.

“Tick, tock, ladies. Tick, tock!”

I’ve read at least two articles in the past year about how the role of the ‘modern man’ has changed so dramatically in the last five years or so. There are so many more stay at home dads now, quite happy to do so while the wife works and is the sole source of income. I rather enjoy those articles, and I think it’s about time it became more widely acceptable for men to stay at home, if they so choose. However, we shouldn’t be patting ourselves on the back, congratulating ourselves about how wonderful it is that gender roles are changing and there’s more equality. Not yet.

To be able to buy a goddam Cadillac!

I had to read J D Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” in 11th grade for my Text and Performance class. I can still remember when I first picked up the book. I had a worn copy and the first few pages were missing, and somehow I didn’t realise that till after I’d finished the book. My classmates kept talking about the nervous breakdown Holden Caulfield, the protagonist, had which had led to him being hospitalised. I didn’t know what they were talking about. Quite frankly, other than trying to figure out how they’d came to that conclusion, I was more intrigued by the way Holden saw the world. The swearing didn’t bother me, but Holden’s view of the world did. On some level I connected, and I suppose I still do.

All Ye Faithful, did you go to the Santa Claus Parade?

Growing up in India I always looked forward to one thing when Christmas came around, and it wasn’t presents. Every Christmas eve my family would go carol singing with a group of roughly 15 people. A bus would take us from one parishioner’s home to the next, where we would sing Christmas carols with the family, nibble on fruitcake and chakris. It was the one night of the year that I got to stay up till after midnight, which just added to the fun of it all. As a kiddie, Christmas meant caroling, my dad’s delicious ginger punch, church, and getting together with extended family.