A Wandering Mind

Sunday mornings are meant for relaxation... to catch up on some much needed sleep. But when opportunity beckons, even the little chap who struggles to get out of bed for school, is up and awake with the first ring of the alarm, eager to be on his way. Such a long awaited opportunity came our way this Sunday, with the BNHS organising a bird watching trip to the Bhandup Pumping station.

The first time we went to see the Flamingoes of Mumbai at Sewri with the BNHS , we were enraptured by these beautiful birds, and were surprised by the number of birds, not just flamingoes, which arrived in this crowded metropolis! Since then, we twice lost the opportunity of joining the BNHS on their bird watching trips, due to prior engagements. I had lost all hopes of seeing these birds again this year, but thankfully, Adesh Shivkar of the Mumbai Bird Club announced a birding trail to Sewri this Saturday, and I jumped at the chance to take Samhith along on another bird-watching jaunt. This time , I also roped along my friend, Usha , who will shortly be shifting to Delhi . She had to go somewhere else, but agreed to join me and Samhith for at least a couple of hours. So, the three of us set off at the break of dawn to see what and how many birds we were able to identify! The very first sight that met us at Sewri was a sea of pink, the flamingoes much closer than they were, the las...

Every journey is a pathway to knowledge , or so it is for many moms, who try to look for opportunities to teach their children no matter where they go. Regretfully, I am slowly arriving at the realization that I am just like them all. I keep looking out for something for Samhith which will be fun and out of the ordinary, but with an element of education. Among my first attempts in this direction was the flamingo watch trip organized by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), which Samhith really enjoyed. You can read about it here . Emboldened by our first venture , I signed up for the Family Camp organized by BNHS at their Conservation Education Centre (CEC) at Goregaon. I wanted to not only teach Samhith more about nature, I also wanted to give him a taste of staying overnight with others apart from our family members. It was easy to sign up for the camp, the forms being available on their website . I simply had to send them a cheque along with the form. The charges were Rs.1...

I began this blog almost a year and a half ago – to be precise, on the 17th of November, 2007. Over the years, I have traveled quite a lot, and during the last year and a half, have written about my experiences too. It has been a wonderful journey, meeting like minded people and learning about new places too, discovering much about myself too. Thanks, Sandhya, for encouraging me to blog! As a celebration, here is a post about two places I have visited recently, or rather, to be accurate, a trailer of what is to come soon, within the next week. …. and Two Travelogues Coming Up!!!! Travel, they say, broadens the mind – be it a short trip just to a place you haven’t been before, or to a place you have visited a number of times. So it has been with me too. Over the last two weeks, I have visited two places – one right in my backyard, so to speak, and the other more than a thousand kilometers away, to a city I have visited often, and where I went to the same places I have been to...