Support by volunteering, who needs claps

Medical shops on the first day It was Sunday and so after watching a movie while eating lunch, since we were all indoors with the 7am to 9pm lock down, we decided to indulge in our Sunday Siesta. Since the movie got over only well after 4 pm, our siesta was delayed, but it was of no consequence, anyway we were housebound. Silence reigned as we peacefully slept with no noisy intrusions that we suffer with, as road work has been on for a while. I fell asleep thinking of the movie -- The Lincoln Lawyer with Matthew Mc Conaughey in the lead as a feisty lawyer who finally jails for life the actual criminal. Reminded me of my feisty young lawyer who crushed the nasty fake criminal case put on me, by going for the jugular and exposing the actual crooks. It was my principal and HOD who advised hiring him as he was tpugh and brooked no nonsense.

People clap from balconies at a chawl in Mumbai on Sunday. Suddenly we all woke with a start. We could hear loud crashing and banging and a conch shell being blown. We realised it was from our own building and were shocked that people took such behaviour literally. The PM had apparently announced that at 5pm India must come out and crash and bang whatever they had as noise makers in appreciation of health workers across India. Which health workers would be able to hear them? Amazing to what levels people ignorance can drop to. Told my son about it via FT who is a doc in the US and he said, tell them to come and volunteer in the hospital instead. Do they think clapping and shouting will chase the virus away? Can they not read and understand that social distancing is the key. By coming out in groups they have destroyed the very reason for the lock down.

An elderly couple bangs pans and cheers health care workers Sunday in New Delhi It was amazing that India observed an unprecedented shutdown with the Janta Curfew, called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a bid to slow the spread of novel coronavirus cases in the country. Over 300 people have been tested positive for Covid-19 in India so far. With the number of positive cases surging across the globe, governments are leaving no stones unturned to facilitate conditions for social distancing with closure of schools, colleges, restaurants, malls and public places. Millions of people across the country stayed indoors, streets wore a deserted look and a bare number of vehicles were on the road on Sunday. The shutdown on the PM's appeal for a 'Janata curfew' to help check the spread of coronavirus was a complete success but sadly all of it was overturned with the dancing and jumping around of hundreds on the street.

Doctors being evicted from rented accommodation Just listened to Dr Devi Shetty the iconic cardiologist of Karnataka who warns that one day after the curfew, everyone is out celebrating Ugadi. He foretells that there will be 8000 cases of the virus in Bangalore which will be too many for our hospitals to manage. Meanwhile there is news that landlords are evicting doctors who work with Covid - 19 patients without any proper reason. However it's obvious, we have double standards. When will we ever learn? I dread to think what is instore for us.

Quench the birds thirst this summer

Pic credit Shankar Haranahalli

Bird watchers can bring the birds home! Q It’s warming up fast in the city and with the heat comes thirst. Not for just us humans, but the little balls of feathers that live amongst us -- our native birds! In the old days there was always a garden tap which dripped, where they could quench their thirst, across the city. Now with our impeccable, landscaped gardens around blocks of flats, water is a scarce commodity. It is distressing to see the bulbuls and pigeons literally scavenge for water, from the runoff in the plates put under pots in balconies, in apartment blocks. Many Bangaloreans believe in putting out bowls to help our feathered friends. Like Dr Akhilesh Sharma who lives in Jayanagar 5th block says, “Keeping water in a bowl serves many purposes as birds both quench their thirst and take a bath. A shallow bowl is preferable for small birds and medium depth for larger birds like crow's who like to splash and bathe. I have found not just birds, even bees, wasps and other insects need water to keep them hydrated and cool.”

Always clean out the bowl everyday It is paramount to choose terracotta bowls or even cement ones too. Avoid plastic and metal bowls as they get heated and heat the water too in turn. Put a few pots around the bowl, as the plants provide a perch for the smaller birds. It is imperative to clean the bowl once a week and pour in fresh clean water every day. Also the bowl should be placed where cats cannot reach and pounce on the birds for a quick meal. Shankar Haranahalli who belongs to the bngbirds FB group and whose picture accompanies the story says he has used a Sony alpha 6500 mirrorless, with a Tamron 100-400 mm Canon Mount lens and a Commlite adapter to shoot the picture. “He believes that all life forms need water and we should practice sustainable living like the birds.” Just use enough water and not excess. Eat just right and stop waste of all kinds. We have plenty to learn from these birds. They bathe in a common pool without a fight while humans have no patience with one another.”

White rumped shama bathing So do your bit and put a simple shallow earthen bowl, so the tiny birds don't drown. Keep it in your balcony or garden and top it up with fresh water for the birds to drink and bathe in. You can keep the water temperature cooler, by placing the bowl in a shady spot. A bowl placed out in the open, in direct sunlight will have heated water, which will also cause the water to evaporate more quickly. . Joshua C.D from S.R Nagar says, “ There are a lot of bowls in Cubbon park that are kept especially behind the High Court that I personally fill with water when I go to college. Recently as a volunteer I distributed about 150 terracotta water bowls to be kept for birds for free in Cubbon Park. They were gifted by advocate Mr. Manu. Most of us volunteers, when we walk past various parks, we pour water into the bowls and make sure they are filled everyday.” Good bird baths are similar to shallow puddles, the natural birdbaths in the wild for birds. Choose a shallow container like an old frying pan, a shallow baking pan, or buy a commercial bird bath.Soon you will have a bunch of happy birds visiting your bird bath everyday for a drink and a quick dive and splash in the water. Nothing quite lifts the spirits like indulging in the simple things in life -- watching birds enjoy your bird bath. Marianne de Nazareth

My favourite native tree -- the Honge Marra

The whole of Eagle street has a canopy of the Honge Do you have a favourite tree? Ofcourse you must----- we all do! Mine is without a doubt the Honge marra or in Latin the Millettia pinnata. It’s not a massive tree, it’s strong and supple and the best part of the tree is when it gets its coat of brand new leaves -- which is now, this very minute, in March! Plus, this is the season for its flowers which carpet the road below it. The air around is scented and so uplifting as the tree has a lot of medicinal compounds. I have learned about our native trees from one of the best-- Dr. Yellappa Reddy, former secretary, Department of Ecology and Environment, Government of Karnataka and present Chairman of the Bangalore Environment Trust, while I worked with the Deccan Herald. Ofcourse my other knowledge about flora and fauna in general, I have to thank my dad especially, who was a storehouse of knowledge. The Millettia pinnata, also known as Pongaemia pinnata, and more commonly as Honge (ಹೊಂಗೆ) is native to India, China, Japan, Australia and other Pacific islands. It is increasingly becoming common in Bangalore as the more recent tree planting efforts have put this tree at the top of the list of avenue trees in the city. Unlike trees like the Gulmohar, the branches don’t break so easily. Compared to non-native trees like Eucalyptus it is not invasive in the way it drinks up groundwater.

Another angle of the street With the onset of winter, around November, the tree loses its leaves,and can become messy on pavements. It is a daily chore for the pourakarmikas to remove them from the roads in the area. The lazier ones set them alight and the smell of burning permeates and pollutes the air. When the recent Swacch Bharat campaign caught people’s fancy, these leaves provided good photo-ops for local big shots to sweep and pose. Irritated me no end as I walked to college and watched them stand with a beautiful coconut broom under the Honge growing in the temple precincts.

The pretty pea shaped flowers By around February, the trees wear a forlorn look. It is also the time when many of the pods with seeds start falling and these seeds are used to produce a medicinal oil and it isn’t uncommon to see women picking them up and collecting them, obviously to sell. But the prettiest season for these trees is March when the leaves start sprouting and in a few days, they soon sport a dense light-green canopy. Within a month pinkish mauve flowers start appearing all over the tree and the flowers soon attract swarms of bees. The tree literally buzzes with activity with bees all over the tree. The roads, however, sport a nice thick carpet of these white flowers. Over May/June the flowers fall off leaving small green seed pods and the leaves turn a darker green which they retain till the onset of winter. The best thing about these trees, apart from the shade, is the birds. Prinias – Ashy and plain, purple sunbirds, great tits and Red-whiskered bulbuls are very common and love the tree. Being fast-growing, these Honge trees are increasingly being preferred in newer areas. Given their multiple uses and easy maintenance and the fact that they are native is itself a major plus. They definitely are insect free and quick growing.

Careers in Science, Bangalore, India

The panel where I was the only woman “ Would you please be on our panel for the Science Careers Conference, we are holding in SJC, “ asked the sweet and gentle HOD of the Science department -- Sandra Misquith in St. Joseph’s Arts and Science College. “ You are a Science and Environment journalist and we want to educate the kids that there is more to a career in Science, than only research jobs in the pure sciences.” “ Sure!” I said, “ I always love talking about my job as it happened quite by chance way back in 2004. I won a scholarship to the UN in New York and that triggered my interest and all my subsequent scholarships and fellowships all over the world was with different arms of the UN. UNFCCC, UNEP, UN-Water etc.” Six of us sat on the panel, on the 7th March starting with a talk by Professor Siddharth Sarma from the IISc. After a coffee break came Dr Subrajit Bjattacharya, VP Data Science @ CL Educate. Dr. Bhattacharya was educated in the IIT Kanpur after which he went to the US to further his studies in Engineering. He returned to Bangalore, after 16 years in the US to look after his old parents. Then came the exciting panel discussion where we had to talk about ourselves. Dr Richard Fernandes -- George Fernandes minister’s brother who is principal of the Azim Premji University, Naga Praveen who was incharge of Intellectual property rights, Rohitesh Natarajan a Stress Testing Analyst and Nikhil Prawar who designs Math and Science curriculums, besides me -- the ONLY woman-- were on the panel.

My work speaks for itself I was asked to go first and decided to let my work speak for itself. I brought a pendrive of my stories and opened them out for the kids to see for themselves on the huge OHP. What an impact that made, as my magazine stories are stupendous with their myriad of pictures spanning two pages too. I also brought my novels for them to view and encourage them that writing takes as many forms, as you would like it to take. I always get great joy in explaining that there was not enough money to send me into a professional course as a young woman. There were five kids and in my generation yes the girls were educated but in the arts,besides music & sewing. I have a LTCL on the Piano from the Trinity College of Music London but there was no money to do professional courses which my brothers got. There was no one to advise me too. Both my parents were double grads, but Dad could not see beyond Engineering. I think I would have made a great lawyer in retrospect.

Making a point, especially for the women So I just did the regular BA in Arts and since I got 90 plus in History in my ISC I decided to do my first MA in History from the Bangalore University. My Father -in-law- to- be wanted me to stop it, as he felt I would be more educated than my husband to be. But lucky for me, my fiance was an educated man and said I needed to finish it. It was only when my sons were in their final years of school that I closed down and sold my Ad agency called Arc Advertising and decided to go to work in the Deccan Herald full time. It was a great experience and in my second year there in 2004 I landed the prestigious Erasmus Mundus, Masters in Journalism scholarship, where hundreds apply and just 30 get selected. That’s because the scholarship gives us 42 thousand Euros for two years. A mind boggling sum. That was the turning point in my life. I went off to do a two years full time Masters in The EU --- six months in Denmark, six months in Amsterdam and one year in the UK. That changed my narrow indian mind-set forever. I found there was so much joy in studying and after completing the Masters successfully returned to India and to the Deccan Herald.

We were unanimous that all children need to grab all opportunities I was promoted to Assistant Editor and had my own cabin. Wow, I had broken the glass ceiling where mainly men were Assistant Editors. But soon I got bored of being clerical. I wanted to teach and share what I learned and so when Fr Ambrose Pinto, the then Principal of St. Joseph’s College connected with me to publish his articles, he suggested coming to join him and start the PG Media Course in St. Joseph’s. I resigned overnight and had a most enjoyable 12 year stint in St. Joseph’s starting and growing the section which is doing well now with my students running the show now! But studying abroad changed me and I needed to complete a PhD. I could have got a seat in Europe but I was a family person and that was not feasible. So I returned and in five years completed my PHd from Madurai University. Now I have moved on choosing the colleges to take work shops in -- Mount Carmel’s, Jyothi Nivas, COMMITS. The reason is simple, I need to be free to travel and go visit my sons whenever I want to. “ Mum come and shout for me, I am participating in this year's Iron Man,” said my second son who is a doc and a great athlete -- I need to be free to go and shout and scream for my son like his days as a young adult in Bangalore. So no full time jobs for me. Last year he swam in the river in Chattanooga, while other team mates ran and cycled. It was so exciting and my DIL and me and the babies screamed the shouted, when he came in the first few. I run a book club too and told the kids at the Science workshop to join for free. Books have always been my passion, a hobby inculcated by my parents at a young age. The college kids who come learn so much from the authors I invite. When the club where I started the original club began to charge, I quit starting my own for free. That's my mantra. I got my education for free and so I will give it for free. Then we all sat down in the brand new cafeteria and were treated to a delicious meal along with a gift of a glitzy new slim flask to use for coffee. I was mobbed by the kids and by the end of it I felt they had taken away all my knowledge and that was a marvelous thing.

A visit to Pilerne, Bardez, Goa

The old 300 year old homestead Book two tickets on the cheapest flights. Fix the self drive taxi from Dabolim. Throw all the Goa clothes ( read shorts and tee shirts) into a back pack and we are off to Goa,visiting Pilerne, Bardez, Goa for a week. Its a long standing decision made by us twice a year. We need to go down to the old, beloved homestead and see to its maintenance. A promise to a Dad who loved the house like I have learned to do, over the years and lucky for me my husband graciously helps me, or it could never be done. Yes, a caretaker is in place, but Bhujang who has been with us for 12 years already, will only clean and air, keep the little garden lush and green and alert us about the marauding cousin who though in his 70’s, shamelessly tries to steal our land. All repairs from the roof to the plumbing we have to see to, when we visit.

Rotted frame of back door So, we go down and employ labour to handle whatever needs immediate attention. This time I felt the house needed a good lick of paint and so did the inside Dining/kitchen area. The clotted cream walls, I got rid off, for the more pristine white and what a difference it made to the place.My eyes are not great, so white helps bounce light off the walls for me. LED tube lights gave the area a brighter, more happy white light by which we sat and ate our meals which I had cooked on the single gas stove.We want to eat kgs of fresh prawns, not one or two swimming in a weak curry at a restaurant. We enjoy the luxury of large king prawns bought from the fish market in Verem.Then I sit in the garden and clean them peacefully, with the Golden Orioles calling from the teak trees above and the harsh Coal Black Drongo checking me out from the nearby breadfruit tree.

The carpenter works in the back yard The woman who lives on the side who is a descendant of the original help, who were graciously given a hut on the land has begun to steal as well. The previous time we visited she had cut down 6 teak trees in the back and quietly sold them. Plus by fixing a pump to the well she had loosened the stone walls which had collapsed. Time to fence and enclose. The previous visit we had got the surveyor to measure the property and colour our plots. Then on our way back from Mapuca we bought and transported by van 15 cement concrete poles along with a bag of cement and we fixed up the labour for the next day.

Raju and his team work in the searing heat. While we brought the poles home, the men dug the holes and the pillars were sunk. I don't know if it's a wrong decision, but no wire was fixed, because the woman had put down fruit trees on our property. I felt bad to enclose her trees, which were really ours now, because the papayas were fruiting. We have been trying to exchange the plots with her but to no avail. We hoped by fixing these poles they would force her hand when she saw the alienation. And how much of ‘her’ garden was ‘lost’. I want to enclose the house lands as those for us were the most valuable, not in terms of land value, but attachment to the homestead. If the next generation sells they sell all the house lands and the next generation can have clean partitions to sell as one parcel.

Painting the balcao grill where I love to sit. The drumstick tree was beginning to affect the house from one side. Guess it was Dad who had planted it, the dratted tree had turned into a monster with its roots going under the house. We got a strong, old man to cut it down and amazingly he handled it so well just with a hand held chopper. Those laterite walls are solid but seeing the well crumble I was taking no chances. The carpenter had to be hurriedly called, because the back door was collapsing. Whiteants had chewed away one part of the frame. We opened the door and one door just fell forward, giving me a huge fright. Those doors are massive and heavy with six inch nails holding them in place.

Window broken off and on the ground One window was on the ground, probably fallen in the rain. So the carpenter had to fix both. In minutes he brought a large slab of wood for the frame and with his electric tools champhored and repaired everything in a few hours. Electric saws, electric champhor, even an electric screwdriver! The 300 year old house probably had never seen such modern tools. Then we rested for one day with no labour at all. Just the birds for company and a trip to the beach to sink our feet into the inviting ocean waves in Candolim. I fussed the garden, feeding all the trees prawn and fish shells. I scrub the alphonso grafts planted last year with soap as they have got a bit of fungus. I chatted with the neighbour ladies who all come to pick the fruit which fall in the garden from the fruit tree planted by my Grandpa. They bring the statue of Our Lady to keep in the house for a day and say the rosary.

Sauteing 1/2 kg prawns for us to enjoy “ Your father loved this house so much,” they will all say in turns every time and we recite the rosary for my ancestors all looking down at us from the walls. I pray that they swat down the cheap inlaws I have who are harassing me. They will -- in time. And I ask all to pray for my poor mother who is lingering, that God in his mercy may see her suffering and end it.

Fresh King Prawns from Verem