In praise of the hills

Living in a city that is lined by hills that you see anywhere you go, it is natural to come to think of them as home. It was brought home to me when, a few months into this country, we were driving back from San Francisco, and the moment these hills came into view, even though we were miles away from home, I felt, "We're home." And it was then that I realized how much these hills have become  a part of me -- one of those things I know I'll miss when we leave.

For most of the year, these hills are full of grass that is yellow or brown or golden depending on the season or the time of the day. They wave in the breeze, and the hills look stunning against the bright blue sky.

But come winter, and the hills start turning green. It is a hazy green at first, something like moss on the ground just after a rain.

And then they become rich green, a verdant, pure colour that makes the heart skip a beat. So beautiful that sometimes I cannot trust myself to drive on the freeway that meanders through these hills. So beautiful, that several times, I have asked S to just take the car and drive a couple of miles on the freeway just so that I can sit in the passenger seat and look at the hills and absorb as much of the beauty as I can without having to worry about changing lanes or bother about speed limits.

And just as you think it cannot get any more beautiful, winter comes to an end, the rains cease, and the hills start looking like clothes that have been out in the sun too long. They fade, ever so slightly at first, making you wonder if your eyes are just playing tricks on you. And as the jackets and woollen socks come off, and your clothes get lighter, the hills become lighter, but they make up by pushing up thousands of wild flowers of various hues.

And then, before you know it, the sun bleaches the grass and you are left with shades of yellow, green and brown.

But you know that it is just a matter of days before it is gone and the long months of dry brown and yellow grass is back.

And you look back with fondness at that dark green of winter and wonder how you will get through the dreary summer months of beige, and yet, when the hills are yellow and brown again, the waves of yellow grass rippling in the wind make your heart lighter again, and you think -- I'll be just fine.

The Secret Garden

I'm very pleased to announce the release of my latest book for children, The Secret Garden.



Published by Nature Science Initiative, Dehra Dun, it is a book about the Peepal tree (which is a Ficus tree), its inhabitants, and the fascinating story of the relationship between the Ficus tree and the Fig Wasp.  It is aimed at children between the ages of 8 to 14.

The book is a product of a collaboration between several people.  I "translated" the science produced by many researchers, including Soumya Prasad, Geetha Ramaswami, Mahua Ghara, Anusha Krishnan, Raman Kumar. Sartaj Ghuman contributed illustrations.

The superb cover and many of the cartoons in the book, are by the brilliant Rohan Chakravarty of Green Humour, and some photographs are by Pradip Krishen (of Trees of Delhi fame).

The beautiful layout and some pictures and illustrations are by Anita Varma of Graphic Alley, who's done a fantastic job with it.

It is truly a fabulous book and I'm proud to be associated with it.

You can order the book by emailing nsi@naturescienceinitiative.org.

The book was released in Dehra Dun, during a Peepal Walk organized by Been There, Doon That? with Dr. Soumya Prasad of Nature Science Initiative, who is an ecologist and my childhood friend.

A report of the walk and the book release in the Hindustan Times:

Spring

Remember my fall pictures?

I took pictures of the same tree, this time, in spring. Here you go.

Feb 11

Feb 19

March 1

March 10

March 15

March 29

March 31

April 12

Fall

One morning, on my walk, I happened to walk under a tree and look up at it. Autumn (or Fall, as the Americans call it) was here, and the leaves of this tree had started changing colour. It looked striking in contrast with the bright blue sky, and I whipped out my phone and took a picture.

A few days after that, I walked under the same tree again, it occurred to me that I could document the change in colour of this same tree as the days pass.

So here are the results:

October 13

 November 3:

Add caption

 November 11:

November 16:

November 18:

December 1:

And here are pictures of the same tree in Spring

A hike through redwood forests.

Last Saturday, we decided to go on a hike to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, a drive about an hour and a half away from where we live. Since I'm pretty unfit right now, I looked up the trails online and decided that we should go on a moderate hike, and steer clear of the strenuous ones.

We drove through some lovely landscapes, most of them looking straight out of an inspirational poster, and reached the headquarters of Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

This is my dream home. Except that it is not exactly a house, but so what.

I don't know whether it was a mistake or whether it was a deliberate move by S--for whom hiking ranks among the top of his favourite activities--but we chose a strenuous hike. And a long one at that.

Anyway, off we went, and--before I start, I must get this out of my system--Redwoods are some of the most magnificent, majestic, grand, awe-inspiring and beautiful creatures that I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I have fallen utterly and hopelessly in love with them.

The ones in Big Basin, which btw is the oldest state park in California, are between 1000 and 2500 years old.

So we started walking on the Skyline to the Sea Trail (which goes right up to the sea). We decided to walk up to Berry Creeks waterfalls, 4 miles into the woods, and then walk back. It was an exhilarating walk. A lot of ups and downs, yes, but to walk in foliage that is entirely new is a beautiful experience. And what redwoods forests do is that since they soar high above you and the branches are way up there in the sky, the trees don't seem like they are pressing into you. Only their gorgeous huge trunks are visible all around you, giving you the feeling of walking among large pillars. So the trail continued, and four miles and two hours later, we reached Berry Creek Falls, where we sat down and had our lunch of sandwiches, nuts, trail mix cookies, energy bars and water like any self respecting hiker.

After a while, it was time to decide whether we wanted to go back the same way, or take another trail, the Sunset Trail, that loops around and reaches Park Headquarters. I was the weak link in the chain, and so everybody asked me how I was feeling and whether the ball of my foot was hurting (where I have a chronic ache). It wasn't, and I was game to take the longer looping route back (I was loopy to make that decision, but that I realized only on hindsight).

So we set off again. We walked, seeing banana slugs, and looking out for poison oak though we didn't know what exactly to look out for.

And then after an hour of walking post lunch, my body started protesting. I swear, if I had stood still, I would have heard my muscles screaming. There would be a prolonged upward incline, and then a prolonged downward slope. The former was hard on my calves and the latter was hard on my toes. I walked nevertheless, gritting my teeth, especially at the sight of Puttachi and the others skipping along as if they were in the friendly neighbourhood park.

S found a thick stick for me to use like a hiking stick. So I pretended (in my head) that I was Gandalf (the greying) from LOTR and the stick was my staff, and that helped. Off we walked.

And then, finally, at 4 pm, 6 hours after we had set off on the hike, we came back to the park headquarters. We had walked 10 miles. On one hand I was glad it was over, on the other hand, I was sad that it was over.

I sat on a bench at the headquarters, and I couldn't get up from the bench after ten minutes--it was like every muscle was cramped. If even a small part of my mind had hoped that I would escape from this ordeal lightly, then, this erased that hope from my mind.

We had dinner at downtown Saratoga. Delicious quiche at Big Basin café. Before that, we walked around a little around the town (I hobbled). Such a pretty place, so many interesting shops to see. The highlight for me was walking past a fancy restaurant there, which had a real vine with grapes growing on the shopfront.

To cut a long story short, I couldn't walk normally for the next two and a half days. Puttachi didn't help my morale much. When we walked somewhere the next day with  my sister and brother-in-law, Puttachi told them--"You walk ahead. I'll walk with Amma while she waddles up." Well, I guess I should be grateful that she was willing to walk with me at all.

But I can't begin to explain how lovely the hike was. And how beautiful the forest. And I see that this is a total hike-friendly region. I'm all enthused to go on long hikes again. Moderate ones for a while hopefully, and meanwhile, I hope to make myself fitter, so that I'm not laid up for three days after every hike. I'm quite ashamed of myself, actually.

But I'm glad I lived to tell the tale.

Our collection from Lalbagh

When you go on walks with your children (no matter how old) do be ready to pick up tree-related things you find on the way, and take it home. But very, very strictly - no plucking things off plants and trees. It's good fun to try and find out what they are. This is our Lalbagh loot for today.

Here, we have a Cassia pod, a pod from an elephant ear tree, some figs, a prickly cone from a Monkey Puzzle tree, and some other things that we are yet to identify.

In the company of trees.

Yesterday, I spent a beautiful morning in the calming company of trees, thanks to Neralu. We also visited our old haunt, The Park [Link and Link ] which I miss very much (and have no valid reason not to visit it more often.) All the "huge" play instruments and slides, next to which Puttachi used to look tiny but brave--all those slides look so ordinary and non-scary now. Funny. My height hasn't changed, but my perspective has.

Yesterday's connection with nature was perfectly completed with a visit to a friend's house, whose mother has a large vegetable garden. Puttachi helped her dig out carrots and pick some greens, and we came back home laden with fresh produce from the garden, which the lady generously gave us.

Though I've never been too much into gardening, I love the concept of growing one's own vegetables in the backyard. Some day, perhaps.

Day 29 - Growing shoots in a glass jar

I remember doing this project in school - we'd lined a glass jar with cotton, and placed seeds between the glass and the cotton, and moistened it everyday.  Great way to see how a seed grows into a plant. Puttachi and I had started this last week.  We got back after 4 days in Mysore, and to our surprise, the shoots have, well, shot up!

 

Check out the roots!   This one is Rajma.

It took just about a week to ten days for the plants to grow so much from seed. We'd "planted" rajma, white peas, moong beans (hesarukaalu) and black chickpeas.  The fat stalk is the rajma plant, and the one with the tiny delicate leaves is moong. 

 

If you haven't done this with your children already, do it! It is a great way for them (and us!) to observe the sprouting, and the development of shoots and roots. 

Day 19 - Insects



A few weeks ago, I went to our apartment garden, and happened to catch this conversation.  A group of young girls, aged between 8 and 12, were excitedly calling to the mother of one of them, who was walking past.

 

"Aunty, aunty!" they said.  "Come quick, and look at this!"

 

"Look at what?" asked the lady.

 

"An insect!" said the girls.

 

The lady stood, feet apart, and put her hands on her hips.  "Insect?" she said, making a face.  "An INSECT?  You have nothing better to show me than - an insect?"  And she walked off. 

 

The poor girls - their faces fell.

 

Honestly, I hadn't given insects much thought or attention (except for grabbing a broom whenever I spotted a cockroach) - before Puttachi came into the picture.

 

Since little ones are so close to the ground, they see insects and other creepy-crawlies all the time, and when you see it through their eyes, you realize how fascinating they really are. Sure, some of them make my skin crawl, but I try not to show it openly, especially when Puttachi is so excited about it.

 

Puttachi spends hours sprinkling sugar near ant nests and watching them carry the sugar crystals away.  Once she came and told me how a fly and sugar had a fight over a sugar bit, and naturally that led to her own story!

 

A week ago, we spotted a slug lying on the path in our apartment complex.  It was alive, but ants were swarming around it.  Puttachi was disturbed.  She insisted that she had to move the slug away into the grass.  So she took a long stick and tried to prod it gently.  But she started worrying that she was going to  hurt it, and she handed the stick to me.  The slime of the slug makes me want to gag, and the last thing I wanted to do was touch it, even with a stick. 

 

But I didn't want to make faces and go ack-thoo and make a big deal out of it.  Puttachi saw me hesitating, and she asked me, "What happened, are you scared?"  So I said, "I'm not scared, but I'm feeling a little disgusted because of the slime.  But that's okay.  Let's see what we can do."

 

I pushed it, and it turned over on its back and exposed its underside to me, and didn't do anything to make me feel better.  But Puttachi was watching it so intently that I didn't have the heart to throw the stick away and run, which is what I wanted to do.  So I turned it over again, and pushed it slowly into the grass.   She was satisfied.  Then she told me, "Amma, thanks for helping it even though you were disgusted.  I was so worried about it."

 

Now for all my effort, she'd better not become like one of those annoying look-at-creepy-crawly-and-scream girls!

 

Btw, this is an insect we saw near Rishikesh.  It reminds me of Edward Munch's painting, The Scream.

 

 

Day 2 - Trees

Recently, I was writing a longish bio for a publication.  While writing about myself, I said, "Shruthi likes books, food and..."  Unbidden, the next word that came to me was "Trees."   I paused for a bit, and then shrugged.  Why not?  So I added "Trees."

Some of you would have already noticed my obsession with trees lately, in the last couple of years.  But for me to equate trees with books and food is, you know, huge. 

But that is how it has been recently. Though I've always liked trees in a vague way (like everybody does, I guess)  it has only been in the last few years that I've actually "looked" at trees closely.  And the more I look, the more enamoured I am by them. 

The deep green, the smell of them, the sound of the wind through their leaves, their shade - trees are, to me, perhaps the most beautiful creatures on earth. 

They charge my emotional batteries.  They leave me with a sense of peace and contentment. 

And I never tire of watching them.

 

Rajaji National Park

 

Rajaji National Park is situated in a unique place - part-Shivalik range, part-Himalayan ranges, and part grassland, with the Ganga flowing through it too.  As a result, the biodiversity is pretty rich, not only in terms of fauna, but flora too. 

Information on visiting, stay, tickets, etc can be found on this site.

 

Here are some pictures.

 

 

The ground was covered with leaves from the deciduous trees
in some places.  It looked lovely.



Have I told you I like young spring leaves?
I have?  A million times?  Okay.

 

It is a 35 km circuit around the park, takes about 3 hours.



See, this is what I was saying. 
Geographical diversity.

 



A deer gate-crashes a langur congregation



That's Puttachi and me in the open-topped jeep. 
S was relegated to the lesser seat - next to the driver.

 



This elephant was quite close.



It is shy - off it goes.



Mamma and baby - enough to send Puttachi into raptures

 

Blooms in Uttarakhand

Never seen neem flowers in this colour before!

Mango blossoms were particularly thick in these parts.



Palash

Palash again

Bottlebrush



Wild roses



Rhododendrons were everywhere!



Rhododendrons up close. 
Puttachi loved them.
She kept picking up fallen flowers
 and carrying them back to the room.
Rhododendron squash (Buransh squash)
is pretty refreshing :)

No idea what flowers these are.

Also see: Trees of Uttarakhand
                Birds of Uttarakhand