Picturing Chennai

Now that I've started a new blog, this one has been neglected for far too long; guess I'm using up more than my quota of words for the Chennai Daily Photo blog.

It has been quite satisfying to go around taking pictures of various parts of Chennai. Not being very mobile during the day does limit the opportunities available, but these days my camera has been a constant appendage (super photographer that I am, the N73 does not come up to scratch on several occasions :o). Still, I seem to end up doing more of historical/heritage/features of interest stuff than the 'candid camera' ones. Now that's something I want to correct, sooner than later.

Naturalist

I am now officially a member of the Madras Naturalists' Society (www.blackbuck.org.in). Joined up at the MNS' monthly meeting (2nd Sunday of every month) under the banyan at The School, KFI. I have missed two big events this year - the Chennai Bird Race and the 'deer counting' at the Guindy National Park. But no matter, there will be more races and countings to be done.

Add on to my bird list for the year: a Crow Pheasant and two pairs of Hoopoes. Also confirmed to myself that what I had seen at home earlier was indeed a Treepie.

The Art-Tryst

Of course I had seen Sumukha Gallery before. Never had reason to register its location earlier though, and that led to a bit of a crawl-search before finding it on Friday afternoon. For all the various write-ups about the exhibition of Sara Abraham's private collection, the place itself was deserted and the security guard seemed bored without having to regulate the crowds that I imagined would be breaking down the gates.

So much the better; I could wander through the exhibition at my pace and not worry if I was spending too much time in front of a piece that wasn't deserving of such attention. And seeing a Raja Ravi Varma original right at the entrance was a good start, indeed.

Surprise in store at the Laxma Gowd 'village' wtihin the exhibition. Without going ga-ga over it, I've always liked Thota Tharani's work. And it was indeed a bit out-of-the-blue to see his efforts being referred to as "repulsively glossy". I guess there must have been phases - or, more surely, early days when all kinds of things were attempted and Gowd happened to be at the receiving end of one such experiment. Tharani's collages were quirky without being extraordinary, and there was no work that could be considered 'glossy', even without the additional adjective to it.

The collection on the ground floor was quite neat, and did have a few names that I recognized - Adimoolam, Akbar Padamsee, Ganesh-es; Pyne and Haloi - though I misinterpreted KH Ara's signature as Sara's.... and that is my big crib. It seemed to be an insider thing, with most of the works not having any identification as to whose it was and none of them having any kind of description. A huge hurdle to climb for the lay fan of art, indeed. Having a catalogue of Sara's collection available at the entrance seemed to be more of a "you-could-have-looked-it-up-if-you-really-wanted-to" statement than a guide to the non-usual gallery goer. And with no one inside the downstairs rooms, there wasn't any chance to 'ask the authorities' about anything!

The collection upstairs was better cared for; with 5 or 6 Hussains there, it had to be. The two large paintings by A Ramachandran were certainly eye-catching. Though I wasn't the only person when I entered the room, the other visitor seemed to be in a grand hurry to leave. After that departure, the manager of the gallery - her office was in a side room upstairs - took pains to make sure that I did spend as much time as I wanted; she pointed out portraits that Sara had painted in her maiden name (Mathen) and had had the subjects autograph. The subjects, by the way, included Lord Mountbatten and Albert Einstein! If that wasn't enough, the lady also pointed out 2 paintings that MF Hussain had sent over as gifts for Sara on her 80th birthday last week. Looking at them, my first thought was that as he gets older, MF Hussain gets more colourful! Bright, vivid reds, yellows and greens made a stunning setting for the paintings - I've always thought his works were certainly more sober and subtle.

The highlight though, was seeing a very unusual Hussain; only a sketch, one that seemed to have been done rather quickly and to capture the true likeness, rather than the abstract figures that seem to define Hussain. To me, that sketch of Zachary Abraham seemed to be the clincher that Hussain is indeed a marvellous artist, if such reiteration were necessary.

The manager told me I could take 'two or three' photographs, and I pushed it to a half-dozen; I'd rather keep some of what I did see there in my mind's eye - my poor photography skills cannot in any way do justice to the richness of many of the works there, but my memory (and imagination) can colour them better as the days go by.

Birds!

I've always been pleased to spot a non-usual bird around Chennai; and that I have actually seen most of the birds listed in 'Some Indian Birds' (http://www.childrensbooktrust.com/books/wild/birds.htm) since first reading it some 30-odd years ago makes me feel rather kicked about life in general.

Having a good bit of greenery next door helps; Roshan & I have been able to identify most of the birds that we see without having to go back to reference material. Apart from the hens, quails, turkeys and partridges that we have seen in the coops, and the omnipresent common / jungle crows we have spotted:

Indian Rock Pigeon - with our apartment blocks, they now have many nooks and crannies to fashion their nests in....
Parakeets - see them very often, but need help to figure out if they are the rose-ringed ones or the alexandrines....
Common Babbler - the seven sisters, though have never spotted a covey of seven. Four, five and sometimes even six, but the seventh has been elusive....
Indian Pond Heron - on a branch or on the ground, it is difficult to spot, being brown flecked, but when it takes off, its wings magically change to white....
Kingfisher - didn't know there were so many kinds of this bird! And why is it so common in the city, where there is very little to fish for....
Common Myna - lovely little birds, they've probably been the easiest to spot on any given day....
Woodpecker - again, don't know enough of the distinctions to be able to narrow it down. One of them seems to be building a nest within a 100 metres of our balcony, so hope to give it a more specific name soon....
Little Egret - seasonal, but have seen them in the last two seasons and hope to see more of them again....
Golden Oriole - a flash of yellow should make it easy to spot; so I thought until I had to spend quite a bit of time trying to find Point B, after the bird flew to it....
And finally, the one bird that we had to go back to reference material to identify; a bluish-grey upper body, changing to brownish-yellow, with white-edged, brown wings. Its long tail made me think of a drongo when I first saw it last week, but a quick check of bird-books told me that it is more likely a Rufous Treepie. And I'm waiting for it to appear again, to make sure I've got it right.

Now, to get on a bit more organized birding activity.

And January went

Pakistani military scientists announce their finding that bullet holes can be caused by butting one's head against a sun-roof. This information made Hillary Clinton cry and the Sri Lankan army announce that all tigers will be given a sun-roof. The angry tigers blow up a bus and take the sun-roof away. (The army is still fighting to get it back). Hillary was given New Hampshire to keep her quiet.

'Saare Zameen Par' becomes the new anthem as ragpickers are interviewed by CNN-IBN and NDTV to find out what stocks they recommend to their clients. Ragpickers demand instant un-demat measures to ensure that they have physical certificates to be picked up.

Bangladeshi chicks allegedly bring in a virus to India. And no, that's not called Taslima. You're getting her confused with Carla Bruni, an Italian chick who says, "Sarko! See!!". Much research (listening to Ramkumar Shankar) tells me that Carla has a lot of tyres.

The Australian Open is declared unofficial after reviewing footage which showed that neither Roger nor Rafa played in the finals.

Georgie-Porgie delivers the final 'State of the Union' address. He later says it is not 'the final'; he wants to play some more.

Learnt that Punjabi gaalis can sound like racist insults in Australian, thereby expanding my Australian vocabulary to 'Maaki' also. (earlier, it was only 'Fosters', to let them know exactly which beer I don't want to drink).

Zoo with a view

I am very impressed with Singapore creating a bit of Africa on the island, but even I think that extending it to ZooLoos is stretching it a bit!

Name calling

History gives people opportunities for redeeming themselves, but also for befouling their fair names. Ponting brushed away a chance for the former; his grass-grab would have been put down to excitement if he had so much as hinted at it in his press conference. Poor chap is now having to learn meanings of big words like 'Integrity'.

And Church went out of his way to smear soot on his face - it would have been completely daft of him not to appeal against Dravid. But going on to say that he didn't find anything that happened later unfair is now a black mark; would to God that it remains a beauty spot!

Bottom line is that there are now 5 words that I would find extremely insulting when used against me; 'Ricky', 'Ponting', 'Symonds', 'Bucknor' and 'Benson'. En garde, monsieurs et mesdames, no more monkeying around with those!