I was going through some old photographs, and I found the following one from Hassath's and my first trip to Munsiari in December 2005.
It shows two public bathrooms, both visible from the main road leading to Munsiari. The one on the left says "women", and the other one "men".
Here's a brief report of the Nokia 7210 Supernova, which does GPRS and Bluetooth well enough to be used as a modem with our Lenovo S10 on a trip out of town.
Someone sent me a link to a story in the Indian Express that creatively distorts quotes extracted from my informal report on Harike to try and make the case that the survey was a waste of time and money. The article is by a Dharmendra Rataul, dated today. I can't figure out if it was published in the newspaper, or only online.
I've had a hectic start to the new year as far as bird-watching and travel are concerned. I went on a solo trek to Dayara bugyal in Uttarakhand in late December, participated in the annual waterfowl census at the Pong dam reservoir in Himachal Pradesh in mid-January, did a lightning weekend trip to the Chambal river in UP a week later, and went to Harike in Punjab at the end of the month for another waterfowl survey.
I've had a great time, of course, and it's been wonderful birding in new places, but it's also been demanding and tiring. My memories of the time I spent at Harike are already fragmented, and I don't feel up to writing another exhaustive report. Instead, here's a selection of the more vivid moments that I will remember the trip by—not in any particular order, and with no attempt to fill in the fuzzy grey areas in between.
Thanks to Hassath's urging, I gathered up the courage to visit the RPO once more, to apply for ECNR status ("emigration check not required").
The information counter gave me a copy of form #2 for INR5. I filled it in, attached a photograph and a self-attested photocopy of my matriculation certificate, waited in another short queue at counter #12, submitted the application along with my passport and INR300. I was told that my passport would be returned by 1300, and that I should wait in another queue to collect it. But I got my passport back a whole ten minutes before 1300, and the ECR stamp had been deleted; the next free page had an ECNR stamp, and all was exactly as it was supposed to have been in the first place.
It's good to know that I won't have to go back to the RPO anytime soon.
The Hindu's “Opportunities” supplement on Wednesdays fills the space between job postings with strange articles.
I packed a bag and pulled on my boots at a few hours' notice this last weekend for a trip to the Chambal river with Mr. and Mrs. D. S. Pandit and Devashish Deb of Delhibird.
My first visit to Pong Dam was to participate in a remarkably well-organised winter waterfowl census conducted by the Himachal Pradesh forest department. Here's a long report.
For as long as I can remember, I have resisted being bundled up in
woollens during winter. When I was little, I could be bullied into
wearing warm clothes, but ever since I was old enough to refuse, my
answer to Aren't you feeling cold?
has generally been
No
. Every winter, however, the subject comes up again,
and people, often complete strangers, see fit to speculate on or
lecture me about low temperatures and my physiology.
For the past several months, I have suffered from a damaged ulnar nerve in my left arm. I'm recovering slowly as the nerve regenerates, but I am no longer impaired by the injury.