The hills that we climb (and do not realise)

When I was working at Infosys, there was a mountain (hill, to be precise) right beside the office campus. In fact, this whole area is hilly, and approx. half of the campus was clearly right up the hill. While catching office buses from the bus bay (during initial days I used to take bus for many months), we could be standing right at the bottom of the hill. The hill changed colour across the seasons. It turned green in rainy season, brown in the summer, and at one time, perhaps in autumn they used to burn down all the grass in a controlled manner and I could see the whole mountain burning right in front of my eyes. All these things I never imagined in my childhood that I would see, since I was born and brought up in the Himalayan plains where mountains were not always visible (except some rainy mornings, when we could see the Himalayas due to perfect air quality).

In my current job at another IT company, we have a cafeteria which has sitting arrangement in the open on the second floor, with a clear view of a big mountain. I guess the mountain is at only 3-4 kilometres from our office. While having coffee this morning in the cafeteria, I could see lot of birds in the sky, but those were coming from the direction of the mountain towards our office building or general population. There are lot of trees in the area, perhaps those birds had gone towards the mountain for gathering food during the day, and in the evening, they were all returning to the trees near the human habitat.

While having breakfast in the open cafeteria, sparrows and crows regularly visit and eat poha and other food items leftover either on the tables or from the discarded plates kept near the bin. I remember, even at Infosys, we used to have sparrows frequently running in the foot courts, having easy food. No need to go to the fields to collect grains or worms; just have cooked delicious (and cholesterol filled) food right from humans’ plates.

I also noticed that most of the birds which were returning from the mountains, were couples. We all know how birds live together as a couple all the time. It must be in their genes.

Finally, this evening, I realized that I have been living near the hills and the mountains for so many years now. If I go just half an hour from home, I can see big mountains, along with springs and rivers. In childhood we used to make drawings of mountains, rivers and springs. Especially those who live on the plains, we do not see mountains that often.

One interesting thing about life is that we forget what we got while we keep chasing what we want. Life is a mirage, and I remind myself very often not to chase it and not be part of the rat race.

It is much better to be content inside than flashy outside.

I wonder how the birds feel while they are flying in the sky or having food from humans’ plates in the food court, or while returning from the mountains along with their spouse, or while sitting idle on a tree. Is it a mix of happiness, thrill, fear, insecurity, boredom, like humans do, or is it something which humans have no idea about.

That, perhaps, I shall never come to know. But I shall try.

- Rahul

  

Nature: Trees with yellow flowers in office

 

- Rahul 

Nature: Mimosa Tree / Pink Silk Tree

 

Place: Pune, India 

- Rahul Tiwary

Photography: Natural Beauty of North Bihar

Pictures taken by mobile phone camera (Samsung). 

Venue: Near Vaishali, Bihar

 (C) Rahul 

Nature: Frogs and Flying Insects!

When I go to our village, I can see a lot of animals, birds and insects which I never see in cities. Fireflies (jugnu) come at night, Indian Blue Jay (Neelkanth) bird can be seen, I can spot a pair of parrots (tota) sitting on a tree nearby and in the end, “frogs” (medhak) popup every night. So, I was at my village and every night a lot of frogs would come out of nowhere and start hunting for insects. I wondered where they were all through the day; since they came out only during the night!

One day, I heard the sound of some frogs during the day time! I tried to look in that direction and I found that the sound had come from a packet which was kept on the stairs. So, the frogs were either inside the packet or below it. I removed the packet with the help of a stick. And I could see three frogs below it!

One of the frogs was bigger than the others. All three frogs looked frightened and within a few moments, they started moving and changing positions to find a safer position. In the end, the bigger frog covered the smaller frogs below its body! I was surprised to see how the smaller frogs were comfortably hiding below the body of the bigger frog; as if they had no shame! But in the end, I concluded that perhaps the bigger frog was the mother of the smaller frogs and that was why it was protecting them.

The other day my mother pointed out to another scene. A flying insect which is perhaps found mostly in villages near farms, had collected soil at the corner of one wall near angan and had covered all its eggs with it. After a few days, the soil became dry and then the flying insect would come and one by one made holes in the clay structure and took out its kids! We wondered how nature had given that small insect enough intelligence to know how to protect its eggs and how to take the kids out at the right moment.

Such small incidents point to fact that nature has given all species with enough intelligence to do the best for their children. There are very common traits which are common in all, but the willingness to make all efforts to ensure safety of children is a trait which is common in all species.

Hats off to the miracles of nature!

- Rahul Tiwary

Photographs: Some Nature Pictures (Part 2)

(Above) Two Sparrows sit on the chairs in a waiting hall

A stray dog waits to get some food from his host house

A couple of pigeons feeding on the grains provided in a balcony

A lone squirrel 

- Rahul Tiwary | 2018 - 2019

Photography: Some Nature Pictures

Here are some pictures taken by me from a village in Bihar using my cellphone camera: 

A flock of birds resting on a parched tree

A couple of birds sitting on a tree in a poignant evening

A possible military jet passes through the sky

A bonfire which serves as a life saving aid during winters

Sun sets behind green fields

Sun plays hide and seek behind the trees

Stray mustard plants during the season of Vasant

A wild fruit lying on the ground, perhaps eaten partly by a bird

- Rahul Tiwary | Bihar | Feb 2019

#Nature: The Stray Dog Family

Day-1:

Saw a 'mother-dog' walking with her litter of pups. The three pups were so small that they appeared unbelievable. But they were there, walking behind their mother who led them to cross the road. The third one in the rear was covered in black mud. Perhaps it had fallen in some drain and was rescued by its mother. Its small tail, covered in mud was pointing to the sky, looking like an antenna. The mother-dog was walking slowly, because while she walked one step, the pups had to run four, in order to be with her.

It is a moment like this when earth stops rotating, time stops clocking, heart stops beating, wind stops blowing and the 'moment' is frozen in time! It is absolute 'nirvana'!

Day-2: 

While passing through the same lane, saw another amazing scene. The 'mother dog' was taking a stroll on the road along with a male dog, perhaps the father of the three pups. At just a small distance from them, the three beautiful small pups were playing. And all three of them were shining in their white fur. It means that the small pup which was drenched in mud last evening, was washed and cleaned by its mother and now it was impossible to differentiate between the three pups!

How did she clean the little muddy pup? A colleague said that she must have brought the pup in a pool of water, would have made it wet with it and then shook it to remove all the dirt and finally would have cleaned up whatever remained with her tongue. That was his guess of course. Whatever was done, it was done impeccably! Heart warming for the second day straight.

Day-3: 

One little white pup was see walking around. It was soooo very small. Its a darling. 

Hope to write more. 

- Rahul 

#Nature: Two Buffaloes

I was passing through a large herd of buffaloes. All buffaloes went ahead but one small one was standing at a blind turn of the road, looking back and making a sound.... gmmaaaaa... gmmaaaa... Why was she looking back and making a noise?

Then I saw that a bigger buffalo, perhaps her mother, was somehow left much behind from the herd and now having heard the young one, was walking towards her. But the young buffalo was still not satisfied, perhaps she was scared, and hence kept making a noise gmmaaaa... The bigger buffalo was hurrying towards her, also making a sound, as if answering and comforting her...

Very touching...

 - Rahul Tiwary

Book - Case of the Bonsai Manager

‘The Case of the Bonsai Manager – Lessons from nature on growing’
R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons
Penguin Books; Amazon [A], Rediff Books [R]

Recently one of our marketing professors made a very good point: that Western authors in management haven’t and can’t know the pulse of India and hence we can’t learn marketing by reading Kotlar and other Western authors alone. In the same arena, a question arises: how much valuable contribution Indian authors have made in the management writing? This book is also a part of the answer.

The author loves and watches nature and uses his experiences to pill off the intricacies of business leadership in a manner not found quite often. By giving examples of animals and creatures from snails to elephants, and then from the plant life, this book tries to reach out at the biggest problem from a different angle – what causes managers to get their growth restricted or shunted and hence they are reduced to being a Bonsai Manager….

The book has a slow pace and examples, though all Indians, are at places personal and couldn’t be seen without creating a good/bad impression about the organisations they deal with. Overall, here is a great book for managers and managers-would-be, and also is a brilliant book for nature lovers who want to see how their knowledge and experience can be converted (read marketed) into such a beautiful read.