Travelogue: Delhi Zoo

Delhi Zoo or National Zoological Park, New Delhi is a wonderful zoo adjacent to the Old Fort (Purana Qila) at Mathura Road, Pragati Maidan. Below are some of the pictures taken during my visit:

Wolves (above)

A Kosh Mirar and its description plate (above)

Elephants: A great elephant eating grass inside a shade; while another one with great white tusks looks from a distance (above)

Perhaps an Orangutan: was jumping and moving places with the help of his two hands just like a Tarzan; was also making lots of noise like a human being (above) 

Geese (above)

Peacocks (above)

Crane (above)

A pointer inside the zoo (above)

Rhinoceros (above)

Wild buffaloes (above)

Birds (above)

Blue and yellow macaw (above)

Stags (above) 

White Tiger (above)

Leopard (above) 

Crocodile (above) 

Beautiful fountain at the entry of Delhi Zoo (above)

- Rahul Tiwary | April 2019

Travelogue: New Delhi

- Rahul Tiwary | April 2019

Travelogue: Mumbai Central Railway Station

Mumbai Central Railway Station (earlier Bombay Central) is a heritage building designed by Claude Batley and one can see it in full splendor even today. Here are some of its pictures from the current time: 

An old tree over platform number 1 (above)

- Rahul Tiwary | April 2019

Internet: Crafety Dot Com

If you want to buy this amazing table calendar or these mugs; and much more, go to https://crafety.com/

The table calendar's pages are in both Hindi and English and adorned with wonderful art from Albeli - brilliant artist Aparajita Sharma.

- Rahul Tiwary

Photography: Some Nature Pictures (Part 4)

A flower pot kept inside an office area (above)

Two birds talking and doing worm-searching (above)

A solitary bird over an office roof (above)

A cat playing hide and seek inside a trash can (above)

Foot marks of dogs, now casted in concrete, over a road (above)

- Rahul Tiwary 

Travelogue: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park near Dange Chowk, Thergaon, Pune

Very near to Dange Chowk, Thergaon, Pune, there used to be a municipal park along with a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Recently this same park has been renovated and upgraded into a theme-based park by Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). Of late several new parks have been developed by PCMC in the Chinchwad area and it is a good trend. 

You can find it on Google Maps here. 

Here are some of the pictures from the park:

(Above) The statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj

(Above) The beautiful garden provides shade and a peaceful sitting 

(Above) A giant saffron flag (pataka) can be seen proudly in the sky

(Above) The park has this theme of wall murals depicting the whole life of Shivaji Maharaj; starting from his birth as seen above

(Above) An exhibition in the form of series of wall murals can be seen inside the park

(Above) Another wall mural showing victory of Shivaji in the South India. Do you know that Shiva ji had spread his empire till Tamil Nadu? In 1677 Shiva ji had invaded Madras and you can read about it in the Hindu newspaper here. 

(Above) The skyline of the park is dominated by the Shivaji Maharaj statue

(Above) The beautiful gate to the park; at Dange Chowk, Thergaon

(Above) The flyover at Dange Chowk is also named "Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Udan Pul, Thergaon"

(Above) Wonderful wall murals at the park showing different stages of Shivaji Maharaj's life

The entry to the park is free. Though the park seems to be still developing and a few sections may be added in the future. Kids were seen touching these murals and I saw a kid applying force to check how strong an elephant's trunk was! I stopped him and asked him not to touch it; but in the meanwhile the kid did beak a small bell from the neck of a bullock's statue. Feeling guilty, he picked it up and tried to install it back on the statue without success. I helped him do that but not before hurting my finger a bit. :) I think protective chains need to be installed before these murals so that they can be viewed but still remain safe. Also, it seems there will be a shade built to protect these murals from the rains - as of now these stand in the open sky and hence dust and water can harm those. 

The park is situated at the very busy Dange Chowk and there is no other place so near to the buzzing junction which is so calm and peaceful. Appreciation goes to the municipal corporation and government for making this park a wonderful and inspiring place to visit.

- Rahul Tiwary | April 2019

Television: Game of Thrones: Season 6

In Season 6 of Game of Thrones (GOT), Jon Snow's resurrection at the earliest episode was perhaps the most anticipated and debated event. It was the most satisfying also. 

Jon Snow: Arguably the most handsome face of Game of Thrones

In the first episode, if Myrcella's murder by poisoning was not bad enough, Doran Martell, the handicapped Prince of Dorne was killed by Ellaria with a knife to his chest. Doran should not have pardoned Ellaria earlier; giving her a second chance. To make it worse, Doran's noble and only son Trystane is also murdered by Ellaria's female mercenaries. Ellaria is one of the hated characters of GOT.

Sansa Stark's reuniting with Jon Snow was a great relief. And the war between Stark and Bolton armies (the Battle of the Bastards) was one of the best shot parts of GOT. Still, the part where Jon gets weighed down over the pile of dead soldiers while fighting in the war and gasps for breath appeared to be too much of an attempt for creating unnecessary drama. Also, the Stark army was not able to find a way out after being surrounded by the Bolton Army; this does not look possible given that they had Wun Wun, the a giant warrior from the Free Folks. Wun Wun could have just thrown away any such captivity by pushing through them. Also, it was surprising why Wun Wun was not armed with some giant swords or daggers and why he did not have a proper metallic armor. The Bolton soldiers were able to pierce the Giant Wun Wun through their arrows and it shows just a waste on the side of the Free Folks; if they had cared to get him some shield or armor. If Wun Wun had a giant dagger in his arms and also word an armor and a headgear, he would have defeated Bolton army single handedly. It was surprising that no one from the Stark army was ordering or asking Wun Wun to do anything and he appeared to be on his own.

Ramsay Bolton is one of the most hateful charcters in GOT and thank God he died. Before that Ramsay killing his own father Roose Bolton seemed like it was destined. Roose should have known much earlier what an evil character he had allowed to grow in his house; perhaps he knew but still ignored him since Ramsay was his only possible heir. After killing Roose Bolton the manner in which Ramsay killed his step mother and step brother who was a just born baby; was one of the most horrible scenes of GOT. 

Sansa Stark: A fine idea of a woman of character from Game of Thrones

Cersei Lannister destroying the Sept of Baelor by fire, killing the High Sparrow: This was a very satisfying event; Cersei finally behaved like a queen. Ever since the High Sparrow started treating the royalty like dirt; there was a sense of disbelief and the story looked 'unnatural'. Finally this was set right through the Sept burning. Although it was saddening to see so many folks dying in the fire. 

Cersei Lannister: Strong, weak, confused, hard-headed; idea of a complex character

Young King Tommen Baratheon's suicide was not convincing for me. The way he was, he should have been too much of a coward to take his own life. And if he had the guts, he would not have allowed the fenatic Faith Militants to do that to his mother.

Arya killing Walder Frey and his sons was another great event which set a lot of wrong things right. Felt proud of Arya for being able to do that. But before that, thank God the joke in the name of "no one" she was playing got stopped. She was the daughter of Ned Stark and it was disgraceful of the way she had put her whole life in the hands of a "no one". 

Arya Stark: Pray her unending suffering ends forever

And Season 6 continued the boring series of Daenerys Targaryen aka Khaleesi, the Mother of Dragons who kept fighting all the holy evils of this world including slavery. As I have said before, if Khaleesi's character was erased from GOT, GOT would become much more realistic story which grown up people would appreciate.

PS: Interestingly the most interesting character I came across in this Season was of Lyanna Mormont. It is wonderful how they found this perfect child artist Bella Ramsey who has played this role wonderfully. 

- Rahul Tiwary

Related posts: Game of Thrones: Season 5

Nature: Stray Dogs

- Rahul Tiwary 

Nature: Ducks Fight in Bird Valley Park

When I visited Bird Valley Park in Pune recently, I witnessed a curious scene. You can check out my pictures of the lake-park and ducks here in my previous post. Coming back the incident; here is the sequence of events which unfolded: 

The lake has both complete white and spotted brown type of ducks.

(Above) Two brown ducks were swimming and enjoying in the lake

(Above) Suddenly a group of white ducks rushed towards them

(Above) More white ducks joined them and they started confronting the brown ducks as if there was going to be a gang-war

(Above) The brown ducks were threatened and one of the brown ducks, perhaps the male, is seen coming in front of the other duck which was perhaps female and it appeared as if he was trying to protect her. But the brown ducks were completely bullied. All ducks were also making noise. 

(Above) After a while, it was all fine. The white dominating ducks were calmed down after having made their point and in a few minutes swam to a different area. 

I do not know exactly what transpired among those ducks. But clearly the white ducks were united as a group and the brown spotted ducks were a separate team. There was certainly a tension between these two groups which did not turn into a full fledged street (lake) fight and no one was really harmed. Perhaps the white ducks sent a message to the brown spotted ducks. Was it a fight over territory which had food? Most likely. The white ducks also appeared much bigger in size and were stronger; giving them an edge. 

After this incident, I am left wondering that perhaps racism is not really a human trait; is it? Perhaps even among some animals and birds, folks are treated differently based on their "color". 

"Birds of a feather flock together" - is an old saying; how could I forget? 

A curious incident indeed. 

- Rahul Tiwary | Pune | March 2019