Iris Behind the Lens & the World before it

                Photography is what makes me

                Pull myself out of my morning slumber.

                Quenches my creative thirst from the monotony

                Makes me see colours and contemplate

                Look at people and relate to

                Take notice of all the nitty gritty things happening around me

                Above all it is an excuse to be amidst the nature !!

                August 19 is the World Photography Day.



Ps:Thanks to Ragu he remind me about it and i chanced upon this image and thought of sharing it.

Greens are they ?

The greens are going. Tis the colour of skirmish critters called environ activists, there is a corporal identify associated with them to being leftists, a cold blooded anti capitalist and of all they are looked down as “are these critters the only saviors of this earth”, Thou I don’t belong to any green brigade as such, but I am obviously concerned about the fallouts of implosive developmental activities happening in and around the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. In as many casual chats I have with friends one ends up touching the environmental issues daunting the Nilgiris. And invariably it boils down to green brigade bashing, which which made me ponder over the generic psychic of people inhabiting the Nilgiris. Is it only few jug heads like me go thumping around to protect the environment.  It is the way commoner think as what impact a lil violation here n there does to the ecosystem, if the violations happened to get questioned they get petrified and throw tantrums a galore. “See even XYZ did the same thing and they got away with it, why only it has to be us”?  “The ABC in the green brigade should have put this on to the department they are the jealous lot, they just cannot digest us being happy.”     

Coming again to the greens it may be obvious that the greens pulled up their sleeves and got their hands dirty with ulterior motives be it as simple as to get some noise going to get noticed or may be as pretentious with commercial intent by and large there are souls out there gasping at the environmental time bomb, genuine or pretentious the greater common good should prevails and if a mile long is walked for this cause, it is the very cause that gets to gain.  So think them to be fascist , critter or creeps the mile is jolly well walked…..  

Ouch it Rains

Awaiting dearly for the monsoon, it is not something as cheerfully awaited yet timidly in the corner of my heart I yearn for now the damp moist days, the aromas of steaming tea & ginger biscuits, the god should be crazy gossips around the fire place ,to cuddle with cozy blankets, with slushy roads and empty bylanes. The monsoon in Nilgiris has its own charm one has to ease in to it though the transition every year is cumbersome, the change will be drastic as gloom descends all around. I like the feel of monsoon, the yearn now is much more to do away with the horrid summer. I hope the wait is over........

Thru Masinagudi Ah ?

Cow in the evening sun. Masinagudi 

In the recent days Masinigudi and its surrounding area have come in to limelight for all reasons that be good for good and bad for bad? Humm now how else can one classify the issues that is daunting this biome in general and the people in particular, above all if I try to concise or do a synopsis of all that comprehends this region for a small post in my blog it is no less an absurdity as I have always been inclined towards the social ecology rather then inviolate core area school of thoughts.

It was last month or so a hearing committee as directed by the Madras High Court had a sitting in the Segur range (on the Masinagudi – Ooty state highway) to receive objections and grievance related to the recently published Map demarcating the proposed Elephant Corridor,     

There has always been high emotional over runs, on relocations issues, I like to draw similarities on relocation exodus of River Narmada, as the height of the Tehri Dam was raised the Tehri Valley natives had to relocate, it was opposed tooth and nail, but then it was the might of the pro development envisioned government vs. the will of indigenous mountain people , they cited loss of habitat, loss of diversity and so no but it reached the deaf ear, the govt went ahead with its plans to raise the height of the dam, haven’t heard since then of the plight of those relocated, the relocations is a painful social engineering especially if it is natives and indigenous people to be shifted out of their roots be it for development or for conservation they pay an hefty price, in the realms of social ecology man is an integral part of the ecosystem but in the current circumstances it is difficult to aggregate the harmonious check and balances, be it in the human settlements or these biome pockets getting overburdened with prey or predator populations. There will be more man wildlife conflicts as the spillover happens from either side.

The name derived from the Temple of Masaniamman this sleepy village became the cynosure for all wannabe wildlife socializers conservationist and shutterbugs, well that includes me too :(  hanging around on the street waysides flashing those sleeveless, camouflages and khakis.  Dousing oneself on chais, last minute shampoo soap spontaneities,  Masinagudi has always charmed me from my early ages I have been excited to be here though it might be for mare stopover on the Masinagudi bazaar for its earthiness for its acute wafts of cow dung as you enter this typified village unlike the once we are used to in the upper part of the Nilgiris.

The Mono Cultured Thorns

On the third day of the ICC field camp I had an opportunity to be at the media presentation by Dr Tarun Chabhra of Toda Nalavalvu Sangam, briefing about various aspects of conservations mechanisms that are entwined in the Toda culture & knowledge base, on the discourse he coined a phrase which compelled me to write this post “the mono culturing the cultural diversity of this world”

Across various civilizations and communities there are intricate practices, accrued knowledge base which has helped them adapt to certain kind of environment and livelihood needs which is inculcated in their cultural fabric as well, thus bringing about the uniqueness among various communities, in the current scenarios the free market driven conglomerates are clinically modifying the social & cultural fabric (even more so the demographic landscape) of every country, if this is the age of global villages with multi faceted culture dotted with Cokes, MacDonald & Pizza Huts fine but these are the prime indicators of mono culturing of our cultural diversity. This macro cultural engineering will lead to broad based dilution of culture in turn gradually affecting the knowledge base and indigenous practices which where organic and sustainable.

A classic example of how the mono culture has intruded in to our system can be seen in the rural farmlands, the farmers where encouraged to use the big conglomerates inorganic chemical fertilizers, pesticides and growth inducers. Conditioning them to move away from traditional farming methods that suited the particular environment (the knowledge base) now the same farmer is reluctant to go back to organic ways.           

PS – after giving makeover to my blog I am some how got hooked on to posting black & white images, will last for awhile I guess.