Silver linings...

Birds or the "feathered bipeds" never fail to amuse me. Since I hear them all the time, I often get tempted to go out and have a look. Here are some of the shots which I got almost two years back in my IISER campus at Haringhata when birding for me was limited to getting clicks ;) More will follow in the next blogs but with some accompanying stories :)    Black Drongo Flameback Woodpecker Flameback Woodpecker Black-hooded Oriole Black-hooded Oriole White-throated Kingfisher Blue-throated Barbet Blue-throated Barbet Common Tailorbird Purple-rumped Sunbird Purple-rumped Sunbird Waterhen Lesser Cormorant Grey heron Spotted dove Spotted owlet Magpie Robin (female) Rose-ringed parakeets

Like all mornings I woke up today to rich music of birds in a lush green BHU campus. Totally shielded from the outer world, living in my own cocoon, I could not feel anything but pure bliss. I got down to making some tea for me and switched on the TV. Besides the DELHI election news, there was once again a ‘BADI KHABAR” about a gang rape video which showed 5 young men raping a women and smiling and posing for the video. Not again I thought and changed the channel. In the ongoing 50 “Fatafat khabrein”, I again saw a news of an 8 yr old girl found murdered in Karnataka. She was allegedly raped and murdered. I turned off the TV and turned over to my laptop to do the daily morning ritual i.e. checking facebook.. Not surprisingly the gang rape video was all over the newsfeed. There were feelings of anguish and sympathy. Nothing more, nothing less. I clicked on the video. 5 seconds on and I was trembling. I shut down my laptop and it took almost 10-15 minutes for my heart to stop pounding ...