Beifeld's Principle
The probability of a young man meeting a desirable and receptive young female increases by pyramidal progression when he is already in the company of:
- a date
- his wife and
- a better looking and richer male friend.
A brief interlude
One huge gang of relatives went to this get-to-gether at Cosmopolitan Club for lunch on Thursday. Had lotsof fun meeting a lot of people, again. They were very frequent before, say about 6-8 years ago. (We even went to Bombay and Delhi with such a huge
gumbal of relatives. Then we had lotsof get-to-gethers then. Now everybody has grown up/become busy, and its once in a blue moon day that I get to meet all of them - a moment to cherish.)
I went to
Vedanthangal yesterday (Saturday). Amazing place to visit. It was my first visit there.
Started at around 1:30pm in the afternoon, with my parents and couple of cowsins. Zipped along NH-45 for about an hour at 90kmph and then turned into the road to Vedanthangal. Reached the place around 3:15.
For the next half-hour, I was in a hyper. My voice went ultrasonic, I was chattering very fast, I coulndt get my hands of the binoculors and the camera went clicking. Me being in that place was like a shopper crazy person put into the biggest mall, or a gamer put into the largest gaming fest, or a gourmet put in the largest multicuisine restaurant..... It was like a dream come true.
The number of birds were just astounding.
There were
pin-tail ducks, spoonbills, pelicans, darters, ibis (sacred and glossy), painted storks, herons,
egrets, cormorants (aka sea crows) and many more that I could not recognise. Hundreds of them crammed into one tree....
Here is a list of some of the birds that I have seen and
here you can find images of many birds mentioned above.
We bought a normal camera, a digital camera (belonging to one of those cowsins) and a binoculors (also sourced from the same source). I was very trigger happy, clicking at whatever I found interesting. And I was constantly on the lookout for birds through the binoculors. But the digital camera did not have much zoom. So we cam up with this wonderful idea.
We placed the digicam lens in front of the eye-piece of the binoculors. We got very awesome zooming power. I was able to take very close up shots. I will soon post the photos.I even took a 18 second video of the flight of cormorants. That I may not be able to put up due to lack of space.
I had to return now - 5:15pm.
While returning, we went to a nearby temple on a hill - called the
chinna thirupathi or Mini Tirupati. There was Lord Venkatachalapathi.... Now you know its nomenclature.
Reached the city at around 8 pm.
For those visiting the city, Vedanthangal is a must. Bird watchers (no no, not birdie watchers) should have already visited that place. If you have not, you will be missing a wonderful opportunity.
How to get there : Vedanthangal is about 90km away. If going by your own vehicle, zip along the beautiful NH-45 till 18 km (that itself is a dream come true for many urbanites where you cannot go beyond 30 kmph on the ever so rare smooth road) beyond a place called Chegalpet and then take a right at one intersection. 15km away is Vedanthangal. If you are planning to go by public transport, get urself to Tambaram and take one of the many regular buses which ply to Vedanthangal.
When to go : The rainy season, October and beyond brings a lot of water here and a lot of birds too. October to January is the right time to visit. Try not to come in weekend as it will be crowded. Come in the evening as I did today; it is at this time that many birds will be returning in flocks. Confirm with
Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) before coming here.
What to bring : Bring powerful binoculors, SLR or digital cameras with good zooming capabilities to get those good shots.
What to do : Obvious answer - Bird watching. Thats what you are here for. If possible, bring some food for the poor dogs and those meddlesome monkeys. There is a well-constructed concrete path to wack on, two observation towers and one more viewing area. Make full use of them. On the wayback, you can climb the hill to the temple.
So long now.....
