Hindu - Newspaper

We go for morning walks near the TIDEL Park service lane, on the OMR in the mornings. I came across an advertisement in the Thiruvanmiyur MRTS station entrance 'India's favourite family newspaper - HINDU'. I wonder why suddenly 'The Hindu' needs an advertisement/introduction now. It is the leading newspaper here, in Tamilnadu. In between, it was a little boring and we had switched to 'The Indian Express'. Express has changed its design now and it has become like a tabloid like 'Deccan Chronicle', full of news about movies, actors etc. and that too English Actors. It has started targeting the youngsters. As far as I know, the youngsters are not very interested in News Papers. They read whatever they want to read via Internet. It was interesting to read earlier. Now we see the 'New Indian Express'!

We were a bit upset today morning when we saw the advertisement. We are back to 'The Hindu' now!

Butterflies fluttering by ...

We have got a small garden in front of our house. When we came to this house, we used to see lots of butterflies of different shapes and colours. Then, I noticed, I was not seeing even a single one. I thought, the reason might be our spraying pesticides on the plants. Now, I have nearly stopped spraying. I just cut the branches which are affected. I have started seeing them again now, for the past few months. I am very happy watching them hopping from flower to flower. I have captured one in my camera. We see some more varieties also. The black one below resembles a variety which is coming to our garden. We get two of this type - same colours.

As soon as I water the plants in the morning, humming birds, must be around 8 now, come to taste the water from the leaves! They nearly bathe themselves! It is a good scene to watch them suck nectar, from the flowers, in their flying position. The birds are so tiny, but the sound they make is so loud, we are not able to hear each other talking at home. My neighbour has got a lemon tree and they love sitting on them and chatting. The tree is very close to my bedroom window! Good view for us. Let me take some photos of them later on and post it here.

The three new little kittens!

The three black kittens about whom I had written earlier, are one week older now - must be around 3 weeks old now. They have started running, playing, wrestling all over the house. My niece has named them - Nandu, Sindu and Vandu! They look so cute! I thought my house is going to be a mess. Not at all! We are actually enjoying them thoroughly! The mother takes care of them all the time. She controls them with some sounds. If one of them goes behind the fridge or to the service veranda, she brings them back, holding them by their neck!

As soon as my husband wakes up, he starts checking if all the kittens are there near the mother! He does the same when he comes back from the office. Zorrotti is now a typical house cat. She welcomes my son with so many sounds and rubbings! The kittens just play around, mostly in the kitchen or the living room. Funny, they have never entered our bedroom, yet!

Here are some of their photos. Enjoy!

New arrivals at home - kittens! And all are black silk bundles!

We have a male black cat at home, which is around 3 years. Some days back, a new cat, which too is black, started coming into our compound and we noticed both of them lazing around quietly under our neem tree. Sometimes it used to come inside and eat the leftover cat food. When her stomach started bulging out, we knew it is a she. She was coming here from a house opposite to our house. We guessed a couple of weeks back that she had delivered the kittens and they must have been in the house opposite. Two days back, she started bringing them home through our window, one by one, pushing the netlon.

Now we are entertained by the three cute little kittens and their mother - all are black. She is taking care of them so nicely and now we have started feeding the mother cat also with cat food. Let us enjoy them at present and think about looking for homes for them later - 4 cats at home in a few weeks! Mind boggling!!!!

Carbon poisoned fruits

This topic must be familiar to all of us by now. We see in Sun TV news and read about the mangoes and papayas being poisoned by carbon. Now I fear even jack fruits have joined this category. My tongue was burning after eating some jack fruit pieces. I think the only fruit we can eat safely is musambi - sweet lime. I had bought the fruit from a reputed fruit and vegetable shop in Adyar where Mangoes and Papayas had already burnt my tongue and throat. I always soak the fruits in water for sometime too. Hmmm, no hopes at all for a healthy body hereafter! Now, what should we do?!

Vividhabharathi Radio Programme - Sangeeth Saritha

I am a great fan of Vividhabharathi, esp. Sangeeth Saritha programme, in which great musicians of our country participate. Now, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, who is a Sarod Maestro, is discussing about his likes and dislikes, about his family, about his journey as a musician etc. He has created new raagaas, like Shiv Preethi, Subbulakshmi, etc. He visits the Shabari mala and Iyappan is his favourite deity, though he follows Islamic religion.

This programme is aired at 7.30 am everyday for 10 mts. I have heard Violinist Smt.N.Rajam, Flute maestro Shri. Chaurasia, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Tabla Maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain and many others about their sangeeth yathra. All of them interact with the listeners, as if we are in front of them, which makes the programme very very interesting. I hope music lovers will enjoy this programme.