Proposed programmes for July / August 2011

Hi folks !

Guess what ….

While I just read Aniruddha expressing his feelings on rains…do it today and now “KAL HO NA HO !”

So here are two suggestions :

With monsoon in its full swing… we can also let loose ourselves for few of hours on two occasions.

1. How about a Monsoon football match ?? on a beach..

31st July, Sunday at 3.30 pm, venue - Juhu beach. ( exact spot will be notified later ).. let us all get togather and let loose the Bhutia, Pele and Messi in us.

Even if any one of us have not played earlier, there is always a first time and we will have proper guidance provided for by our own Pele… "Karan Thakur"
In case, if we don’t know, Karan has been playing football since his childhood and has represented his institution in various games.

AND, for those who feel, Football is not their cup of tea, they could try themselves with other sporting activities as well.. This means, all in all ( Parents and teenagers ) of the teenager shibir group are welcome to join and enjoy the Sunday ‘s sporting event.

Shortly Karan Thakur via a separate post will update the details of the logistics and games. All are requested to confirm your participation on 24th July in the shibir for necessary arrangements.

2. A city walk….Jungle pher fatka .. A walk around the greens in the company of learned experts who will share their knowledge about the greenery that exist in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park on 7th August , Sunday at 8.00 am.

This tour is being coordinated by Nulkar family. They will, via a separate post explain the details of same. All are requested to confirm their participation on 24th July in the shibir for necessary arrangements.

Mahesh

Autobiography of a wooden chair

HI FRIENDS!!

This is the first time I am contributing on chequebook.so,if any suggestions about my post, please comment.

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A WOODEN CHAIR

What do you think of the current state of mine?All those big people (human being they call themselves)are using me for sitting,standing and even sleeping sometimes.One of my friends said that some naughty children jumped over him and now he has a back ache ( a nasty one).

Sorry I forgot to introduce myself as I was deeply concerned by the situation. My name is Om.I have been in this room for years together. Oh!How lovely it was to be in my tree family.My family name is Bamboo.And see where I have landed up now.IN THE DUNGEONS!Let me tell you a brief flashback of my life.About 30 years ago,I was with my huge family in the forest of Kahna.All kinds of friends I had from squirrels to snakes and sparrows.They took shelter under our family.Everyday I could see the gleaming sun shining brilliantly at me and inspiring me to grow.How pleasant those days were! Then something disturbing happened.

It was in the month of July that the rains started.So we would have another generation in a family. I used to talk to my friends and brothers and sisters. On one of the days I was relaxing my arms and legs, When suddenly I heard something unusual to my leaves. It was the sound of one of the big people's machines. Although they passed in their so called cars, these cars were amazingly big than the normal ones. And it was our family they were heading to! Frankly I am very scared of such things. My friends tried to driving it away but in vein. It was now that I realised how fortunate it would be to have a pair of legs and a common language! Alas! Our days were over. And with a 'thud' the gigantic car came crashing into us. A little later we understood that they were to make a highway round there! And so we were taken away along with some centipedes and insects on our bodies. My mom and dad had known about this quite a while back, but they stood very calm. I was seriously upset about the happenings and asked my mom,"Mother, Is it necessary for them to chop us? Are they not sufficient with our relatives being taken away last time?" My mother said calmly,"It would have been sufficient, but their population is increasing and they are also becoming greedy. Our time to serve them with fruits and flowers is over. Now we will have to sacrifice our body also to serve them." I looked at mother anxiously and she smiled back at me.

The car came and stopped at a very huge gate. The watchman opened it and we proceeded. After reaching we were taken out and sent in a big tower like structure. After that I lost my senses for a while. When I returned into myself, I let out to huge cry as my mom & dad were separated from me. It was the worst thing to happen. As I consoled myself, I remembered mother's words. I looked at myself and noticed that I have been compressed with some other strangers of my kind. So we became friends. Then all of us were transferred. We were nailed and joined to some others. And as I gazed at our structure, we were exactly looking like one of those big people's seats which they called as 'chairs'. But we were a bit smaller in size. Then we were taken to a room which was full of chairs. It was a study room for children. Thus I landed up here. Since that day, we have been their seats. Some times I get hurt when someone jumps over me or fells me. Now I have more friends like me than before who were first a nature's part and now taken away.

Well! Thank you my friend for understanding my feelings. Some times I do get depressed at the loss of my mom & dad, But that is alright. Good Bye!!!

Rains

We all would be experiencing rain now.Rain must be annoying with drainage problems,mud everywhere ,traffic and how frustrating it would be when a car goes over water not far from you and you get wet from head to toe.But beside these there also a good side of rain too.Like the small puddles which you loved to make when you were very little.Or the rainbow you would have seen somewhere.But the most important how we still love to dance in rain.So just go outside when its raining and when you have ample time and enjoy every bit of it as we don't know- "KAL HO NA HO"

red pierrot catterpillar/above cacoon

praying mantis

spider

The news i am deliver you is the most wonderful newsfrom my side. We have 9 red pierrot catterpillar on our panfhutti. I exprienced the happiness when the hardwork pays off,with a reward which is in a form of life. Along with this a praying mantis as if the guard for the cacoon settled praying on the vebera plant.

Dear Children,
Here I am again. Now to talk to you about the CD i gave you on Sunday.It contains Mr.Mangesh Padgaonkar's poems.Mr.Mangesh Padgaonkar is a very good and popular poet in marathi.He has tried to express himself in different forms of poetry.

Any creative artist when he wishes to display the beauty of his experiences before us, he has to choose the form of expression.Here the poet has created a sort of musical form to express a small, at times apparently very trivial experience from our day to day life using simple lyrical rhythmic words conveying the human element and the divine beauty in it.He has named this form " Bolgani ". It will remind you of the songs you have heard in the film "My fair lady ".

The initial commentary may appear a bit prolonged to you, you may skip it if you wish.Then you listen to his poems. As you start perceiving the poetrical beauty of these poems,one day you will become curious to understand the poet.Then you listen to the initial narration.

I hope you will enjoy this gift.

Lata Aji

common jay

tailed jay

The one thing i was really surprised about was the why did'nt i post sunset photos when i had them. But anil aajoba on the day of the shibhir insisted on puting some sunset pictures which we always take pleasure to watch. so be ready the ride begins.

Hi,
this is Lataaji again.
Every year in the month of March, my chartered accountant sits with my account books to file the income tax returns. He finishes his work in an hour or two. The other day he told me that I was the only doctor whose accounts were so simple to keep. I realised what he meant by ‘simple'. Simple meant trivial or frugal. I told him 'Yes, financially there is nothing much to gain from my work. There is nothing to hide or seek loopholes to reduce the taxable income, but that is not the reason for less work for you. You have less work because transactions occur not in my financial account but mainly in my emotional account.
Believe me, every time I take an inventory of what I have gathered on my way during the year, I feel rich. The richness I could have never imagined! This year something I noticed that really was mind boggling. I realised that my emotional bank account was full with the highest denominations of currency i.e.LOVE. What surprised me more was that even you all parents have also gathered a lot on the way.
So now I have decided to spend a sizable portion of our emotional bank balance. I wish that all parents from teenager children’s' group should join together to start a new programme "MEET ". I expect 4 families (8 parents) to arrange a monthly meet on a Sunday evening for parents. All of you will discuss any two questions from the questionnaire already given to you.everyone will share his/her revelations. Your shortcomings, doggedness are traumatizing your teenage children. Let us all open up before our friends. Let us help one another to overcome our rigidities. That will help us become little more malleable and not fragile. We all need to become more compassionate and caring. I expect to achieve through "MEET".
Bye,
Lata aji

query regarding comments

Problem faced by Meghana : Option of post comment is not working.
I too was unable to post comments for last few days. This is what I did :
After signing in
-Go to Edit Profile on Dashboard
-Then tick on Show my e-mail.
-Then Save Profile
After doing this my comment was accepted.

common palmfly

grey pansy

painted lady

cattle egret

cattle egret (breeding)

hi there! i again got some egrets flying in my photographs. The last 2 photographs are cattle egret.And above them a honeybee and a snap of the watery eyes of gramblue butterfly.

Dear children and parents,
Hi! Today I am very much pleased and happy about the efforts we all are putting in to grow together.We are meeting in the shibir towards the end of this month and have some time at hand till then.
I would like you to see the film 'SOUND OF MUSIC' once again if possible.If not,I request you all to talk about various episodes in the film that depict different aspects of love at home.Facets of love are difficult to define,but can be expressed effectively in a happy family.'Maria'brings in the happiness and the family starts disciplining their love.Each one of them reveals love beautifully.There is love,love,love everywhere in the film.There is measured sacrifice,commitment,forgiveness,gratitude,friendship,acceptance,love for the nature,music and all such good things around.Best of all is the expression of love in togetherness,whether it is in Maria's first home i.e.Seminary or in the Von trapp family.
I expect all of you to chat with each other about these things shown in the film.Enjoy this showcase of love and hope to see you soon.
Love.

Lataaji

i am really sorry in my last post its not pond heron its cattle egret

indian pond heron?

black kite

Here i come again. I reckon it was'nt a good day for all of us. But certainly not for me because it washed away all the plans in my mind. I think the incessant rain left some of its drops behind on my arnelia plant. And a little pause in rainfall gave me all the reasons in the world to take my cam and snap what ever resonable i see. SO it was'nt at all a bad day.

It feels great to be back on chequebook after a space of a month.The fault in the net did not allow me to post anything. So that’s past tense and anybody would like to forget it. There are some photos which I am sharing with you,are taken by my new camera and I would be pleased if you appreciate them with worthy comments. ashy prinia

lesser grass blue

Happy Ruminations – Once Again

Tuesday,31st May2011, A day we will always remember.

During the wonderful three day teenage shibir, Lata Aaji said that, she and Anil Ajoba were to go to Modi Resort for some rest. And that if possible anybody from shibir can join them there. It gives me immense pleasure to say that Milind and I could make it possible on one of the days. I am sure Khaches, and Om Vaknalli who could make it, also share the same feelings.

It was a peaceful day which started at 9 am and lasted till 10.30 pm. Apart from a break of about one hour, Lata Aaji and Anil ajoba shared wonderful memories of their family and friends for the whole day. Their interesting episodes with their great friends and eminent personalities like Pu La, Sunitabai, Mangesh Padgaokar, Borkar, Vasant Bapat, Vinda Karandikar, and Baba Amte and also cricketers like Madhav Apte and Vasu Paranjape, and doctors like Dr.Phadke and Dr.Shrikhande,Advocate Mohan Korde kept us captivated.

The variety of their friends, the relations they shared with the all of them, and people at large, the priority they gave to nurture their relationships, the involvement of Gargee and Adwait in everything that they did, their compassion, never ceases to amaze me.
Needless to say, there were sessions to take a review of shibir. One thing that came up was the lack of compassion and commitment on our part which we need to improve upon.

As an exercise for the next meeting on Sunday 12th June at 3pm, parents are expected to talk to the children about the last teen age shibir and write down what all happened during the shibir.

We really missed those of you who were not present at Modi Resort. I am sure there will be many more such occasions but do try and give these occasions a priority.

my robotics summer camp.

hi pals!


how are you all ? I am feeling extremely delighted to write on the chequebook after such a long time. Actually our family could not access the Internet due to some computer snag. however that was unable to stop my anxiety to type this post.It was the Monday night when my parents finally blurted out the secret they had kept for a long time .They had enrolled me for the robotics camp! They also informed me that I had to wake up early In order to reach there punctually.I agreed and went to sleep on time.I could not stop thinking about it . however I got some sleep.


we were at first taught the fundamentals of robotics.we then made our way to create our first robot.there the obstruction avoiding robot. out there I gained many friends.We also learnt many theories. We made 10 intelligent robots. They are the obstruction avoider, the line follower, the object follower, the wall follower,the sound sensor, the mobile controlled,the fire sensor(stops at sensing the fire and rings the buzzer),the photo phobic(moves away from light) and the photophilic (the one following the light ).They are changed by just changing the connections.Unfortunately,I cannot upload its picture.so you all would have to pay a visit to me for me to show its working.


It was truly a rejoicing unique summer camp.

Questions?

If you have any questions based on chapters love and happiness ,the chapters which were discussed last time in shibir.Kindly ask those questions to Lata Aaji latest by tuesday 17th May on phone .These questions will be discussed in next session

happy ruminations

Saturday evening truly shall be an evening to remember.


Lataaji Anilajoba had invited two of their friends Mr Vasu Paranjape ,ex-coach Team India and industrialist Mr.Madhav Apte ,opening batsman India, both cricketing legends to share their cricketing experiences.Also present were their friends,Dr,Mukund Joshi,eminent radiologist and Dr.Nandu Laud,eminent Orthopaedic surgeon who also are great cricket enthusiasts who have played cricket at the state level.


It was really an enviable evening to be in the company of all these great personalities who are like grandparents to Om and all of them sharing their nostalgic memories about various cricketing legends.They narrated them so very vividly that all of us including om could visualise the whole drama unfold before us.


The three of us especially om hadn't even heard of these cricketers of the 50's but still we enjoyed the evening as we could experience the happiness that all of them had got while ruminating over those fond memories even after 60 years.


Post dinner every day we talk about saturday evening and each one of us has a newer dimension to add to the whole thing.

common emigrant

tawny coaster

still unknown to me

Tis been long time since my last post,and as i promise i brought along with me another suitcase full of vibrant photos. Again as usual these photos are of butterflies,but before you see those pictures i would be glad to tell you folks the great rivalry between me and those swift butterflies. These butterflies i have strived to capture because they never sit. Thankfully i matched the swiftness of the butterflies which earlier proved too much for me.