sunrise at Kelageri

March 14, 2021

We left home around 6-00, rode our MTBs to Kelageri lake via KCD Circle, Police HQ and Sadankeri. As we reached the lake's western side, Sun was just above the horizon, creating this glorious sight.

Ducks paddled around peacefully, no one to bother them at this hour.

The towering structure is Radio Tower of Dharwad.

At this time, there was some activity on the lake shore, a batch of buffaloes had just finished their morning in water and leaving for grazing. And, another group was making its way to the lake. More groups will follow..

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Bajaj Sunny Zip

As I roamed Dharwad market, I spotted this little beauty of late 1980s and early 1990s. With a 60cc engine, it was probably the lightest scooterette in the market. It was ideal for college going girls. Sunny came in bright colors like red, yellow, white, etc. This is the first blue one I'm seeing. This Sunny looks superbly maintained, no visible scratches or rust or even dirt. The owner must really love his or her Sunny. Long live Sunny!

I remember a real story involving a Sunny. An acquaintance from Goa worked in an organization near Dona Paula. One of his colleagues had a Sunny, it was an ideal vehicle for his light build. One day as he was about to step out for lunch a lady colleague tagged along despite his reluctance. The duo set of on the Sunny. The road they took was rather steep and the lady colleague was quite plump. Sunny was screaming its heart out carrying the load uphill. At one point equilibrium was lost, Sunny's front wheel left the ground, weight on the rear end tilted the scooter backwards and hell broke loose. The plump lady, the light weight guy and light weight Sunny all toppled. The lady started rolling downhill pulling the guy with her. Somehow they came to a standstill, a passerby came to their rescue. That's all I remember, not sure if they had lunch after that ordeal.

Edit: a friend came out with this sketch after reading this post.

Moral: overburdening your vehicle leads to mishaps

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green bee eater

 One afternoon we sat in our balcony watching couple of green bee eaters. They would sit on one or two select spots on the Fire tree branches next our apartment building. Their heads were continuously turning left, right, up and down... looking for preys. Suddenly they would take off, fly swiftly in arcs and return only to do it again and again. After five or six attempts, one of them caught an insect.

Since they were hanging around, I decided to take pictures of them. By the time I got my camera, one of the birds had flown to another tree. These are few pictures of the bird which still remained on the Fire tree. It's shape changes significantly, when this bird relaxes it looks plump and when it stretches it looks lean.

I tried to get a shot when it was airborne but he bird was too swift. This is the moment when the bird aborted a takeoff. Its feathers remained spread for a second before it relaxed.

Its eyes must be capturing a hundred frames per second.. looking for preys and predators at the same time. The dark jutting streaks from its eyes look like eyeliner.

Looking straight into the lens.

The bird stretched to look over a branch or a leaf that was blocking its view. Notice the difference in size because of a small movement.

There are plenty of green bee eaters in this locality. Some times five or six of them perched together on a tree or cables. They usually takeoff one at a time, rarely seen them takeoff together,

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flying heron

 

as the day gives away to night, birds head back to their tree homes. had the mobile camera been open three seconds earlier, we would've got a closer shot.

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moonset and sunsrise

Captured these pictures on Saturday Feb-27th pre-dawn.

The moon goes vanished behind the horizon. Our western horizon is a slope of a hillock, slightly elevated.

The eastern sky is littered with clouds creating a lovely sunburst. Sun is still below the horizon.

Few minutes later..

In Japanese culture Sunburst is a good omen. I learnt this from a Japanese movie "Tora Tora Tora" which is about the mission to bomb the Pearl Harbor naval base. As the planes are approaching US coast at sunrise, a lovely sunburst covers the eastern sky. One of leads pilot points the sunburst to his team mate with a comment that it's a good omen.

Sunbursts is usually seen in the mornings and evenings when the sun is close to the horizon.

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