Metamorphosis

Wildlife, Nature, and curiousity about our livinvg planet is my innate hobby. It must be because of my father. He used to take me to the weekly meeting of "Friends for Animals", where i was exposed to many people, wildlife documentaries and conservation activities. When i was in 7th grade, i went to my first Nature camp at Melaghat national Park in Maharashtra. That was a Tiger domain. Walking through the forest on foot was a thrill indeed. Then i went to numerous camps crisscrossing across India. I found that my country is wonderful, breathtaking. In my 7th and 8th grade, i used to study life cycle of Butterflies. I fostered some 25 butterfly species from the caterpillar stage to Butterfly. But i had no camera. So no photos!!! :-(((( I should have had one. It would have been wonderful to document it all. But some months back i got the opportunity. I found the caterpillars of the butterfly named "Common Mormon" This time i had a camera as well. So I am posting here the fotographs of different stages in the life of Butterflies. It feels nice to take such snaps.


Butterfly Caterpillar in the initial stage. Looks like a bird dropping. This is to camouflage it.

The same Caterpillar turning green after some days. This happens by molting off the outer skin

The caterpillar ready to undergo a transformation to Pupa or Chrysalis.

The Chrysalis!!!!! or a Pupa. Isnt this amazing?

The Chrysalis from which the Butterfly is about to emerge out.


The "Female of Common Mormon"(male has all white spots) emerged out. You can see the empty pupa. This is one of the wonders of natural world. It is really beyond explaination as to how all this happens. The Caterpillar of a particular species of Butterfly feeds only on a specific plant. Like the caterpillar of the "Common Mormon" feeds on lemon (and few more) tree. If you keep it on other plants, it will die of starvation. How does female Common Mormon finds exactly the lemon tree to lay eggs? Its all occult. Its very fascinating indeed.

It is very satisfying to observe our natural world. Lets see, i hope to see and explore more of it.

A Song !!

Last night, i was lying down on my bed listening to songs by U2. Some of the songs are awesome. Acrobat, Whos gonna run your wild horses, Sweetest thing, Stuck in the Moment and others...... I was thinking about many things and i started to forms some very naive lines of my own. I felt that i should write them down. So, at about 1 am, i started my computer and wrote down the lines. Just thought like putting them on the blog.. after all its my own blog...

Imagine a human being who feels that he has lost on most fronts in his life. He does not know whom to blame. I think of this is a song by such a person.

Me to God,

Don’t you dare speak a word,
Just tell me why did you kill my bird?

She was a vivid bird of innovation,
Soaring high in the wind of my imagination
Can that wind now carry away my tears?
I have prepared for it, not much…. Just the open doors..

Don’t you dare speak a word,
Just tell me why did you kill my bird?

She was a tender bird, filled with emotion..
Always flying around me, to show her compassion..
I never understood, but it must have been hard on her wings..
Surely a crime that I have messed up on so many things..

So don’t ever dare speak a word,
Just tell me why did you kill my bird?

She was a bird, who thought different,
Vultures, flycatchers, eagles, owls, cormorant;
But now I lie down with only clichéd thoughts in my mind,
Surely this must be a dream, can’t the time now unwind?

You don’t need to speak a word,
Now I know why did you kill my bird..

God to Me

I never killed the bird my son,
It is you; you are the one!!

You need to look in, rather than blame…
The bird can be a phoenix rising through the flame….

Last 4 Days

This blog is dedicated to last 4 four days.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. These days cover two distinct locations Pune and The Mumbai.

Sunday Morning, My Home, 2pm:
I was lying down and was watching TV. Animal Planet showcased a documentary "With Sir David Attenborough" David Attenborough is simply wonderful and fascinating person. I would love to be him. He is one of the pioneers in wildlife film making. No one has stimulated viewer's sensations to the extent as he has. David Attenborough joined the BBC's fledgling television service in 1952, fronting Zoo Quest, the breakthrough wildlife series that established the international reputation of the BBC Natural History Unit at Bristol. His various documentary films are,

1954-64 Zoo Quest
1975 The Explorers
1976 The Tribal Eye
1977- Wildlife on One
1979 Life on Earth
1984 The Living Planet
1987 The First Eden
1989 Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives
1990 The Trials of Life
1993 Wildlife 100
1993 Life in the Freezer
1995 The Private Life of Plants

I am very font of all this. My ultimate educational goal is to attain a PhD in specialization in Mechanical Engineering. But dont be surprized if i land up pursuing my career like Sir David. This is just a hint for you all.

Monday, 530 pm LnT:

I joined yoga and pranayam clasees. The clasees are from 530 to 700. I have gone for last three days. I feel the change. During the class, whatever pranayam and yoga we are taught, seems powerful. There is a technique known as deep relaxation technique. During that exercise, i almost fell asleep. Believe me they are excellent. I dont know what are the benefits. But i do not go their for the benefits. I go thru curiosity. I go there because i want to know the things that i dont. Will continue with the classes and post more soon.

Wednesday, Powai.

Got my Bike repaired. Thanks to Mandy. Bike was dead for 2 months.

IIT-->LnT-->(via local)-->around Mumbai

This is how i live. As titled above i try to capitalize on any free time i get. And i like to roam around in Mumbai in that time. Mumbai is awesome place. When i have progressed from old stages to new stages, i never felt that the old stages were level less. Let me offer an example because some of the readers might need it. When I came to COEP (only for those who understand the expansion of these four letters), It was a wonderful place to be in. But I never hated SP College or felt that COEP is far superior. Every college has its key role and I have respect for it. But things have changed for me. I have been in Mumbai for last 6 months and now i really feel that Pune is very much pathetic compared to Mumbai. I still like Pune, but Mumbai is class apart.

Mumbai deserves a separate paragraph. Mumbai is massive, it is Local, it is BEST, it is Slow as well as Fast, it is Sky Scraping, it is Deep, it even has a Wildlife Sanctuary in it, it is fly overs, it is fly over seas, and what not. Mumbai is simply superb.

Now let me tell what I do each day. I wake up at 7 with a tolerance of 30 mins. Then I walk till IIT gate. I catch BEST. Then I reach LnT. I stay there till 5.10 with a tolerance of +2-3 hours. Then I come back. I sleep at around 1-2 with a tolerance of +1-2 hours. Bakee Lunch arnd Dinner timings are not worth mentioning. Karan they are quite predictable.

I work in the Department of "Technology and New Product Realization" which analogous to a R& D department. I work on HP personal computer with Windows XP as OS. I have various softwares installed on it. To run these softwares effectively i havea 2Gb RAM on my machine. The softwares include ADAMS, Uni-Graphics, I-deas and many other high end workstation softwares. I utilise them to a 1% of their true capacity. Because i have a limited Brain.

Whenever I get time, i try to roam around in Mumbai.
I think I should sign off now.

Think Different..
Makarand Datar

Think Different

Think Different was an advertising slogan made by the advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\day for Apple Computers during the late 1990s. It was used in a famous television commercial and several print advertisements. The slogan was used at the end of several product commercials, until the advent of Apple’s switch ad campaign. Apple currently has no widely used slogan, and their commercials usually end with a silhouetted Apple logo and sometimes a pertinent website address.
Shortly after the death of civil-rights pioneer Rosa Parks on October 24, 2005, the campaign briefly reemerged on Apple's website in reverse type on the famed bus ride photo with the text "Rosa Parks — 1913-2005" in the left corner and "Think Different" in the right. It has been noted that the slogan is grammatically incorrect, and should be "Think Differently" instead. Others have criticized Apple for seemingly trying to associate their brand with historic figures, which may or may not have approved of Apple's products. Supporters of Apple argued that they were paying tribute to the figures in question.

The advertisement is quite wonderful and the lyrics is simply rivetting, it goes like this,

Here's to the crazy ones,
the misfits,
the rebels,
the troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules
and they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them,
disagree with them,
glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do
is ignore them,
because they change things.
They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to
think they can change the world
are the ones who do.

The original Lyrics is a bit longer. This is a compact version of it.