Hello, Sparky here.
Ø Knee-deep in winter,
Cool
days warmed by Sun,
Cold
nights filled with fun.
Friends
for company
and
puzzles when none.
Ø The entire Banyan Island feels like a giant fair now.
Every inch of space on the vegetation along the river is taken. Birds both big
and not-so-big reside side by side. A skirmish or two sometimes but overall
there’s peace but not so much quiet and calm. The pace of activity is so
intense that sometimes the flightless ones like me have an impulse to take
flight.
Ø That’s probably what happened last week. The Woolly-neck
babies were visiting Civvy and Kiwi monkeys. They are hardly babies any more,
they are as big as Mr. Goldback now. From my perch close to my home it looked
like they were winding up their conversation as one of the Woolly baby took
flight. It was that movement that drew my attention to the scene. The other Woolly baby was about to follow
when the next thing that happened was Kiwi tumbled down the tree. Lucky for him
he landed on a mound of dry leaves and was none the worse for the fall than a
couple of scratches. To round off this story, nobody laughed at Kiwi, not even
Civvy but there seems to be no other way of Kiwi getting over his embarrassment
other than putting some time between the incident and him. I did go up to him
and tell him that he’s got nothing to be embarrassed about, with the thousands
of birds taking flight all around us, it’s a surprise more of us arboreal
creatures are not spreading our ‘wings’ to take flight.
Ø This incident has done one more thing for Kiwi, he now
feels if he had hurried up with his ‘nest building’, 1. He wouldn’t have fallen
off his perch as he reckons he would have been comfortably seated in his nest while
conversing and thus such an incident would not have come to pass. 2. Even if he had fallen off his nest, he would have still had a place to hide away till his embarrassment
wore off.
Ø As far as the story of Civvy’s nest goes, after last week’s
conversation that he had with the Baya Weavers, he concluded that the best way
to get out of the ‘Do you need a nest to woo a female monkey’ conundrum is to
talk to his mother. Civvy’s mother heard him out and said 1. A house is what
you make of it – it’s your space to do as you like so never mind what someone
else builds it for. 2. You have Mr. Goldback’s approval to build the house so
you need not be justifying the reason for building the nest to anyone – if you
feel like it, build it for the sake of building it.
Ø The talk with his mom put Civvy at ease and he then took
off for what looked like a stroll around the island. When he came back, he had a
plan ready, execution was all that was pending. His Plan of Action(PoA) was:
a.
He would build a nest like the Woolly-necks’
– wide and strong, built of twigs and sticks.
b.
If he were to find the ‘stick-nest’ too hard,
he would then build a nest like the Drongos’ – small and cosy, made of dry grass and
twigs.
c.
If even that weren’t to his liking he would
then build a nest like the sparrows’ – warm and airy, made of grass and stalks
made soft with feathers and such.
Ø As Civvy told his mother of his PoA she couldn’t help
laughing at the grand scheme. When pointed out that instead of building and
then checking it for his liking, why he couldn’t ask the birds named in the PoA
for a ‘test-sitting’, he was aghast at not having thought of it himself and he
has now gone on another stroll to see if he can find willing owners who would
let him ‘test-sit’ as his mother called it.
Ø Now, let’s delve a bit into our only home – planet Earth. 2020 was recorded as the warmest year in Europe (at least since records began to be kept). 2020 beat 2019 to this ‘coveted’ record by a mighty 0.4 degree Celsius. If that seems like a small rise, consider the fact that unless global warming is capped at 1.5 C the events that will follow will be beyond our control and comprehension. Many of the events that have been unfolding, especially over the past decade (which was the hottest decade on record) are already giving us a glimpse of the impending disasters to follow, although countries and their leaders around the world have started to join the dots and connect the cause and effect, the will and heart to do something concrete about it is still lacking.
I wonder when the human race will wake up and smell the roses, the rotten
roses of their own doing. They are dragging all other species along with them
but they are yet to get it that what other species are suffering now, they will
suffer next, it’s only a matter of time.
Ø Will the humans do something to arrest the runaway rise
in temperature? Will they alter their ways drastically enough and quickly
enough to avert a crash? Only time will tell. If things weren’t this serious,
it would actually be funny as to how stupid they really are. They are all
living like there is no tomorrow. If they continue to live like this there will
actually be no tomorrow. Henry David Thoreau, the American philosopher,
poet, and environmental scientist said ‘What is the use of a house if you
haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?’ I ask, '
Here are a few activities for this week to
sit within the warmth of your cosy home and solve.
·
Who
am I?
o I am a forest spread over 9 countries. I make
up to 50% of ‘my kind’ in the world. One
in 10 known species calls me home. In 2019 numerous fires ravaged me while the
world pretty much just sat and watched.
o You will find me underwater. I occupy only
0.1% of Ocean area but support at least 25% of the marine species. When I am
healthy I am colourful and support a variety of life, when I die I turn white.
o I am a type of fig tree. My roots drop from
my branches to the ground and as time passes I come to resemble a grove.
o I am where you are. I am the one and only
home that you have. It seems like a series of co-incidences that makes me
sustain life as no-other of my kind does.
·
These
are a few birds’ nest with the birds ‘hidden’ – look at the nest, the size of
the nest and that of the bird, the location of the nest and material used and
try to match the nest to its owner.
- Here are some words that rhyme with words that are synonyms for the word ‘home’.
- Here’s a ‘bird’s eye-view’ of Kruger National Park, South Africa. Look at this photo and see how many words you can identify which begin with the letter ‘E’. Don’t limit yourself to just what you see, widen your imagination and look for intangible things as well.
See you all next week. In the meanwhile, if you would like to write to me, email me at Sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com
Answers to last week’s puzzles:
·
Look
at this photo and see how many words you can identify which begin with the
letter ‘M’. Don’t limit yourself to just what you see, widen your imagination
and look for intangible things as well.
This is Melpomene, a muse (minor goddess) in the Greek and Roman mythology. The 9 muses that there are symbolize arts and sciences and so over the millennia the word ‘muse’ itself has come to mean someone who’s an inspiration to an artist. This particular statue in the Louvre Museum in Paris towering a little over 12 feet, made of marble dates back to around 50 BCE and was a part of the Theatre of Pompei in Rome.
Initially the Goddess of music, song and dance, Melpomene later was named the muse of tragedy. Her name in Greek means ‘to celebrate with song and dance’. As the goddess of tragedy her statues are usually depicted with a tragic mask in one hand and a club or knife in the other. She also dons a crown of ivy and boots called ‘cothurnus’, which was worn by tragic actors.
This
is by no means an exhaustive list of answers. What is exhausted, is my ‘imagination’
and ‘inclination’
o Statue
o Standing
o Stoic
(Melpomene)
o Sombre
(Melpomene)
o Screaming
(the mask)
o Stupefied
(the mask again)
o Stunned
(the mask yet again)
o Sad
(yes, the mask again)
o Stature
o Structure
o Strong
o Stone (made of marble)
o Strands (of Melpomene’s hair)
o Step (Melpomene looks like she’s about to
take a step)
o Staircase (staircase within the Louvre is
visible behind the statute)
o Stripe (the waist band)
o Sun-lit
·
Here’s
a crossword with the words rhyming with the letters ‘sive’.
- Match these animal homes to the animals. The first table below is animal ‘homes’ and the second table has a list of animals. Where do you think these animals live in?
Little Readers’ Section
·
Here
are a few ‘homes’. Can you tell who might have built it or who lives in it?
1. A Bird (In the absence of the bird in the
photo, it is difficult to guess which specific bird’s nest this is.)
2. It’s an anthill – ants built it.
3. This is another ant nest – a hole in the
ground
4. This is the work of a crab that has rolled
balls of sand while looking for food in the sand.
5. This beautiful nest has been built by a Baya Weaver bird.
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