Uma Bharati 'Through the Lens'

From Babri to Bhopal, it has been a momentous pilgrim's progress for Uma Bharti, the fiery sanyasin who became the first woman chief minister of India's largest state after sending to political exile her rival raja (Digvijay Singh).
Adoringly referred to as "didi” (elder sister) by her supporters, the 44-year-old stormy petrel of BJP, who steered her party to a landslide victory in the Assembly polls, was born in a backward peasant family at Dunda village of Tikamgarh district in the state.
Uma, who stormed to power promising the moon to the power starved and road-less people of the state, was initiated into politics at a tender age when she came in contact with late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia and leaders of RSS and VHP.
She had developed a strong inclination towards spiritual pursuits in her childhood and achieved fluency in religious epics including the Gita and the Ramayana. Which helped her in commanding the status of a demi-god at the peak of the Ayodhya movement.

These are some of the images of the former firebrand leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party Uma Bharati who was thrown out of the sangh parivar led party for speaking her mind out. Since I worked in Bhopal form 2000 to 2006 with the Hindustan Times, I have closely followed this mass leader who was politically marginalized by her seniors and juniors within the party fold after she single handedly sweated it out bring the party to power in the 2002 Madhya Pradesh State Assembly elections.



This picture was taken in New Delhi during Uma Bharati's stint as the Union Sports Minister during the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government when the she wished the Indian Cricket Team under captain Md Azzaruddin for the World Cup in 1999.




Uma Bharati feeds her pet dog while on a hunger strike for the welfare of the daily wagers in Bhopal at a makeshift tent which was erected overnight when she decided to fast to death if their demands were not met by the then Congress led Digvijay Singh Government (left) Police stand guard over the two persons who had tried to attack her during her fast unto death (right) even as Uma answers her phone calls informing her well wishers that she is hale and hearty.

Kalpana Parulakar of the Congress party who was supporting Uma Bharati on the daily wagers issue being arrested at 3 in the morning, as later in the day Uma Bharati addressing the media after she had wood winked the police who were all over the city trying to arrest her too (left) Uma Bharati takes a sip of juice from Ramkali Bai the mother of a daily wager who had committed suicide after her week long fast and when the Digvijay Singh government buckled to the pressure by the Central government (right).

The sweet Victory after the hard work: Uma Bharati being welcome by BJP party workers at the Madhya Pradesh state BJP Headquarters after she routed the Congress Party and send Digvijay Singh packing to New Delhi.

After a quick visit to Tirupati and tonsure her head for the victory she got for her party, and later straight from Tirupati she went to th Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain to offer her prayers (left) as she meets a delegation of Christian association members during her Chief Ministership to sort ou the attacks by the RSS on their community in the tribal belt of Bhil (right).

Uma Bharati gets back to limelight after six months of hard work ensuring that the roads and other issues like water, power and issuing jobs to the educated youth, she was asked by the Hubli court to come for her misuse of the National flag. This case itself seemed like a plant to dismantle her from the seat of power, which she also knew but trusted a few old vanguards of the party to keep her seat safe till she returned.

Uma Bharati announces her resignation from the post of Chief Minister ship under the assurance by Arun Jetlie the party General Secy (left) as she sits next to Babulal Gaur whom she had hand picked to keep the Chief Minister chair till her return after the court proves her innocence, but only to be cheat and thus forcing her to split the party but asked her well wishers to stay within the party fold.

Even before she could take the train to Hubli to attend the case against her and be jailed for a misuse of the National Flag her supporters where overshadowed by the larger than life size hoarding of her new appointee Babulal Gaur.

After nearly three weeks of herself in prison and then the Hubli court dropping all cases against her, her supporters came back to the streets welcoming her to the Madhya Pradesh state capital (left) and then after another month of dialogue with the party central leadership she addresses the media to tell them that she was fooled by the party and her senior leaders in the state so that they could eat the cake she had fought to win all along for them.

No Cake on Uma's Birthday

This story just so happened that when the then BJP Chief Ministerial candidate Uma Baharti had come back to the lake city of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal to celebrate her birthday that she forced the State President Kailash Joshi to give her ladoos. Since I was present I the room I hit upon this idea of writing this story on how Uma Bharati just coming out of an controversy of offering an egg laced cake to Lord Hanuman during her election campaign which the Congress Party try to use to their advantage only to see themselves defeated by a whole lot of cream on their face by this very same sadhvi who cherished the cake for a year or so before her own party men played her spoils by snatching the cake from her to pass it to a older man and now with a fresh young blood of the right wing block.
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After the egg on her face imbroglio following offering a cake at Hanuman temple recently, BJP's chief ministerial candidate Uma Bharati has probably decided to shun like plague the egg-laced confectionery.
Apparently having decided not to touch a cake with the proverbial barge pole, her 44th birthday today (Saturday, May 3rd, 2003), was shorn of hype, glamour or yes, cake. If she was offered anything, it were the humble Mawa sweets.
The firebrand Sadhvi took a train from Gawalior to Hoshangabad where she performed Puja at the holy Narmada river in the morning. Then, it was time for a meeting. Later in the day, she arrived at her residence in the State capital.
After two hours of rest, she prayed to Gods and Goddesses for the party's fortunes at her home. The chief campaigner of the BJP is facing probably the sternest test of her turbulent political careers as she leads the party in the coming State Assembly elections.
While meeting a clutch of local corporators and party workers, Uma showed the signs of stress and exhaustion after the first leg of her 'Sankalp Yatra'. The travel-weary leader sported a forced smile on her face all the time.

A Gun-totting woman bodyguard brought a genuine smile to her lips when she presented Uma with a rose and a birthday wishes card. The bodyguard received a warm hug in return.
On her way out to the State BJP headquarters to hold a meeting with senior party leaders later, Uma stopped at the Banganga Durga Mandir only to find the temple doors locked. An Aarti she planned to perform there would have to wait for another day.
At the party headquarters, Uma was recevied by a handful of party workers. She proceeded to the first floor of the BJP headquarters where State party president Kailash Joshi blessed her. The party's State general secretary Kaptan Singh Solanki. also greeted her. Sweets, needless to say strictly milk-based, were also offred to her.

Battling a Killer Within

During my first day of social work (photography Classes) for the blind children of Arushi in Bhopal in 2003, I met two lovely looking kids who were brothers. One was rolled into the class room on his wheel chair as his younger brother was gleefully walking behind him waving to his weekend activity mates. After the class I walked up to them and started to chat only to listen to their sordid story and how they are facing death and also challenging it through their grit with which any child would not do with ease. I visited them at their home and spoke to them at length. This story was written keeping in mind that they would get help and they did for sure, from multitude of readers who called me up the next day asking for their address.
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Brothers Deep and Akash are unfazed by the special care they are getting from everyone around them. The two shy children paint and play on a computer at a social organization regularly, while their grandparents wait on them. The special care could be short-lived, especially for 10 year old Deep, who experiences an advance stage of Muscular dystropy.
Deep can no longer stand and needs help even to change his position while sitting. This wasn't the case till five years ago. Deep was born normal and played about like any other little boy in the neighbourhood. ‘But then gradually, his walk changed and he began walking on his toes. Some neighbours with whom we had worked brought this to our notice and that’s when we got him tested. Deep was diagnosed with muscular dystropy, that causes degeneration of muscles. Then, Irish physiotherapist Edwina Carney, who worked with us for two years, confirmed the diagnosis,’ says Namita Gite, a volunteer with Arushi, a social organization working for physically challenged children.
Deep also went to a neighbourhood school in Panchsheel Nagar where he lives. ‘But he had to discontinue the academic session as he can no longer walk,’ says his grandmother. ‘We’ve have been to so many doctors, masseurs. We even tried witchcraft in the Kumbh Mela at Ujjain last year and approached every body with a possible cure.’ But things haven’t improved. Deep’s grandfather says hopefully, ‘if he just begins to stand up on his feet, he’ll be able to walk again.’ Gite says, ‘either the doctors they visited didn’t tell them properly or they didn’t understand what they were told. The doctors keep prescribing tonics and other medicines, but it is misleading as nothing would help.’

Confirms oncologist Dr Shyam Agrawal, 'there are eight-nine types of muscular dystropy and all are incurable. No diet or special supplements can help prevent the gradual and progressive weakness of the muscles, especially the girdle muscles which are first affected.’
Younger brother, Akash, can still walk and run but the disease has hit him too. Though the grandparents are still ‘suspecting,’ Gite confirms that he too is afflicted.
The medicine part of the story reaches a dead end here. Says Dr Agrawal, ‘gene therapy is still being worked upon in the West but India has a long way to go.’
The human tragedy has however just begun. Ever since the condition of the eldest son Deep began deteriorating, the mother of four children (Deep and Akash have a brother and sister too) has begun to keep ill frequently. The father, a paan-stall owner, had lost his kiosk almost three months ago. The family is dependent only on grandfather’s merger earnings.

What is muscular Dystropy?

Muscular dystropies are genetic diseases characterised by progressive weakness and degeneration of the skeletal muscles which control movement. Among the many forms of muscular dystropy, some noticeable at birth (congenital muscular dystropy), other s in adolesence (Becker MD), the three most common types are Duchenne, facioscapulohumeral, and myotonic. Each differs from the other in terms of pattern of inheritance, age of onset, rate of progression, and distribution of weakness.
Duchenne muscular dystropy primarily affects boys caused by mutations in the gene that regulates dystrophin - a protein involved in maintaining the intergrity of muscle fibre. Onset is between 3-5 years and progresses rapidly. Most boys become unable to walk at 12, and by 20 need a respirator to breathe.

Flights of Fantasy over the City of Lakes - Bhopal

The feeling of being above the ground at 4000 feet plus, in an 360 degree open air basket, with early morning chill caressing your skin along with carrying a chilly feeling deep inside down your heart that if something goes wrong at that height. All this is fun at one time when you take a ride in a Hot air balloon.
What can shake one from not entering the fantasy flight is with your inaugural flight crash landing from a height of 400 to 500 feet, with you sitting in crash land position and the basket hitting tree branches and a roof of a building before you realize that you have landed with a roaring thud. This experience happened to me in my first flight along with another fotog from a agency, who refused to enter the hot basket sitting that he would rather shoot from the ground during an adventure ride with the 3 EME center based in Bhopal in December 2002.
The harness wire which the captain of the balloon handles caught fire and snapped. Thanks to Major Bhaskar who was our team captain who kept his cool and did the landing in the safest way possible, thus ensuring that there was no injuries to any of the five occupants. Later before we could reload our senses and take our seats with one member short, we took off again but this time with more confidence and after ensuring that all the things were in place.
As for me I took the bull by the horn, and was all excited to get some very exciting pictures of the city of lakes and the rural side of it.
What you get to see below appeared in the front page of the HT Bhopal Live of my personal experience and the pictures I took from 4000 to 6000 feet above ground.
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Its as close it gets to being on a flight of fantasy in the real world. Rising slowly above the terra firma in a hot-air balloon and seeing the world from 4,000 + feet high. And there's nothing to compare with a hot-air balloon ride. In a fast train the landscape whizzes by in a blur: In a hot-air balloon, the meadows just keep getting smaller and smaller as time virtually stands still.

Even for any Fotog with a seasoned eye for visuals, it's quite a spectacle taking time to sink in. And it was that kind of day for a couple of lens men, who were taken up a hot air balloon with them by Army Adventure Wing members of the 3 EME Center.
Major Bhaskar was at the helm as the balloon took off. For a slow rising mass of hot-air, contraption of ropes and the balloon itself, it was surprising to see it still took a lot of skill to rise slowly and navigate in the face of smoe pretty quirky wind.

Naib Subeidar Santosh was in charge of the other balloon as the two spectacular machines rose in tandem from the Jeet Stadium at the EME Center. The wind was strong throughout and favored North-West. The speed of the balloons was 25 nautical miles before we smoothly landed on the farmland near Khukaria village about 45 Kilometers away from the main road.
Major Bhaskar and Santosh plan to cross the Arabian Sea in February 2003, a feat that would be under-taken for the first time by any Asian. These rides are their practice flights and meant to sharpen their skills. After all, a botched ride over a desolate stretch of the Arabian Sea could be rather unforgiving.

During the ride, we saw nomadic tribesmen from Rajasthan herding their live stock and camels, across the rural hinterland. Their annual migration into the State's 'greener pastures' has just begun.
Even as the camels gently strode across the vast plains underneath, Major Bhaskar's balloon gently brushed some treetops, a bit scary for the second time in one day, for a ballooner but a routine experience for the immensely skilled officer.
The balloon itself was of rib-knit nylon to take up to 140 to 160 degrees of heat blown from four blowers fixed to gas cylinders.

Major Bhaskar says you need a keen knowledge of the wind velocity and also the knack of blowing enough hot air to avert mishaps.
Colonel Balasubramaniam, the head of the ground staff which helps retrieve the hot air balloons after they land, says it is easy to fly high but following the balloon is the tricky part because they have to stick to roads and then make their own track to reach the balloon far afield.

Habeeb Ali and his unusual passion of 'Ramal Shastra'

This story was written after a two month research on ‘ramal shastra’ and of course after going though a personal experience with Late Syed Habeeb Ali or fondly known as Lal Miyan Baba in Bhopal. During my stint with Hindustan Times in Bhopal I got a very close friend Ritu Raj Mate who was very close to Baba and he was the one who intorduced me to him. I fondly remember him who was very soft spoken and would tell you of your past before telling your future. Most palmists today never tell you of your past but will dwell only on you future. So I visited him fortnightly once to learn more about my future and also learn a little on what this ‘ramal shastra’ is all about. How it is calculated, so on and so forth. After more than 10 visits to him he finally showed a palm map marked of his studies he had undertaken for nearly thirty years after he quit healthy job from the Bhopal BHEL center. He used to tell me that how his wife in the beginning shouted at him but later reconciled to the fact that I was learning a subject which many do not dare to dredge.

What is Ramal Shastra?
The ‘Ramal Shastra’ is an astrological program to solve the intricate problems of life. The ‘Ramal Shastra’ is derived from Old Indian Epic "THE MAHABHARAT" and as old as ISLAMIC BELIEVE of the first human on this universe "ADAM" he used to use ‘ramal shastra’ to know his solution.
The short method with out using hard math and detail. Ramal shastra is related to question and answer! some time with dice too!
In Ramal (Arabic astrology) Shastra, the prediction is made without kundali (horoscope). There is no need of any kind of horoscope. There are only dices, called ‘kura’ in Arabic, in the hands of the person asking the question. The dices are thrown only on right places. These dices form certain figure on that basis prediction is made. There is no need of knowing the name of the person, his parent’s name, date of birth, panchang etc. The person is presented before the expert Ramal astrologist. If the person cannot be present before the expert for some reasons, then he can also send a questionnaire to the experts regarding his concerns.
The second house of the Ramal Shastra decides the prospect of profit in business. This Shastra has 16 houses. These houses are related to past, present and future. The person should ask when and how will he get profit. If in the second house, the figure is holy or ‘nazar-i-mikrna’, then the circumstances are positive for good business. If the figure is ‘sabit’, then there can be delay in profit. If there is sakal-atwe-kharij or kabjul kharij pratham, then the fate of that person is weak and there can be no profit.
If the second house shows the figure of Saturn planet or has a dot, then the person has no fate and he will continue to be the same for the time to come. If there is “nazar-i-mikrana” or “nazar-i-tarakik”, then he will find the treasure trove. He may get gold coins or gold ornaments. If the second house shows the unholy figure, then that person will remain poor for the whole life. He will be totally deprived and no body will come to his rescue.
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Sixty –Eight –year-old Syed Habeeb Ali of Jehangirabad is a man who left a cushy job to pursue his unusual passion. A passion that he has not turned into a profession, much against his family members. Ali is one of the few persons in India who uses the complex ‘Ramal Shastra’ for fortune telling and has got quite a high profile clientele.
Syed Habeeb Ali fondly known as – Lal Miyan among his followers, says that he learned the calculations of ‘Ramal Shastra’ from Guru Nandu in Khandwa in the early 1960’s and had to give up the passion after his mother and wife forced him to do so. But after working in BHEL as fitter for 15 years he quit the job to pursue his old love. Now, since the last 25 years Lal Miyan who hails from Hasura Village near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, India, has been practicing the complex fortune telling method from his small but comfortable home.
When asked how he got interested in the subject, Lal Miyan says that he had met his guru Nandu through a friend and liked the subject because the texts are mostly written in Arabic and Persian. Hi said that his teacher made the subject very easy to learn and thus sustained his interest.

When asked how he got interested in the subject, Lal Miyan says that he had met his guru Nandu through a friend and liked the subject because the texts are mostly written in Arabic and Persian. Hi said that his teacher made the subject very easy to learn and thus sustained his interest.
When asked how his parents, who were staunch followers of Islamic tenets, react to his choice, Lal Miyan said that his father was easy about it but his mother told him if he needs to learn the subject which is forbidden in the community he should leave the house.
Explaining the basics of the complex subject, he said that the subject is very difficult and the deeper one goes into it he more questions get answered, and more helpful it becomes for the day-to-day problems. Lal Miyan says that the Ramal basically has 1,110 sub- subjects and has 16 points out of which 15 are used and then doubled to make them 30 days of a month.
The fortune teller says that his community members did not look upon his passion kindly, but this hardly bothered him. Now he is in the process of writing a book on ‘Ramal Shastra’ in Urdu and Hindi. He says that he has created a new palmistry chart, which if looked into will make even a common man understand the subject. Habeeb Ali says that since ‘Ramal Shastra’ is mostly written in Arabic and Persian it is easy for him to translate it into Urdu but is facing a problem of translating it into Hindi because of the lack of translatable words.
Syed Habbeb Ali has a huge following for his Ramal Shastra and a good number of his clients are high profile, but like good professional he refuses to disclose their names. He hints that several highly placed politicians regularly visit him and get a peek into their future using the shastra.
Lal Miyan says that it would be good if the State or central government make ‘Ramal Shastra’ as a subject in schools or colleges so that the knowledge of the ancient and valuable shastra continues and it broadens the mind of the newer generation.
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The picture shows my close friend Ritu Raj Mate (red shirt) and me at a hill during one of our treks into the kerwa jungles near Bhopal.

Tsunami - Three Years Later

The below story was published in the Bangalore Mirror edition on the 26th December, 2007. Since I was back in the garden city after a gap of more than 14 years, working in New Delhi, Bhopal and Mumbai, got very interested to do a lot of stories so that my old friends could know that I am back in town. So when the 3rd Tsunami anniversary was going to be observed I hit upon this idea to cover the Bangaloreans who had witnessed the Tsunami havoc and survived, to retell a tale of how they managed to survive. So my close friend in BM Jacob Benjamin knew of one family which had lost 6 of their member during their annual visit to Velankani which was one of the worst affected by the tsunami carnage. Jacob and me started to work on the story one week in advance and started to link one family to another and so on till we managed to get 5 families which had either lost a member or survived to tell their story.
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Bangalore Mirror visited five families on the eve of the 3rd anniversary of the tsunami, and found that December 26, 2004 has left deep scars on the hearts of tsunami survivors.

HAUNTED BY NIGHTMARES OF VELANKANI

Mention Velankani, and 10-year-old Lilly Jennifer still shrinks back in fear. It has been three years since she went to the holy shrine on the beach front with 15 other family members, but the tsunami ordeal is etched deeply into her mind.
'I wake up with nightmares almost every night with thoughts of hundreds of dead bodies around me,' she says trying to hold back tears. 'I was six years old and my father Lawrence and mother Sagailatha saved all our family members lives. They ensured that all our family members were pulled into the church,' she recalls.

'I was playing with my sisters Lourth Daina (8 years) and Sagai Sindhu (7 years) along the beach and all the others were sitting on the beach and watching us,' she recalls. And the waters came gushing in.... On December 26, 2004, more than 1.5 laks people were washed away by the gushing waters of the sea. Christening a child at Velankani is a ritual in many families in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Lilly's family is one among them. In 2004, they were there for the christening of little James, Lilly's cousin. 'I will never go to Velankani for christening my children,' she says vehemently.

THREE FRIENDS WHO SURVIVED

Luke and John Bosco were swimming in the calm waters. All of a sudden, they were taken up by the powerful waters - right up to the height of a coconut tree.
Luke emerged from the water once and was sucked back inside. He woke up an hour later on the terrace of a two-storey building 500 meters from the shore. John was holding onto the fishing net which was stuck to an advertising board on the same building. 'It is god's fortune that we survived and keep going to Velankani every year to thank Mother Mary for showing mrcy on us,' they say.
Luke had a broken arm while John had fractures in a leg and an arm. 'We then searched for Cedric, our friend who was with his nephew. We found Cedric with a cut in is stomach and both his hands and legs broken. We mustered enough strength to lift him to the closest medical camp.'

LOST HER PARENTS, BUT SAVED HER CHILDREN

Not all families are as lucky as the Lawrence family. Mary Agatha lost her parents and younger sister to the angry seas, but managed to save her two children and herself.
Holding back tears, she recalls that fateful day when her parents Albert (62) and Anjalina (58) left for Nagapattinam early in the morning with her younger sister Mary Basilica (28) to buy fish.
'They left me with my children Mary Margaret (3) an Shashi Kumar (6) in the room and said they would return after purchasing fish from the wholesale market 15 kilometers away. They hired an auto rickshaw around 8:15 am and were suposed to return by 9:30 am.'
Suddenly, the walls of the room broke and the water gushed in. 'All I could see was black water all around me as I held my son's wrist tight and kept my daughter on my hip and ran to the top-most floor of the hotel.
From there, I could see the water reaching the top of coconut trees. Hundreds of people were rushing towards the hotel terrace. All around there was water, and people were trying to latch onto whatever came their way. Children were being washed away in the muddy waters,' she recalls in horror.

Later, she spoke to the driver of the auto while searching for her family at the government hospital at Nagapattinam. The driver told her that they had purchased 2 KG of fish and were heading back towards Velankani. In the auto they were discussing various family issues, planning next year's visit, and her sister was regretting the fact that her husband Ravi was not with them.
The auto driver suddenly saw huge waves of water gushing out of the sea towards the road. He jumped out of the running auto only to wake up in the hospital with almost all his limbs broken.
Agatha called her brother Christy from Bangalore and together they searched for their parents and sister all over Nagapattinam. They found the mangled remins of the auto on the beach front, but could not find their parents and sister. 'That is when I realised that I had lost my parents and sister,' she sys.
'Ravi Kumar, my sister's husband, is staying in KGF and has refused to remarry. He visits Nagapattinam every year to pray for the soul of his wife and my parents. I am unable to since I fear the sea and cannot afford to go there,' Agatha adds.

VERY FEW SURVIVORS

Cedric Daily, hails from an Anglo-Indian family. He lost his father, mother, sister, niece and nephew in the tsunami. Eleven members of the family travelled to Velankani, but only five of them came back. Cedric is now in Velankani to offer his third year of rememberence for his lost relatives. Thomas Daily the Uncle of Cedric shared his family's story with us:
'On that fateful day I had got up very early and taken my gransons Rocky and Shane for a walk along the beach and fun with them till 8:30 am. I then brought them back to the room where the rest of the family members were ready to attend the 9:30 am mass. They asked me to have a bath and meet them at the church. That was the last time I saw them alive.
As I got down from the room to walk up to the church, I could see a lot of cows and some people running towards me shouting that water has entered the town. I did not have enough time to even think as the gushing waters came and took me with it. I kept looking for something to hold, and I finally got the fence of the Home for the Aged. I held onto the railings as tightly as possible.
I do not know how long I was there, but when the water receded below my hip level, I gathered enough courage and started searching for my family. Sirst, I saw my nephew walking alone stark naked without any clothes and asked him where the rest of them were. He started crying and I realised that they had been killed or washed away, and in a fit of rage I started cursing the gods.

I saw my brother Eugene Daily. His body was stuck between a door and a boat. Then I saw my grandson Rocky. His body was atop a lamp post with half his head missing. I continued to search for others. I saw Luke standing alone on the beach and gazing at the sand. He told me that he was looking for Shane who was with hime when the waters came in.
Later in the afternoon, I saw my niece Marina Daily and granddaughter Carron Daily. Their bodies were lined up along with hundreds of other bodies. I left the bodies of the all the four members for the mass burial as they were badly damaged.
Every three months, I visit Velankani in the hope that some day God will show me the living faces o my Grandson Shane Daily and sister-in law Rosaline Daily. Some of the locals say that they saw a boy being picked up by another family and a lady who is disturbed was seen roaming the streets of Velankani.

Snake Dance at Cubbon Park

This story and pictures so happened when I was sitting and whiling away time at the Press Club of Bangalore in Cubbon Park, with old friends from the same fraternity as me on the 24th of November, 2207.
All of a sudden there was commotion in the park area just outside the club premises and as all photojournalists react to any emergency situation we all ran out and witnessed an interesting fight between a Snake and two parakeets that were perched atop the same tree. This was nature at its best since we the humans have occupied their space and so the onus was left to them to fight for their living space.
A bloody battle raged for more than one hour before a snake catcher came to the rescue and the parakeets were given their space atop the tree. But not before the parakeets had wounded the snake in its tail and had chased it from one tree branch to another tree branch thus showing us that one need not be strong to defeat the guile of the faces of terror or for that matter a schemer who is plotting another’s downfall, but instead work as a team to defeat it or them.
A lesson learnt from the parakeets I discussed this story with the Editor K R Srinivas of the Bangalore Mirror were I was previously working, he reacted and said that take the help of Vaishalli Chandra to write the copy and we will run it as our page one story for the day.
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Two parakeets versus a snake. Not a fair battle, is it? Certainly not! Bangaloreans who were strolling through Cubbon Park on a lazy Saturday afternoon thought so too. That’s why they rescued the poor snake from the angry parakeets.
It may appear bizarre, but the logic-defying scene was witnessed by several people at Cubbon Park. A seven-foot-long rat snake in search of lunch was making its way up a tree, only it chose the wrong nest. For the nest belonged to two parakeets who were determined to protect their young.
A crowd gathered below while the wild ones battled it out above. Slithering from tree to tree, the hapless rat snake tried to reach the while the green pair did their best to dissuade their unwelcome guest. The people watched – some excited, some scared, but most of them had a chill run down their spine just being in the presence of a snake.
However nothing deterred the birds. Face-to face with the snake, they were just lunch. Clearly, they had their strategy worked out. So they went for its tail instead. Taking turns, they had the rat snake nicely cornered. The crowd could only look on in awe at the strategic placement of the birds. Perched on the adjacent branches, the birds took turns to attack the snake. The ringed Indian parakeets went full throttle attacking the snake and injuring it tail, all in a bid to save their nest.
The drama was, however, far from over. While the good Samaritan was placing the snake in the bag, the hassled and scared snake attacked its saviour. Though trained to rescue snakes, the bite left Mohan a little shaken.
On reaching the ground, he cleaned his wound. He also brought the snake out of the bag and cleaned its tail. Mohan assured the crowd that the bite wasn’t poisonous. An impromptu lesson in snake safety and he was on his way. The snake treated and released in the wilderness around Bangalore.

The rat snake making its way up the tree branches in search of its lunch as it comes face to face with the two parakeets perched atop the same tree.

The rat snake tries to approach the parakeets who were guarding their nest.

The Rat snake slithers cunningly across from one branch to another to get to it lunch even as the two parakeets watch carefully on the move and size up on how to counter attack it.

The assault on the creepy reptile with one parakeet facing him and the other pecking at it's tail. this they did for more than 10 minutes taking turns to fly around in a circle thus ensuring the snake to move little at a time and also making sure that the snake retreat in a haste.




Finally the rescue of the frightened and hurt snake by snake catcher Mohan who climbs the tree to get the rat snake then give a few moments to relax in a bag and wash its wounds on it tail inflicted by the two member team parakeets, before showing the rescued snake to the frenzy fotog clicking away to the tummy fill.