Thank You Again!

Just a short note to wish you all a Happy Independence Day and you get time to share the weekend finds you with good friends, family, and in good spirits, even if you're not celebrating anything or are celebrating something else.

I wanted to add my share of appreciation for many of you out there, who have helped me stay sane and smiling after the accident, that happened 15 years before on this very day, and my life took a complete turn. Over the last 12 years,

I am glad to inform you all with great pleasure that I have seen some success, some failures in this competition to survive… I guess, I’ve emerged a winner thanks to many of you. The first few names that come to my mind are: Bhaskar Bhai Dave a good Samaritan, who took it upon himself and rushed me to the hospital at Ahmedabad. Srinivasan and Kumar my brothers who encouraged me to survive and pulled me up from whatever state I was in. My wife Sangeetha and Son Suraj have turned me positive and look up to more life ahead.

My doctors, Dr. Ramesh Viradia, the Ortho and Dr. Yashwant Doshi who extended a helping hand more than just as a doctor….

A million and more thanks are due to several of my Friends. My special gratitude to Sunil, Meena, Shanmugam, The Khannas, Manimozhi and her kids Suganthi and Revathi, Greena, Thomas & Fen (TG), Ambika, Hema and Kirtida who went way beyond to put a smile back on my face and lent their shoulders to cry, weep and wail… Meena and Mamata thanks for having faith in me through the most insane period of my life. These days I am able to put the training I’ve had from you and have become able to put into practice in line with my responsibilities. Without your guidance, I would not have made it. Thank you again

Many a young children (who are in their prime youth these days) Suzianna, Sanjana, Chaithri, Saakshi, Fen, Revathi, Suganthi, Vikram… the endless list, whose cheerful smile and high spirit smiles and greetings have cheered me all along. Now my son, Suraj has taken that responsibility all upon him and does it with amicable ease.

I cannot also forget to remember the cheerful lunching moments in office with Gopal, Sarala, Ambika, Hema, Kalyani, Takorayan, Minaxi, Priya, Manisha Bhana, Radha, Kamlesh, who cheered me many times through the Pain-O-Therapy days...

Then finally, I would like to thank my Physiotherapists Padmashri whose high spirit of hardwork helped me ease out of those harder days of “bucling-legs”with ease.

Thank you all once again!

Saving the Good, the Bad--And the Ugly

A hyena might not be as adorable as a tiger cub or dolphin, but a few champions of nature's endangered ugly underdogs say the hideous are just as worthy of protection as the huggable: By Katherine Harmon ( From The Scientific American)

What happens when an animal that needs saving isn't as cute as a tiger cub? Some biologists explain why human aesthetic preference has played such a big role in protecting the panda--over stranger species like this one, the helmeted hornbill.

The bulbous purple burrowing frog may not have made it onto any awww-inspiring tote bags like the unequivocally adorable giant panda. But, an increasing number of people are arguing, the humble frog—and other more homely creatures—is at least equally worth rescuing from the brink of extinction.

One of those people is Nathan Yaussy, an ecology graduate student at Kent State University in Ohio and the creator of the EUT—Endangered Ugly Things blog (recently profiled in The Washington Post). "My goal is just to let people know that these things are out there, and they're just as important as the panda," he says.

A handful of animals that are easier on the eye than, say, the aye-aye, have gotten the lion's share of publicity, funds and legislation for their salvation. Many so-called "charismatic mega-fauna," which conservationists select as mascots—or "poster children", are chosen for their looks rather than their ecological importance, notes biologist David Stokes of the University of Washington in Bothell.

"If we could raise the ecological literacy of the public and our officials to see beyond the surface value of these animals to their ecological or even utilitarian role," Stokes says, "that would be really valuable." Many endangered insects may actually be more ecologically "important" than an affable Galápagos penguin. But biologists, he notes, often neglect to take preference into account.

Certainly looks can be a matter of personal preference, but the surefire way that an animal finds its way into the public's collective heart seems to be by having infantile qualities—big eyes, round face, wobbly gait (a phenomenon called neoteny). But, as Stokes found from his research, no hard-and-fast rule dictates which animals gain wide appeal: "Really tiny differences among species can have huge effects on how much appeal they have," he says. He studied a range of penguin species and found that those with patches of bright colour received by far and away the most visual coverage.

Yaussy does admit that his method of highlighting especially bizarre animals may not be all that different than that of the panda-promoting World Wildlife Fund, a frequent target of his playful admonishment. The panda is the federation's "flagship species," he explains, which it uses with other charismatic creatures to promulgate the idea that saving the rainforest will, by extension, also save these beautiful animals. Whereas the WWF is "putting on the pretty face, I'm trying to pull in the 10-year-old boy in all of us to say, 'That's so cool!'" he remarks. At the end of the day, his hope is that "by saving the habitat, you'll save everything—the pretty things, the ugly things."

Stokes doesn't subscribe to that tidy idea entirely. Recent research has shown that the habitat of one highly endangered species rarely overlaps with that of another, he says. But he doesn't discount the usefulness of a central species for the purposes of education. The Stag Beetle Project, for instance, which is headed by the London Wildlife Trust, has helped raise awareness—and sterling pounds—for a large, fierce-looking insect.

By and large, he says, communities that can rally around one particular species, whether it's a monkey or a mollusc, do a better job adopting policies to protect biodiversity in ge

neral. But the key, he notes, is to be aware of our natural preference for some animals' appearance over others.

"This matters because people are going to increasingly be making the decision about

what species survive and what don't," Stokes says. "So we want to be able to make sure that we make educated decisions."

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Gif Animations That I Learnt

Wow! Am proud of my effort to learn GIF animations... I managed to learn to create them and also learnt to upload them on the blog! Bravo!...



These are two students of mine whom i got to meet more than a decade later... here you could see them trying to act brave with a baby python on hands...



These are the Anglo Chinese School students of Singapore who were a part of the WED programme that we conducted called, Crusaders of Climate Change". Here you could see the students trying to act brave with a baby python on hands... I like the little Sardar's expressions here... :)

Remembering Shontal

We got her as a gift from a friend of ours as a 2 week baby. As she remained silent the entire day, we named her Shontal after the French word chanteuse—meaning “sweet voiced girl”. She has been an integral part of my life for a good number of years.

She was a Labrador retriever. She remained my constant companion and loyal friend until I met with a near fatal accident on August 15, 1997. I raised her almost as my daughter and she was a part of many a happy incidents in my life.

If you are thinking of getting a dog into your home, as a family member, remember you are making a commitment to that dog for its lifetime, probably even more than your own children.

I'm not such an expert, but I did try my hands at training Shontal for a number of years and had (accidentally?) used some of the friendly methods recommended by the a renowned, dog trainer—Mr. Ian Dunbar does in the video below.

I remember times when I started. I had no idea on dog training or education in general. My first dog was very patient, he taught me a lot. The simple rule that we followed was to teach obedience through simple play and award. Basically, I learned to appreciate every little thing that she did and said “good girl” and “thank you”.

It’s very important for us to see the world through the eyes of our beloved dogs. By knowing our pets' perspective, we can build their love and trust. It's a message that resonates well beyond the animal world.

As a result, I almost always had a happy, healthy and obedient dog. It's lovely to find out that some of my simple, easy and fun dog training methods belong to a wider philosophy on the subject!

It is essential that our dog needs to know that they can trust us and that we will never deliberately hurt or be unkind to them. All I ever had to do was call/ whistle and my dog immediately returned and were rewarded with hugs and pats.