Wasssup Whatsapp ?!

A year ago before Whatsapp was in the US news as a billion dollar aquisition, my co-sister asked me to download the app on my iPhone. Apparently it was a big hit with her parents and their side of the family. They described it as a Venn diagram with multiple circles and how easy it was to communicate through that with wifi without getting charged for texts etc. etc.

Promptly paid a modest $ for the app and downloaded it. Then it got interesting. The phone was buzzing non stop with messages that were more like FB status updates and likes. 

In the US the order of priority is Email, Phone call, Text or Phone call, email text depending on who you talk to. The logic being this.. If you want to reach out to someone you can call someone and leave a voicemail. You can also email them if they are at office. However if they are in a meeting and they cannot talk to you and they are using their computer, you can always text them. 

In fact over the course of years, we used to text co-workers while on conference calls as a "strategy" of sorts. 

Whatsapp somehow disrupted that priority order by treating messages as texts. So there is no separating the wheat from the chaff. 

So I dropped off from Whatsapp. Well my father-in-law whose name was actually the group in Whatsapp quit it himself because he realized that the constant ringing was not good for his sleep. Between US, India and Australia, it is always evening somewhere but that disrupts your sleep.

Recently though, Whatsapp became a necessity of sorts, only because the folks we needed to reach were using that instead of Facebook or gmail. The app was put to good use in India, but the minute we came back here, turned it off again. 

When you get a ring that is sending you some advertisement or quote from some famous person, even if it is Emeril Lagasse, it can be annoying at 3AM.  

Apparently, I have the concept all wrong. One has to treat it like email. Set it to sleep in the night and open it just like FB and respond when you feel like it. 

That said, this novice is still figuring it out. I still dont see what all the hoopla is about given we have Facebook already and our internet connection screams and the data plan is good enough to get texts and updates on FB or gmail where we are. Guessing it is a bigger deal in places where internet plans are not that great or data plans are expensive. 

Maybe using Whastsapp will bring me into different circles in the Venn diagram!

If you have added me to this thing recently, please bear with me as I figure it out over time...

The birds and almost bees, not to mention a few animals

En route to Kerala from Tamilnadu, we stopped overnight at Theni, a beautiful and cool place in itself. On the way to Thekkadi preserve we stopped by Suruli Falls. It was a waterfall about 50 feet tall and 150 feet wide and it had an artificial look to it. 

They had put steel bars everywhere to let folks bathe and that gave it a very man made feel. The water though was cold and refreshing and given it ran through a bunch of herbs, was supposedly medicinal. 

Those of us who decided to take bath in the falls had a great time. There was no photographing this falls because of the bathing folks! On the way back from the falls (it is almost a mile hike one way with some steep steps at the end to get to the falls), we saw a bunch of vendors selling fruits, cut mangoes, beads etc. 

It was a treat to watch the kids go check all this out.

Took a chance and got a "towel" for the bathing thinking it would be a good souvenir. It has turned all my baniyans and other white garments that went to the laundry load a nice purple! 

Did get to take photos of the monkeys near the falls. They were such a menace, stealing waterbottles, purses and even trying to grab at little kids.

and this one posed nicely for his portrait!

We saw firsthand the problems of having wildlife interact so closely with humans. It was neither good for the monkeys nor us!

Later we were rewarded with sightings of lots of different birds, deer, wild buffallo. On this trip we got to see bee hives that were thrown in the ground, possibly by the monkeys!

The boat ride!

It was raining on and off  every 5 minutes and that made the bird photography challenging, but the weather resistant 70-200mm lens proved itself!

The cormorants (if I got that right) were amazing. They are smaller than the ones we see in US or the ones we saw in New Zealand, but they make up for their stature with speed! The wild buffallo we saw were huge. This is my first time seeing them in the wild in India. 

We got to see baby birds crying out to their parents!

Kerala, is truly "gods own country!" The scenery on the way to Suruli falls was pretty much this for a good 25 miles. 

The Thekkadi lake itself is a sight to behold. The colors are vibrant, the sky was perpetually ominous and the constant rain makes it difficult to forget that even though you are on a large boat, you are not secure..

and my favorite photo in HDR of the lake!

It is not easy to do multiple exposures on a moving boat in the rain. It was worth a try. Unfortunately it did not work out. This shot though is a single exposure tone adjusted using PS5.

We had a great time in Theni, Thekkadi and on Thekkadi lake. Would strongly recommend this as a three day trip without time deadlines.

This is not one to be rushed. We will definitely try to revisit this place in this lifetime!

Two elephants, two hours, memories for two lifetimes

We did two trips within trips this year. The first one was a trip to Kerala with my parents, brother and sister and families. 

We stopped first at Thekkadi and went for an elephant ride to view the Western Ghat mountain range from vista points along a ridge. 

There were two elephants, one male and one female that took the family in batches of four through a 30 minute ride. The male elephant is apparently the fourth largest elephant officially known in Kerala. 

They were magnificent creatures and were happy to take the 4-5 kilograms of bananas divied up and distributed through everyone in our group. 

There were pictures.. lots of them.. here are a few.

Throughout the trip Jr. was a very serious person. The only time I saw her smile, even blush was when she was on the elephant! 

Then came the session where we fed the elephant and the kids got blessed by them. They were happy and scared to go near the giants but soon realized that the animals were gentle creatures. 

That was a kid who is scared and happy at the same time! Should caption that image "Scrappy"! 

Jr. did warm up to the elephant and fed it first. Did not expect her to be that bold. She surprised me.

and once she did it, was all proud. "Did you see what I just did?" 

The little one was really scared and needed a little help from the adults to go near the elephants. 

Then she was their "best friend"!

She got up close and personal !

There were many unforgetable moments on that trip. My parents who were not sure of joining us because of their health concerns, jumped in last minute to join us. Watching them go around on an elephant made my day! 

The views from the ride were breathtaking as well. You could see the mountain ranges, the towns and farmlands below and the sunlight doing a spotlight show through the break in the clouds. 

This reminded me of the views on the way back from Whittianga to Auckland in New Zealand. There is so much sightseeing to do in India. Don't know when we will get time to go soak it all in..

After this we went on a boat ride in the lake to spot wild animals and birds. That is a post for another day!