Posts by: Kalyan Varma

Naturalist Training later this month

Jungle Lodges is conducting the 3 day level 1 naturalist training program later this month. This is the same program that I went through late last year. I know many folks have asked me regarding this, so here you go and remember that there are very limited seats. You can lookup the schedule here If you’re interested, contact : Avinash K Jha (avinash@junglelodges.com) [cell: 9341353112]

Rodent Bite

I have to get a anti-rabies shot today. All thank’s to this naughty rascal who decided to bite me after playing with me for an hour yesterday. This creature is the Indian Gerbil, a norturnal animal of the Indian forests.

Setting an example for Biodiversity Conservation

Something interesting happened yesterday which I think will have a long term effect in this jungle. The local District forest officer(DFO) called me and asked me to come over for a meeting with Atree yesterday morning. I knew Atree was into good biodiversity research, so I jumped at the offer and decided to attend the meeting. At the meeting there was also Dr Sudershan (Many people might have heard off him) who runs a NGO named VGKK at BR hills which looks into Tribal welfare issues, The District Conservator of forest and lot of other folks who have a active…

Tech update

After giving up on my current phone, went out and picked up the Sony Ericsson T630. The new phone feels very plasticky and the menu is terrible. But, I managed to get online in less then a min after I opened the box, bluetooth works great and my laptop, palm and phone are talking to each other amazingly well. I really miss the 6600’s design and the menu system. I didn’t think I’ll actually get back to a Sony Ericsson phone. I guess you just win some and lose some. Oh well. Atleast the good news is that, I will…

The True Formula1 is back

Thanks to my quick weekend trip to Bangalore, I watched my first Formula 1 race of this season. Loved the race and I’m glad F1 is fun to watch again. You have new faces at the podium and standing’s order changes after every race. Schumacher’s and Ferrari’s dominance is finally broken thanks to the new kids on the block and amazing work by all the racing teams. I, for one, never expected to see so many overtaking’s at Monaco today and that too at the last few laps. Also hats off to Red Bull team and their funny Star wars…

Joe Satriani concert

The Joe Satriani concert in Bangalore today was simply amazing. He’s an amazing guy. No showbiz, no stage act, no fancy girls on stage. Just him and his guitar having fun on stage. It was also a nice change from all the regular ‘vocal’ artists that keep coming down here. If you have not heard his music, try it. You will like it.

Fucked up Nokia 6600

I spent the whole of last evening trying connect my machine to the net via my new phone (Nokia 6600). Went through almost every doc on the net. Tried gnubox and some other docs but no luck. If anyone does know how to get online from your machine (a non-mac machine) using this phone in India, do buzz me. This is my last ditch effort. After this the phone goes into trash.

Rocky the leopard is a mother now

Remember Rocky ? Well our Rocky gave birth to a litter of two cubs sometime in the last few days. Today the jeeps have seen the mother playing with the young ones both in the morning and the evening (Just on the day I came back to bangalore on some work). All along when I’ve been seeing her large tummy, I assumed she had a good meal and was resting right after that. I can’t wait to trek through her area in the coming days. I really wish I can see her litter and hopefully get some shots of the…

Monkey’s just wanna have fun

One of the nice things about BR hills is the fact that there are so many monkey’s around you all the time. They are *very* *very* cute and surely spending time with them is the fav time of my day. The monkey breeding season just got over and all the young ones have just started to grow up and which kid does not like to have some fun. This guy just loves to make faces at me. I make a funny face and he makes another face and I do the same.. and the game goes on for hours.