I have struck a deal with my DW. My HR friends will
interpret DW as abbreviation of Defence Witness, and this is for them – DW means
Darling Wife. Wives are never Defence Witnesses as men married or otherwise
[why exclude them?] will readily testify, they may like to say that they are
Public Prosecutors.
Be that as it may, let us come back to the main story. The
deal with my DW is that we will have three short and one long holiday in a
year. Deals, as you know, settle some issues and create new ones. And deals
give rise to interpretation disputes. I am alluding to ‘Short holiday.’ The
issue, as you would have guessed by now, was what makes a ‘short holiday.’ The
interpretation ‘has far reaching implications’ as Nani Palkhiwala would have
said. Financial implications, obviously.
But men are quick to realize that all disputes are settled
by the powerful on their terms like USA does, and they give in quickly. I
belong to this pragmatic species. So a four days and three nights stay in
Kovalam was called a short holiday, with me nodding head in approval and the
matter was quickly settled.
Soon we found ourselves parked at Hotel Leela at Kovalam. Why
should anyone build a hotel where a private bungalow should have been
constructed? But I realize that Mr Nair, owner of Hotel Leela, must have been
persuaded by some enterprising professionals to build a hotel there to have a
permanent source of income. And the owner, gullible as he is at the hands of
the professionals, must have agreed.
Having arrived, the next item on the agenda was to visit
some places of tourist interest. ‘Poovar,’ the Travel desk suggested as the
best place to have a short visit. “They offer a boat ride for two hours. It has
an estuary.” He said.
“Did you say ‘estuary’?” I asked.
“Yes estuary.” He said in the same way my English teacher
introduced a new word to us with a condescending look with ‘oh-don’t-you-know-such-simple-word’
written all over his face.
“What’s that? Estuary?” I asked.
Out came my smart phone. I discovered that “Estuaries
form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments and
are subject to both marine influences, such as tides, waves, and the influx of
saline water; and riverine influences, such as flows of fresh water and
sediment. The inflows of both sea water and fresh water provide high levels of
nutrients in both the water column and sediment, making estuaries among the
most productive natural habitats in the world.” Google told me so through
Wikipedia.
The Poovar estuary was very special they told me. A lake,
a river, back waters and sea meet there, making it a unique location in the
world. I was speechless. We can write a sequel to Nehru’s Discovery of
India, but more about that some other day.
The boatman was a friendly person. “Photography?” He asked
looking at my camera. “There are a lot of birds here.” That cheered me up. You
don’t expect a boatman to give you a motivational speech, but this man was
different.
“And crocodiles?” I asked giving my DW a meaningful glance
but she remained still and unmoved like a croc. The motorboat started. We moved
on.
“There! Look, look! Kingfisher!!” He said. By the time I
took my camera out the little birdie had gone miles away. And then again, “Look,
look! Water Crow!!” This one took a nose dive and vanished in water.
I remembered the story of Arjun; he could see only the eye
of a bird. I can tell you from personal experience that Dronacharya must have
made a figure of bird out of clay. There is no way any bird rightly placed
under Class as Aves would have stayed in its place till the famous discussion
between Guru and Shishya was completed.
Let us get back to the main story. Now my DW joined with the
boatman in identifying birds and saying ‘Look, look, there!’ I could not see
one. The “situation was turning ‘ugly’” to use favourite expression of lawyers
in the Labour Courts.
There are things a good photographer just cannot tolerate. Not
being able to see an object is one such thing. It wakes him up, he “raises his
antenna” if I may use the modern day alternative for putting oneself on high
alert. Right, that’s the word I was looking for.
That’s the point, High Alert. You have to be on H.A. if you want
to capture birds in you r camera. They fly away. They camouflage themselves.
They nosedive in to water.
The trick lies in spotting them before they spot you! A
quick learner that I am, as my DW says, I managed to take some photographs. Here
are they:
