Life as I see it

  The road is Rashbehari Avenue and the writer is Shanu Lahiri. Painter Shanu likens the avenue to a central fish bone. Perhaps an extension of her ouvre to cats. A bare bone fish bone with its fine capillary bones is perhaps all that remains when Lahiri’s much beloved cat has fed on the flesh. The head falls at an angle with the round lifeless eye perhaps witness to the goings on at the avenue. The spine lies linear with the tail again at an angle. The head points at Kasba and the tail at the Rashbehari gurdwara. And between these two points is a rich tapestry of Calcutta’s cultural elite addresses. Rashbehari Avenue starts from Gariahat four-point crossing and proceeds westwards to meet Lansdowne Road and stretches beyond to Lake Market. The road is defined by the central tramroad which is on an elevated track of green grass. Though trams have ceased to run on it, the tracks remain as a divider of east and west bound traffic. Lahiri had been asked to deliver a lecture at poet...

 Life has been rather bleak this week. So when the invitation to join a women's birder group to an early morning walk at a small park on Loudon Street called Nature Study Park came, I jumped at it. My DSLR has recently been repaired and I couldn't wait to use it. Its a Nikon D5100 with a lens range from 18 to 200.  Early at six, the small park was full of morning walkers. Some sat at the benches and played kirtans and bhajans. A fountain in the middle of the pond that dominates the park completes the picture of a man-made beautification drive of an otherwise nature's bounty. The sides of the pond have been concretised with one end having a wooden deck. Yet, despite these interventions, the avian species make the place their home as bird calls obliterate the taped devotional music.  An All Women's Nature Walk group has been doing the rounds of the city's green zones spotting birds, bees, trees and in general all non-human species that give them plenty of joy. I got p...

  In the heart of the city, on south of Park Street, is a patch of green that was on the verge of being converted to another concrete jungle. Thanks to some prolonged green activism and the National Green Tribunal, the 12,000 square metre Rawdon Square is now a hub for some diverse avian species, creepy crawlies, molluscs and bees, tall wild grasses and trees and an 8000 square metre pond that nurtures biodiversity in the heart of surrounding multistorieds. On a Saturday winter morning, some nature enthusiasts along with a handful of school children armed with binoculars and cameras made their way to Rawdon Square to spot some of its inhabitants and they were amply rewarded. With the South Park Street cemetery right beside it, Rawdon Square now gets and is home to several bird species with tall trees like kadam, simul, champa, mango, and blackberry lining the park. The placid waters of the pond reflect the trees in the square along with the tall houses surrounding it. The waterbody...