October 29, 2015.

Today at me spot in LIC Colony -- Krishnan point after me favourite wildlifer M.Krishnan- watched a lady koel and three parakeets in raucous conversation. 'Are you a Muslim,' asked a parakeet of the lady koel, who shot back, 'Are you a Hindu.' No fights, no police, just shouts across branches. Parakeets flew away, leaving the lady koel in a muse. Home, into coffee, watched two drongos shift from the rain tree in the garden to a window, not mine. Watched them. They called. Then the routine. They fly out to fly back to the spot they started from. Two crows, from a safe distance, asked them: Are you bhaiyas from UP? Are you Madrasis? Drongos have had quarrels with crows over food and nest, but never over identity; the earth has always been theirs. Not so today. No more. Jay Mazoomdaar in the front page of The Indian Express reports Rajasthan government will not share Great Indian Bustard eggs with Gujarat. Gujarat has yet to part with its Gir lions for relocation in Kuno wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are BJP ruled states though one is not sure if lions and Great Indian Bustards know it. They have decided to check it with the Boss. Great Indian Bustard is getting rare with some 200 birds in the wild, says the report. Bustard eggs go to Kutch to breed in safety and cut the fall in population; Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan are to take part in the rescue. But Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan says no; experts are in a quarrel and thats unsurprising; like Indian politicians, modern-day padded--eyes Gandharis. Bikram Grewal of Rajasthan wildlife board questions the 'rationale' behind sending Rajasthani eggs to Kutch when the birds favour Rajasthan; birder, Dr. Asad Rahmani, sees 'no merit' in Grewal; Kutch has grasslands for bustards. Relocation of Gir lions is in the Supreme Court and maybe there till infinity. Kerala elephants cannot stroll into Karnataka. Me is into reading Jungle Folk, Indian Natural History Sketches by Douglas Dewar; written more than 100 years ago when earth and India belonged to birds and trees, fish and fowls; Dewar never thought of tapping a crow in Madras, warn it of flying to New Delhi. In Zoo in the Garden by EHA (E.H. Aitken), India is one piece; Krishnan, oddly and unfairly, was against foreign flora. Nobody has asked lions and bustards. Me India needs a new India; me, a new me.For today, bye India.