Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Owls-the endangered species



I am blogging again after a long hiatus.In the interegnum. I learnt a foreign language. German. For four months almost every Saturday and Sunday,I was in MMI(Max Mueller Institute) learning Deutsch. Our teachers gave us a lot of hausaufgabe (homework). There was just no time to blog. But now I am happy that I can read, write and speak a foreign language.My German friends will be thrilled.

Those who read these lines might wonder as to why I chose this topic. Not an auspicious way to restart,they would say. Aren't owls associated with bad luck,many would wonder. Indeed now they are having a bad patch. Bad luck has fallen on these very birds once considered to be wise. Somewhere along time they lost that reputation. And they became associated with doom and destruction. And today their numbers are dwindling. Our Minister for Environment is concerned. He has accused the Harry Potter fans for capturing owls to tickle their fancies. They are being bought by parents as pets for their children who read Harry Potter books. Also thousands of them are being caught to be eventually used for black magic and rural medicine and for village performances. What a fall! From being considered as a wise bird by the Greeks, they have now fallen on bad times and are fighting for survival.

So is human life.Men too have their ups and downs.History is littered with examples of the powerful and famous who have fallen and collapsed like a house of cards.What is the moral in this? Everything is transient. Nothing is permanent.Be balanced in life.You never know when good or bad times will befall you.Develop equanimity. You will then be a happy person.

10 comments:

Sushma said...

Hello Sir,

Nice to see you back... I say gutentag! :-)

I used to learn french and spanish earlier..Its been more than 4 years..It was the best time. I hope you enjoyed your classes..

We shifted to mumbai from delhi. Hope you remember me.

Sushma

gs said...

Entschuldigung, bitte. I am not able to place you. Would you help me in this matter?
Learning a foreign language is great fun.I made a whole lot of new friends besides the excitement of being able to speak in a foreign language (ein bisschen deutsch!)

mannab said...

Dear gs,
It is very nice to see you back on blog. Hope to read your enchanting experiences thru' your blog. Regards.
Mangesh

Sushma said...

I am a regular reader of your blog. Maybe you can find me in earlier comments. It has been a long time and you are not posting that regularly... I still comeback and read anything I missed. :-)

Sushma

PS: As you are a local here, Could you please suggest any good agencies for a Nanny/governess?

gs said...

hi mannab
good to read your comments. that keeps me ticking on the blog.i hope to post at least one a day.
thanks.

gs said...

hello sushma
yes, i have been very irregular on the blog. hope to be posting more often now.my daughter is away in japan and will be back by this weekend. will get the names and numbers from her and send thenm to you. where are you living? if you need any other help/ info,please don't hesistate.
best wishes.

Sushma said...

Hello sir,

We live in Goregaon as my husband's office is here. I want to start working again.. Thanks for your help.

Sushma

gs said...

Hello Sushma
Hope to get the details from my daughter who has returned and will mail it to you.Or put it under 'comments' on this blogpost.

gs said...

Hi Sushma
My daughter has given this info:

Manju Maid Agency
56045806
28657068
22941167

Hope it helps.

Sushma said...

Hello Sir,

Thanks a lot for your help. will call them right away.

Congratulations on the DNA paper article. I read about it today so I couldn't read article. Can you tell me the date of publication so that I can find the article online on their site?

I read all the posts on your blog and lulu's. I read TOI when it mentioned lulu's blog.. Glad to see your blog mentioned in DNA. I remember your first post and you came a long way sir. :-)

Congratulations,
Sushma