Bat

I found this Bat hanging upside down from a coconut palm near my home.

There are over 1,100 species of bats, and they live on every continent except Antarctica. Only 3 species of bats suck blood. Most (70%) eat insects. The other 30% of bats eat fruit, pollen, or nectar, or are carnivores.

While reading about Bats, I came across these very interesting birth control strategies followed by female bats:

Female bats use a variety of strategies to control the timing of pregnancy and the birth of young, to make delivery coincide with maximum food availability and other ecological factors. Females of some species have delayed fertilization, in which sperm are stored in the reproductive tract for several months after mating. In many such cases, mating occurs in the fall, and fertilization does not occur until the following spring. Other species exhibit delayed implantation, in which the egg is fertilized after mating, but remains free in the reproductive tract until external conditions become favorable for giving birth and caring for the offspring.

In yet another strategy, fertilization and implantation both occur, but development of the fetus is delayed until favorable conditions prevail, during the delayed development the mother still gives the fertilized egg nutrients, and oxygenated blood to keep it alive. However this process can go for a long period of time, because of the advanced gas exchange system. All of these adaptations result in the pup being born during a time of high local production of fruit or insects.

Lemon Emigrant on a Jasmine flower

An evening of indulgence

It was an evening of indulgence at the launch of  the Kotak Privy League Signature credit card at the iconic Hard Rock Café...

The special performance by the Classic Rock Band, Retro Norm was awesome...

The evening included great gourmet food and cocktails.

The Margarita was good...

So was the Chivas Regal scotch...

Hope there will be a mad rush to grab a Kotak Privy League Signature credit card...

You can know more about the unique features of the Kotak Privy League Signature credit card here.

Plumeria flowers

Banana Muffins

The recently acquired silicon baking cups make baking so much fun. They are non-stick, reusable, brightly colored, flexible and so easy to clean. 

Tip: As silicon, unlike paper, does not breathe, it is better to cool the muffins outside of the cups. Those cooled inside the cups were a little gluey. 

Rain Lilies welcome the Monsoon

My terrace garden is bursting with Rain Lilies!

The wonderful monsoon season has caused a riot of colors...

Rain lilies bloom usually a few days after a rain



The flowering cycle can be artificially triggered by leaving them dry for a week. Water them a bit later and up they come.

Care should be taken with the plants since many of the parts, leaves, bulbs etc. are currently considered toxic.

Common Names: fairy lily, rainflower, zephyr lily, magic lily, Atamasco lily, and rain lily.
Binomial Name: Zephyranthes

The Nutmeg story

On my recent trip to Kerala, I found a Nutmeg tree during one of the early morning photo walks.

Nutmeg is a tropical evergreen tree important for two spices derived from the fruit: Nutmeg and Mace.

The ripe fruit splits and drops to the ground to eject the seed.



This is the only tropical fruit that is the source of two different spices - Nutmeg, the egg shaped seed and Mace, the "lacy" reddish aril of the seed.



I collected these fallen Nutmeg seeds...



Nutmeg, along with cinnamon, cloves and dry ginger gave amazing flavors to this Plum Cake I baked yesterday...

Some trivia on Nutmeg

Nutmeg contains hallucinogens and was fashionable in Europe in the 1600s for its hallucination inducing properties. It was also considered an aphrodisiac.

The spice has been used for centuries as a form of snuff in Indonesia and India for intoxication.

It is used along with Cinnamon and clove in Christmas cakes and eggnogs because it helps keep the body warm in the cold season. The hallucinogens makes you feel good and cheerful during the festivities.

It helps to relieve from stomachaches.

In the 17th century the British and the Dutch were competing to get control of the Nutmeg growing lands.

The Dutch waged a bloody war, including the massacre and enslavement of the inhabitants of the island of Banda, just to control nutmeg production in 1621.

As per wikipedia, in 1760, the price of nutmeg in London was 85 to 90 shillings per pound, a price kept artificially high by the Dutch voluntarily burning full warehouses of nutmegs in Amsterdam.

As a result of the Dutch interregnum during the Napoleonic Wars, the British took temporary control of the Banda Islands from the Dutch and transplanted nutmeg trees (complete with soil) to Sri Lanka, to Penang, to Bencoolen and to Singapore.

There is this interesting story of how the Dutch traded Manhattan to gain control of a Nutmeg producing island from the British. Read the story by Jane McGrath - Did the Dutch really trade Manhattan for Nutmeg?

Connecticut gets its nickname ("the Nutmeg State", "Nutmegger") from the legend that some unscrupulous Connecticut traders would whittle "nutmeg" out of wood, creating a "wooden nutmeg" (a term which came to mean any fraud).

Statue of Queen Victoria

On my visit to the Cubbon Park, I stumbled across this statue of Queen Victoria, hidden in the trees.
I googled to learn more about the statue and found an article by Meera Iyer.

Here are some excerpts from the said article:

The statue of Queen Victoria in Bangalore was officially unveiled on February 5, 1906 in a ceremony filled with much fanfare and oratory. The then Prince of Wales, George Frederick Ernest Albert (later King George V), did the honours.

From 1876, Victoria had ruled from afar as Empress of India. Soon after her death in January 1901, committees sprang up all over India and elsewhere in her dominions, to deliberate on ways to commemorate the haughty queen’s memory.

After vacillating between a technical institute in her name and a statue, it was finally decided to commission a statue. The memorial was to be funded by public subscription. But after six months of fund-raising, the public had only contributed Rs 10,000. In the end, it was a generous donation from the Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, which finally ensured that the statue project didn’t die an early death.

The task of making the statue was given to Thomas Brock, a prolific and celebrated sculptor in England whose most famous work was the Victoria Memorial in front of the Buckingham Palace in London. Brock made an 11-foot-tall marble statue for Bangalore, which, together with its 13-foot granite pedestal, cost Rs 25,500. It was shipped here from England and arrived in July 1905.

 In all, Brock made 14 Victoria statues during his career. Statues made by him that are similar to Bangalore’s statue still stand in cities around the world including Carlisle and Hove (both in England), Belfast, Cape Town, Brisbane and London.

Of the more than 50 statues of Victoria that were installed in India, only five still remain at their original locations. Bangalore’s statue is one of them.

The empress’s regalia are somewhat battered now. Her sovereign’s orb lost its cross many years ago and her sceptre too lies broken, along with a finger in her right hand.

Early photographs show the statue encircled with ornamental chains, and a soldier and two cannons standing guard. But our colonial past is behind us and so, fittingly, this imperial symbol no longer occupies pride of place. Though it is still tended to, the queen’s statue stands encircled and almost obscured by lush green trees.

Photographing a six year old

My six year old believes it's not cool to be in pictures... 

If forced, he will rebel by refusing to smile and makes a sad face...

Further force can prompt the most fake smile...

Then, he becomes playful and frustrates me like this Calvin & Hobbes incident... 

He will look away just when I have composed a great shot...

Trick is to have loads of patience and wait for the natural smile...

Location: MG Road boulevard, Bangalore 

"Grapes: The Fruit of Hope"

My favorite fruit is grapes. Because with grapes, you always get another chance. 'Cause, you know, if you have a crappy apple or a peach, you're stuck with that crappy piece of fruit. But if you have a crappy grape, no problem - just move on to the next. 'Grapes: The Fruit of Hope.'
--Demetri Martin

Tilt-Shift Photography

This is an optically produced tilt-shift effect, shot from the 13th floor of a tower. To know more about the technique, you can read 'An Introduction to Tilt-Shift Photography' from the Digital Photography School.   

Getting cocky with my blog title

This week, the theme for Friday My Town Shoot Out is Graffiti. I couldn't find any graffiti, so I made my own using an old photograph and Photoshop.

Cranium Bolts is my blog title which I had pulled out quickly while signing up on Blogger.com and I have stuck with it ever since.

It has a habit of confusing people. It has never made any sense to me either and still doesn't.

I guess, I should get cocky with it and overcome the buyer's remorse.

The early bird gets the worm

Common names: Ashy Prinia or Ashy Wren-Warbler
Binomial name: Prinia socialis

Rib Tickled

It was two hours of complete laugh riot at the staging of Atul Kumar's Hindi adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (Piya Behroopiya). The Nautanki style added to the magic with dance and music.

Venue: Chowdiah memorial hall, Bangalore

Date: May 4, 2013

Sebastian and Viola as Cesario meet.

Olivia falls in love with Cesario