Banjara - gypsies of India

The Banjara are a class of nomadic people from the north-west part of Inda. 

Women are known to wear colorful costumes and silver ornaments. 

Know more about the Banjara here.

Getting lost in a book

Match Stick Plant

Common name: Match Stick Plant, Gamos Bromeliad
Botanical name:  Aechmea gamosepala

Lemon Emigrant Butterfly

The leaves are beginning to accept me as one of their own!

Panama Pacific Tropical Waterlily

Botanical name: Nymphaea 'Panama Pacific'
These flowers with sweet fragrance can be cultivated in small, medium or large water gardens. They tolerate partial shade and blooms remain open late.

Wishbone flower

The common name of wishbone flower comes from how the stamens look like a chicken wishbone in shape...

Wishbone flower blooms like crazy all season. It needs rich, very moist, well-drained soil and is ideal for a cool greenhouse plant in shade in hot regions...

Also called as clown flower for its vividly marked flowers that resemble the face of a clown...

What is a wishbone?

The furcula or wishbone is a forked bone found in birds and some other animals, and is formed by the fusion of the two clavicles.

There is the Thanksgiving ritual of two children making a wish while holding opposite sides of a V-shaped turkey bone and breaking the bone apart. The wish of the child getting "the lucky break" (child holding the longer piece of bone) is predicted to come true. The loser - who gets "a bad break" - suffers the disappointment of a shattered wish.

I wish...

Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better.
    -- Jim Rohn

Black Kite

Binomial name: Milvus migrans
Subspecies: Milvus migrans govinda

When duck face was cute…

Joys of motherhood

A mother understands what a child does not say,
To a child's ear, 'mother' is magic in any language.

Common Jezebel butterfly

The Common Jezebel (Delias eucharis) butterfly is found all over India, except in the desert area.

It has bright coloration to indicate the fact that it is unpalatable due to toxins accumulated by the larvae from the host-plants.

The above pictures were shot at the Lalbagh Botanical gardens, Bangalore.

Seasonal fun

My first rainbow sighting of the season lasted less than a minute...

I managed to click just two pictures as it started raining quite heavily...

Why is the bird angry?

Because he doesn't like being photographed!

The lovely Cilantro

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), also known as Cilantro, Chinese parsley or Dhania, is an annual herb...

The fruits have a diameter of 1.5–3 mm...

The dry fruits are known as coriander seeds. Coriander seed is a spice in garam masala and Indian curries...

The leaves are variously referred to as coriander leaves, fresh coriander, Chinese parsley, or cilantro. They are used as a garnish...

Medicinal uses

• Coriander, like many spices, contains antioxidants, which can delay or prevent the spoilage of food seasoned with this spice. 
• Chemicals derived from coriander leaves were found to have antibacterial activity against Salmonella choleraesuis.
• Coriander has been used as a folk medicine for the relief of anxiety and insomnia in Iran.
•  Coriander seeds are used in traditional Indian medicine as a diuretic by boiling equal amounts of coriander seeds and cumin seeds, then cooling and consuming the resulting liquid.
•  In holistic and traditional medicine, it is used as a carminative and as a digestive aid. 
• Coriander has been documented as a traditional treatment for type 2 diabetes. A study on mice found coriander extract had both insulin-releasing and insulin-like activity. 
• Coriander seeds were found in a study on rats to have a significant hypolipidaemic effect, resulting in lowering of levels of total cholesteroland triglycerides, and increasing levels of high-density lipoprotein. This effect appeared to be caused by increasing synthesis of bile by the liver and increasing the breakdown of cholesterol into other compounds. 
• The essential oil produced from Coriandrum sativum has been shown to exhibit antimicrobial effects.

Visit the wikipedia page to know more.