LT COL NOEL ELLIS 15/X/2024 The weather has cooled down considerably here. The humidity has reduced too. Plants are feeling the much-needed relief and so are we. In the last couple of days, I encountered many insects. One was a brightly coloured Dragonfly. This guy was hovering over our water lilies on the rooftop garden. The second insect was Mr Locust. This time it appeared that all its legs were intact. He was twiddling his whiskers sitting on our Papaya tree. This guy was huge, a giant if I may say so. My pointer finger was smaller. Mr Locust was not shy at all. He allowed me to click photos from different angles. At times it moved around the stem of the leaf, to keep hiding as I twisted it to click some pics of him. “Where did you come from”? I asked, getting into a conversation with Mr L. “Don’t ask, I had a narrow escape or I would have been breakfast for Mr Shikara”, he quipped. “Is he around, " Mr Locust asked me, a little scared?
LT COL NOEL ELLIS 13/X/2024 Festive season has started in earnest. Eight days of fasting ended with Dussehra celebrations’, a relief for many who were missing their ‘chota-chota’ and ‘leg pieces’. Finally, good prevailed over evil. We all witnessed Evil burn to cinders and moved home to do just the opposite of the gyan we had gathered before ‘swa-haing’ Ravan. In our country people are too creative and can see the good or evil in anything and everything. Similarly, Ravan could be imagined in electric poles and meters too. Have you ever seen Ravan being evacuated to hospital? I have. Probably, in the battle of Lanka, after his grievous injuries, some ‘va-nars’ decided to take him to the hospital in an ambulance. Ravan did not realise that that would still be his last journey. Hospitals are known for that. I am not sure who would have paid for Ravans medical expenses, unless he had a good Mediclaim policy or was part of RGHS or ECHS. Poor chap would ha