NOEL ELLIS' GOOGLE BLOG

  Let me narrate a story of five ‘unusual’ plants in our garden. Unusual in the sense, I have not seen people growing them deliberately, unless they have been planted by the government/NGO or have grown on their own.   I call this the story of a ‘tree with one leaf left’, ‘tree with two leaves’, a ‘tree with all leaves’, a ‘tree with sprouting leaves’ and a ‘tree without any leaves.’        Tree with one leaf reminds me of a story called the 'Last Leaf’ is a ‘Peepal’. It can grow anywhere, especially in cracks in walls, rather wherever birds which feed on its fruit do their droppings. If it grows Junglee, it is fine but the myth says that growing peepal deliberately is “Ashubh” or inauspicious. Why? No one has been able to give me a convincing answer. For us, a tree is a tree is a tree. Period.   There are stories of ‘bhoot-paraits’ and haunting spirits affiliated with this tree. Some say, under its shadow nothing else grows. Though, peepal i...

  ELLIS' GARDEN 12 MARCH 2026 DIL KHUSH ❤ 💙

  One thing I have realized that spending time with nature brings so much of mental peace. A small bird can just cheer you up. Her tweet can lift your mood. The sheer joy one derives from watching then come and play in your garden, feed, and bathe is just elevating. All those who do it know what I say and a request to those who haven’t must try it.   Morning time is the most hectic for the birds. They all know that their feed will be there. Their tweets and chirps are indicators of the happiness they enjoy. I am sure in between their tweets they chirp to thank us too.   Evenings are another kind of high. These days their feeders go empty by evening. The water bowls too are nearly at bottom levels, not because of their thirst but now they bathe in the bowl more often. The water sprinkled while they shake their bodies flies off emptying the bowl.   In the evening, when I go to the rooftop there is a different kind of hustle. A few sparrows, a pair of dove...

  A flat tyre in NDA meant extra fatigue. One had to lug the bicycle even if the tyres were flat. The main culprits were cadets who used to ‘manage’ valves. Punctures were there but a valve going missing was very common.   I still remember the number of the Bicycle when I joined NDA. It was numbered ‘C-5’. She was a darling. Many cadets must have ridden it, but she served me as new.   One day, I fell into the trap of the ‘missing valves’. The squadron cycle repair man, who had taken a liking towards me and gave me a handful of spare valves. Thereafter, one never had to go on a hunt for cycle valves throughout my stay at NDA.   When I was about to leave for my second term break, the repair man told me that “cadet aap ka cycle main overhaul kar ke rakhunga”. He did a fantastic job. I must thank that man from the bottom of my heart. He was a real “bicycle doctor”.   I noticed that NDA bicycles have gone tubeless when we visited for a course get to...

  Long-long ago when I was a newly promoted Barsati Captain, posted in the golden sands of ‘Ja-sale-mer’. Our company along with our BMP-Is and BRDMs was deployed for annual training in area of ‘Khiyan-Danwar’.   We youngsters had no other work but to recce our operational area inch by inch, dune by dune till we became masters. Believe you me, we could go blindfolded and tell you where we had reached when our vehicles turned or went over a bump on those desert tracks.   We learnt map reading on a map which had no landmarks. BOPs (Border Out Posts) were manned by a ‘camel battalion’ were the only reference points. Tracks were few and far between. All movement was mostly cross country. The border fence had not been conceived by then. Boundary pillars were often missed. We would cut across to the Paki side between pillars routinely.   The only thing one understood was that we were supposed to fire our missiles onto the oncoming enemy tanks/mechanised force...

  I had the proud privilege to attend the “Defence Services Staff College” in Wellington, Nilgiris in TN, way back in 1999-2000. I am not sure how I got nominated but this much was sure that I had worked very hard to get in.   On arrival, ‘C’ Division was allotted to me. It was almost like an isolated island, down in the dungeons nicknamed ‘Sri Lanka’. To reach the famous tea room which used to have our lockers, where we were fed less snacks and more whites & was like climbing Mt Everest.   In the division we were further divided into syndicates. Suffice to say, my fellow ‘owls’ were way better read and erudite than me.   As luck would have it, my first DS or Directing Staff/instructor turned out to be Col GD Bakshi, VSM. My respect and reverence for him will always be there. He retired as a Major General having served in all sorts of terrains, commanded all sorts of troops with first hand experience of the war in 1971 and a counter insurgency spe...

  Wish all my friends a very Happy Holi

  What a Holi is the Middle East celebrating! With blood, gunpowder and missiles. Souls being dispatched to hell/heaven continuously as the case may be. This festival of war will not end soon I suppose. Who will be the victor and who will be the vanquished, no one knows? I am not here to speculate.   I was a little baby when the 1965 war with Pakistan took place. Parents used to narrate stories. I have no memories of that war but I believe it was bloody. I had no idea then that I would join the Armed Forces one day.   Parents also told us stories of ‘Partition’, the way the whole train load of people were killed. The earth was red with blood. Why? I used to question them.   The 1962 war with China, I wasn’t born. We picturised the bloodshed when we saw the movie ‘Haqiqat’. As kids we had no idea of how a country was run & how the defence of a country is organised. We didn’t understand the ‘budget’. We just had respect for the people in uniform. Co...

  https://youtu.be/EnrntiL0fTc   When you start observing birds, you tend to indulge with your auditory and visual faculties more than usual. A new bird sound catches your ears immediately. To get a visual on it becomes your priority. If you get to see it, nothing like it and if you get to photograph it, is ultimate.   We have this pair of birds called the Wire Tailed Swallow living in our colony. They are very agile but shy, extremely energetic, nimble, and always alert at all times. They are excellent insect hunters, including the ones in flight. Their chirps are distinct and their colours so unique.   When winters were at its peak, the pair would come and bask in our window sill in the morning sun. The same in summers when the heat was at its peak, they would come and roost at the same place in the shade.   Over a period of time, they have become quite friendly. They do not scoot as soon as they see me. Both become cautious but are not scar...