Jailhouse rock !

The typical image of a convict that jumps up in our minds is of a fellow wearing a white uniform with long black stripes . The conservatory currently resembles a comic book jail house . Thanks to the sudden explosion of "Sailor" numbers - hundreds of them . Every variation : common sailor , common Sergeant , Short banded sailor , coloured sergeant , chestnut streaked sailor , lascars !

Fascinating to see these beauties gliding lazily about . The only flurry of furious flying when a gang of smaller sailors chasing away the larger Sergeant away. The mob dispersing once having achieved their objective.

Wonder how suddenly these fellas turned up ( Yup ! Silk cotton trees are yet to sprout leaves !). Any theories ?

We are getting people !

Last week was hectic in a way . A troop of langurs came in and ate every bit of marigold and quite a lot of hibiscus we had . With that went the lure for the lime , blue mormon and company ! With quite a bit of garden back to square one , timing was perfect for guests to visit. Prasad Pankar , ace photographer and a recent convert to nature photography choose this week to capture a few butterflies on lens.

If you can see "waiting, waiting,..." expression on his face , blame it on the langurs.

Then we had eight young ladies of BNHS led by Dr Sheila Tanna. Their knowledge and enthusiasm was fantastic ! How we wish they were residents if Goa - would have had atleast 8 helping hands !

They couldn't spot much of butterflies , but we felt that they were able to notice many things which made their visit worthwhile ( hope so !). We had a troop from Margao who had also come with a hope to meet the BNHS gang , but the infamous usgaon-mollem tipper traffic ensured that the date was missed.

Until next time then !

My first blog - dedicated to Jyoti

Yashodan here ! - actually MY first blog entry . The earlier ones were from Jagdish Katkar and Sadanand Desai ( Also thanks for the first comment ! ).

The writer's bug bit me after the first article that we penned ( Jyoti & me ) appeared here :

http://ifoundbutterflies.org/conservation/the-butterfly-conservatory-of-goa

( Heblekar, Y. & Heblekar, J. 2010. The Butterfly Conservatory of Goa: Protecting butterflies, one household at a time ... a Goan experiment. In, K. Kunte, U. Kodandaramaiah & K. Sadasivan (eds.). Butterflies of India. v.1.0. )

Jagdish's article refers to me as Rohit ( Yeah ! thats me . Jyoti's got only one husband ) - that is my user friendly name . For people who can't remember Yashodan ( how difficult is that ? I mean we are not talking names like Graphium agamemnon ).

We loved the response to the above article and are almost tempted to believe some of the things said to us ( extraordinary ! etc ) . But the fact is we are ordinary. I am rather. But married to an extraordinary person.

She is a doctor ( Human patients , not animals ). Always wanted to be one ever since she was made to think about a career choice. She used to have shivers if she ever saw a snake ... why ? even a teeny weeny tree frog ( she still would yelp if she found one on the bed . The creepers from the roof garden get them in our bedroom. ).

12 years in marriage , she has nursed a few snakes , a hornbill , a hispid hare , turtles , several dogs , cats , civet cat , squirrel , Koel , Indian Pitta and a few other critters to health . Trekked and bird watched , rescued snakes from homes and schools and conducted a few camps for the kids. And till she was 23 years old she didn't even know her love for nature ! Never too late .

I am the dreamer ; She is the Do-er . She gets everything up and going and done. Applies to the butterfly park as well.

Don't remember when I last got her a dress . She stills uses her old nokia almost in tatters . A red activa that is older than my daughter . Travels 60 kms a day making four trips to drop & pick up the kids from school . Not a gram of gold from me . Still married to me !

Garden on the roof . Rainwater tanks . Converting a barren slope into a small forest . Those are practical answers to some interesting situations . Nothing extraordinary in that .

Giving up a cherished medical profession for the kids and the park . Sacrificing stuff that every woman craves for . Being a super mom . Thats extra ordinary.

This is my salute to my wife. My life. Jyoti.