Why we love the Palekars ?

Our treasurer , Mrs Patil has a huge grin. She was holding the first ever donation cheque . With almost half the members not having even paid their membership fees , this expression is not surprising . She is also annoyed with me for not collecting entry fees from most of the visitors. She wished that everyone was like the Palekar family who not only paid the entry fees but also wrote a cheque to the Butterfly Conservatory Of Goa.

Jyoti ( my wife -lets call her J ) likes people more easily. That Mrs. Palekar is also named Jyoti helped . Any appreciation of the rainwater harvesting concept or about her house - and that one is in the good books of J. She loved Deepak and Jyoti for their friendly and afflable nature.

When the Palekars came in to the conservatory , there were hardly any butterflies . It was pretty warm and I was mourning the repeated raids of the langurs on almost all of our flowering bushes . But the Palekars waited . Patiently . Watching the birds . The trees . The occassional butterfly - the crow mainly. They took time to examine every nook and cranny of the conservatory . Photographing . They took a break inbetween to check out the house and climbed up the hill again in the hot sun, back in to the conservatory. As if to oblige them , suddenly we had butterflies ! Spot swordtail and the Silverline flew into the breeding enclosure through the entrance opening . And there were quite a few others : Lascar , sergeant , plum Judy , monkey puzzle.

For being patient . For their attention to details . For lauding our efforts rather than the number of butterflies . Thank you !

And That's why I love the Palekars !

The Butterfly cafe

We are struck by the malady of ostentious demonstrations : Which is having butterflies on display anytime of the day , anytime of the year. Why ? Well ! Blame it on Blaise !

I mean , the conservatory is designed like a sanctuary , not a zoo. In a sanctuary , you need patience , stealth and lots of luck to spot an animal . Zoo is , well , a Zoo - animal visuals guaranteed ! But then , they have baits and salt licks in sanctuaries. So it is luck by design.

So we are midst of designing a butterfly café – a royal mud puddle treat. Where butterflies of various kind find solace and salt. A gathering for tired wings and thirsty probes – where the male clan shall gather and exchange notes on failed matings and broken thoraxes.

And so what do we serve ? Some initial test offerings of cowdung , common salt , rotten fruits , cashew fenny , some stale beer were left untested . A gang of grateful ants than devoured it all up . Birds took away the salads.

It was time to get the experts out of the woodwork . Col Baindur has given a whole lot of literature that will hold good stead .Urine is good , says Kishen Das . If one wants to vary that diet for the butterflies , all one has to do is vary one’s own. Save it up in one’s bladder ( fermenting it up the whole night is essential, mind you ) , rush to the watering hole in the morning and aim ! It may well get the butterflies , but we are afraid the aroma of a well developed Lepidoptera tea may upset the nasal sensibilities of the human visitors for whose benefit we are creating the spectacle in the first place. Still worth a try !

On an average day we would get 20 to 25 different winged wonders . But that fateful day , not one turned up. But Blaise did . With a few of his local friends . They were getting just introduced to the joys of butterfly watching . Unfortunately they didn’t get the joy at the conservatory .

Matter of luck , I said.

We see more butterflies in our garden, they said

Good if you see more butterflies outside than inside the conservatory. It means we are succeeding !



Yet it hurt - were we taking people for a ride ? A question we ask ourselves.

But now we want everyone to see some butterflies atleast . Most will, hopefully .


A few will choose to see our efforts instead. Those are the ones that keep us going

Shallow Hal

There is an English movie by the above name. Its about a superficial man who has a fixation on physical beauty and fails to see anything beyond that. It ends differently though.


We worship beauty . In humans or in nature. The conservatory is resplendent with beauty. And shallow Hal is wallowing in it. Take a look !

Action over activism

We have been in the serious business of offending people even if we don't mean to ! The lastest victim are some well meaning environmental activists who wanted us to join in a protest campaign for a ( serious , and we agree it to be ) cause. Our refusal , we learn , has been misunderstood . And since they mentioned that they have seen our blog , thought it appropriate to put our thoughts on the same here.

There is no doubt that environment is under great threat . And that every concerned citizen has to do their bit - it is this bit that one needs to choose on their own . We can't expect everyone to start a butterfly conservatory and everyone may not want to join a protest. It does not mean that either of them does not believe in each other's cause.

Like each critter finds a role for themselves in the ecosystem , we have found ours - we want to plant as many trees , reclaim to nature as much land ( our next great goal to recreate a wetland for birds ! ) and rebuild as much as possible in our lifetime .

Protests . Signature campaigns . Seminars . Rallies . Walks . Sit in demonstrations . Educational roadshows . All good . But please count us out . Not because we don't believe it does not have an effect ( it does . Regional plan cancellation , SEZs ) , but just because we made a choice for activism over action. why ?

Action for us is easier . Activism is a huge responsibility . When we have to tell others about right and wrong , we have to be extra careful on our choices in life . Wecan't chase away a pharma company and yet buy medicines of the same company ; or protest about garbage and yet not recycle our own ; Oppose housing projects , yet have more than one dwelling.

We are not yet ready . If and when we think we are , we shall choose.

ROI going bad !

My beloved relatives in question ( actually love them !) have been seriously offended by earlier post . So apologies .

And also their side of the story : All that I have said could be done without having to spend on it myself. Government sponsored greenary abounds where I live. They also meant that without a commercial plan in place , the effort will not grow into something bigger or meaningful ( something that Ms Tallulah had also suggested). Thirdly no use accumulating debt to pursue what looks like a personal passion without a thought for saving for a rainy day ( Good thought ) or making provisions for the kid's education + allied stuff. And what about medical emergencies ....

Valid points . Accepted and will be given avery serious thought !

Return on investments.

We were the topic of discussion last week among some very close relatives of ours - the crux of the debate was on how poor we were at business . How else do you expect doles of money poured in the butterfly conservatory for no returns ?
Well ,true in a way that we do not have gate collections.

But is it a bad investment ?

We need an competent accountant to value the time our kids spend in a forest stream ( stream on demand ) of their own.

He should be able to measure the joy of two German Shepards galloping with a Mowgli like boy that our son is.

Find the IRR of the peace that flows through us each early morning when we sit on the bench waiting for the first sun rays to greet us . In our own manmade forest.

What price do we quote for the liittle friendships we develop each day ?

And we haven't yet got down calculating the normal stuff like oxygen , carbon dioxide cleaning , rainwater saved , top soil , etc.....

How do we calculate the rate of returns on this investment ?

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 ?