A lot of important milestones were met with, dealt with and crossed this year. I have learned immensely from each one and want to remember the experiences like a story. I throw it into the web in the hope that someday someone will stumble upon it and find it worth reading.
Here I begin with the first chapter.Agumbe.
Even as recent as six years ago most people would never have heard of Agumbe. Even those who did would speak of it as the quiet sleepy town that hosted the crew of 'Malgudi Days' for a few years. But to researchers and students who study the wildlife in evergreen forests , Agumbe is a wondrous microcosm of everything wild and natural. Not exactly pristine or trouble free but a treasure all the same.
Climb.
Katya & I left for Agumbe the night of our last zoology practical in college. We had been looking forward to this for so long and with so much anticipation that the last 2 hours of identifying types of placenta nearly killed us. Both of us were going to kick start a 3 month pilot study on the Draco dussumieri with The Gerry Martin Project at the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station commonly known and henceforth in this blog as ARRS. I was also going to help the organization in an administrative capacity of sorts too, by handling their email correspondence. On a more personal level,this experience was going to be a platform, a kind of launch pad into the line of work I hoped to make a solid contribution to in/with my life.
Agumbe was bustling with people when we arrived, Gerry was running kids camps, the telemetry project had a few people tracking the king cobras and a Sita Nadi recce was also underway. We slipped into a routine right away, brainstorming on how best to go about observing dracos and with what objectives to begin with. This is where I introduce Sreekar Rachakonda, the birdman with a gecko tattooed on his leg. Having done studies on lizards previously, he took the lead right away and within no time we had a project in place. Like most field studies, one can never stick to what one finalizes on paper! Each day we'd improvise further, come up new questions, hit a roadblock and find ourselves back to square one again. Soon we had more people join us,each one handling a different aspect of the project. And in the end it all worked out. We presented our findings at YETI, had debates with several other researchers and to no ones surprise, came up with more questions.
Three months flew by even before I could say Goldilocks.It was hard trying to juggle many things at the same time, simply because all of it was still new to me. Initially I thought it would be a piece of cake, dracos by day, correspondence by night! How hard could checking emails be? This was until the day Rom and his legendary clipboard sat me down in the office to discuss all things (read ALL THINGS) ARRS. At the end of it my mind was in a tizzy. I was thrilled about the many many things planned but worried about how capable I would be in managing them.
While working on updating the ARRS website, Rom kept hovering over the 'ARRS Team' Page. "You need to be added onto this, by the way" he said. "Oh I don't know..." I wasn't too sure about getting into all that fuss, to which Rom quickly said "Of course! and we will call you...hm mm...Communication Officer" with a Gandalfian grin on his face.
The title stuck and so did the job.For the rest of the year I would communicate. For ARRS. With the world!
Jemb.
" Here are 2 kestrels, waterproof paper and a whole lot of Ziploc covers" Gerry said as he handed me a box full of what would soon be the field gear for the amphibian work scheduled to begin in the rainy {repeat several times} month of July. Ben & Suzan from Jersey, UK had been back and forthing emails with Gerry and Ganesh S.R for nearly a year trying to come up with an ecological study that could be done on the amphibians of Agumbe( for which I was to be their field assistant).
Ben & Suz took close to no time to adjust to the Agumbe monsoon. Now, if you've seen the place in the summers and in the winters but not in the monsoons, you haven't seen nothing! It is actually like one dramatic transformation that the first winds in June slap onto the Agumbe ridge. When everyone at ARRS kept talking about and preparing for the monsoon with the vigour that they did, for the life of me I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. So it will rain, probably even all day , don't go outside and even if you must go outside, take an umbrella with you!
*Here I pause to laugh at myself until I break at the seams* What a fool I was.
The monsoon was NUTS. Not only did it rain all day, it rained EVERYDAY, for DAYS and for the most part, for WEEKS on end. We stayed indoors as much as possible, but the colder it got, the more often one had to pee. Clothes were damp, mattresses were damp,food went bad, toes grew fungus! No sun, no power, no internet , no work! I would set aside money every week just in case one more umbrella died a brave death. Gosh, the winds were merciless.
Here I begin with the first chapter.Agumbe.
Even as recent as six years ago most people would never have heard of Agumbe. Even those who did would speak of it as the quiet sleepy town that hosted the crew of 'Malgudi Days' for a few years. But to researchers and students who study the wildlife in evergreen forests , Agumbe is a wondrous microcosm of everything wild and natural. Not exactly pristine or trouble free but a treasure all the same.
Climb.
Katya & I left for Agumbe the night of our last zoology practical in college. We had been looking forward to this for so long and with so much anticipation that the last 2 hours of identifying types of placenta nearly killed us. Both of us were going to kick start a 3 month pilot study on the Draco dussumieri with The Gerry Martin Project at the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station commonly known and henceforth in this blog as ARRS. I was also going to help the organization in an administrative capacity of sorts too, by handling their email correspondence. On a more personal level,this experience was going to be a platform, a kind of launch pad into the line of work I hoped to make a solid contribution to in/with my life.
Agumbe was bustling with people when we arrived, Gerry was running kids camps, the telemetry project had a few people tracking the king cobras and a Sita Nadi recce was also underway. We slipped into a routine right away, brainstorming on how best to go about observing dracos and with what objectives to begin with. This is where I introduce Sreekar Rachakonda, the birdman with a gecko tattooed on his leg. Having done studies on lizards previously, he took the lead right away and within no time we had a project in place. Like most field studies, one can never stick to what one finalizes on paper! Each day we'd improvise further, come up new questions, hit a roadblock and find ourselves back to square one again. Soon we had more people join us,each one handling a different aspect of the project. And in the end it all worked out. We presented our findings at YETI, had debates with several other researchers and to no ones surprise, came up with more questions.
Three months flew by even before I could say Goldilocks.It was hard trying to juggle many things at the same time, simply because all of it was still new to me. Initially I thought it would be a piece of cake, dracos by day, correspondence by night! How hard could checking emails be? This was until the day Rom and his legendary clipboard sat me down in the office to discuss all things (read ALL THINGS) ARRS. At the end of it my mind was in a tizzy. I was thrilled about the many many things planned but worried about how capable I would be in managing them.
While working on updating the ARRS website, Rom kept hovering over the 'ARRS Team' Page. "You need to be added onto this, by the way" he said. "Oh I don't know..." I wasn't too sure about getting into all that fuss, to which Rom quickly said "Of course! and we will call you...hm mm...Communication Officer" with a Gandalfian grin on his face.
The title stuck and so did the job.For the rest of the year I would communicate. For ARRS. With the world!
Jemb.
" Here are 2 kestrels, waterproof paper and a whole lot of Ziploc covers" Gerry said as he handed me a box full of what would soon be the field gear for the amphibian work scheduled to begin in the rainy {repeat several times} month of July. Ben & Suzan from Jersey, UK had been back and forthing emails with Gerry and Ganesh S.R for nearly a year trying to come up with an ecological study that could be done on the amphibians of Agumbe( for which I was to be their field assistant).
Ben & Suz took close to no time to adjust to the Agumbe monsoon. Now, if you've seen the place in the summers and in the winters but not in the monsoons, you haven't seen nothing! It is actually like one dramatic transformation that the first winds in June slap onto the Agumbe ridge. When everyone at ARRS kept talking about and preparing for the monsoon with the vigour that they did, for the life of me I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. So it will rain, probably even all day , don't go outside and even if you must go outside, take an umbrella with you!
*Here I pause to laugh at myself until I break at the seams* What a fool I was.
The monsoon was NUTS. Not only did it rain all day, it rained EVERYDAY, for DAYS and for the most part, for WEEKS on end. We stayed indoors as much as possible, but the colder it got, the more often one had to pee. Clothes were damp, mattresses were damp,food went bad, toes grew fungus! No sun, no power, no internet , no work! I would set aside money every week just in case one more umbrella died a brave death. Gosh, the winds were merciless.
Seeing Ben with black lips and sooty hands was a very common sight.He had to keep the fire going extra long in their room as it would get damp the quickest and the mostest. At night we'd all bond over the charcoal fire, snug in our rugs with moldy feet thawing above the flames.
Tea was our savior. Each one would take turns making some. After a point, we started to get creative. Lime tea, ginger tea, sometimes both. Ben's tea, Neethi's tea, Prashanth's tea, sometimes a cup of each.
But it wasn't all bad. Heck! It wasn't AT ALL BAD. Agumbe came alive amidst all that rain. The place was swarming with critters,up in the trees, in the bushes, in the streams and occasionally even in our bathrooms. Pit vipers,cat snakes, invertebrates , caecilians and our study subjects for the season- FROGS!
The study went off smoothly but with many twists and turns of course, just like the one with the dracos. In the end, we found over 25 species and made a key to identify them. We stumbled upon a whole lot of new things during the course of the study, some worth writing about too.
It was quite hard to say goodbye to Ben & Suz after all that we had accomplished and witnessed together during those 'happy days' (Sorry can't help the inside joke). But who knows (and I am hoping) our frog-ing paths might just cross once again.
Soar.
There was a significant species turnover in the ARRS team by the season season. The summers bring in all the king cobra people, the monsoons draw in the herp dudes and the winters - men with binoculars.
Winter of 2010 saw a whole new bunch of energy intoxicated folks come together. There was Sahas, the bird extremist, SiddharthNitali (yes they stick to one another like glue), Naren & Neethi (who got along like scorpions and tarantulas) , our seasoned telemetry team - Dhiraj & Ajay and ARRS' new Field Director Siddharth Rao & Inga.
Now that we had someone to hold onto the reigns, things started to fall in place.We finally had rigour, I would say. People began to brainstorm over tea,think differently, develop perspectives on issues, document and discuss, teach each other and best of all -get organized.Each one worked very hard, active all day, doing field work or reading papers after papers.
However, no matter what one did all day, it all HAD to stop it all at the stroke of five. All would congregate, from far and near (of the ARRS) , young and old, brave and timid to witness and participate in the most passionate sport Agumbe had ever seen. FRISBEE. That's right. Ultimate frisbee, slow-mo frisbie, dho dho frisbie...we had it all.
By now we had entered November. It had been about 8 months since I first started work at ARRS. Sahas, the young hyper-energetic ornithologist from Bombay designed what will hopefully be ARRS' first long term bird monitoring program. For the initial 2 months I was to be a field assistant once again. We would mark out trails across various habitats and walk transects every morning. Initially my knowledge of Agumbe's birds was very limited. But things took off almost immediately and I'm glad to say that the learning curve has only been going up and up!
The mush puddle type sensitive person that I am, by the end of November I started the morbid countdown. My days were now limited. I could count the number of Sundays before my departure, number of tea times , Frisbee matches and full moons! Others from the ARRS team leaving before me didn't AT ALL help my case.
Now with most of my bags back home already I have about a week left.A much more learned person, with countless memories to memorize and solid goals to achieve,It's time for the next chapter. Attraversiamo.
Tea was our savior. Each one would take turns making some. After a point, we started to get creative. Lime tea, ginger tea, sometimes both. Ben's tea, Neethi's tea, Prashanth's tea, sometimes a cup of each.
But it wasn't all bad. Heck! It wasn't AT ALL BAD. Agumbe came alive amidst all that rain. The place was swarming with critters,up in the trees, in the bushes, in the streams and occasionally even in our bathrooms. Pit vipers,cat snakes, invertebrates , caecilians and our study subjects for the season- FROGS!
The study went off smoothly but with many twists and turns of course, just like the one with the dracos. In the end, we found over 25 species and made a key to identify them. We stumbled upon a whole lot of new things during the course of the study, some worth writing about too.
It was quite hard to say goodbye to Ben & Suz after all that we had accomplished and witnessed together during those 'happy days' (Sorry can't help the inside joke). But who knows (and I am hoping) our frog-ing paths might just cross once again.
Soar.
There was a significant species turnover in the ARRS team by the season season. The summers bring in all the king cobra people, the monsoons draw in the herp dudes and the winters - men with binoculars.
Winter of 2010 saw a whole new bunch of energy intoxicated folks come together. There was Sahas, the bird extremist, SiddharthNitali (yes they stick to one another like glue), Naren & Neethi (who got along like scorpions and tarantulas) , our seasoned telemetry team - Dhiraj & Ajay and ARRS' new Field Director Siddharth Rao & Inga.
Now that we had someone to hold onto the reigns, things started to fall in place.We finally had rigour, I would say. People began to brainstorm over tea,think differently, develop perspectives on issues, document and discuss, teach each other and best of all -get organized.Each one worked very hard, active all day, doing field work or reading papers after papers.
However, no matter what one did all day, it all HAD to stop it all at the stroke of five. All would congregate, from far and near (of the ARRS) , young and old, brave and timid to witness and participate in the most passionate sport Agumbe had ever seen. FRISBEE. That's right. Ultimate frisbee, slow-mo frisbie, dho dho frisbie...we had it all.
By now we had entered November. It had been about 8 months since I first started work at ARRS. Sahas, the young hyper-energetic ornithologist from Bombay designed what will hopefully be ARRS' first long term bird monitoring program. For the initial 2 months I was to be a field assistant once again. We would mark out trails across various habitats and walk transects every morning. Initially my knowledge of Agumbe's birds was very limited. But things took off almost immediately and I'm glad to say that the learning curve has only been going up and up!
The mush puddle type sensitive person that I am, by the end of November I started the morbid countdown. My days were now limited. I could count the number of Sundays before my departure, number of tea times , Frisbee matches and full moons! Others from the ARRS team leaving before me didn't AT ALL help my case.
Now with most of my bags back home already I have about a week left.A much more learned person, with countless memories to memorize and solid goals to achieve,It's time for the next chapter. Attraversiamo.
2 comments:
Excellently written! A delight to read. :)
Hey, the blogs dead??? or in coma, write more!
Post a Comment