{"id":1383,"date":"2011-02-05T12:12:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-05T06:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/archives\/1383"},"modified":"2011-02-05T12:12:35","modified_gmt":"2011-02-05T06:42:35","slug":"gharwal-diaries-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2011\/02\/gharwal-diaries-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Gharwal Diaries -2"},"content":{"rendered":"

27th October 2010. Night. Around 2200 hours. Khirsu.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The jeep fell silent after a rancorous cough. My ears are still ringing. The forest rest house (FRH) was tucked away atop an incline. 1800 m above sea level. The crickets and the eight of us are the only ones making noise. The chowkidhar turned up after yelling for him for five minutes. Harish Negi. He told us his name. <\/p>\n

The Forest Rest House, built in 1913, has a solemn ambiance. The cream-yellow, angry walls stared at us. \u20181913?\u2019 I thought. \u2018There must be ghosts here.\u2019 <\/p>\n

28th October 2010. Early morning. Khirsu. FRH Compound<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is cold. Too fucking cold.  I step out. \"Black<\/a>The Himalayan range stared back at me. Snow clad, regal, and absolutely breath-taking. In the backyard garden of a house, I spotted activity. Black-lored tits. Grey headed canary flycatcher. Grey treepies. I settled down. Got a decent portrait of the Black-lored tit. The birds seemed to not mind the villagers or the school kids. They were wary of me though. They sensed I was an alien I think. For people getting into bird photography, here\u2019s a tip: don\u2019t chase the bird. Sit your ass down. Wait.  As much as we all love to get great pictures, be mindful of the fact that some of us like spending time amidst the birds. Photos are a bonus to us. Time for break-fast. Aloo parathas. Pickle and curd. <\/p>\n

28th October 2010. Morning. Khirsu. Bhuvakal road<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mountain road echoed the chirps of bulbuls. We spotted the Black Bulbul. First sighting for me. I had seen the Himalayan Bulbul couple of years back though. The Eurasian and Black-headed jays abounded. There was only on kind of bird that was on all our minds: a raptor. But no luck today. We spotted a few more Jays, Bulbuls, and Treepies. The walk back from Bhuvakal road to the rest house was a little tiring. The Himalayan sun is harsh. At 1800 m, I expected it to be cold throughout the day! <\/p>\n

\"Oriental<\/a><\/p>\n

Lunch. The hole-in-the-wall eatery which was used to serving the rural folk, was take over by the pricks from the city: us. The owner of the eatery, a diminutive, soft-spoken man was overwhelmed. \u2018Where\u2019s the curd?\u2019 \u2018Kuch pyaaz milega?\u2019 \u2018Ek aur omlet yaar!\u2019 A staccato burst of hungry calls unnerved him I guess. A portion of his kitchen was his bedroom too. His daughter, a little girl probably around two, hid behind her mom\u2019s sari and stared at us. Possibly, she was thinking \u2018What are these animals?\u2019 <\/p>\n

Dominic is having the time of his life. His interest in birds surprises me. I am not complaining though. \"Tawny<\/a><\/p>\n

Raghu ordered some snacks for the evening. Not some, but a truck-load. And, we left the eatery. Post-lunch birding. Saw the Blue whistling thrush. Resident. She kept flying about but never perched for a nice portrait. <\/p>\n

The sun went down. Cold. Negi, the chowkidar was generous enough to start a bonfire in the lawn. We sat around. Drinking rum. Mr. Thomas started his favourite topic: ghosts. We asked Negi. \u201cAny ghosts?\u201d He settled down near the bonfire, took a sip of the rum and said \u201cMost part of the year, no one visits. I take care of it alone. And on some nights, after I finish checking on the guest house, I have seen a white man, clad in a suit walk out and vanish in the backyard.\u201d An owl hooted from afar. I shuddered.  Negi continued. \u201cI believe it is the spirit of the white man that built this guest house.\u201d I quickly turned around to see the backyard. Nothing there. Crickets. <\/p>\n

When we were done, I was suitably inebriated. And I crashed. I dreamt of an Englishman clad in a suit, telling me \u2018Owls. Look out for owls old chap!\u2019 His face was ashen and eyes green. He had thick, dirty finger nails. When he laughed, I noticed that he had betel nut colored teeth and saliva dripped at the corners of his mouth. \u2018Owls. Growwwwwwls. ha ha ha’.\u2019 I woke up with a start. [to be contd<\/strong>\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27th October 2010. Night. Around 2200 hours. Khirsu. The jeep fell silent after a rancorous cough. My ears are still ringing. The forest rest house (FRH) was tucked away atop an incline. 1800 m above sea level. The crickets and the eight of us are the only ones making noise. The chowkidhar turned up after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[127,216,159],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bird-watching","tag-birds","tag-himalayan-bird-count-2010"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"27th October 2010. Night. Around 2200 hours. Khirsu. The jeep fell silent after a rancorous cough. My ears are still ringing. The forest rest house (FRH) was tucked away atop an incline. 1800 m above sea level. The crickets and the eight of us are the only ones making noise. The chowkidhar turned up after…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gbk8-mj","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1349,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/the-gerhwal-diaries-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":0},"title":"The Garhwal Diaries – 1","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"November 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"26 October 2010, Delhi, Dehradun We got rooms in the Doon club! Thanks to Dominic. The \u2018Jehar\u2019 (fresh lime juice) from the Doon club kitchen is supposed to be world renowned but I think it\u2019s overrated. The boys made fun of my humungous suitcase. It can carry a whole town\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/birds\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1055,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/the-great-himalayan-bird-count-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":1},"title":"The Great Himalayan Bird Count 2008","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"August 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Prateek posted this on the BNG Birds Yahoo Mailing List. If you are a birder, you wouldn't want to miss this:The Great Himalayan Bird Count, Winter of 2008 is planned on the most popular trekking trails situated in the valleys of Yamuna; Bhagirithi; Bhilingna; Ganga; Mandakini and Alaknanda rivers in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bird watching\"","block_context":{"text":"bird watching","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/bird-watching\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1025,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/birds-of-chennai\/","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":2},"title":"Birds of Chennai","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"March 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"White Throated Munia @ Nanmangalam Reserve ForestGot this elegant bird in Adyar Poonga on Greenways road in Chennai. I was waiting for him to get out of a tree but I gave up. As I stood up to move away, he relented and posed for me by perching on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chennai"","block_context":{"text":"chennai","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/chennai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White Throated Munia","src":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2366\/2330074359_de2c2e1e01.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1674,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/notes-mountain-hamlet-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":3},"title":"Notes from a Mountain Hamlet – Part 2","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"April 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Continued from part 1 26 Feb 2013, Lava The next day our plan to to go Chaudaferi didn't materialise. A bunch of people were trekking through the trail, and Joseph thought it might hamper our birding exercise. So I spent the day \u00a0outside the Forest Department's Guest House: a colonial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/birds\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lava Forest Guest House","src":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/lavafrh_view-1024x682.jpg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/lavafrh_view-1024x682.jpg 1x, http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/lavafrh_view-1024x682.jpg 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1037,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/weekend-birding\/","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":4},"title":"Weekend Birding","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"May 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It was him! the Egret said pointing to the aquabatic Cormorant. This rather weird bird was hanging around with a family of ducks and when he was not, he was fishing in the lalbagh lake. He was careless enough to not spot a juicy water snake that swam right under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bangalore"","block_context":{"text":"bangalore","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/bangalore\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Egret","src":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2254\/2460384687_e677f10306.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1089,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/observations-of-an-amateur-bird-photographer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":5},"title":"Observations of an Amateur Bird Photographer","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"April 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I had posted this on India Nature Watch long time back...It is the journey. Not the destination. I used to go to Hebbal lake to photograph birds. What's the big deal? Only, I was armed with my mighty Nikkor 18-70 MM and I used to wonder 'Why in the god's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bird watching\"","block_context":{"text":"bird watching","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/bird-watching\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}