Someone Else Also Loves Fresh Guavas

Do you love guavas? Specially the pink variety? Yes I do. I love to pluck it from the tree and eat. As fresh as it can be.

This morning, I found someone else with an equal craze for garden fresh guavas! Not another human being but a feathered friend! Whom did I find on our guava tree? Any guesses?

A parakeet? No.

A bulbul? No.

Then what?

It was a Pale-billed Flowerpecker! A bird so tiny that it can hide inside a guava! See the picture below.

It went about doing its morning breakfast in stages. Probably, its nest was close by and it kept feeding the chicks while making rounds. From the size of the guava, the bird could feast for days. But there must be other birds sharing the guava because the next morning the fruit was gone!

Special thanks to Yella Prakash Rao for bird ID.

Benefits of Guava

In an earlier story, we had brought out the nutritional value of guavas. You may click the following link to browse the complete picture story. An extract about the fruit is also reproduced below.

Guava - A Powerhouse of Nutrients Guava is also called 'super fruit' like super cars and super bikes! It contains 4 times more vitamin C than orange, 3 times more proteins and 4 times more fiber than pineapple, 2 times more lycopene than tomato and slightly more potassium than a banana. Guava is used in treatment of high blood pressure, constipation, respiratory disorders and hypercholesterolemia. Readers may browse the LinkedIn article for further details.

Do share the observations of similar visitors to your home garden or neighbourhood. Isn't it fascinating to see Nature's myriad ways and creations?

Like the flowerpeckers, eat guava and stay healthy!

Thanks for browsing.

     -  Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ Secunderabad/ 14th December 2023

#guava #superfruit #nutrients #antioxidants #vitaminc #protein #dietaryfibre #homegardening #palebilledflowerpecker #freshfruits #secunderabad #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh

Drumstick Flowers- This Time of the Year

Who doesn't love Sambhar? And Sambhar without drumstick pieces? Don't you relish squeezing the drumstick piece from your sambhar and chewing the seeds?

Yes, drumstick is one vegetable whose pods, seeds, leaves, flowers and even roots are eaten! Those who have a drumstick tree in their garden or neighbourhood would have seen it flowering in September in Telangana region. See the picture below.

Drumstick or Moringa Oleifera is a nutritious vegetable (actually it is a fruit). Its flowers are a delicacy as it wilts fast. Plucked fresh, it makes a nice vegetable. Readers may browse the link for more details and its benefits for people with diabetes, hypertension etc.

So this time of the year, look around for a drumstick tree which is native to Indian sub-continent. Its white-creamish flowers will catch your eye.

Feel like eating a drumstick in your sambhar or otherwise? Go ahead and enjoy!

Thanks for browsing.

     - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ Secunderabad/ 2nd September 2023

#drumstick #moringaoleifera #sambhar #delicacy #indincuisine #secunderabad #homegardening #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh

CDs On A Mango Tree

What are the CDs doing on a mango tree?

Some weird decoration by tech-gardeners?

Or, some IT nerds gone crazy?

Actually, none of that!

The CDs have been hung on the mango trees to keep the langur away from attacking the mango crop! Simple.

Yes, the idea seems to work. First time Ghumakkad saw it in Uttarakhand while driving to Munsiyari. The house owner was finding it difficult to save the fruits from the marauding monkeys on a forested hillside. The shining CDs did the trick! That was in May-2019. Now four years down the line, it worked again in Secunderabad. Different monkeys, different fruit trees, different climate, yet the concept works! See the pictures and a short video clip below.

Here is a short video clip shot on our terrace showing the CDs protecting the fruits on both the mango and guava trees.

Of course, while driving on highways in India, CDs have a different connotation as seen from the picture below. The picture quizzed the readers in the 18th edition of online contest Kaun Banega Ghumakkad KBG-18 . CDs in road side dhabas ढाबा  (roadside eatery) could contain unwanted stuff. But no, don't be so naughty! See the remarks in the picture below.

More than 100 correct responses were received for KBG-18 Contest. You may browse the story linked below.

CD is Cold Drink - The highway eateries terminology!

So, if you have a home garden and the monkeys are a menace, try hanging some CDs from the branches of the tree. It should be free hanging so that it rotates with wind. It startles the monkeys and keeps them away. 

Requesting our zoologist-readers to educate us how it works? Hope it does not cause any other harm to the marauding monkeys.

More stories from Ghumakkad on the world around us!

Thanks for browsing

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 5th April 2023/ Secunderabad

Postscript: Readers from different parts of the world shared their experiences on above story. Excerpts:

5th April: Sujata Das from Canada writes: "We have been doing this CD track for years to protect our cherries, plums, and peaches from long-beak birds. And it works for birds."

5th April: J Ramamoorty from Hyderabad writes:  "In New Delhi's South Block,  two wheeler owners keep bricks on the two seats for the same reason i.e. to protect the seats being torn by the monkeys!"

5th April: Pramod Lakhotia from Germany writes: "In Germany we have no monkeys free jumping around. Hence no problem. But birds do make our Cherries a problem and we are using CDs on the trees effectively."

30th April: It has been close to four weeks since we hung the CDs on our fruit trees in home garden. Apart from the langurs, the CDs have kept the bats and the birds away so far.

#monkeymenace #maraudingmonkeys #langursinthegarden #homegardening #savingthemangoes #homeremedy #CDs #CDsonamnagotree #CDstostartlethelonkeys #ewaste #upcycling #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh

Perception Vs Perspective KBG-74

Can perception be affected by perspective?

And vice versa, can a new perspective change our perception?

We look at both these questions through a picture which was featured as KBG-74 and titled A Spherical Delight.

But firstly, let us understand both the words as defined in the Oxford dictionary.

Perception: 'The ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses' or the second meaning 'the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.' In simple words, perception leads to a mental image of a thing or someone.

Perspective: 'A particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view'. It also has a second meaning- 'the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other.' In simple words, perspective is the way we regard something or our point of view.

Now coming back to the Contest picture which received enthusiastic response from the readers. All the readers assumed the two objects to be melons because of the enlarged picture as shown.

Whereas the two objects were actually dried up lemons plucked from our yard. See the two pictures below. Of course, both lemon and melon are spherical in shape and have the same alphabets!

Now, what would you attribute this error to? Perception or perspective? Perhaps it is both. Perspective error because the picture showed only a part of the lemons giving an inaccurate impression of its size; and perception error because our mental image of a lemon is greenish-yellowish skin but certainly not dried pigmented skin as shown in the picture. Do you see the interdependence of perception and perspective here?

Before we selected the picture of the dried lemons, we had not thought of this story. Our own perception got changed when we looked at the perspective of the readers. We came across a nice visual comparing perception and perspective. Credit goes to pediaa.com for the picture reproduced below.

Hope we have answered both the questions. Yes, perception can be affected by perspective and vice versa a new perspective can change our perception. Both aspects are important for individual and organisational performance, relationships, understanding, conflict management etc. Apologies if Ghumakkad sounded like a teacher. In real life he is both as depicted in his logos below.

It is fun learning together!

The Contest

KBG-74, the 74th edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad Caption Contest received more than 45 captions listed below.

No.	Name	Caption for KBG-74 Contest
1	Ajai Bhumri	खरबूजा खरबूजे को देखकर रंग बदलें, दूसरों का रंग बदलना हो तो पहले अपना बदलें ।
2	Amandeep Kaur	Garmi ke do anmol ratan!
3	Bharat Ladha	खरबूजे को देख कर खरबूजा रंग बदलता है।
4	BR Natarajan	You do not need lush lemon when you have musk melon.
5	C Raghuram	Rough outside, sweet and soft inside. Mimic the melon.
6	Deepak Jena	The smiles of summer
7	Deepak Jena	Can't wait to grab
8	Geeta Bhargava	Duniya goal, hum bhi goal
9	GR Sreenivasan	Keep calm and carry a watermelon
10	J Ramamoorty	Mouth watering spheres.
11	Jaishankar	Life may give you melons but you can always find the musk in them.
12	LS Bhargava	King of summer fruits
13	LS Bhargava	An Energy food for Summer
14	Manju Khaitan	Most optimum shape for a tree to reproduce.
15	Neelima Paroolkar	We 2 are One.
16	Peter de Padua	Two Melons a week,no illness will seek!
17	Poonam Bhargava	Who minds the summer heat, When this melon is such a treat!
18	Pradeep Siwach	Summer rasagola
19	PRR Rao	Elon Musk or Musk Melon? What's in a name? Bite and you'll know!
20	Radhika Sareen	Twins!
21	Radhika Sareen	Ready for delivery
22	Radhika Sareen	हम बने इक दूजे के लिये
23	Radhika Sareen	तू चीज़ बड़ी है musk melon…
24	Rajendra Singh	Anar ready to ripen or musk melon!
25	Rashmi Bhargava	Thanda thanda cool cool!
26	RB Dhavare	So close but no hatred!
27	Ritu Bhargava	This spherical delight musk melon. is must in summers.
28	Ritu Bhargava	Hard outside,soft and juicy inside is mast melon.
29	Ruma Purkayastha	Melon-colic in summer ? Never never !!
30	Savita Bhargava	The Twins
31	Savita Bhargava	खरबूजा खरबूजे को देख कर रगं बदलता है।
32	Shereen Sultana	If life gives you melons, juice it up!
33	Sujata Das	You are one in 'melon' to beat the heat.
34	Susmita Ganguly	Perfect Parenting Mantra - Soft and Cool Within.
35	Unknown	Must Melons !
36	Unknown-2	हर अंडे में से नहीं निकलता चूज़ा भाई को देख रंग बदले ख़रबूज़ा
37	Unknown-3	Summer delight
38	Vanita Vandan Singh	Summer Summer on the Sky, Give me a light sweet refreshing Treat!
39	Veeky Baths	Awesome Twosome!
40	Vinay Prasad	Musk melon, must melon!
41	Vinod Dhanuka	Kharbuje Ko Dekhkar Khabooja Rang badalata hai
42	VV Ramani	Flavour of summer
43	Yogesh	Garmi mein rang Kharbuze ke sang, Khaye jao Aur cycle chalaye jao
44	Supradeep Sen	Delightful musk melons!
45	Praveen Rengaraj	Tastes better than it looks!
46	Prashant Jadenavar	Freckles outside, delicious inside. Ignoring for looks isn't the best option.

The Winners

Our Jury comprising of Prabhjoth and Neeta have selected the following four captions as KBG-74 Winners. We thank the Jury and congratulate the winners.

Ruma Purkayastha is an educator  and wellbeing coach who learns something from her grand children everyday! She majored in psychology and was Principal of a leading school in New Delhi. Her caption 'Melon-colic in summer ? Never never!' was unique and conveyed the cooling and soothing effect of melons in summer. Ruma has won the KBG Contests previously also.

'Life may give you melons but you can always find the musk in them', was Jaishankar's caption which hooked the Jury. It conveys a deeper sense of musk melon and life. A former Colonel, he has won the KBG contests several times. A blogger and an adventurer, Jai loves nature and wildlife.

Sujata Das PhD, is an alumnus of BITS Pilani, Stanford and Waterloo Universities  who runs her own business in Canada. In her spare time, she loves to teach different age groups of people. Sujata loves winter sports, travelling and creative writing. Her caption "You are one in 'melon' to beat the heat!" appealed to the Jury. She is a past winner of the KBG Contest.

Ramdas Dhavare is an alumnus of NIT Surathkal and IIT Madras. He is a Science enthusiast, with interest in Philosophy and teachings of the Ramakrishna Mission. After a short stint with Indian Navy, Ramdas went on to teach engineering for 30 years. He now enjoys being with his grand daughter in Pune. His caption 'So close but no hatred!' reflects his philosophical thinking of the two melons close to each other. He is a regular participant of KBG Contests but the first time winner now!

Thank you all the readers for your continued support. The 75th edition of KBG Contest is coming up next!

Stay connected to trigger your creative thinking.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 3rd June 2022

Postscript:

Vinod Agarwal writes: "What a simple picture to tell how easily we are fooled. Imagine how we are fooled by our leaders, political or otherwise, without us realizing it using the same techniques of making things look bigger then they are and making them look like that they have the same texture. Great insight."

#perception #perspective #gardeningisfun #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kbg74 #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #takeabreak #captions #powerofobservation #craetivecaptions #sphericaldelight #homegardening #lemons #melons