Birds Inspire Us

Feeling caged due to the pandemic?

No family vacations?

No wildlife safaris?

We all are locked down and feeling caged. Physically and mentally. Therefore, go birding nearby. Just by observing the birds will make you feel better. By observing not only the birds but also the plants, flowers and raindrops, we can break free in our minds. And feel rejuvenated. During the last two years, we had shared number of such posts to lift your sagging spirit. The story has embedded links to more stories. 

We are sharing again few pictures of Spot-billed ducks in Yapral lake in our neighbourhood in Secunderabad. The first picture is a PQ- picturesque quote- based on Michael Caine's quote "Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always peddling like the dickens underneath."

The next picture urges you to be yourself.

Doesn't the duck look so graceful while swimming? See the picture below.

The next picture is about being together in life- Corona or no Corona.

It may be a good idea to celebrate the coming New Year with the birds. We had celebrated Diwali during the lockdown with the birds. You may browse our story 'Celebrating Diwali with the Birds'. Birds not in the cages or zoo enclosures, but in their natural habitat!

KBG-67 Contest

A picture of a spot-billed duck was chosen for KBG-67, the 67th edition of our online caption contest Kaun Banega Ghumakkad.

The Contest received 47 captions from readers across the globe. We thank the participants and are happy to share all the captions below.

No.	Name	Caption for KBG-67 Contest
1	Ajai Bhumri	Dance n fly high
2	Ajai Bhumri	दुख मेरे, खुशियाँ हमारी,  खुशियां बांटने चला सब को बुलाने
3	Amandeep Kaur	Be like a duck, paddle across tough waters (times) like a pro!
4	Avinash Tiwari	Lo main ud chali.
5	Bharat Ladha	शिकार कर उड़ान को तैयार
6	CD Sawant	जल बिन मछली न्रुत्य बिन बिजली और जल बिन बतक असम्भव
7	Deepak Jena	Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.
8	Deepak Jena	Being glamorous Is not a crime.
9	Deepak Jena	Beauty is good when it's on the outside, but what about the inside, it's deep with-in the soul.
10	GR Sreenivasan	Wonderful to see you performing Swan dance over placid pond.
11	Jaishankar	Winged angel walking on water
12	JJ Baxi	Vini, Vidi, Vinci Meaning: I came, I saw, I conquered
13	J Ramamoorty	Lone ranger
14	Jyoti Dixit	I could have danced all night
15	Kausalya Govindan	Model perfect on water ramp! Show off time!
16	LS Bhargava	Landed after a successful mission and ready to take off to succeed another mission.
17	Manik Srivastava	I flit,I float This is my paradise to gloat
18	Manju Khetan	Live life free of tensions
19	Narendra Soni	तैरना है फकत, कहती है बतख़
20	Neelam Sawant	Flight to fantasy
21	Nidhi Bhargava	पंख फैलाए , बांहे पसारे, तुझको बुलाए देश तेरा…
22	NR Ravi	We have lift off!
23	Param Bhatia	Mainu Bhangda paan nu ji karda!
24	Peter De Padua	Spread your wings and fly.
25	Peter De Padua	Ripples of reflection for a green, greener World.
26	Poonam Bhargava	मन मस्त हुआ फिर क्या बोले, मन डोले मेरा तन डोले.
27	Pradeep Siwach	Let me spread my wings
28	Radhika Sareen	Paddle hard & have fun dancing
29	Radhika Sareen	I dont have to wait for rains to dance…
30	Rajendra Singh	Hi Michael Jackson ! Let's compete !
31	Ramdas B Dhavare	Can Display my Wings on Water too.
32	Rashmi Bhargava	Dance n fly high
33	Ravi Dixit	Such a graceful take off. Beats any man-made flying machine.
34	Ritu Bhargava	Dancing on her favourite song- quack quack!
35	Rohini Tiwari	Walking on water..... a miracle of Nature!
36	R Raghuram	Strength and elegance - a close fight, Ready for take off, yet another flight
37	Ruma Purkayastha	Catch me if you can!
38	Sandhya Prakash	Eye of the Tiger.
39	Shereen Sultana	Spread your wings, fly high!
40	Sujata Das	Taking off to reach the sky.
41	Surendra Kumar	Harrier ready for Vertical Take-off
42	Unknown	Need to have fun after paddling hard in water....
43	Veeky Baths	Be like a duck. Soft on the outside But hard on the Inside!
44	Vinay Prasad	We all have wings. But only some dare to fly!
45	Vinod Dhanuka	Nextgen Transport Fly Float Walk
46	Rekha Bhargava	Ishwar ka karishma hai insan ko hi nahin pashu pakshi ko bhi nrity karate hain
47	Rekha Bhargava	Kala kar sabhi hain dharti per kya manush  ķya pakshi

Winners of KBG-67

Our Jury comprising of Anchita Nidhindra and Akanksha Bhargava both based in California, has selected four winning captions. Both the jury members love Nature, travelling, photography and writing. We thank both of them for their time.

We congratulate the winners whose captions along with a brief intro are given below.

Vinay Prasad is a keen photographer who loves to shoot in the mornings. An alumnus of BITS Pilani, Vinay is the CEO of a defence ancillary in Hyderabad. His caption 'We all have wings. But only some dare to fly!' was Jury's instant choice. Vinay has won several KBG contests.

Ritu Bhargava has a masters in English literature from Jaipur University. Her interests are cooking music, dance and writing. Ritu is a regular participant in KBG Contests. Her caption 'Dancing on her favourite song- quack quack!' caught the jury's eye.

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 'Catch me if you can!' echoed the action shot of spot billed duck.

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 from different fields of people. Sujata loves winter sports and creative writing. Her simple caption 'Taking off to reach the sky!' appealed to the Jury.

Once again we congratulate all the winners. The duck is telling us to break free from Covid related stress and gloom.

Thank you all the readers for your continued support. More KBG Contests are coming up.

Stay connected, stay safe.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 10th December 2021

#birds #rejuvenate #breakingfree #beyourself #ducks #spotbilledducks #nature #pqs #michaelcaine #yaprallake #dancingduck #secunderabad #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #lockdownfun #takeabreak #captions #craetivecaptions  #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #learningthroughpictures #india #observeandlearn

Vacationing Anytime!

Who doesn't like vacationing?

Hiking with friends? Hills, forests, rivers, valleys, snow peaks and the like?

Travelling with family? New places? Wildlife Parks?

Or, a bit of adventure? Snorkeling? SCUBA diving? Bungee jumping?

The pandemic has put a temporary halt to outdoor vacationing. But families had more time together. Covid travel restrictions are easing out in many countries. When will we be able to say hello to a Tigress again? See the picture shot in Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra India, before the pandemic hit us all.

For more pictures of the Tigers shot by us, you may browse the story Follow Me said the Tigress - and we obeyed!

In India, outstation vacationing is yet to resume after the pandemic. But we could go on a nature trail one morning. We are sharing few pictures to convey the spirit of outdoors and the freshness that it brings into our Covid-impacted life! The first set of pictures is of a wild creeper which has Corona like berries and a beautiful white flower which attracts the bees. The scientific name courtesy Dr Chitra Shanker, is Passiflora foetida. It is also called Bush Passion fruit which is toxic to the cattle.

Same morning, we also saw hectic nest building activity by Baya Weavers. 

Talking of vacationing for the seniors, grandchildren add glitter to our life. Sharing the links to some of our earlier stories written by our grandchildren themselves!

Grandkids Are Spontaneous - how a five-year old paints her nails and responds to 'live' questions?

Here is another story by our two grandchildren aged 14 and 11 then, on a vacation together in Kodaikanal.

Why Kodaikanal - don't miss the video clips in the story!

Similarly, doctors also need a vacation. Do browse Ghumakkad's story  titled Vacations Recharge our Batteries - Doc What's your next holiday destination? It was specifically created for Cardiologists of Telangana State. 

Holidaying Together

We had shared a recent picture of five children jumping up on a holiday in USA. The readers were to give a caption to the picture to participate in KBG-59, the 59th edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad caption contest. The Contest evoked very enthusiastic response from our readers. 

The Contest

We received 40 captions from readers across the globe. We thank all the participants and are happy to share their captions below.

Sl.	Name	Caption for KBG-59 Contest
1	Geeta Bhargava	Be silly, Be weird. More, the merrier.
2	Veeky Baths	Summer is here! Time to rejoin with your classmates from school
3	Nidhi Bhargava	कूदें ,फांदे,भागें, फिरें अपनी लगन में, आज हम आजाद हैं दुनिया के चमन में
4	KV Ramachandran	On cloud five
5	Rohini Tiwari	Harsh ki challang Akanksha ki Oonchai!!😁👍🏻
6	Seema Jain	Childhood is best .  No worry full Masti
7	Rashmi Bhargava	Jump and you will know how to unfold your wings when you fall
8	Rekha Bhargava	पंछी बनु उड़ती फिरुं मस्त गगन में ।
9	Deepak K Jena	No homework = Perfect Holiday😊
10	Ramanand Baliga	Air borne fun squadron
11	JVR Moorty	आसमान से आये फ़रिश्ते
12	Shereen Sultana	Good times coming soon! 😇
13	CR Raghuram	Stars in the horizon
14	Anon	Hi-five in the air
15	Atul Mulkar	बादलों सी मस्ती हम में भी है
16	Manju Khetan	V for victory
17	Bharat Ladha	आसमां अब दूर नहीं।
18	Vinod K Agarwal	Flying with clouds
19	Parag Sharma	We will spread our wings , and learn to fly ; we will do what it takes till we touch the sky !!!
20	Anon	Spirit unlocked!
21	Peter Padua	Unbridled Glee and totally  free.
22	Amandeep kaur	Sukoon ki udaan 😁
23	Peter Padua	Footloose and fancy free
24	Rajesh Jain	“Today is the first day of rest of your life”.
25	Peter Padua	We're happy and fully alive, the High Five!
26	P Ravi Rao	Touch the sky with Glory
27	Peter Padua	5 jumping 4 Joy.
28	Ajai Bhumri	आ लौट के आजा मेरे मीत तुझे बीते हुए दिन याद दिलाते हैं
29	Ajai Bhumri	खुशियाँ ही खुशियाँ, देर से आए पर दुरुस्त आए .
30	Rekha Bhargava	नींद खुली तो सपना पूरा हुआ बाहर आकर आसमान छुआ
31	Vaibhav Lokare	Summer time madness !!
32	Kausalya Govindan	Reach upto the sky
33	Kausalya Govindan	Touching the clouds!
34	Ranajit Sen	Azadi!
35	Rajendra Singh	Teamwork at it's best. We achieve together in joyful abundance !
36	Ritu Bhargava	Jump high and hard with intentions and heart
37	Poonam Bhargava	Hurrah! Freedom regained!
38	Poonam Bhargava	बचपन की मस्ती!
39	Sharad Sharma	Rising...over the pandemic
40	LS Bhargava	Holiday to fly high.

The Winners

Our Jury selected five winning captions as highlighted in the table above. We are delighted to introduce the winners and their captions below.

Ramanand Baliga: An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Ramanand headed IBM in India. Settled in Bengaluru, he loves travelling, gardening and looking after a pair of Great Danes. A winner of several KBG contests, his caption Air-borne Fun Squadron was sure unique!

Atul Mulkar: An engineer from BITS Pilani, Atul lives in Dubai. Fond of outdoor life, he showed his creativity with the caption बादलों सी मस्ती हम में भी है meaning 'We are as cool as the clouds'. See the clouds behind the jumping children.

The next winning caption 'Spirit Unlocked!' came from a reader who is yet to reveal his/her identity. In just two words the reader has conveyed the excitement of the picture.

Peter de Padua: A keen traveller and water sport enthusiast, Peter is a former Wing Commander of the Air Force. He now works with a Global Defence MNC. His youthful caption '5 Jumping 4 Joy' caught the Jury's eye.

Sharad Sharma: Sharad a former Group Captain of the Air Force is an inimitable raconteur, avid bicycler and an ever-ready trekker. His caption 'Rising over the pandemic' highlighted the power of vacationing to beat the pandemic blues.

We congratulate all the winners of KBG-59. Vacations do recharge the batteries of our life.

We also thank both the Jury members Manik Srivastava and Neeta Bhargava for their continued support to KBG Contests.

We end the story with a quotation by Earl Wilson who said that 'A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking'. We have created a PQ- picturesque quote- using the picture of the iconic Tiger's Nest in Bhutan which we climbed few years ago.

Thanks for browsing.

Do take a vacation and recharge your life!

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/8th July 2021

#summerholidays #holidaying #childrenlovevacations #theworldofchildren #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #powerofrecreation #beatthecorona #lockdown #takeabreak #captions #life #craetivecaptions #pqs #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #learningthroughpictures #jumpingtogether #laughingtogether