Lockdown Is ...

"How did Ghumakkad the wanderer survive being locked down?"
"No hiking, no travelling, no golfing, no swimming?"
"No safari in Wildlife Parks?"
 "Didn't you feel stifled?"

These questions and more came from many friends. Yes, Ghumakkad also followed the 'stay home stay safe' dictum like all of you. However, Ghumakkad managed to live the lockdown in an enjoyable manner. Free of anxiety, tension and boredom. How? Read on.

This post is a series of pictures and videos with the theme 'Lockdown is ...". All shot during last three weeks in the confines of our home in Secunderabad India. Many of you did much more during the lockdown. Feel free to share a picture or two of your activities. We will keep appending to this story.

Lockdown Is ...
Feeling the adrenaline when a 90-year old applauds the Corona Warriors.

You can see my mother-in-law using her puja bell to applaud the Corona Warriors in the short video clip below.

Gardening and its thrills

Learning to Cook

Teaching On-line
Ghumakkad conducted online classes for his PGDM students during the lockdown. It was a great experience. A glimpse.

Old Pastimes

The next thing to do was connect online. Online tambola became a regular affair at 10 AM IST to suit both India and US time zones.

Ansh, our eldest grandson who is learning to play piano shared his recent piece. Enjoy the short video recorded during the lockdown. He is so humble that he doesn't want the camera on himself!

Like all Fauzis, we love our shoes! See the picture below.

Power of a Flower

Eating Grapes

Telangana Govt Initative

Super Moon

Wild Grass

Home Birding

We are blessed to have many species in our enclave. Sitting in our verandah, we could see Purple Sunbirds, Golden Oriole, Indian Robin, Ashy Prinia, Red Vented Bulbuls, Asian Koel, Spotted Dove, Silverbill Munia, Scaly Breasted Munia, Bea Eaters, Black Drongo, White Browed Wagtail and few more. However, am not including the pictures to avoid clutter. Instead am sharing two video clips. The first clip is the musical call of a Golden Oriole.

The next clip of just 4 seconds is of an Indian Robin who had nested in our bird house in the verandah.

You may browse our earlier story by clicking the link 'Friendly Munias'.

Golf Chipping

For my golfing buddies, here is a short video clip of chipping practice at home.

Earth is Healing

Hope this story helped you to beat the lockdown boredom. Do share your pictures to add to the story.

When will Ghumakkad get back to the Golf course to enjoy the magical dawn?

Or, when will we see a movie in our open air theatre at RSI again?

All we can say, it will happen soon!
Together we shall overcome and emerge stronger.
Stay home and stay safe.
Enjoy the lockdown like we did.

Special thanks to Neeta for taking my pictures and to all the friends who had gifted plants which continue to thrive in our small garden. Grateful indeed.

Thanks for browsing

     - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/15th April 2020
#lockdown #coronavirus #beattheboredom #stayhomestaysafe #enjoythelockdown #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #homebirding #gardening #wildflowers #wildgrass #cooking #homegrownveggies #golfchippingathome #earthishealing #plantsarebestgifts

Gomphrena Serrata KBG-16 Winner

KBG-16 had shown a wild flower. We at Kaun Banega Ghumakkad had said:
"Scorching heat!
We humans look for shade.
But this wild flower sprouts from nowhere!
It sustains the heat.
Which is this flower?"

The correct answer is Gromphena Serrata. We are featuring the names of readers who gave first three correct answers. There are many readers who gave partially correct answer like Gomphrena Celosioides. It may be same family of flowers but not what was shown in the Contest. In Telugu, the flower is called Neeru Bogada.

The flower is very cottony and has hairy stem and leaves. We had also said that it grows singly or in bunches. See the pictures below.

More the heat, more numbers of Gomphrena Serrata sprout. See the drying fairway on the golf course where these pictures were taken.

We thank more than 300 readers who participated. First answer came within five minutes which was partially correct. First three correct answers came within the next hour or so. Congratulations to the winners who come from different backgrounds as listed below:

1. Mohini Paroolkar, Home maker and doting grandma, Nature lover from Goa
2. Narendra Soni, Businessman from Delhi
3. BVN Harish, Management professional and on-line researcher from Telangana

We had also given a hint that the flower is native to Central America but has naturalised itself to India as well. So, folks in USA couldn't say that KBG Contest was India-focussed! However, readers from USA chose to be silent again.

The pictures for KBG-16 Contest were taken while I was playing golf with my foursome pictured below. I thank them for their patience while they had to frequently wait for me to shoot the pictures and rejoin them!

We end with a PQ- picturesque quote- on wild flowers which we had carried earlier.

Thanks for browsing. Stay connected.

-   Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 3rd May 2019

Special thanks to Dr Chitra Shanker for research support and Ramya Sriram www.thetap.in for KBG logo design.

#KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #Contest16 #wildflowers #nature #summer #funwithnature #ghumakkadharsh #ghumakkadhb #flowersofamerica #naturalised #gromphenaserrata #winners #PQ