The turtle and The beach

After writing a satisfactory blog post that humored a visitor, I find it even more appealing to take yet another break to update the site. So, for the second time in 24 hours, here I go, again.

Turtle Walk
Yeah, yeah, sort of boring to have every blog labeled a ‘walk’, blame the organizers. Anyway, getting to the point, making this trip essentially means putting a nite-out (my first ever after joining IIT!) and walking from one beach to the other on sand (ob :P) discerning turtle tracks in sand (ob again :P) to spot turtle nests/eggs/hatchlings and transporting them to the hatchery, waiting for 30 minutes or so for the hatchlings to get activated and leaving them to struggle towards sea, watching them being washed away by strong waves into the deep dark ocean. Good! I’m glad I am human! ;)
Started at ECR beach with a talk beginning with an introduction to turtles (The Turtle 101) involving almost all of the visitors, school kids, college students, visitors, foreigners, old people (a really diverse group). Being extremely informative and thought provoking, the chat slowly flowed towards government policies to environmental protection to genetically modified crops to culture to way of life! And, I, just having given a presentation on GM Foods for Environment and Resource Economics course was ‘fully unleashed’ ;). The organizer actually told me, “For an IIT student, you are quite well-informed” hah! I am. Another interesting fact that propped up was that these amazing creatures return to the same breeding ground where they took birth, to lay their own eggs! Predators apart, the street lamps at night pose a bigger danger, misleading the turtles away from the waters (Fyi, turtles detect their way towards the sea by sensing light). Olive Ridley turtles are found only on the coasts of South East Asia. Their tiny home is shrinking even more, thanks to the contemporary industrial practices.

These walks have been conducted since last 10-11 years during the first couple of months in a year, every weekend. The locals actually refer to the turtle season as the one in which turtle-walkers start walking! The walk along the beach was simply great with equally great company. I was _very lucky_ to have learnt about it at the end of the season, so I couldn’t catch any turtle nests or eggs. I was glad to have caught sight of some hatchlings in the hatchery. Some twenty of them, four could fit easily in one’s palm. They looked ugly initially, but when you start playing with them, you would want to go on. Hold their shell and suspend them in air, they will start the swimming action in air with their tiny fin-like legs. The most shocking thing you need to do to these creatures is leaving them getting washed away by the ocean. The ironic part being that it is simply a part, rather the first ‘step’ (read wash) of their life.
I reached campus at around 5am and joined the preparations of the hostel night. The hostel night ended at around 1am. I wasn’t awake to live the next day. :D
Now, I would like to give you conclusive evidence of my ‘amateur blogger’ status. I forgot to mention, I attended the turtle walk on the night before the Sharavati Hostel night (12th April’08)

BLMI

What not does a boring, rather monotonous and lengthy internship make you do?
Blog.
Blogsites being the only ones that aren’t blocked, here I go.

Rock walk
Oh yeah, a BMLI (boring, monotonous and lengthy internship) can make you look up an ad in the news paper about a group of enthusiasts going “rock walking”, and make you call up and join them, even if you are totally unaware of the place, group, itinerary. I couldn’t care less, anyway. Have to admit, I was desperate to feel that I had something called a body which has muscles and can workout. Then, I was on my usual roping-in business trying to drag my friends into it too, like a pitcher plant trying to attract insects.
Finally, one gave in.
We started quite early and ended up roaming around the pick-up spot to pass time, till the others turned up. After a lot of confusion (thanks to the multiple crossroads at the spot), we met the group and carpooled to a place which I pass through daily, on the way to my internship. Served well for expecting a change of place! It was pretty interesting to discover that the boulders which seemed trivial and out-of-the-blue amidst the concrete jungle, as seen daily were actually very expansive and had a history of over 2500 million years! The society to save rocks which was conducting this trip was realized by a group of rock climbing, environmental enthusiasts who were awestruck by the quality of rocks here. Living on the Deccan plateau for about 7years now, I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed to not know the significance of the ‘rocky’ place. I am sure more than half of the population here doesn’t. But this organization is catching up and lighting the spark. Recently, it had filed petitions asking builders to accommodate rock clusters into the ambience and recreational area. It felt good to see these ideas getting realized already in some buildings printed on their pamphlet and website saverocks.org.

The walk was not physically excruciating, but with such ardent and veteran company, I couldn’t keep myself from trying out jumping above some really deep trenches and climbing steep surfaces I never thought I could. It was easier than the slippery rocks at Tada waterfalls. As usual, I met a diverse set of people who kept interesting and informative company. There was this girl who was 1/8th Norwegian, 1/8th Scottish, 1/4th American, and the ½ Indian part was intact (for obvious reasons). And a German-Indian mix who was having a tough time explaining his equally German-Indian name, which had no meaning, both German and Indian parts of the name meaning ‘emitting radiance’. “Dyutimay” :D . Guess Indian crossing is catching up fast.
That’s pretty much about it, and the next day when I was back on Intern-track, I pointed those boulders to my guide and said “I went there yesterday, doing monkey business”. :D
After I rendered a detailed elucidation, he decided to give it a shot with family!