INCREDIBLE BERA

View The Leopards Lair Resort Bera Rajastahn in a larger map

My love for this place dates back to the early 1980’s, Mr. Devi Singh and I have been good friends and I have spent some wonderful times here, fishing, trekking, and roaming this cowboy country with it’s beautiful and matchless granite rocky hill formations.

When I tell people of this fascinating place and the wonderful animals one gets to see here, they retort “Mate you have been in the desert too long, you were probably  hallucinating “ Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words, Go ahead and enjoy my recent “HALLUCINATIONS”   

THESE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE TAKEN ON VALENTINE’S DAY AND ON THE FOLLOWING DAY

Zara the Female Leopard

Zara the Female Leopard

Watching the world go By

Took these snaps around 4.30pm

Humans you look like a lovely meal

Rather take a nap than a snap at you

Slurp that was a wonderful meal

 

Looking right into the camera lens

Blue Bulls (Neel Gui )

Blue Bull on the run

A huge Crock at the Jawai Dam

These crock pictures taken at the Jawai Dam.

While having a few refreshers after our evening safari, our host Kunoo kept us amused with some real down to earth experiences he’s had with some of his guests on safari’s one such episode goes like this.

“ Bappu, can I have a look through your binoculars at the crocodiles that you are viewing”

Sure see the one over there, the guest views through the binoculars and see one crock with its mouth open, excitedly he passes it to his companion and tells him  “Jo-Jo Aunu modhu kulhu chai” (Look,man look it has its mouth open), Na,bhai na aunu modu bandh chai. (no, man no its mouth is closed)Mane jovade (let me have a look) surprised he turns to the host and asks him, Bappu, remote control chai soo?? ( Sir do you have a remote control ) the host is blown flat off his feet, REMOTE CONTROL for what?? The reply he gets “to open and close the jaws of the crocks!!!!

How Many Crocks?

Small crock at one of the lakes

Taken at the Lair

Black headed Ibis and ducks 

Black winged stilt 

Button Quail

Greater Coucal

Taken at the Resort

Look at this antique clock the numbers are in Hindi

even the folks of Bera are not aware of it!

White Backed Vulture 

Painted Stock

Drongo riding piggy back

drongos

Eagle

Fledglings Painted Stock

Geese 

Painted stock in flight

Indian roller

Joy and Tidings

Ducks

Landing

At the Lair

Any one for water

Sarus Crane

Snipe

Painted Stock

Eagle

A village Scene

White Backed Vulture

Rhymes Of Rajasthan --MOUNT A'BU 1894

Today I received this extract via email, and I would like to share it with you as it depicts the beauty of this hill station through the eyes of this historical writer.

Mount Abu

 

 

Olympus is the hill, from age

Unknown it has been sacred ground;

Rishis and Munis, gods and sages

Dwelt in these woods and rocks around

 

 

And now perchance when earthquake rumbling

   Goes muttering thro' the mountain-side

It may be some old god a-grumbling

At want of worship, wounded pride.

                                                

Yet superstition, which by horror

And promise long has reigned supreme,

  Brings thousands yearly to Dilwarra,

Whose temples surely are a dream:

 

A dream beyond all comprehension

 Of art that e'en a Goth might saint;

No wonder if they draw attention

  To lore and legend growing faint.

 

The worship of the Jain who raised them

  Has now diminished thro' the land,

But pilgrims who have come and praised them

Are not required to understand.

 

 The White man smiles and from a guide book chatters

     Of Vishnu, Parasn'ath,of Brahman,Jain;

The brown one looks on worship, faith,as matters

Ordained for each race by a different sign.

 

Whether he climb to trace in cave or high nook

The footsteps of some deity, or kneel

Before Dilwarra's gods or those of Gae Mukh

  Enough for him, unlettered soul ,to feel,

 

Whoe'er in Abuji may rule as master,

Men of an ancient creed or men without

  The pooja of his childhood and his Pastor

Is his to follow,let who may have doubt.

 

He hears unmoved how the Chauhan once wrested

  From the Pramar this mountain hold sublime;

His thoughts are further back, when Vishnu crested

Proud Guru Sikr in the world's young prime.

 

So the old stream of pilgrims ripples yearly,

While some there be who stay awhile and grow

To love the Hill and its cool breezes dearly,

 As refuge from the burning plains below:

 

As clothed with natural, not celestial beauty_

A home for children of the Frank, and place

  For England'ssoldiers when on foreign duty

   Health to renew and tired nerve to brace.

 

To these the rocks which bear the names of Nun

  And Toad , The Gates and SunsetPoint,the play

Of light upon the Lake from Moon and Sun

Are Abu's chief divinities to-day.

 

 

 

----Rajputana Gazetteer_____ 1894  By  Col. G. H. Trevor, C.S.I.

                                                        Agent to the Governor-General For Rajputana

 

Col. Trevor has extracted this from ''The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan'' by Col James Tod. 1829 To read more click on the link
Rhymes of Rajputana 

ROUTE MAPS... TO ANYWHERE, EVERYWHERE. AMAZING! USEFUL.

Today I received  an email from a mate, It's Abs Amazing and worth sharing. Hat's of to the team who launched this search machine rome2rio's  so without further ado, Go ahead and see for your self.

rome2rio's

Planning to visit Mount Abu,I'm sure this  site will be very useful, click the link above.

The Water walking Ball.MT.Abu

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH BSNL MT.ABU

Yesterday while wishing family and friends A Happy and Joyous "Republic Day" via my BSNL sim card I suddenly noticed that a message began to flash 'check  with your operator service', and my bloody outgoing service had been suspended. I was receiving incoming SMS's but my outgoing ones just went Kaput.
I checked and re-checked, all my settings on my phone, took out the sim, tried a friends mobile to see if it would work via another instrument, but alas, it looked like our FAITHFUL new-work service was in to get me for an EXCESS use of their services.
I then phoned 123 to speak to an operator and appraise  him of my predicament, I was blown to get an  operator on my first attempt. How may I help you ,he asked me in Hindi? what's your name? etc, I then told him of my problem, he then asked me how much was the net-work hacking me for each "sms" I was making?? I almost did a double flip, with this interrogation! How the Hell was I to know how much the net-work was doing me in for after sanctioning me a package deal monthly for 'sms' I retorted.
The operator was probably a novice, or just some one who cared two hoots for BSNL customers, after all his pay cheque is secure. I was then instructed to dial 1503 for further instructions. Gosh the price of being a faithful customer.
"My Clients,stay faithful until the end. Do not look at the other net-works around you, we are the cheapest, trust us, we will not fail you." Some of you are disgusted, because your hope and trust in our net-work sometimes lets you down. Take heart we are faithful, your services will soon be restored, you cannot blame us for sometimes we are overloaded and do snap when the pressure exerted is too great to bear.
I then prepared to dial 1503, but before that I connected my phone to the power line as I knew it would be some time before I would get a response from anyone. I was prepared for the encounter that was to follow. I dialed and switched my mob to the loudspeaker mode.I was uploading snaps online to Face-book and in the background I could her the mono-tone of the automatic recording on the BSNL network . After more than thirty minutes of this I can recall almost  verbatim, the recording, it goes like this.
"Your estimated hold time is 27 minutes,your call is important to us, you will be attended shortly."
Dial 56700 and get the latest Hollywood songs as your BSNL tune, you can also download devotional songs ,
Punjabi songs and lots more.All charges Rs 2 per minute,SMS NIST 56700,  all charges Rs 2 per SMS.
For more information call at help line No..
All our team members are busy attending other customers, you will be attended shortly. Sorry to keep you on hold.
BSNL welcomes you to register for One India Plan,register your postpaid for One India on 253733. Prepaid cell users
cal use recharge voucher of 799/- for One India Plan .For more information visit your 'Gharak Kendra"
After all this  blab , blab blab--- and at the end of 27 minuets , The machine then continues .
your estimated time is 1 minute and the countdown gets stuck at one MINUTE and if I did not cut off I guess it  would have gone on all day.
In the evening I did visit the the BSNL customer service chaps, only to be told that may be your papers are not in order, hence the "STOP SERVICE" has been applied. I looked at the guy, put my finger to my head and made the motion of the screw. I walked to the neighbouring  mobile outlet and asked the young chap there what could be the problem, to which he replied, "Nothing to worry about BSNL overloaded today tomorrow all services will be NORMAL.
Sure enough today my phone is fine and all my held up SMS's have gone through.
To see the bird snaps I uploaded to face book click the link  'REPUBLIC DAY SPECIAL"