A pair of squabs

Pigeons have become quite adapted to urban surroundings. And, my balcony seems to be the safest place for their maternity home. The year 2010 witnessed the hatching of baby birds so many times from the eggs laid either in the flower pot or A.C, top in the skylight.My morning tea becomes so refreshing with the chirping, hopping sparrows on the twiggy branches of overgrown Shami plant.
This December, the mama pigeon again laid two eggs in the banana flower-pot. In the beginning, she seemed scared in my presence but later on, she  perhaps formed the opinion of my being the most innocuous creature in that surrounding, So, she kept on hatching her eggs shutting her eyes to my presence.
I left for the In-service course on 22 Dec with the hope of seeing the babies on my return in the new year.And, the first thing I did after my return on 3rd Jan was to open the balcony to see them. Wow...! they were there, a pair of squabs nestled under the wings of mama pigeon.The next morning I left for Bangalore and when I returned on 9th, they had become naughty little ones all the time cooing softly when fed up by their mama.
You can see the mama and papa pigeons sitting together listening and enjoying the cooing of their young ones. Yeah, children are the greatest gifts of God and to me, these baby pigeons the fabulous gift in my solitude.

A Wait At JPN Airport, Patna

I came back to Patna from Kanpur on 3rd Jan, enthused and brimming with new, innovative ideas.The next day, on 4th, I flew to Bangalore to meet my sons- Mani (who had come from Germany in the X-mas break) and Shammi. The departure was at 6.20 pm and I checked in at 5.00. This wait gave me a little time to polish my drawing skills.

In-service Course Classes

I had been to Kanpur during this Winter Break to attend the in-service course held at K.V.no.1 AFS Chakeri, from 24 Dec'2010 to 2 Jan'2011.The program was tightly packed with guest lectures, classroom activities, documentary films, projects, assignments and demo lessons which we all appreciated, enjoyed and reveled in as such congregations bring us to a platform where we meet many old faces and new ones and enrich our teaching-learning techniques by sharing our experiences with each other and clarifying many of our doubts. For me, it was a time-out which I thoroughly savored. However, in one guest lecture, I had to fight back the weariness by doing a few sketches.