Where’s the Flame? A Tale of Two Bulbuls 💚💚

Seeing Red and Yellow! 😊

Spotting the Uniquely Endemic Flame-throated Bulbul

#intothewildwithrufus #birding

Birding in and around the Western Ghats is real thrill especially when it comes to watching out for some of the rare, endemic birds that are unique to the Western Ghats!

Presenting the Flame-throated Bulbul, ladies and gentlemen!

Although it is quite common in the bird kingdom for females to be duller in colour than their male counterparts, Flame-throated Bulbuls beg to differ! They are - what ornithologists would call - sexually monomorphic!

That means the males and females look strikingly similar – with those fiery orange-red throats and the bright white eyes!

These photos that we captured today, are the adult and their juvenile of the exact same species!

And well, nature has a clever reason for this striking change in appearance between the adult and the juvenile!

Young Flame-throated Bulbuls lack the fire, oops the flame that’s part of their parents’ identity! 😊

This duller plumage helps camouflage the inexperienced young birds from predators while they are growing up!

Quite interestingly, you won’t find these birds anywhere else in the world. They are completely endemic to the lovely, evergreen forests of the Western Ghats in southern India.

A Tale of Two Dragonflies | The Striking Pied Paddy Skimmer 💚

Nature’s Polar Opposites | The Pied Paddy Skimmer

#intothewildwithrufus #birding

This is the Male Pied Paddy Skimmer - that we spotted today - and one of the most easily recognisable dragonflies in India!

It is striking with its black body and beautiful wings – wherein the base half is completely black, followed by a white band, and transparent tips.

The difference is kinda night and day! 😊 Yes, both male and female are completely polar opposites as far as their appearance is concerned.

And this is the female counterpart to the black-and-white male we spotted today!

The female has a pale, yellowish-green body and transparent wings marked with distinct dark brown bands and patches with darkened wingtips.

PS: You may want to watch a video of the Pied Paddy Skimmer that we had taken two years ago, on our vlog HERE

Crimson Males & Un-Crimson Females | Meet the Marsh Gliders! 💚💚💚

The “Uncrinsomly” Female “Crimson” Marsh Glider

& Her Male Counterpart! 😊

#intothewildwithrufus #birding

Today we were lucky enough to have captured some wonderful photos that showcase sexual dimorphism in all its grandeur among dragonflies!

Well, sexual dimorphism connotes the difference in form, size, colour, or structure between males and females of the same species - where males and females of the exact same species look completely different from one another.

Dragonflies are often classified under a few sub-categories depending on what they ‘do’ – and how they ‘do’ it – skimmers, gliders or perchers!

In this blogpost, let’s have a look at the Male and Female Crimson Marsh Glider!

The name Female “Crimson” Marsh Glider (first & second pic) is in fact so “uncrimson”ly for the Female of this Marsh Glider species.

That’s again because of sexual dimorphism!

It is the males which are famous for their luminous, vibrant crimson (purplish-red) bodies. However, the females look like an entirely different species to beautifully blend into their marshy environments.

Instead of red, the female’s thorax and abdomen are an earthy olive-green, and this lack of bright crimson is an advantage for the female! While the males need their bright colours to establish territory and attract mates, the female’s olive green tones provide excellent camouflage among dry twigs, reeds, and marsh grasses, keeping her safe from predators while she rests or lays eggs.

Now, let’s come to the Male Crimson Marsh Glider! (third & fourth pic)

We spotted the male frequently performing a unique behaviour again and again! When we googled it, we learnt the name for this behaviour – It’s called the “obelisk posture.”

It seems on very hot days, (like we had today) 😊 they regularly point their abdomen straight up into the air toward the sun. This minimises the surface area of their body exposed to direct sunlight, helping them to cool down, it seems!

Secondly, unlike females who hide in the reeds, males are highly territorial and want to be seen. They reliably return to the exact same exposed, prominent perches (usually the very tip of a dry twig or grass stem like the one over here) over and over again to survey their territory!

Nature’s ways (God’s ways) are so beautiful, ain’t it?

Can You Pass the "Kitchen Table" Test? 💜

The “Kitchen Table” Test! 😊

#newspaperinlearning

The New Indian Express

24 April 2026

This morning I was reading this particular article in today’s The New Indian Express!

It’s about Anthropic’s “Claude Mythos” model and hence I was curious to know more about it!

On an aside, as most of us regularly following the English dailies this past one month would have known, Claude Mythos has been making it to the news for all the wrong reasons!

For some background information on the subject for us all –

Well, unlike our regular AI models like Gemini or ChatGPT or even the previous versions of Claude, Claude Mythos has not been released to the general public. The reason is that, the model has unprecedented, highly advanced cybersecurity capabilities, and hence it has the potential to autonomously write code, and completely hijack systems of literally anybody in any part of the world!

Hence, Anthropic gave the world at large a subtle warning that, releasing Claude Mythos publicly would be too dangerous, as it would literally give anyone in the world the power to launch cyberattacks. Instead, they said they are restricting it only for a closed programme called “Project Glasswing,” allowing only select partners (like tech giants and banks) to use it to patch their systems before hackers can hack into them.

However, as irony or ‘unluck’ would have it, there was a huge security lapse that had happened here.

Anthropic’s heavily guarded cybersecurity model was leaked by some unauthorised hackers - users who managed to gain access to the restricted Mythos preview! Anthropic has also confirmed the breach. This has caused great panic among the cybersecurity community, raising serious questions about whether AI companies are actually capable of keeping high-risk AI Models from the hands of the illegal, dangerous hackers!

It is in this context that I wanted to read this article with all curiosity!

However, one cursory look at the article, and I could feel that, the writing is highly unreadable! ☹

This kind of writing style is usually dubbed in academic circles, as the result of a “curse of knowledge,” where the author assumes that the reader already possesses a deep understanding of all the complex concepts in cybersecurity that he has ‘discussed’ in this article.

So what exactly is wrong with the writing style here?

The author – an engineering graduate - has used a lot of highly technical terms without taking time to explain them in plain English, or providing any contextual clues or definitions whatsoever!

Sample some of the phrases like “autonomous exploit chaining”, “semantic mapping”, and “privilege escalation paths” – terms that read like they are meant for security engineers, and NOT for a news article that would cater to a general audience!

A layperson reading this article might become thoroughly confused and perplexed by all means! Most of the points in this article are likely to fly completely over their heads! 😊

Secondly, the article does not paint a visual picture for the lay reader, which makes it sound so abstract and twice removed from the lay!

Sample this: “A model can sustain analysis across large software environments without losing continuity” or “The first ramification is visible in reconnaissance, and this creates a distinct threat vector for cyber security”.

These sentences sound quite scholastic, bombastic and impressive! 😊 However, they lack the readerly-connect in that, they do not aim at painting a visual picture for the lay person!

As such, the article fails miserably in the proverbial “kitchen table test”.

So what pray, is the Kitchen-Table Test?

The “kitchen table test” has been a universal benchmark of sorts, in academic writing, journalism, and in politics to check whether a concept, or a news story is relatable and easily understood by the average person!

To pass the test, the subject matter must be quite simple in style – so that one could easily explain it to a friend or family member during a casual conversation over dinner at the kitchen table, without relying on the highly jargonised vocabulary! It simply means that, if ordinary people wouldn’t talk about it at their kitchen table, it definitely needs to be rewritten!

As the legendary Albert Einstein so beautifully puts it -

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough! 😊

So yes, beware of the “kitchen table test” when you speak or write! 😊

PS: You may want to read a humorous take by one of my favourite writers – P. Sainath - on one such jargonised vocabulary used by NGOs and the Insurance / Banking / Health Sectors, HERE on our blog, written well over 15 years ago!

From Screen Time to Self-Esteem | How Social Media is Shaping Teen Body Image ❤️

Junk Food or Social Media? 

#newspaperinlearning

The Times of India #DigitalLiteracy

I came across a highly insightful article in The Times of India titled, “Is social media addiction leading to eating disorder among teens?”

An article that stopped me right on my tracks and made me ponder over this issue in all seriousness for quite sometime!

The article delves into the huge psychological impact that our increasingly digital world is having on our adolescents - specifically regarding their body image and their eating habits.

As parents and educators, this article deserves to be highlighted and given its due visibility amongst us all. And hence, this post!

The reality of being a teenager today is vastly different from that of past generations. Today, social media isn’t just a place to connect; for many teens, it dictates the standard of what is acceptable, beautiful, and worthy.

The constant exposure to unrealistic beauty standards creates a persistent feeling of inadequacy, which has the power to tragically manifest itself in the form of disordered eating even as they attempt to gain control over their bodies.

Citing two specific research studies - one from Turkey on high schoolers and one from Italy on 9-to-10-year-old girls – the writer goes on to say that, heavy social media use, particularly on visual platforms like Instagram, is directly linked to body dissatisfaction, emotional instability, and a rising eating disorder called orthorexia nervosa (an unhealthy obsession with eating “perfectly”).

What starts as viewing a nutrition-related video reel can slowly turn into shame, and inferiority!

A second study from Italy examined 232 girls aged just 9 to 10 years old. The researchers found that even at this pre-adolescent age, those showing signs of Instagram addiction were already more likely to feel unhappy with their bodies resulting in social withdrawal. Social media is shaping self-image long before the teenage years even begin, he says!

The article underscores the idea that, a better, healthier body image is naturally linked to lower social media addiction.

Well, simply banning screens isn’t a realistic long-term solution in a digital world. Digital platforms have become an indispensable part of our everyday life and living!

So instead of confiscating the phone, parents and educators must teach young people the importance of media literacy aka digital literacy!

Added, in the offline world, as parents and teachers, it is our onerous responsibility not to use sexist remarks and microaggressions that can harm the body image of our kids.

Educators always hold a position of power! And when that power is used to demean or stereotype a student, it fractures the trust required for true mentorship. A student cannot view a professor as a guide or a mentor or as a second parent if that professor is simultaneously mocking or invalidating their identity on a regular basis.

In this regard, it is important to create safe, judgment-free spaces - whether in the classroom or at the coffee table, to discuss their anxieties and insecurities.

In a world ruled by filters and likes, it is important for us to help them build confidence – a confidence that does not depend on their bodily appearance or internet approval!

Because, as the saying goes –

A tree is easily straightened while it is still young!

“Open the Fridge Only When You're Hungry!” 😊

World Book Day | #Reflections

23rd April 2026

On the joyous occasion of World Book Day today, me thought of sharing a few snippets with my dear readers, on how to reclaim the vastness of our hours each day, and make more hour per hour - every single day of our lives!

Well, let me start this blogpost with an incident that happened quite recently! A student of mine, walked up to my office, and while we were discussing a few interesting books, over cups of coffee, with all curiosity writ large on him, he asked me a question –

Sir, how do you find time to read and write regularly in spite of your pressing official and other commitments?

Well, a highly pertinent question at that! 😊We live in an age of fractured attention, where our days and hours are devoured by a thousand different demands on our precious time!

So instead of giving him a cliched response on time management or scheduling, I offered him a rather ‘Zen’nish reply.

I thought it might be worth sharing those interactions here as well! 😊

I asked him to think about the refrigerator. If you find yourself staring into the fridge when you are not actually hungry, you are not really looking for food. You are looking for a way to ‘escape’ yourself, ain’t you?

It is much akin to signing up for a job you never loved doing in the first place 😊

A mindless and endless distraction of sorts from the vastness of every hour!

This is precisely why Zen masters teach the concept of Oryoki - which translates to “just enough.”

It is the profound realisation that when you take more than you need, you are actually losing yourself to distractions!

Then I went into a kinda Boomer-Uncle Mode for a moment! 😊

I told him of how I am not on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and how it has immensely helped me in celebrating my personal space!

I also showed him my mobile phone which I usually keep quite farrr away from me - especially when I am interacting with students, colleagues, friends, guests or visitors! 😊

I told him that, 99.9% of the time my mobile will be only on silent mode, and I “open the fridge only when I’m hungry!” 😊

I also told him how all our so-called “notifications” that pop up 24x7 on our mobile screens - in the guise of doing a great favour for us, are actually huge distractions - stealing away our precious attention span - the reason why I have disabled all notifications on my mobile phone for any many years now! That way I “open the fridge only when I’m hungry”, and not the other way round! 😊

I guess that’s the same with finding time to read and write!

It is the simple, yet rigorous discipline of single-minded focus!

When eating, eat! When walking, walk!

And, perhaps most importantly for those of us who cherish the written word –

When reading, read!

By stripping away the excess baggage of distraction, and refusing to let our attention be fractured, we suddenly awaken to the fact that, we have exactly enough time for the things that truly matter in our lives – every day and every hour!

That way, consuming mindless digital content, is like popping into the fridge when I’m not hungry! 😊

It is like unto taking on unnecessary burdens, and fracturing our focus until there is nothing left for the deep, therapeutic work of reading and writing!

The takeaway? Well, we always have the time; It’s just that, we need to stop staring at the fridge when we are not hungry! 😊

And to those of you (my students, colleagues and well-wishers) who haven’t been on facebook or insta or twitter, anytime in the the past three years, and have taken the effort to spend the thus redeemed doom-scrolling time on productive activities like reading and writing, just ping me rightaway! I might want to honour you by taking you along with our vibrant little team of travellers, for our upcoming two-week International Trip - almost for free! 😊

Here’s wishing you all a Happy World Book Day! 😊

PS: You may want to read our past post HERE on how our very good friend Dr. Armstrong, HoD, Dept of English, University of Madras, helped us host a grand World Book Day Celebrations in the University of Madras on 23rd April 2019. #gratitude 😊

Between the Sublime and the Fierce | A Review of Dr. Aparna Suresh’s "Becoming Her" ❤️

Becoming Her | An Anthology of Poetry

By Dr. Aparna Suresh | Review

The first thing that strikes me about a book is its cover – its rich and vibrant texture!

And so it was that when I received a copy of Dr. Aparna’s fifth book of poetry titled, Becoming Her, I was simply bowled over by the vibrant cover design – its texture!

And I am doubly happy to be doing this review on World Book Day today! 😊

The cover sports an impressive graphic visualisation of a progress bar, representing the emotional journey of the poet – something that is highly symbolic with a lot of takeaways! Added, the slider-knob, featuring a silhouette of a woman boldly walking her way forward, effectively symbolises the evolving nature of one’s personal growth, reiterating and also reinforcing the fact that, “becoming” is not just a destination but an endless journey – a lovely quest of sorts!

The second thing that impressed me about the book is the emotional chords and the vibes that the poems within, strike in you. In fact, the book is a powerful testament to scriptotherapy - the therapeutic nature of expressing oneself – on how women evolve from being passive objects to active, empowered creators of their own narratives! To this end, this book of 128 pages, beautifully captures and catalogues this multifaceted journey of modern womanhood in all its myriad splendour.

The third impressive feature of the book is that, Dr. Aparna’s poetry skilfully challenges the romanticisation of female suffering. In her poem titled, “Myth of Selfless Sacrifice”, she dismantles the notion that endless giving is purely noble, reminding the reader that “Every sacrifice / Comes with a receipt”. She further critiques societal conditioning in “Chastity: A Leash”, describing it as a doctrine “Like an armour / Which is not a shield / But that cages her soul!”.

The anthology also highlights issues concerning the harsh realities of fertility and mothering. Her poignant poem titled, “The Unreachable Abode” captures the silent agony of infertility treatments, describing the “Hormone loads and loads / Injected into the trembling body”.

Yet another poem titled, “Mantle of Motherhood” explores the duality of raising a child, acknowledging the labour as a task that drains, yet ultimately “fills me in ways / Nothing else can!”.

Coming now to the titular poem of the anthology - “Becoming Her” – which describes pain as a chisel that shapes stone into wonder. The “wild spirit” that society tries to tame within the woman, eventually awakens, allowing the woman to conquer the world on her own terms! A “Woww” to that!

In the poem titled, “Ecofeminism”, Dr. Aparna draws a haunting parallel between the plundering of the earth and the medicalisation of the female body. She writes that women, much like the earth, “Nourish and nurture / But they are abused / By what they consume”. The clinical interventions associated with infertility are depicted as a battlefield, where the “Cruel hands of science / Tires her in the name of infertility!”. This aligns the exploitation of the womb with the exploitation of the world, calling for a radical awakening amongst the literati!

In the poem titled, “Agency”, she boldly defends a woman’s right to choose her own path, even if that path is traditional marriage and family building; it is the ownership of the choice – “Her agency / Her dream” – that’s what matters, she pens!

One particular poem that deserves accolades and commendation is the subversion of the misogynistic trope that women are almost always dubbed as inherent rivals to their own tribe – their gender!

In her poem titled, “Her Tribe”, she celebrates female solidarity as a “magic potion” and a “balm”, arguing that if women were truly united, even “The world would shift on its axis”.

To me, personally, this lovely focalisation, represents a beautiful shift in focus – from celebrating the far and distant heroes, to instead celebrating true inspiration in everyday figures - the tirelessly working doctor mother, the deeply nurturing mother-in-law, and the intellectually generous teacher who decodes complex theories with ease.

The poems are so striking in their appeal, so vivid in their picturesque attention to detail, and interspersed with such memorable quotes all through the book.

Would love to quote some memorable lines for us all –

She learns early

That love is measured

In the shape of rotis

Not in the curve of dreams!

***

Her silence

Is not a submission

Her calmness

Is not a compromise

Her strength

Lies elsewhere

And needs no validation!

***

Why do we keep dressing up pain

In silken robes!

Why do we cheat ourselves

With these labels!

***

She breaks the mould

And walks with her head held high

Such women

Do not wait for crowns.

They are the crown

They are the Divas!

***

Change is the only thing

That doesn’t change!

It neither flatters

Nor deceives

Unlike humans

It speaks the truth

***

The stabs are silent, unapologetic

No visible wounds, no blood,

Just a seething pain

***

Then, she rose.

Not to wear a crown

But to slay the monsters!

***

Coming back -

I personally feel that, what makes this book unique for us, her readers - is the judicious balance that she strikes in our hearts – between the sublime and the fierce!

On one side, there is an absolute and bold refusal to wait for a saviour. The protagonist transitions, nay, evolves from a little girl mourning the loss of a protective father to a “Dragon Princess” who breathes fire - not to conquer thrones, but to carve her own unshakeable path.

On the other end, the anthology exhorts her readers to cultivate and to practice a deep appreciation for universal harmony. In the poem titled, “Binaries”, the poet acknowledges that men and women “Contain one another” and must “Unite in sacred harmony”.

In fact, it is this lovely blend that makes the book an indispensable, highly enriching and deeply engaging read of sorts!

On a concluding note, I wish to congratulate Dr. Aparna on reaching a sensational milestone of sorts! Her fifth collection of poetry! This is no small feat!

In fact, this in itself is a beautiful testament to an enduring commitment to the craft with such passion and verve!

Added, this remarkable consistency, coupled with the uniqueness of her ‘voice’, and her dedication to the craft of writing is awe-inspiring by all means!

In fact, “She lives a life of poetry”.