The premise – relocating in nature
Back in 2002, when we were relocating our plant, we were driven by the inner love for nature and spent a lot of time in finding a place close to nature, so that we can sing a perfect ‘rhyme of harmony’ with the surroundings.
And to our delight, lucky stars did shower their benevolence upon our love for nature. We found a place very close to nature, but it was quite devoid of rich vegetation. And for us, that was a big opportunity to paint it with a hue of lush green and make it ‘greener’ and ‘vivacious’ than it was. In the years that followed, we converted this dry-dull area with little tree cover into a dense mini-tropical plantation out of love and care for nature.
And in fact, we were overjoyed to see how nature revived in just 5-6 years after our arrival. We diversified the biota by adding many new types of flora, ensured good supply of organic manure and continuous supply of water, and implemented rain water harvesting; and to this nature immediately showed its delight. The nearby forest patch showed signs of extension into our premise. Many birds, butterflies, and other fauna started making our premise as their homes or ‘evening’ playgrounds, and we can’t tell you how pleasant the sight was! It is so true -
Green campus 2 years after arrival“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” - John Muir
Playing with nature:
In last few years, we have sighted various wonderful creations of nature in our campus. During the first Monsoon, a pair of peacock used to show-up every evening, and this continued for almost 5 years in a row. As we increased the surrounding vegetation esp. the floral plants, we saw various birds relishing on flowers. In fact, Sunbirds were totally addicted to the flowers of Canna ( वनकेळी or कर्दळ) - what an enchanting sight it is!. Over the years, we have sighted various different types of birds like Purple-rumped Sunbird, Grey bellied cuckoo, Racket-tailed drango, Scarlet minivet, Loten’s sunbird, Red and Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Loten’s sunbird etc. making our campus as their home or playground.
Like they say in Chinese,
"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a songbird will come."
Birds you might spot at Khedeker campus ( Photo strip made by combining images from many At times, you would also find Malabar Grey Hornbill relishing on the fruits of trees in our campus. If you've got some time and patience you can also run behind Common Iora, Orioles, and many others.
Birds you might spot at Khedeker campus-2 ( Photo strip made by combining images from many Evening is the time when these wonderful birds make our campus as their playground. You would see- Bee eaters and flycatchers doing their final rounds, Warblers and Baya weavers winding their evening chores, Magpie Robin and Tailor birds busy doing final pickups, and perhaps, an emerald dove is looking at your Business! :). Sometimes, early in the morning, you might also be lucky to hear songs of Malabar Whistling hush - here is a sound sample taken from SoundCloud. We bet! you would play this again and again.
We love what Lou Holtz said about birds-
“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
We still have many things to tell you- like amazing tropical mushrooms, eye-catching butterflies, incredible little reptiles and many more; but it’s time to put the pen down. Because, anything more would make our website nothing less than a nature blog, and as it is said-
“We can never have enough of Nature.” - Henry David Thoreau