Description: Exploration of nature and natural history in India
Occasional rambles from everyday exploration
I came across this rather curious work with ink-blot based art work that was gifted to Zafar Futehally. What struck me was on one of the first few pages, not the ink-blot, but the commentary, short, simplistic, a mixture of truths and inaccuracies (almost Twitter-esque) which cried for a careful examination. Parts of it are true, indeed ornithology as defined and practiced in its dominant form is indeed not something that Indians have been used to doing. Certainly not the collection and preservation of spec
Now many naturalists in pre-Independence India who sought to make the study of the natural world around them acceptable, and not be an imitation of the English sahibs around them, had a struggle. Surprisingly we (or at least I) know so little about these authors or their works. Some exceptions exist, for instance we know of M. Krishnan who wrote both in Tamil and English. There were others who wrote solely in the local language and nobody has really brought together a compilation of these works (since it ne