Julien's Spring Break Visit

He was here for a week. We went hiking on one of the days.


Check out the album here (the last item is a video):
http://picasaweb.google.com/garuda.illo/SpringBreakJulienVisit

American Woman

I became a US Citizen yesterday March 24, 2009 in Honolulu, Hawaii! I cried during the oath ceremony. It was a surprise that they did the ceremony the same day as my interview and test. When I took the test it was funny because on one of my answers the administrator didn't know if I got it right - she had to look it up!
Anyway, now I'm a naturalized citizen of the United States and so many of our travel and immigration issues will hopefully be behind us soon!

Mayapur Reunion

Hare Krishna!
It was a short but sweet reunion here in Mayapur.
This picture was taken the day Nandu was leaving. 

Japa had to be woken up for the photo.

Twins First 6 Months

I finally got my act together and organized some photos from the twins' first 6 months into an album. Click on the picture here or on the list of photo albums on the right. Enjoy!

Twins First 6 Months

My birthday

On my birthday Nama took me to watch Curling Olympic Tryout finals. It was pretty fun, even though I had never watched curling before other than that scene in "Help!" with the Beatles. Other the other side of that poster it said "Team USA" so I wasn't rubbing my birthday in everyone's faces the whole time.

I've added more pictures here.

Kona Weekend Trip

It has been wet and cold like this in our backyard day after day after day.... So we decided we all needed a vacation and when friends were visiting from Australia and New Zealand the weekend of Feb 20th, we decided to spend the weekend in Kona with them and get some much needed time in the sunshine!  We didn't take many pics but here are some, just click on the picture of our wet backyard...

Kona Trip

Sascha's crawling!

Sascha just started being mobile this week. In fact, it happened so fast that the day after this video was taken she fell off the bed! She is okay, but we removed the legs just in case for future.  She is fast! Here is how she got started... She's quite proud of herself - as are we!

I've enrolled in college

Hey, I just wanted to let you all know that I've enrolled in college finally. Its in Westwood College and I'm going to be doing Bachelors of Science in Game Art and Design. Wish me luck!

Superdad

He cooks, he cleans, he carries both babies... Hare does everything to keep the house and family running smoothly so Mommy can work!! We would be lost without Superdad!!

Here is a picture of him in action...



And here are our two little ones - almost 5 months old!

Symposium on elephant healthcare and managerial practices

This man was very nice. he spoke from the Scriptures about Elephants

Professor Dr. Kushal Konvar Sarma

The symposium, organised by the College of Veterinary Sciences in collaboration with Project Elephant, was attended by elephant experts from various parts of the country and as well as abroad to look into the various diseases of elephants and different ways of treating them. 

I presented a paper on the THE LOVING APPROACH TO TEMPLE ELEPHANT CARE. My paper was very well received and the people congratulated me for touching their heart.

Rhinos in the field

On the third day we took a field trip to a Wild life Sanctuary where they have the most concentrated population of one horned Rhinos in the World. In about 37 square km they had about 84 Rhinos. i came pretty close to several of them, however we had to keep moving or else he/she would have rammed our car. Those things are HUGE. and dangerous! They can charge at you with high speed if they feel threatened by you. 

There were about 25 wild Rhinos out on that field

My new friend

it was wonderful to watch the Elephant bath

Stool specimens We learned the process how to examine the elephant dung for parasites We also learned how to trim tusks and toe nails. This fellow's Tusks had to be trimmed, because they were growing too close together so he could not use his trunk properly

Here he is showing of his newly trimmed tusks

Elephants At Home With Men 

Elephant-keepers all over the world need to take a tip or two from Assam

By Teresa Rehman

Amusement parks and zoos in European countries can take a cue from Assam’s unique organic traditional culture of elephant-keeping in bringing out a viable and self-sustainable elephant population. The need to institutionalise and study this culture in the international fora was felt at the National Symposium on Elephant Healthcare and Managerial Practices being held at the College of Veterinary Sciences, Guwahati.

Elephants, which are a major crowd puller in amusement parks and zoos in European countries, encounter problems in breeding because of the artificial settings in which they are reared. Elephants from 13 range countries – India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Borneo, Vietnam, Malaysia and People’s Republic of Laos are taken to the European countries. Range countries are those countries where elephants are available in its natural habitat. 

Now, because of CITES (Convention on International Trade (Restriction) on Endangered Species) restrictions, elephants can’t be traded. CITES restrictions apply to those species which are declared endangered by the IUCN and the elephant is one such species. These countries now want to breed the existing elephants and have a viable self-sustaining elephant population. Most often, the calves die and it is difficult to have safe captive births.

The traditional elephant-keeping culture of Assam can be the answer here as because of natural habitat provided, elephants have normal live calves and they survive. “Capturing, training, breeding and feeding elephants is an expertise inherent in our culture. Assam forms a special zone as far as elephants are concerned. The whole world look to Assam for its age-old elephant traditions,” told Kushal Konwar Sarma, an elephant expert, who has deliberated on this issue in many European countries.

Sarma adds that the elephant-keeping culture also incorporates folk songs which transcend all religious barriers. There are Muslim elephant-keepers in Assam who burn incense sticks around the elephants after giving it bath. And the place where the beast is kept has a common name than which means a ‘Hindu place of worship’. 

In upper Assam, elephants are treated like family members – apart from when they are used for logging – and almost every adult male is an expert mahout.  These families don’t hire professional mahouts and the only expense is on the steel chain to secure the beast.

 

“There is an inner strength in this organic culture which needs to be institutionalised, introduced, with some variations in the Western countries. To impose an elephant culture in artificial conditions is not healthy,” says Sarma.