Field Trip to Ovalekar Wadi Butterfly Park, Thane, Maharashtra, India

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Rajendra Ovalekar recounted how he and his brother, assisted by other family members, decided to develop a butterfly park privately. They owned these 2 acres of land in Ovale village, and, as Rajendra reminisces, he was always awed by the colours and varieties of butterflies as a young adult. He decided that he would do something about this after his viewing of these beautiful fliers during some of the nature trips he undertook on behalf of the Bombay Natural History Society in the early 2000тАЩs

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Mecca, the Holiest City of Saudi Arabia

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Mecca is and will always remain one of the most popular destinations for more than two billion people of the planet. I have attempted to demystify the city and open its heart so that they (the people) may understand a little of its piety and glory even if only by proxy.

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Jeddah: Discovering a mega-city

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Jeddah has cityscapes on a large scale. Not for this city the narrow crowded bylanes of Mumbai; here, every street is built on a grand scale. Most streets (barring streets in old Jeddah and inside residential areas) are at least 8-10 lanes in width, with broad footpaths. There are bridges and under-passes, service roads on the side, and so on, in addition to the main thoroughfare. During most visits, in spite of using Google Maps and Navigation, I ended up getting on to the wrong ramp, or driving past a turn or missing a U-turn and having to drive an extra 5-10 kms to get back to where I wished to go.

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