getting this close to the bee...

I have a simple point and shoot camera and the way I get close ups, is to get close up to the subject. There are two attendant issues to this - there is the apprehension that the bee will fly off and the other is that it will bite.

Over time, I've learnt that if I wait till the bee starts feeding, it gets so taken in that even my camera being centimetres away does not distract it. This picture was in the garden at Swaraj Bhavan in Allahbad, the house that Indira Gandhi was born in. Apart from the historical importance of the place, the flowering plants in the garden are a spectacle by itself.

Bees and pollen baskets

This is another amazing facet of nature. Pollination - the critical intersection between the animal world and the plant world, the moment when life regenerates itself  - is something that happens as a by product of bees collecting pollen!

The back legs of bees have small indentations called pollen baskets. The bee uses its front legs to brush and comb the pollen to make it compact and fit into the basket, till it reaches the hive. Once here, it will remove the pollen from the baskets and store it in the honeycomb. Pollen, mixed with nectar/honey is stored for baby bees to feed on till they become pupae!

Here are two bees, one from Allahabad and the other from Bangalore with filled pollen baskets!

dawn on the ganga

Late February, a day before the last Maha Snan of the Maha Kumbh Mela, here's the scene - a little after dawn as we were headed for our holy dip in the Triveni Sangam. The next Maha Kumbh will be in 2157