Alvares, Rahul; Natural history -- India -- Anecdotes
Aunty Sagu cooks well and I enjoyed her food but both she and Uncle
Mano would notice that I ate much more when there was chicken or fish
for dinner rather than vegetarian food and I would get a lecture again
for my poor appetite for simple food. I was also quite a sloppy fellow
and would slouch around on the sofas after coming back from the
college, channel surfing as I watched TV, which must have been quite
exasperating for both of them. Anyway, they took very good care of me,
not only in terms of feeding me but also going out of their way to make
arrangements for me to study at the Earthworm Institute, the spider
centre and later at the Crocodile Bank and I am most grateful for that.
I hope when they read this book they will forgive me for all the
trouble I must have caused them.
Extracts from Diary:
Earthworms
10th November: Sir gave me a book on earthworms to read, then Jagan
took me down to the field. There I was able to observe many organisms
other than earthworms. We took a soil sample from one place and then
went back to the lab where we put the soil sample into the tulgren
funnel. I then went and brought three more samples from the vermi-tech
pit. We then put these also into three other tulgren funnels. By then
it was lunch time and we all ate together. After lunch I weighed the
soil samples and got to see the organisms that were in the beaker under
the tulgren funnel. At 3.30 p.m I left for home.
11th November: In the morning, I was given two types of earthworms i.e.
Lampito mauritii and Perionyx excavatus and told to observe them. I
spent the whole morning doing this. After lunch, I wrote down the
observations that I had made. In the evening we went out to the College
playground and also to the area near the College Boarding to make some
observations. We dug two pits of 25 cm x 25 cm x 25 cm each at the
playground and one, of the same size, at the Boarding. We made many
observations which included the number and species of earthworms we
found and whether they were clitellates or not. We also made
observations regarding soil, atmospheric temperature and relative
humidity and took soil samples to measure the moisture content.
12th November: Left for New College as usual. I was told that Sir did
not come today as he had a high viral fever. Yesterday a research
scholar had expired and so there was a condolence meeting today. After
that everybody left as it was declared a holiday. I arrived home at
about 10.30 a.m. I had a bath and then some food. I then watched a bit
of TV and wrote my diary. In the night Uncle Mano and Aunty Sagu had
invited some guests and had cooked chicken curry which I enjoyed very
much.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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