*Two things changed my life style: a digital camera presented by my son,
and my joining indiantreepix* in 2007 (thanks to Dr. Janamurty who
introduced me to this group (from TAXACOM, where I used to send my
photographs)). It has changed my lifestyle. I am looking forward to
visiting more and more places. I was lucky to plan visits to Western
Himalayas along with Nidhan ji, Balkar ji and other members to capture a
large number of plants. While in California, I have photographed plants in
thousands (but upload only those which are relevant to our Flora), the most
recent trip to California and Toronto in 2019 was most productive
with capture of nearly 9000 images.
Why I love Efloraofindia?
I have asked myself many times why do I feel so involved with the
efloraofindia group and love interacting? I found the following answers:
1. I love the group because it has given me a good reason to keep busy
after retirement (I felt involved even before formal retirement), so that I
don’t have to think about how I should spend my time.
I love the group because it has given me a reason to restudy,
catalogue, digitise my herbarium collection of more than 10,000 specimens,
which were lying unattended due to my busy teaching schedule. I would be
uploading these as a virtual herbarium.
2. I love this group because it has now given me a zeal and plan to
visit as many places as possible. More important, visiting these places in
different months so that I am able to find, photograph and have new plants
to report in the group. Adding these to my publications would be a bonus
for me.
3. I love this group because of our prominent members Garg ji (who in
spite of being the owner of the group, has never given the impression of
authority), Dinesh ji (the architect of its great advancement), Satish
Phadke ji (the great strength of the group), Vijayasankar ji, Shrikant ji,
Nayan ji, Nidhan ji, Balkar ji, Prashant ji, Tabish ji, Pravin ji, Devendra
ji and Promila ji (the great experts, who don’t allow any plant to go
unidentified, and at the same time are great examples of high morality and
great humility, the examples to be followed by our youngsters.
4. I love this group for plant lovers Neil ji, Yazdy ji, who own a
huge collection of plants in their estates and never hesitate to share
these. I salute Neil ji for his great knowledge of plants.
5. I love the group for members like Nalini ji, Madhuri ji, Padmini
ji, Aarti ji, Rashida ji, Pankaj Oudyia ji, Anand ji, our story telling
group, who never miss an occasion to add spice to the information, and
never allow the discussion to lose its interest. Mani ji and Antaryamy have
added flavor to these interactions by their frequent Hindi couplets.
6. I love the group for its young experts Pankaj ji, Mahadeswara ji,
Giby ji, Rajdeo ji, Muthu ji, Smita ji, Ritesh ji, Mayur ji, Manudev ji,
Raghu ji, Shantanu ji for their great expertise, love for plants and never
hesitating to share their point of view, although maintaining the high
standards of communication. They are the future of the group. Snehal ji, I
am happy, is learning it fast. Others who interact less frequently, and I
am able to recollect their names may please excuse me.
7. I love Tanay (the only person I don’t attach ji) the most, because
this young fellow who has such a great knowledge of plants from every part
of India/World at this young age has attained the high level of maturity
after joining this group.
8. Our new active members Alok ji, Puttaraju ji and others are
enriching our database and gradually adjusting to the group norms.
9. The most important thing why I love this group is that “in spite of some
occasional sharp exchanges, members of this group love each other so much
that no one is allowed to leave the group easily. There were occasions when
some important members like Dinesh ji, Tanay or Rashida ji wanted to leave
the group for some unpleasant episode, but all of us really saw that they
didn't leave. Similarly Pankaj ji left the group temporarily because I
wrote something to Tanay about the norms of the group. Tanay became my best
friend (or my favourite) from that day, but Pankaj ji left the group, to
rejoin after some time on requests from the members. I was the one who
suggested his return to the moderator group again. That is the beauty and
strength of the group. Incidentally Tanay and Pankaj are only two members
in the group for whom I have dropped suffix ji, perhaps being so dear to
me.
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