The Purple Moorhen Porphyno porphyno viridis is a bird which is found near swamps.
This bird has an attractive dark blue colour, which stands out amidst the other white water birds.
It is as big as a hen, and struts about its territory like one.
Mani, the teenager above, is one of the persons who help the earth. He takes away our old newspapers and magazines to be recycled. He pays for them by weight. I got seventy rupees for last month's newspapers, which I used to buy a bird bath.!
This woman takes away used plastic bottles and cans to be recycled. Used plastic does not fetch as big a price as old newspapers. 
Lantanas flower happily even when the mercury reaches 35C. They don't seem to mind the sun, and will make do with a little water.
Ixoras too don't get bothered by the heat. They prefer dappled shade.
Jasmine flowers perfume my garden in the night. They actually prefer to be in full sun!
The different varieties of Amaryllis are happily blooming in all the gardens now. Soon their flowering season will be over, and they get ready to flower again in autumn.
In soite of the heat and the water shortage, I was delighted to find plenty of flowers blooming in my garden. The orange Barbados Lily is blooming in all sorts of nooks and corners.
The petria vine has just started putting out its beautiful flowers. I hope it will flower profusely as usual.
The Amaryllis is called the Easter Lily here, an apt name.
The pair of kites have built a nest on top of a silver oak tree in my school, and the female is brooding in the nest. The male kite flies out and came back every ten minutes, with a tasty snack like rats or an occasional snake to feed his mate.
After some time, it became too hot for the small creatures to run around in the sun, and the kite took longer and longer to find food.
The missus became tired of waiting, and decided to take a nap.
There she is, taking a mid-morning snooze.
Mumbai was a fishing and salt making village when it was gifted in dowry to the Portuguese princess who married a British king 300 years ago. The original natives of Mubai still fish and make salt on the outskirts of the great city. Sea water is collects in these pans and gets dried by the sun, leaving the salt behind. Many aquatic birds hunt in these pans for the salty morsels. If you click on the picture above, you can see the birds clearly.
The salt makers follow their ancient tradition to make these geometrical patterns.
Many lovely flowers are blooming in my garden now in spite of the drought conditions. The huge white Easter lily is one such faithful.
The Franjipani seems to love this weather. The blooms are perfuming my garden in the night.
The Cardwell lily has very pretty leaves too.
This Amaryllis has bloomed for the first time in 5 years! It probably likes less water.
