A picture

This is a wild creeper growing on a tree.  It was much more common I feel, when I used to visit Kerala as a child.  But it has been seen around here after a long while.  Isn't it pretty?  The white you see is not a flower but the bracts just near the flower.  Long ago my mother told me this is called
Amma karathathu, makal vellithathu, makaldey makal sundari kotha in Malayalam, which means ' the mother is dark, the daughter is fair and the daughter's daughter is a beauty!  The mother is the dark green leaf, the daughter the white bract and the little orange flower (which can't be seen from afar) is the daughter's daughter!  

It is 9.30 am.  I was sitting out on my verandah when I saw a pale coloured bird fly into the divi-divi tree near me and two crows coming after it.  Minutes later a tree pie flew there too.    When I looked carefully, I realised the pale bird was a female Indian cuckoo--the koel.  So naturally the crows were chasing it.  But I couldn't quite see what the tree pie had to do there.  Soon the tree pie flew off screaming.  A little later the koel flew off and the crows sat there very triumphantly.

Strange sight

Today, I was in a car, near Cochin/Kochi, passing over a bridge, when I saw the strangest sight; in the air I could see a big bird--looked like a hawk, but may have been only a crow, and a much smaller bird flying very close to each other.  At first I thought the bigger bird was intent on catching the smaller bird.  But then, as I watched, it looked almost as though the smaller bird was trying to take a ride on the bigger bird's back or else just plain harassing that bigger bird, or chasing it.  Now there is a small black bird, with a swallow like tail, which attacks crow.  But I couldn't see any evidence of a tail like that.  Wish I could have watched longer to know what was going on..........