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When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; When the air does laugh with our merry wit, And the green hill laughs with the noise of it.
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| Karnala Fort seen from the air, draped in green. Everything wears a gown of green in the monsoon, the green is bright, verdant, lush and covers every visible inch. Water is life. |
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| There are waterfalls everywhere, from this litle one by the roadside, to huge gushers on the hillside. People exult in the water and most accessible waterfalls have crowds bathing in them. Where thwarted, the water can turn angry, bringing floods, landslides and treefalls. |
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| Though the primary colour is green, other colours emerge also. this single stalk of balsam amidst the grass is possibly the precursor of a riot of colour. |
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| In the forest multi-hued flowers grow in the lush vegetation and lend a colourful air to the sea of green. |
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| These karvi flowers grow after seven years, some mysterious biological clock ticks away the time and they flower together, entire hillsides take on a purple hue. |
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| It is a time for courting, this Malabar Gliding frog calls to its mate... |
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| ...and having found her, they mate, laying their eggs in a blob of foam over water so that the tadpoles fall into the water when they hatch. |
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| The female Giant Wood Spider dwarfs the male, some say that having done, she eats him!!They too breed in this season, and the forest had many webs between branches. Lately they seem less, some mysterious cycle maybe... |
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| A cicada moults under cover of darkness and waits for its wings to dry before it commences its characteristic buzz |
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| The unwary beware, along with the prey come the predators, here a Malabar Pit Viper lies in ambush , waiting for that delicious frog to pass by. |
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| Malabar Pit Vipers are of many colours (morphs as they are known), green and brown are the more common colours. |
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| Everywhere everything is growing, a seed is left behind by a bird and a fern grows in a wall |
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| Water everywhere.... it collects in old buildings like this derelict but magnificent cathedral in Vasai... |
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| ...and wets the fresh plants and fallen wood in the forest, water is the giver and taker of life. |
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| Water collects on roads, ponds and lakes, many of which have been dry during the summer and now thirstily soak the drops.
And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.
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