The echoes of the giggles...

I am on the verge of moving out of this city to a new city again. Given my Dad's transferable job, I have been party to such shifts, time & again in my life of slightly over 3 decades. The only difference is, earlier it was because of Dad's job. Now it is because of my own.

However, the shifts entail the same things - sorting out books that I could keep vs. donate; sorting out clothes that can be used in packing the delicate glass, that can be given away and the clothes that must be packed properly in the suitcase; looking at the furniture and deciding what to dispose, what to give to relatives / friends in the town, what to sell off; and then finally starting the packing.

This shifting of every 3 to 4 years was in a way a cleansing ritual. Not just that, it almost seemed to challenge us - in a mild way though - ready to start from the scratch again? New place, new surroundings, new people and lack of the comfort corner you had created for yourself in the earlier town / city... How will you deal with all this change? 

The experience of moving out to a new city doesn't seem to have changed even now, after so many years. The good thing, is I seem to fall in love easily with places. I love their nuances and have somehow taught myself to not get carried away by either their vastness and exposure to technology or their remoteness from the same. The only thing that continues to carry me away though, is the closeness of the new place to Nature. Every place has its beauty as long as the people of the place respect the same, while respecting each other.

Anyway, coming back to my shifting now... I was packing the utensils yesterday and yes, in my bedroom by the deodar trees... While packing them I suddenly heard some giggles - giggles of a little boy...

In a flash, I saw myself sitting in the hall just before the day of Diwali, 4 years back, unpacking a carton of utensils along with Jeet - my nephew, who was just 6 then, and on the verge of being 10 now. I had wanted some new utensils for the house and had ordered this 100 odd piece set of steel utensils while watching some home shopping show on TV. It was a surprise for my Aunt - Jeet's Grand Ma. Thankfully, the order was delivered on the day of Dhanteras. It was Jeet's first experience of staying away from his Mom and be with his Aunt and Grand Ma. He had come to stay with us for the Diwali holidays.

We both spent our evening unpacking the utensils. They were wrapped in transparent polythene. Every time a polythene pack drifted away because of the fan in the room, Jeet used to chase it and get it back. It almost became a game. Either he or I used to allow the packs to drift to some distance and then see who got it back first. And whatever the result was, we both giggled away, with Jeet laughing away and enjoying his stay out of home. Something as uninteresting as unpacking kitchen utensils became a game for a little boy, amusing him to the fullest. He taught me to be happy in these simple ways. He didn't need toys, nor the TV, to be entertained. He just made work seem like a game and was full of joy.

After unwrapping the utensils, we arranged it in the kitchen and took out a sub-set for dinner that evening. Jeet was all thrilled! He had unpacked the set, helped in arranging them in the kitchen and we were having our dinner too now in the same set - the newness about not just the utensils, but also the experience got him so excited! It was a treat to listen to the sweet boy as he talked about his school, his holiday plans and how he enjoyed being with his Grand Ma and me, instead of staying back at home with his parents.

Suddenly, one of the wrappers flew towards the door of the bedroom and I shouted, Jeet - get it! I realized, I was all by myself. My Aunt was in the kitchen, Jeet was in his house. Diwali was over for this year and for the last 3 years and I was packing in my room for the next shift in life. 

The giggles echoed in my ears for some more time and I felt tears flowing down my cheeks. The little boy of 6 had grown up, I had grown up - forgotten a bit of the lesson to be happy no matter what. But the echoes of the giggles reminded me of that lesson again, preparing me for the next shift, preparing me for life...

From Mango Trees to activities in the Mangroves...

When I shifted to Mumbai, I never knew this crowded city will provide me further opportunities to learn more about Nature & birds in general. I got the opportunity to know more about Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and tried to participate in their activities as frequently as I could.

It was one of the invites that I received for an activity that made me realize that the lagoons of Bombay were houses of thousands of flamingos.
These pink birds had fascinated me a lot ever since I read about them in a copy of Tinkle - a childhood comic book that included topics across Indian legends, history, geography, Nature, science - you name any subject that a child needs to know.

These birds - especially the lesser flamingos (there is a greater variety too) migrate to Mumbai starting from the month of August to April to feed in warmer zones like any other migratory birds. Interestingly they also choose Bombay to breed. The Mangroves by the creeks in and around Mumbai provided these pink, long-legged chicks just the right ambiance to get into their mating game and quite productively too...

I first got the chance to see these beautiful birds in the October of 2011. I reached Sewri Jetty at around 7:30 am as suggested by the BNHS team. By the time I reached the jetty the place was already crowded with BNHS members. After seeing some known faces, I realized the crowd looked huge because of the countless flamingos that we saw in the waters at Sewri. It almost looked like a pink horizon.
What a magnificent sight was that! And just as if the pink horizon was not enough, a flock of 50 or more birds flew from one side of the jetty to a little distance giving the view of a floating pink cloud.

The view along with the slightly cloudy climate was so fascinating I didn't realize that time was running so fast - it was 11 am already. Suddenly we realized that the flamingos were marching in a file, back towards the mangroves. Their marching was just in time to save themselves and their young ones from the rising tide. We did see a few birds looking like the flamingos but smaller in size and dark grey in colour. Thankfully we had experts around us who confirmed that these were the juvenile ones. The birds got their pink colour from the huge volumes of plankton and shrimps they consumed as they grew up into handsome adults. 
No wonder we are all usually wished to be in the pink of our health...

Another amazing fact that we got to know about the flamingos is that it can eat only when its head is turned upside down! Now that is some talent one needs to have isn't it?

I will continue with more of my observations / learning on the blog as we move together in time. Until then, see you...

It started with the mango trees though...

Well, yes... It all started during my school days with a few crows' nests in the two mango trees that bowed down to our terrace in the Customs Quarters that we occupied at Wellington Island, Cochin. The year - early to mid 90's... seems way back in time and very sweet & nostalgic too. Oh! you want to know what started?? My interest in birds or let's say most things in Nature...

My Dad always had an interest in birds - that is what I had got to know from the stories of his childhood that he narrated to us. However, it was an interest of a different sort in his teenage days - it was hunting them or catapulting them down from their nests. However, as he grew up, the 'Dasyu Ratnakar' in him turned into a calmer 'Valmiki' and soon his interest in birds developed around their habitat, habits, species - in short his interest was more subject oriented now. Gradually, the interest passed on to his daughters - though my sister being a bio-technologist was more interested in the anatomy, that too microscopic.

Later, when I read about Salim Ali's autobiography, 'The Fall of a sparrow', I realized his interest in birds also started from shooting them down and later developed to be more scientific.

Anyway, Dad spent his early mornings walking on the terrace and feeding birds - mostly crows. From there started his observation of the crows. For the first time we realized that birds did not stay in nests. They built them only at the time of breeding. In fact so many birds did not even build their own nests - the cuckoo for example. 

Every breeding season we saw the crow couples getting busy building their nests in both the mango trees. Then the laying & incubation of the eggs would follow. It was during the incubation period that the cunning cuckoos either threw one of the crows eggs or adjusted their own eggs in the crows' nests. The cuckoo - crow fight was something I had always thought to be folklore. But we observed it every season.

The fun was to observe when the adult crows used to train the young black birds to fly and 'caw' - there had to be one or two black birds which called out a 'coo' instead of a 'caw'. Not just that, these birds always used to be the first ones to leave the nests, leaving a surprised crow family. I am sure the birds thought - how did this one turn out to be so different from the others!

This was just the beginning. Soon we were observing sparrows and pigeons as well. Golden orioles and sun birds also gave us some chance to observe them. After Cochin, Dad got a transfer to Rourkela and we had our quarters situated almost in a fairy-tale location. A sweet little cottage surrounded with almost an acre of land just at the foot of the hills. The entire setting was so apt to study birds and flowers and their habitats - just that I was in my final year in school and most of my time was spent in preparing for entrance examinations. But that did not stop me from developing some knowledge on birds as well as flowers (or plants in general).

The next few years were busy with studies - but thankfully my campuses provided me with enough opportunities to keep up with my interest in Nature and Her ways. Right now, I stay in a flat, where my bedroom window faces a row of deodar trees.

The deodar tree is such a houseful of life, my mornings are well spent and my day begins with a cheer looking and listening to the birds that visit the deodars. At the suggestion of a friend, I have started this blog to note down my observations. Thus starts my observations by the deodar trees...