Monday, May 9, 2011

Encroachment!

I have nothing new to say. The number of sparrows is decreasing, the tigers are facing the threat of extinction, pigeons being electrocuted, and no, I will not talk about global warming.

High rises, and ever increasing urban population has pushed “natural” life to the periphery of our existence. We have so many more worries – EMIs, fuel prices, heat (forget the cause), network connectivity. And in all this whirligig that means the world to us, when we come across living beings that are not humans we either are too busy to notice them, or we spare a moment of guilt and passion, a camera click maybe, and then move on with our mundane reality.

These squirrels around my parents’ apartment in Noida had babies, and all of us spared some time to feed them food and water and observe them stealthily from behind closed windows and curtains. I am sure these cuties couldn’t care a damn about how happy we felt having them around. They must be cribbing about the lack of privacy, if nothing else.


This pigeon has a sad story. It had built a nice nest over our split ac’s rear in the balcony, and when we had to remove the covering of the AC to get ready for the rising mercury in Delhi, the nest fell over, breaking one egg. Yes, we were devastated. And that is that. The pigeon fluttered around for a couple of hours giving us the cold, accusing stare – we had a few grains and water to offer in apology – It finally recreated its abode on top of our neighbor’s bedroom window. I swear the pigeon family will be safer there than on top of the ac.


I am less sympathetic to the noisy crows, not that their right to co-exist is any less. Am sure our dislike is mutual.


So, what are your encroachment stories?

7 comments:

  1. There is a pigeon nest built above my room ac and i really want to remove it but i don't have the guts to do it. Plus there is pigeon poops everywhere!

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  2. What a lovely post! The beginning and the end were completely a surprise. Life is indeed wonderful when we give time to observe the little joys that come our way. For you it was the squirrel, pigeon and the like.

    Hope the heat is not driving you crazy.

    Joy always,
    Susan

    ReplyDelete
  3. :) aww you know when i bought my house here the guy before had 8-9 BIG huge trees and so many bushes , basically he never went out .. so I spent weeks clearing the mess and I had to keep a busy cause inside the bush there is this Robin's nest .. and its such a pleasure , slowly I removed the busy and now the robin has built its nest inside the shed i have put and this year it was the second generation of the RObins that fluttered out .. I dont know if its the same robin or some other .. But its really nice to see them

    and then for ages now there is is this BIG FAT pigeon which comes and just bathes in the bird bath and jsut stays in the garden .. Sometimes i have been working and it still comes all birds fly away but this one jsut stays doesnot seem to be least bothered that i am there ..

    I enjoyed reading this post :)

    Bikram's

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  4. @A.K.: I can imagine your plight :(

    @Susan: Thank you, and yes, the heat is driving me crazy!

    @Bikram: robins, pigeons, bird bath - I envy you!

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  5. Back at my parents house they have a nice garden in front of the house and there is this big tree which is the home for parrots and few other interesting birds. It had become their daily routine to observe these birds. At times they tell about stories of which bird get along with which bird and all.. it is amusing!! :)

    Squirrels.. too! But they could be a real pain. They nibble and gobble everything under the sun. We had to install fresh meshes to keep them form entering into the house and nibbling off the wires.

    Lovely post!

    ReplyDelete
  6. where do all my comments go?? :'(

    I wrote about parrots, wood peckers and some tail bird at my parents house. :O

    I don;t like blogger! :[

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Sameera!

    @Sam: I wonder where they go :)

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I appreciate you taking out the time to share your valuable opinions! They mean a lot!

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