Having a room completely for myself was something new for me. Till then, I had only lived on a shared basis, having at least one room mate. Don’t know what the majority out there feels, but I never liked sharing my room with anyone. It felt like my privacy was being horribly breached. My friends know that for this very reason, my room mates can never be my friends. Nonetheless, I had to make do with shared rooms.
But here I was finally enjoying my freedom, my privacy! My own room in a shared flat. Though I have mentioned I don’t like sharing my room with anyone, it must also be mentioned that I always want people around me, and don’t like being completely alone. Hence in this new room, I started yearning for some company… let they be humans, books, plants, or birds.
The first three I promptly got. Now the question was how to invite the feathered friends to come grace my balcony! As I was pondering over this standing in my balcony, my gaze shifted to two earthen pots kept in the balcony directly opposite me. Pigeons had flocked to that place, and were pecking on the grains kept in one of the pots, and quenching their thirst with the water in the other
There it was! I got my idea! Arranging for grains in a bachelor’s pad is difficult. You’re much more likely to chance upon packets of the ever-so-reliable, multi-purpose noodles than grains in a bachelor’s pad. But water I can definitely provide to these feathered friends, especially with the temperatures soaring as high as they fly in my city!
So, the next day, I promptly filled one of the vessels saved from my many food orders with fresh water and put it in the balcony. For a few days, I didn’t even come to know whether they were drinking from my pot. I could see the water level down when I came home late at night, but whether that was because the birds drank it, or whether the water just evaporated in the heat, I couldn’t figure out. I just hoped for the best, and continued filling water daily.
The mystery unravelled over the weekend. As I sat typing something over the laptop, a pair of crows came and sat on the balcony sill. Looking here and there, shifting their gaze sometimes inside, sometimes outside, sometimes elsewhere, as birds do, one of them sat on the rim of the container and drank from it. It then moved aside to let the other crow do the same. The satisfaction of seeing this scene was something words are not capable of describing. So, after all, the birds did accept my invite to grace my balcony!
I started filling water with more enthusiasm since then. The next weekend, I found out that it was not just crows, but also pigeons that were drinking from my pot. Now that was heartening! But the pigeons brought with them their droppings, which created spots on the balcony floor. My ‘all-knowing’ maid, with a piece of advice for me to keep the pigeons at bay (and possibly even muttering some uncivil words), cleaned the balcony perfunctorily.
I went out of town on one of the weekends, and found the water-container absent with just a circular mark of its rim in its place. Whether it was the mischief of my feathered friends or my maid, I know not. Knowing that my maid was at loggerheads with the birds, I should have given her strict instructions not to touch the container in my absence. Nonetheless, having no empty container immediately, I had no choice but to wait for my next food order so that a container could be arranged for the feathered friends.
What unfolded over the next few days was mesmerising. It just showed me a new facet of the animal world of which I was hitherto unaware. I didn’t think the birds would think too much of the missing water-container, but I was surprised! The next morning, while I was getting ready, a couple of pigeons came and perched themselves on the balcony wall where the container was kept. They walked along the length of the wall frantically searching for the container. One of them was going round and round in circles, and then it looked at me as if asking, “Where’s our water?” They then flew to the opposite balcony to quench their thirst from there. But their visits to my balcony didn’t stop. The next day, a pair entered my room, and sat on top of the cupboard as if telling, “It’s high time our containers were put back in place!” I had to shoo them out of the room lest they dirty it with their droppings, and my maid puts another two questionable words in my ear.
The next weekend, I finally ordered food. After licking the container clean, I eagerly filled water in it and put it in the balcony so that my feathered friends do not indulge in any more mischief. And here it was, a pair again, standing on the rim of the container, and dipping their beaks in the cool water in the sweltering sun. Whether it was they who were satisfied, or me, cannot be said!
unnati_a@ymail.com
