Friday, January 7, 2011

Made peace with my tormentors

I have given up. Just can't believe they have beaten me on my home ground. I had no idea how such small and sweet-looking creatures could trick me, dictate their own terms and get away with their "dadagiri". 

They came into my life so gradually that I became aware of their presence when it had already become menacing and unbearable. 

My very first memories of this apparently harmless creature is when as a little girl I had seen scores and scores of them at the Gateway Of India in Bombay . 
The sea used to be comparatively clean and beautiful then, the sky usually clear. 
A cluster of pigeons would often sit picking grains from the ground, which people would scatter around as a gesture of charity precisely to feed them. 

Superstition has it that feeding pigeons supposedly brings in good fortune. 

Even a slight distraction in this activity would make all of them fly at once. 
That used to be such an awesome sight. 

Many years later I saw my nephew feeding a pigeon on his window sill daily. His mother used to keep a stock of the grain that was preferred by this pigeon. It used to come every morning and get thoroughly pampered. 

On another occassion, late one morning I hurriedly opened my door to frantic ringing of the door bell. A boy about ten or twelve was standing in front of me, worry written all over his face. He told me that he lives on the second floors , and that a pigeon had fallen from his balcony into mine. 
I moved aside to let him in and find the victim . The boy knew exactly where to find the bird, as I went after him through the passage to the kitchen. 
The bird lay quiet and vulnerable in a corner.
The boy took him up tenderly, ran a hand affectionately on its soft plumage, thanked me and left taking the pigeon with him

Messengers of peace and love, I always placed pigeons on the highest humane pedestal. For me they were the epitome of harmlessness, innocence, peace and love ... untill of course I saw their "true colour" ... 
Darkish gray ...  😊😊😊 !!! 

Change of my heart began when the potted plants in my balcony began to bloom and blossom. Initially I did not take the pecking on my favourite Aloe Vera seriously. 
But it was too late to save the plant by the time I took the pigeon-menace seriously. 
My healthy medicinal plant had been ruined. Badly pecked and grievously mutilated as these heartless birds tried to make a home for themselves in that lush green bulk. 

Now they had invited my dislike 

I relocated the Aloe Vera. 
But every pot in the balcony could not be relocated. 

Besides, they were all over ... 
They strolled in casually to enjoy the warmth if my living room . 
They would come and sit araam se behind me while I typed comments on Facebook. 
I found them sitting on the sofa one morning, comfortable and cozy. 
They often listened to the songs on Youtube with me 😊😊😊
 
And then they got real close ... !!!
It was a cold morning and inadvertently I had overslept. 
A pigeon couple came in and sat on my razai. 
They could have given me a Good Morning kiss had I not woken up a bit fearful of what was moving over me ... !!!!!!!

Imagine my screams of horror when I saw the two of them actually perched on me !!! 
Hearing my screams, they must have got confused and scared too
Suddenly they started fluttering and flying here and there in the room ... and then thankfully they flew out of the window ...

I changed the curtains in my house. 
Got rather heavy ones which the pigeons could not move ... Or so I thought ... 

But my plants were still in danger. They would grow well for some time and then these annoying creatures would take their pick. 

Meanwhile the curtains were no big deterrent either. And one day I found a whole lot of twigs behind one of the curtains. I was about to question my home helper about it when like lightening , truth hit me ... 
Oh! God I was terrified as I realised what it meant ... 
They looked like some morbid stuff which I was honestly afraid to touch. 
But I also had to get rid of it really quickly. 
So holding my breath, and looking the other way, I threw the entire bunch out of the window. 

What I had thrown out was the home of a by-now painfully controversial figure in my life. 

So did I feel any remorse...? 

I sure did. 

But closed the window tightly (perhaps symbolic of turning a deaf ear to my conscience !!!) only to open when I had to water the two potted plants kept there , one of the two being Aloe Vera, which I had kept there to "show" my might and "dare" my tormentors. 

One morning as I opened the window to water the plants a ghoulish bunch of twigs in the Aloe Vera made me feel sick and nauseated. Without a second thought I pulled it away. And with as much anger and force as I could summon from within me, threw it far away. 

But the next morning it was back. 
Again ... and again ... 
My cold war with them went on for a while ... 

And then ... 
I gave up. 
I made peace with my tormentors. 
I always keep that window closed , at times curtains drawn too (to keep our respective privacies ... 😊😊😊

Perhaps I didn't want to be reminded of how silently I surrendered !!!

As a consolation , I told myself I was being stupid fighting with pigeons ... what do we have in common anyway ... and what can those helpless souls do if God has made them that way ... 

Poor things ! they don't even have the mind to think rationally 
Why else would they not make a cute nest for themselves in some nice shady tree so that their home is not so mercilessly devastated even before it is fully made. 

We had seen pics of them as symbols of peace with a tender olive branch in their beak 
They have been romanticised in Hindi film songs and by Urdu poets as carriers of love messages , but their own life is full of stress and struggle as they roam about eternally in search of a dignified existence. 

And now there's an egg in my Aloe Vera !!!!! 
I am amazed to see how that small white thing changed everything. 

Although I still do not like the pigeons, I love the way it guards that egg every moment of the day. So much so that it makes me guilty when I open the window to water the plants and this Mother-Pigeon has to fly away. 
I hope she understands why I just cannot help but disturb her.

Sharing a pic of another plant that was totally ruined because I preferred to save the eggs of a pigeon 😘💝💐💐💐



3 comments:

Unknown said...

excellent piece of writing..every article you write, u put life into it..superb

Unknown said...

excellent piece of writing..every article you write, u put life into it..superb

Zohra Javed said...

Extremely sweet of you to say so
Thanks a bunch