Friday 22 November 2013

Of love and affection, and a girl called Aminah!

This one has been written by my friend Aminah Sheikh, who has this amazing ability to find joy, romance and life's lessons in the most unlikely of places :)  Read on!

Yellow will fly.

The initial few weeks in my powai home were spent being irritated with the pigeons mating in the kitchen’s balcony!!! Then came Kittu Sheikh. She grew from being a tiny kitten who would skid each time she tried to walk, to a curious cat who entertained herself with the pigeons’ matinee show. Guilt ridden that Kittu any which ways had no company during the day, I let the pigeons be.
Over the months pigeons made their nest, laid eggs and we waited patiently for the lil one to pop. The birds’ world, my friends, ain’t that free flying, we learnt! They’d be a crow, with evil intentions, either trying to scare away the female pigeon who was sitting on the egg, or a crow who waited for the pigeon to fly for some grub. In either situation the end was the same – egg destroyed, nest scattered. It took Kittu a while to understand what was happening. Then came a day I watched her raising her paw from the window pane trying to shoo away the crow (I raised a true Sheikh – proud moment). Anyhow, nothing worked and this drill continued for months. It was heart wrenching to watch.

Kittu Sheikh

Then came a day we saw another pair of pigeons carefully placing the twigs. There we go again – I thought to myself. So, to avoid the sadness, I decided every morning I’d open the kitchen window with my eyes shut. It worked just fine for a week. Then a little voice said, be brave. And the wo-man in me sang que sera sera… In the last 20 days I’ve observed something unique about this couple, which I had not seen in the previous ones. The male pigeon would either watch over the egg while the female left the nest, or he would get her food. The crows were doing their rounds but they didn’t dare to come close. That gave me hope and in the days that followed each morning Kittu would be at the window pane, perhaps have animal talk with the pigeons, and I’d be sipping chai. They were anxious days. Guess what – we now have a baby pigeon in our balcony. She is pretty ugly. When I told Kittu this while clicking the picture, Kittu flashed me her disapproving look. At least we both agreed on the same name for the baby pigeon - ‘Yellow’. We are happy dappy that Yellow lives and will fly.      

Yellow

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