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.
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| 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.
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| Yellow |
Superb!
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