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MYNAAA

 FAMILIARIZATION


 LT COL NOEL ELLIS


 30/VII/2021


 


As time goes by, Mynaaa is helping me recall handling babies. There was a time I used to be scared to pick up lap babies.


When you got home on leave as a Lieutenant, I would first visit one Bhaiya and Bhabhi, who had just been blessed with a baby girl. Bhabhi told me to hold the little one, while she made a cup of tea. The earth under my feet moved as if there was an earthquake.


This was totally unfamiliar territory. Guns yes, babies….? What if the baby did ‘susu’? What if I dropped her? This little girl gave me a smile as I took her in my arms. Clumsy, novice, untrained, call me anything but I held her very tight. I breathed a sigh of relief as I handed her back.


Now there is another baby. She has to be carefully handled and familiarised with the house. This gal walks & flies behind you all the time. Drawing room is now well known to her. Most of the time when she is awake she spends time here. She has flown to every chair and table and knows what is where. She also recognizes where we feed her.


She is also used to the pantry where she sleeps. Nice, cozy, warm & dark probably giving her a feel of her nest. We can make out when she is feeling sleepy. Moment she calms down, sits belly down on a perch and starts blinking her eyes, it's ‘ninnu time’. If she wants a deep sleep, I found her twisting her neck and inserting it under her wing. Probably when it’s too bright for her liking.


A few days back we gave her a bath & she loved it. If we had not pulled her out, she would have stayed there only. Yesterday, while I was in the office, she gave company to my wife in the drawing room. Wife left for the kitchen and could not find Mynaaa on return.


The front wire mesh door was bolted. There was no window open and there was no response when her name was called. Wife heard a flutter of feathers and there was Ms Mynaaa in the bathroom, happily taking a bath. The maid must have left the tap partially open. Droplets were falling down and Mynaaa thought it’s a waterfall. To get her out, wife had to close the tap. She looked up, wondering why water had stopped & was not ready to leave.


A bird bath is there in the rear of the house. Once rains subside, we shall introduce her to that, like we are familiarizing her with other areas outdoors.


As I park my car, walk around the drawing room window and call out ‘Mynaaa’, she responds with a typical chirp. As if she knows Papa is home. It is a joyful and happy chirp. She would wait for me when she couldn’t fly, now she takes off and receives me at the wire mesh digging her claws into it. She just can’t wait and pounces on my shoulder when the door is half open.


Then she starts screeching in my ear, telling me all that has happened in the day. How she missed me and what mom has fed her. She won’t even let me put down my phones. I have to patiently listen to her till she is tired of blabbering. Before anything else, she has to be taken to her ‘dining teapoy’ and offered something to eat followed by water. Thereafter, she piggybacks on my shoulder and won’t get off. One has to make her sit on her perch and run to change. Till you return, her chatterbox continues nonstop.


In the last couple of days, we are familiarizing her with the garden. We took her to the greenhouse, she has been walking on the lawn. She has been made to sit on all hanging pots. Her flight path has been altered, as I dodge her just before she sits on my head or shoulder, for her to take a longer flight. She is enjoying it.


Yesterday, Oreo was following our heels as we walked to the backyard with Mynaaa in tow. His jump session on the tree stumps was long overdue due as there is stagnant water around. Still he climbed up on one. I had left Mynaaa on one end of the green house. She hopped and skipped and then took off. I ducked and she landed on Oreo’s back. He was startled but then he let her be. Soon Mynaaa would be riding on his back. He is jealous alright but has accepted her as part of the family.


How do I teach this little one to dig out worms like other birds do? I wonder!!!!!!!!!


JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS

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