LESSONS FROM OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS
LT COL NOEL ELLIS
13/XI/2021
I am not sure if people have seen a papaya tree
with multiple off shoots. We have one more than sixty feet tall with
protrusions as big as a tree itself every 15 feet. It gets laden with fruit on
each off shoot in huge numbers. It has grown tall beyond one's reach, even the
longest bamboo can’t reach the first tier. Besides, there is so much vegetation
that in the greediness for the fruit it could be dangerous due to venomous
snakes roaming large.
Now that one has a little time at hand, one sits in
the backyard observing this huge papaya tree. Each fruit is more than two kgs
plus. As the papayas ripen, it becomes a hub centre of activity for many types
of birds. All of them are after the fruit, nice, juicy, pulpy, healthy, tasty
and filling.
The top most tier is reserved for the Hornbills.
The birds here are big and heavy, as heavy as the fruit itself if not more.
Papaya leaves are delicate and snap with slight agitation and weight. However,
they bear the weight of the hornbills with ease. Birds come and plonk, carry
out a prelim check for the ripeness of the fruit. Then with their large beaks,
eat in bite size proportions. Once full they fly away.
One by one they have their fill. Each fruit lasts
about a day with an average three visits per day. Yesterday, one huge papaya
got dislodged and came down like a bomb. The bang on the ground was loud enough
that even Oreo who gives me company got startled. The thud also startled many
birds that one never knew would be hiding in that area.
The second tier is the Cuckoo Kingdom. There was
something amiss in their behaviour. The printed one, the female and the pure
black one, the male were in a constant state of brawl. Things began to
crystallize about their unruly mannerism. Moment the female would approach the
fruit, the male would come and attack her. Generally, birds share their booty
but here it was different.
When the female would go and sit on the adjacent
tree the male too would follow. Both would sit peacefully and chatter. Moment
this one would take off again to eat, the other one would chase it away. I
suppose, the male was not allowing the female to eat till she gave a kiss and
‘beyond’. How hard the female tried, she was not allowed to eat the fruit
till………
On the third tier, small birds have a ball. The
ones on the top do not know or even bother about what is happening below them.
Cuckoos won’t allow the hornbills on the second tier though. However they
themselves could come further down and eat.
The papaya tree was like India and its society.
Everyone wanted a piece of the fruit. Aggressors were prying on a chance to
steal the fruit. People at the helm of affairs were not bothered about the ones
below but at times would try and steal their slice.
The ones below were at the mercy of the ones above.
The food that they dropped could be of no use to birds. It fell like a dumb
bomb which could kill an unsuspecting bird. Once on earth it was left to rot or
eaten by vermin, who lived on the crumbs which fell from the table.
Cuckoos attacked the hornbills but hornbills didn’t
retaliate. Like Pak keeps sending infiltrators and terrorists and we keep
tolerating nonsense. Anyone who gets a chance, likes to steal. In case they
cannot eat it, they drop it so that no one else benefits. But the tree lives on
to fruit every season.
There is a divide between ‘big and small’. There is
a clash amongst the species. The smaller ones keep looking up but are
suppressed. There are fence sitters who keep watching and at the slightest
danger fly away. There are love affairs galore in the bird kingdom. Koel’s
won’t let the crows come close but would lay their eggs in their nests.
It appears to be the Indian story. Your ‘own
specie’ takes its cut, in kind or in the form of a tax. The bigger ones gobble
the smaller ones needs. The hungry remain hungry.
One good thing we did was that we planted this
tree. Initially we ate its fruit, now it is attracting birds. Birds do eat the
fruit, but they know when to stop. They feed for need not for gluttony. They
leave the tree to roost somewhere else and do not mind when others eat from the
same tree.
Hope we humans learn our lessons from our feathered
friends. Will we? I wonder!!!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
© NOEL ELLIS
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