Skip to main content

CHANCE ENCOUNTER

 


CHANCE ENCOUNTER

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

01/IV/2023

 

Let me congratulate all my like minded friends on this 'all fools day'. Me, you, they, them, him, her and all in between and beyond. It is good to be a fool once in a while, as since the morning messages on social media are bent upon proving me one. Tere peechay chipkali…... kind of April fool banaya kinds.

 

Be that as it may. I had a ball this morning. I met very intelligent and beautiful people. Some of whom I could catch in my camera. Nor could I tell the titars, that tittar ke do aage tittar…... Even peacocks and peahens posed.

 

It was time to visit Jojari wetlands. At the gates it was a mesmerizing site. The Peacock family were feeding. A Partridge family descended over the bundh to feed alongside.

 

A little down the river front, it was after ages I stumbled across ‘partridge chicks’. Mom-Dad and about five little ones. I got transported to one of the Military training around Hanumangarh, Rajasthan. We were deployed in a tented camp along a canal awaiting orders for the next move. There was a little lull before we moved.

 

Partridges were calling. Their call was like a magnet to me. A couple of them would mean Partridge on my plate for dinner which was obligatory as . Our issue was that we could not drive into the fields as they had freshly planted Wheat.  my driver Rajjan to accompany me for a walk down the canal. It was sans water with lots of sarkanda on both sides.

 

We must have walked half a kilometre when something darted into the sarkanda. Instinct told me, it was what we were looking for. .22 was cocked and ready to fire as we crossed the dry canal. Two partridges just froze infront of our eyes.

 

One blink of our eyes and they disappeared. Rajjan too was taken aback, as we saw them in the open field a second back not more than five meters away and they disappeared into thin air. Both of us started scanning the ground. Then I took two steps forward.

 

Two birds rose into the air infront of us from right under our feet. We were so flabbergasted that leave alone firing the gun, it took us sometime to reconcile. We could have caught them live. Partridges are agile fliers but why should they hang on in danger.

 

Rajjan shouted, sir ye dekho and lifted a couple of small partridge chicks. It was an eureka moment for us. Very quickly Rajjan took off his camouflage net from over his jap-cap and collected eight chicks. I told Rajjan, chor de yaar. Nahi sir, in ko palunga.

 

 Khilayega kya, I asked? Deemak (White ants) khilaunga, he said. We carried that little pouch to our camp and had so much to discuss. The parents abandoned their chicks only when they were threatened beyond doubt. The chicks must be a few days old but know that the best survival is to turn into a statue and lie as close to the ground as possible. The parents flew to a safe distance and kept calling after regular intervals to indicate to the chicks that don’t worry, we are there. It was a lesson of life.

 

In the morning, Rajjan came running to me holding his net. Sir, tittar ke bacche bhag gaye. I laughed till my belly ached. Jane de un ko, agle season mein kaboo kar lenge, I said. In the middle of the night when all was quiet and people were asleep, these chicks wriggled out to freedom.

 

We never returned back to the area, Rajjan proceeded on retirement, but this life event came live when I saw the chicks today. How many chicks were there exactly? I wonder!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

FINGER ON YOUR LIPS

  LT COL NOEL ELLIS   29/IV/2025   What has happened to Pakistan? While India is doing Fauji Exercises, Pakistan has mobilised for what! I agree that the people of India want revenge. But, from whom? Our PM has only said that “we will not leave the terrorists and their supporters till the end of the Earth”. He has never said he will sort out Pakistan, or has he?   It has been hilarious watching discussions on Paki social media channels. They seem to have already given up. Our RM meets the PM and Pakistan starts shitting bricks. They talk about jazba and gazwa, and start telling us about their nuclear arsenal. 160 I suppose. By the way we will send across one equivalent to your 160 if need be.   There is a saying, ‘Chor ki Dari main tinka” literal meaning is, a straw in a thief’s beard. However, the deep meaning is that a guilty person reveals his guilt through his behaviour, even unintentionally. Clearly, “a guilty conscious needs no accuser”...

SCENE AT ELLIS’ RESTAURANT

    LT COL NOEL ELLIS   04/XI/2024   Every morning the scene in the Ellis’ restaurant is so refreshing. The notes birds sing sounds like ‘reveille’ being sounded by the buglers. The ‘scenario’ keeps varying with arrival of different birds at different timings.   It is like being a restaurant owner, working solo with minimum help. Yours truly is the waiter, housekeeper, cook, receptionist, barman, purchase manager, accountant, and storekeeper of this shack. Imagine!   Foremost thing in the morning is housekeeping of the garden area, followed by watering the pots. This gives the plants a nice bath, like kids being readied for school.   The first set of ‘clients’ called the ‘Tailor Birds’ appear. They love to hunt for insects which get disturbed by the watering ritual. They sing and dance, hop and skip and carry on chasing moths and worms, without bothering about my presence.   By then the Bulbuls and the Sparrows start lini...

IF THERE IS A WAR…...

    LT COL NOEL ELLIS   28/IV/2025   I remember the 1971 war as a small child. We were in Kapurthala Punjab, very close to the Pakistan border. It was an evening in December, I do not remember the exact date. While returning from a friends house, the declaration of war was done as I skipped along the ‘Thandi Sarak’ of Kapurthala.   The gist was that a vehicle with loud speakers was telling people to head home as an "emergency" had been declared and war had started. I ran as fast as I could, shivering with fear and my heart beating unusually fast. Though I was a lap baby when the 1965 war had taken place, it appeared serious business now.   Overnight, Dad and other Uncles started digging trenches infront of our homes. Carbon paper was no dearth in a teachers house, so mom got into an overdrive to stick them to the glass windows. Though the glass had been painted during the 1965 war, some broken panes had been replaced. Mom told ...