DEFECTIVE PIECE

 DEFECTIVE PIECE

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

01/II/2024

 

Temperatures have suddenly risen in the sun city. The usual woollen cap, sweater under a wind cheater in the morning is too much to bear. This has happened in the last two days. Insects and birds now arrive much earlier and wait for me patiently to fill their grain feeder. They don’t complain.

‘We’ wait for water to heat up in the geyser before we take the ‘holy dip’. Many of us avoid it for days, until the wife gets after you with a rolling pin. However, for birds, chilled water makes no difference. They feed and then descend to the two ‘watering bowls’ we have kept for them.

A quick sip or two from the first one and then they get into the second one to ruffle their feathers irrespective of the cold. It was touching 8-9 degrees C for a few days but it did not bother them. Even the Taylor birds & Sun birds enjoyed their bath on the champa leaves, which I wet every watering day.

I turn the hose nozzle to ‘mist mode’ to remove the dust accumulated on the leaves. One sees a flurry of activity thereafter on the leaves. These tiny birds love to get under the shower to wash their feathers with the droplets sticking to the champa leaves sending shivers down my spine for me to question whether to bathe or not to bathe.

Be that as it may. If you would recall, I had an encounter with a GrassHopper who sat in the grain bowl for many days in November last year. I used to call him with half his name as Mr Hopper because he had one hind leg missing. This guy surfaced after a long gap and sat on the side of a pot, cleaning his eyes with his claws, gently scrubbing them in the morning sun.

Where were you all these days, I asked? He twitched his whiskers and told me that he had hidden under the fish tank between the gap of the tank and the brick placed to elevate the tank. Why there, I asked? It is quite warm out there and there is no breeze. I touched the tub, it felt warm because the heater in the tub for the fish is on and maintained at 28 degrees C thus the surroundings get much warmer. Smart boy, I said. He winked at me and stretched his only hind leg, as if laughing at my comment.

Would you be around, I asked? He twitched his whiskers as if to say, with a defective piece like me, even the birds refuse to eat a guy with lesser meat. Lucky you I said, but do not nibble on the fresh shoots which are now erupting. He smiled, as if he understood.

It was now time to feed the fish in the tank on the roof. As usual they made a ‘beeline’ rather a ‘fish line’ for the surface to greet me. Their happiness was palpable by the way they went around in circles waiting for their ‘daily bread’ to be sprinkled.

While the fish toyed with their food, my attention was drawn to Ms Damselfly who was sticking to the side of a pistia plant. The sun had given it some energy to start moving. I was happy that we met again, but felt sorry as she too was a defective piece.

Her body had developed fully but the wings had not fully emerged. How hard she tried to flap them but the lift that is required to fly was not there. Leave alone a short hover, due to her deformed wings, she would tilt dangerously and fall in the water. With difficulty she would climb the plant back and repeat the process to fly but in vain.

Can I help her, I asked myself? Should I clean her wings? Maybe dirt is stuck to the wings disbalancing her. Should I move her to a dry surface? Where she could make another attempt to fly. The solar water fountain in the vicinity was sprinkling water and keeping it wet.

Human intervention may not be helpful, I thought. The bright side was that I was assured to meet her everyday till she was in the tub. If all went well, she may fly away and be a normal damselfly once again. In the process of helping it, I should not harm it was a thought in my mind.

Bye Ms Damselfly, I said and came downstairs to key in my thoughts. Should I help these defective pieces? I wonder!!!!!!!

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS