CHAMAN
LT COL NOEL ELLIS
26/V/2024
‘Jannat’ is what we call our colony where our humble abode exists. God has been kind to bless us with heaven on earth. Nature and greenery are the hallmarks of this place.
Interestingly, if you have a clear heart & conscience, your mind is clutter free, your thoughts are not polluted with shoddy ‘politics-sholitics’, ‘pollution’ of all kinds and if you are not a student of any WhatsApp university, everything appears to be heavenly and divine.
To add my small contribution to our ‘Eden Garden’, watering the plants is a must. As I was deploying the hose pipe, I heard a loud call of the Yellow Bottomed Bulbul (YBB) sitting on a branch close by. She is a regular visitor to our garden and doesn’t fear our presence at all.
It looked as if she was talking to me in short bursts of weird tweets and calls. What’s the matter, I asked her? ‘Twat-tweet-twat’ came the answer. “Hey, what’s happened to your voice”? “Baraf to nahi kha li, gala kaise baith gaya”, I chuckled. She went ‘tar-tar-tar’ this time. Something was amiss. My eleventh sense was trying to home in on what was wrong.
YBB flew off, probably annoyed, I could sense it. I was about to go and open the tap when this girl returned and made the same gruff and unusual chirps. This thing had to be investigated.
Had the ‘roti’ which we keep for them finished, was one possibility? Was this girl new to town or a new chick learning to talk was another possibility? Sweet sounds are always welcome but not gruff ones.
Be that as it may, I climbed up on the pot stand to peep where we spread roti broken into small morsels for them. My goodness Lord, the place was clean as a slate. How could I have forgotten to refill! That is when I realised that YBB was not only annoyed but complaining to me to fetch her meal. She had been hungry since morning.
In the same glance I peeped into the grain feeder. Gosh! That too was empty. How could I be so careless and forgetful! This was another reason all the other birds, except the Sunbirds, were not coming over. Even the sparrows must be annoyed. I felt so guilty and postponed watering the pots for a while.
The grain feeder was refilled first, before I rushed inside to fetch roti. Sparrows appeared and dived into the grain, happy as happy could be.
There were three Rotis in the roti box. It meant that it had been three days that I had not fed them. Everyday, my wife ensures that she makes one extra roti, which we call ‘Chiya ki roti’.
I started to portion roti in ‘bird-bite’ sized pieces as usual. That is the time YBB came back and started to hover above me on the hanging pots. Her nature of calls had changed. Her chirrups were of excitement and glee and turned sweeter like she used to sing earlier. It was telling me to hurry up and I did.
Her tweets were also a signal to the other bulbuls that ‘Bhojan Prastut hai Shriman’. Like our Mess Havildar used to announce laying of food at the table.
It also took me to my NDA cadet days when a ‘second termer’ would announce the arrival of ‘Cold Coffee’. That CC was bliss and still is.
Sparrows now rushed with their babies and started feeding them so lovingly from the grains spread on the road, which I spread as a reserve, just in case I forget to refill the feeder. They enjoy picking grains from there, even if there is plenty in their feeder.
I broke into a smile as I spread roti. My-Oh-My was YBB and gang hungry! She just couldn’t wait for me to finish spreading and dashed to pick up a morsel. We were so close that I could have kissed her but then I refrained, lest I scare her away.
What a relief it was! Now, I could get on with the other chores. What a start to a wonderful day!
Should we change the name of our colony from ‘Jannat’ to ‘Chaman’? I wonder!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
© ® NOEL ELLIS
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