By Zohra Javed,
I have given up. Just can’t believe they have beaten me on my home ground. I had no idea how such small and sweet-looking creatures could trick me, dictate their own terms and get away with their “dadagiri”.
They came into my life so gradually that I realised of their presence when it had already become menacing and unbearable. My very first memories of this apparently harmless creature are from the days when as a little girl I had seen scores and scores of them at the Gateway Of India in Mumbai. The sea used to be comparatively clean and beautiful then, the sky usually clear. A cluster of pigeons would often sit picking grains from the ground, which people would scatter around as a gesture of charity precisely to feed them. Superstition has it that feeding pigeons supposedly brings in good fortune.
Even a slight distraction in this activity would make all of them fly at once. That used to be such an awesome sight.
Many years later I saw my nephew feeding a pigeon on his window sill daily. His mother used to keep a stock of the grain that was preferred by this pigeon. It used to come every morning and get thoroughly pampered.
On another occasion, late one morning I hurriedly opened my door to frantic ringing of the door bell. A boy about ten or twelve was standing in front of me, worry written all over his face. He told me that he lives a couple of floors above, and that a pigeon had fallen from his balcony into mine.
I moved aside to let him in and find “his” pigeon. The boy knew exactly where to find the bird, as I went after him through the passage to the kitchen. The bird lay quiet and vulnerable in a corner. It looked hurt. The boy took him up tenderly, ran a hand affectionately on its soft plumage, thanked me and left.
Messengers of peace and love, I always placed pigeons on the highest humane pedestal. For me they were the epitome of harmlessness, innocence, peace and love …untill of course I saw their true colour…a darkish gray I would say…!!!
It began I think when the potted plants in my balcony began to bloom and blossom. Initially I did not take the pecking of my favourite Aloe Vera seriously. And it was too late to save the plant by the time I took the pigeon-menace seriously. My healthy medicinal plant had been ruined. Badly pecked and grievously mutilated as these heartless birds tried to make a home for themselves in that lush green bulk.
That was the turning point in my love story with the pigeons. I began to hate them for what they had done. I relocated the Aloe Vera. But every pot in the balcony could not be relocated. Besides, they were all over…they were found strolling casually on my living floor. They would come in unhesitatingly and sit behind me while I typed comments on Facebook. I found them sitting on the sofa one morning, comfortable and cozy. They listened to the songs on Youtube with me.
And this was the ultimate of how close they got to me. It was a cold morning and inadvertently I overslept. Believe me the pigeons decided to punish me for that. A couple came in and sat on my razai. They could have given me a dirty Good Morning kiss had I not woken up a bit fearful of what was moving over me…
Imagine my screams of horror when I saw the two of them actually perched on me!!! Hearing my screams, they must have got confused. Suddenly they started fluttering and flying here and there in the room…and then thankfully they went out…
I changed the curtains in my house. Got rather heavy ones which the pigeons could not (or so I thought) move, so that I would not have to keep the windows shut all the while. But my plants were still in danger. They would grow well for some time and then these annoying creatures would take their pick. Meanwhile the curtains were no big deterrent either. And one day I found a whole lot of twigs behind one of the curtains. I was about to question the maid about it when like lightening, truth hit me…
Oh! God I was terrified as I realised what it meant… They looked like some morbid stuff which I was honestly afraid to touch. It was
ghost-like. But I also had to get rid of it really quickly. So I held my breath, and looking the other way threw the entire bunch out of the window. What I had thrown out was the home of a by-now painfully controversial figure in my life. Did I feel some remorse…I think I did. But closed the window tightly (perhaps symbolic of turning a deaf ear to my conscience!!!) only to open when I had to water the two potted plants out there, one of the two being Aloe Vera, which I had kept there to “show” my might and “dare” my tormentors.
One morning as I opened the window to water the plants a ghoulish bunch of twigs in the Aloe Vera pot made me feel sick. Without a second thought I pulled it away and with as much anger as I could bring out, threw it away. But the next morning it was back. Again and again…my cold war with them went on for some time.
Come to think of it, wasn’t I being stupid fighting with pigeons…? What do we have in common anyway…and what can those poor souls do if God has made them that way…
Poor things! They don’t even have the mind to think rationally… why else would they not make a nest for themselves in some nice shady tree so that their home is not so mercilessly thrown out even before it is fully made.
They have been symbols of peace with a lovely olive branch in their beak and have been romanticised by Bollywood and Urdu poets as carriers of love messages, but their own life is full of stress and struggle as they roam about eternally in search of a dignified existence.
I also learnt a lesson that fighting with someone much below your level in strength and positions is foolish. A waste of one’s energy and resources.
Should our rulers not understand as much?
Should not the New Year be truly happy and prosperous for everyone?