A Peahen in our Neighbourhood

                               A Peahen in our Neighbourhood

It was June month. Schools reopened at all the places. Children in all the areas started getting up early in the morning to go through their study related materials. On one such morning, at our place, my elder daughter Sona was seriously going through the important topics of sciences, My wife was busily working in the kitchen, I was ironing the shirts in the bed room and my younger daughter Mona was brushing her teeth at the sink in the balcony.

During that moment, my younger daughter shrieked a little and hurriedly came to me with lot of excitement on her face as if she saw something unbelievable on the terrace. She screamed and stated that a big bird came to the neighbor’s terrace. It was beautiful to look at. I became curious and went out to see. Believe it or not, to the utter surprise of mine a large pea hen with beautiful blue and green color neck was there in front of our door on the pillar of the next building. I screamed a little and forced the other members of our family to come out in order to witness such a spectacle.

All the family members of our house couldn’t believe their eyes. They stood in the balcony like soldiers in a parade with lot of gleam on their faces. Just then, one of our friendly neighbors, who bought the house on the eastern side of our building, came to know regarding the beautiful visitor. All of them came to the railing of the parapet wall and stood in a line to observe the bird. After some time, the owner of that house ordered his son to bring the cell phone to capture the image of it. His wife looked at the spectacular bird and started explaining the nature of such kind of birds to the kids.

After some minutes, The bird which was in front of us opened its wings, flapped them a little and looked at the people on both sides and flew to the other pillar which was near the tree. The sight of the flying bird created lot of happiness to the children on both the buildings. They clapped their hands at such kind of incident. I thought of informing the news of the surprise guest to our tenants especially to the seven year old child of theirs. So, I sent my younger daughter downstairs to announce them regarding the arrival of the surprise visitor.

                                                   

They were awe struck with the news and came upstairs with a big smart phone to video graph the beautiful sight. It appeared to me as if those people were exhibiting the possession of their valuable electronic items on the name of the Peahen, then I thought why shouldn’t I do the same, So I ordered my elder daughter to bring my smart phone and handy cam to that place. My obedient daughter without a word brought those and gave the handy cam to me to shoot the incident and she took my smart phone into her hands to take the photographs of the bird.

Some how, the news of the arrival of the bird reached the other neighbors who stayed on the other side of the visitor’s building. All the family members of that house came upstairs and stood at the railing of their building in a line to observe the bird. An inquisitive science teacher who was present among those pointed her finger towards the neck and tail of the bird and started explaining the gender of the bird to the people on the building. All the people on the building got confused with that. A debate sort of situation aroused. Some said the bird as peacock and some said it as a peahen.  

Slowly, one more peculiar discussion took place on the next building. Some body said poor bird might have lost its way and came there in search of the partner, the lady on the building did not agree with that, She said skeptically that the bird might have come to the locality in order to break itself free from the bondage of its family due to the harassment of the male companion. Every body laughed at that, after some time the owner of that building dialed a number and began to speak with a person loudly. With the conversation it was very clear that he was explaining the situation of the bird to a relative of his in the other district. He even requested his relative to give the number of the Zoo Officials so that the bird can be caught and can be sent to a sanctuary safely.

As every body was busy in sharing their ideas I thought why not I share some of my views on the situation. So, I said to them that the bird might have come to our locality as there were some green trees in our surroundings. People agreed with my point to an extent.

 In fact, some years ago, around Vanasthalipuram colony there were many trees. It was surrounded by a small forest near Saheb Nagar and Auto Nagar regions, but slowly the colony expanded, people started constructing houses even in the remote areas of the colony and due to that almost all the entire area of the forest around our colony became into a residential zone.

Believe it or not, Once, Our Colony was very beautiful with plenty of trees. It was like a hill station, the weather was always pleasant. But slowly the population in our colony increased, trees were cut down and in their places concrete structures were erected, so, to the outsiders, our colony appeared as a posh locality with beautiful buildings. Thanks to the sensible engineers in our area who stressed on the importance of the greenery and so, for that reason, one could find the visibility of lush green trees in a decorative manner at least at some places in the parks.

As we were communicating in that manner, the shy bird looked at all the beings from the corners of its eyes. It raised its head a little, moved the head in all the direction by opening its beak. It kept its tongue out and produced a different kind of sound. Which, some how appeared to me as if the bird did not like our presence around it. The tilt of the head, the typical sound of the bird, and the violent movement of the tongue in all the directions was as if it started replying to all the questions of the human beings with some kind of anger. Friends by any chance, if the bird had been given the power to speak, it would have indignantly said that it had alighted there in a natural manner to take rest for a while as it was flying from one direction to the other or it would have said with some authority that its place of rest had been captured by people and so they should be held responsible for such kind of situation. It even would have thought that it might be impossible for birds like them to lead their lives with noisy and sense less people around. So, the bird looked at every one with some kind of dejection and opened its beautiful wings once again and flew away from the building.

My dear friends, Today it might be the case with one shy bird, if the forests are cut down with the same speed for our selfish gains then in near future we might find many wild beings come to our localities. If such thing happens, then our lives would become miserable. so, we should give utmost importance to plant, animal and bird life around us, as they are also living beings like us. If every being in the world is protected than the world will be in a balanced manner and every living being finds happiness, if not then every being thinks of encroaching the area of the others by causing disturbance to the others immensely. So let us all be sensible and create an amiable atmosphere to every body by planting as many saplings as we can for our survival and for the survival of the earth and others beings.

N. John

Lecturer in English

Sree Vani Women’s College

Malakpet, Hyderabad

Johnsmpriya@gmail.com