Category: Gifts of nature.

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Gifts of nature. Lifestyle

What Pleasure Is This Sip of Tea.

Refreshing Lemon Tea.
Refreshing Lemon Tea.

Why today I feel inclined to write about ‘a sip of tea’ is something that is yet unknown to me. But I certainly feel that writing about it, in itself, would be a journey for this quest.

A Sip of Lemon Tea.

Refreshing Lemon Tea.
Refreshing Lemon Tea.

Many a times, when it feels monotonous with prolonged work schedule or while going through a deep contemplation over a topic, or even while leisurely walking through my roof top garden, the urge to take a sip of lemon tea sets in me. Though I take milk tea when sitting together with family members, specially with mother; but when alone, I prefer lemon tea.

I still remember the days of year’2004 in Delhi, when one evening I heard the announcement of a radio jockey on a FM radio channel; who was saying, “Hello Delhi, I have just had this refreshing cup of Lemon tea, and that the evening sky is all set to pour, here is this number for you to make your evening even more moist and romantic. Enjoy”. And plays a rain song.

Thus it is quite common to see persons finding satisfaction and calm in having tea. Lemon tea for me is not just a beverage. To me it is microcosm of something enormous. This feel in me for lemon tea, emanates from my subconscious, which is very much permeable to the beauty and blessings of nature.

Presence of lemon juice in lemon tea reminds me of lemon in aggregate. Its refreshingly tangy smell is so captivating. Also it enhances the flavour and adds aroma to many dishes and drinks. Transparent orange coloured lemon tea when served in white porcelain cups or in transparent sparkling glass tumblers; looks so heavenly and super enticing!

Tea Farms And Their History.

Tea gardens of Darjeeling.
Tea gardens of Darjeeling.

The dried tea leaves which is the main base of any tea come from tea shrubs, now grown on tea farms. Farming of tree at mass level dates back to colonial era. It was outcome of convergence of nature, human labour, technology and capital.

In the early 1820s, the British East India Company began large scale production of tea in Assam(India),of a tree variety traditionally brewed by the Singpho tribe. In 1837 the first English tea garden was established at Chabua in Upper Assam. Darjeeling tea is another famous variety of tea.

Mountain slopes of warm humid tropical climate have luxurious growth of tea shrubs. Vast stretches of well pruned tea gardens, with small processing unit in a corner, beautiful sinuous roads in between, and group of women dexterously picking tea leaves…it is a completely different world! Leaves from this surreal world, would certainly have the magic that you feel in every sip from your tea cup.

Tea is brewed by pouring boiling water over the dried tea leaves and letting them soaked for couple of minutes. The tea is then strained, sweetened if desired, and served. Many brands produce herbal tea bags for such infusion.

Tea Ceremonies in Japan.

Medicinal benefits apart, ancient societies of Japan have found meditational values in tea making. They observe a ceremony called “Chanoyu” meaning “way of tea”.

Though it is a more sophisticated ritual, the important thing is that when the tea is served, you allow time to still, putting daily worries, criticisms and complaints out of your mind. And the participants should appreciate that the time they will spend drinking tea, is extraordinary and will never happen again.

Tea Culture In India and South Asia.

Tea stalls in India.
Tea stalls in India.

In India, and also in neighbouring countries, tea is served as welcome drink along with snacks. A combination of additives are added in tea to make it special in a desired way. Such combination of additives may be like – with lemon, with milk, with milk and cardamom, with milk and ginger, with clove, and the list may go on.

A good deal of aesthetics is involved in deciding the silhouette and colour of the teacups and teapots. However in many teashops in India, it is served in crude unglazed baked clay teacups locally called “kulhads”. When tea is served in these “kulhads”, aroma of earth also gets infused in it giving it a distinct flavour. This tea is very much popular in India.

When the tea seller gracefully pours the tea into clay teacups from a height, the creamy froth gets accumulated at the top. And this gives a head start and sets the mood upbeat to relish your tea.

Rediscover Yourself With Sip of Tea.

"Ichigo Ichie" by H. Garcia and E. Miralles
“Ichigo Ichie” by H. Garcia and E. Miralles

While reading this book named “Ichigo Ichie” by H. Garcia and E. Miralles, my eyes are tucked on a line which says, “It is a great idea to have regular tea with yourself.”

Of course, while taking sip of tea, it feels like having an opportunity to have a date with ourselves, keeping the distractions of worries, criticisms, complaints, competitions out of the mind, and there is only you, your time and your cup of tea!

And this meditative session with sips of tea may throw open the basketful of tiny pleasures, you have never noticed.

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Gifts of nature.

Is This The Time To Become Eco Conscious In Every Day Life?

Be Eco Conscious In Purchase And Disposal of Non biodegradable materials.
Be Eco Conscious In Purchase And Disposal of Non biodegradable materials.
Be Eco Conscious In Purchase And Disposal of Non biodegradable materials.

Is this the time to become eco conscious in our day to day life? I remember the time when I was preparing for competitive examinations during the late 90s. Talks about adoption of Kyoto Protocol in 1997, were a sensation in academia and geo politics. Fatal long term impacts of climatic change were being widely covered in media. But the question of becoming eco conscious in day to day life immediately, hadn’t become a subject of common parlance that time.

Time races. It is now year 2023. I am also now fathering a son who studies in class ten. And eco consciousness as an issue, is very much in, in our lives now.

The cautions, apprehensions and the threats related to the vulnerability of climate, have walked out of the documents, and now stand real and formidable.

Story of Buying A Pen, With Eco Conscious Bargain.

With mobile phone tucked between my neck and shoulder, I was desperately looking for a pen from shelf to shelf, study tables, drawers, and every other place in my home, because someone on the other side of phone, was waiting to dictate me something.

It was a coincidence that my own pen had run out of its ink a day before, and of course my son was in his school with his pen. Very obviously, there had to be some spare pen in the house but this also was not in place.

I was surprised to see that with passage of time scores of exhausted pens had gathered in our house. And it felt so irritating.

And this had happened because of the exhaustion of the refills. The whole undegradable plastic body of pen goes useless, if its refill gets empty. This is simply because buying a refill for a ball pen, has almost the same cost as buying a new ball pen!

This objectionable model of business has earned a ridiculous nomenclature – “Use And Throw.” But no one bothers about where to throw?

Are this Earth and its atmosphere meant for absorbing our ever mounting undegradable garbage?

In the evening, again, I and my son went to market to buy new ball pens.

My son had kept few of the old spent ball pens with him in the anticipation of finding suitable refills for them. But to our utter dismay, the shopkeeper expressed inability to cater to our demand and we again had to buy the new ones.

We tried our best of bargain, and ended up with buying those ball pens which claimed to write a longer length. At least this will reduce the numbers of discarded undegradable plastic pen bodies.

Though my son has liking of pens that have fancy look and attractive colours , he made a compromise in greater interest of our environment, and made choice for those mentioned above.

Thus being eco conscious by sacrificing our fondness for environment degrading products and pursuits; and promoting ecofriendly lifestyle has become urgent for survival of this planet and mankind.

What Does It mean To Become Eco Conscious?

Becoming eco conscious or ecologically conscious involve the following:

Consciousness For Taking Notice About The Way of Manufacturing.

We must consider whether some ecologically unsound processes or practices are involved at any stage of manufacturing a product, which we are going to support and buy. We should stay away from any such product with proven bad impacts on ecology.

However if such a product is indispensable then, we should make least use of it, as far possible.

Note that, high energy consuming, or, high water consuming products, badly impact our environment.

Support Local Produce.

Local produces reach you with least or no shipment costs. This means least or no fossil fuel has been used in their transportation to the consumers and have less carbon footprint.

Preferring local fruits over the transported ones is one such example. Apart from their high freshness and nourishment index, they are ecofriendly as well. They don’t involve harmful preservatives, insecticides, and in many cases, use of undegradable packaging materials.

Think Twice Before Throwing Any Waste Material, Directly In To The Environment.

Before discarding or throwing any waste material in the environment, think carefully about its biodegradability.

Biodegradable waste can easily get absorbed in the environment and become part of natural cycle. But unbiodegradable wastes are not.

Hence non biodegradable materials shouldn’t be disposed off directly on open earth surface, rivers, streams, ponds, beaches, sewage, forests, or in your neighborhood. It chokes the liveliness of our planet.

Packaging materials, plastic bags and containers, if not brought in to reuse by recycling, and thrown carelessly in to the environment; they block our ecosystem like bad cholesterol blocks our arteries.

Make it a aim, to segregate your garbage and then follow the proper norms of their disposal.

We can organise seminars, speech competition for children to make them a eco conscious citizen.

Consider The Act of Polluting As Sin.

We need to grow sensible and eco conscious towards nature. We will have to visualize our nature as a person, who like a mother, nurtures us. And that this is a sheer sin on our part, to her, if we abuse her by injecting pollutants in to her body.

We will have to take notice how in our daily life we are poisoning the nature:

  1. We use plastic tooth brushes, plastic bottles, plastic containers, which when worn, are often thrown in the environment.
  2. Continuously changing trends in fashion often captivates our mind. Powerful advertisements seduce us in to becoming a consumerist society, which exploits resources at a much faster rate. As a result, a typical fashion conscious person may gather 10 to 12 pair of shoes, belts and spectacles along with huge number of cloths and variety of perfumes. Most of these articles have polluting effect on nature and environment. People buy them, use them and dispose them at sheer disadvantage to the environment.
  3. Ignorant and ill informed farmers also contribute to the environment degradation by irrational use of chemical fertilisers and excessive irrigation.

If we become emotionally committed towards well being of nature and environment; we may develop ethical attitude towards disposal of manufactured goods.

Make An Assessment of Your Contribution In Damaging The Environment.

This we can do if we resolve to become a eco conscious person.

We can easily assess our own contribution in degrading the environment by taking stock of the garbage that our kitchen, our wardrobe, our bathrooms, our study and our garage produce.

Also we should analyse how much unnecessary articles we have shopped only to satisfy our urge to show off in our social circle.

Steps To Become Eco Conscious.

Efforts however small; if adopted by every member of society, may bring enormous change and can alter the already grave situation of environment crisis.

Steps that can help in generating the attitude of eco consciousness in us, may include:

  1. Learning the art of simple living.
  2. Eco Conscious shopping.
  3. Use of cash, instead of card, may arrest the desire of extravagant spending.
  4. Being Vocal For Local, i.e. buying local produce.
  5. Assuring judicious consumption of resources.
  6. Adopting the culture of second hand buying and reconditioning(furniture, books).
  7. Promote composting of waste food.
  8. Promoting the use of jute or cotton carry bags.
  9. Promoting the use of traditional home made cosmetics, which are far better in performance as well as in nourishing properties.
  10. Growing vegetables on our own.
  11. Use of clean and green energy.
  12. Practice of Yoga and meditation, which makes us prudent and genuine.
Categories
Gifts of nature.

Autumn Season In India: How It Descended Around Me This Year!

Autumn Season In India.
Autumn Season In India.
Autumn Season In India.
Autumn Season In India.

Autumn season in India is synonymous with “Hemant Ritu.” The presence of Autumn season in India remains for almost two months- September and October. It is a period of transition from rainy season to the winter.

In this season hot and humid weather of rainy season starts disappearing (Retreat of Monsoon), temperature slides down, and trees and forests change their look in a way – special to this part of world.

It is greatly exhilarating to write about the Autumn season in India and how it descended around me this year – in my garden, in the countryside and in my heart.

Those First, Night Blooming Jasmine Flowers of Autumn.

Cleanliness has its own aura.

Just a few days back in early September I had hired a labourer to clean my garden and give it a facelift. The garden had turned shabby due to haphazard growth of weeds and opportunist shrubs during the last spell of rains.

This monsoon we had a deficit rainfall but still there was no deficit of unwanted growths in our garden. It took whole of the day to make it clean but still pruning of rose shrubs remained incomplete. This I will have to do myself in the coming weekend.

unpruned rose shrubs.
unpruned rose shrubs.

Anyway the garden is now clean and weedless. Next morning I couldn’t resist to have a walk inside it to enjoy its trimmed look and charm, to feel the earth, air and the freshness of this micro ecological unit!

The weed free garden looked so inviting from a distance. I had just only opened the small gate of its fence to enter it, that I spotted new guests in the garden. My goodness! White tiny beautiful Harsingar flowers(Night Blooming Jasmines)!

Then suddenly my eyes caught view of morning sun beam piercing through the foliage above and kissing the garden bed at slant angles.

All climatological indicators were echoing, ” Here comes the Autumn….Here comes the Autumn.” I welcomed these flowers and the new season by taking their pictures in my mobile phone camera and with an heart that was brimming with joy and excitement.

First Night Blooming Jasmine Flowers of Autumn.
First Night Blooming Jasmine Flowers of Autumn.

I came running inside my house to announce it to the family members that first Harsingar flowers (Night Blooming Jasmines) have blossomed in our garden!

Night Blooming Jasmine with Its Lovely Orange Stalk.
Night Blooming Jasmine with Its Lovely Orange Stalk.

Everyone was in the awe of noticing the season’s first arrival of these cute white Jasmines which looked so beautiful with their orange hued stalk. The sweet fragrance of these nascent flowers was diffusing into the characteristic morning chill of the Autumn.

Autumn has elements of all Seasons.

A famous Japanese proverb says, “A woman’s feelings and the autumn weather are as fickle as each other.”

Yes, to some extent I also feel likewise about autumn the way it expresses itself in my vicinity or, in my geographical region. Sometimes it is really hot during parts of the day, but mornings and nights have a kind of chill which gives wintry feel and thrill.

This is the season when retreat of monsoon is underway. Scattered big white clouds against deep blue sky, look as if giant sized white ships were navigating a deep blue ocean.

Autumn Season In India.
Autumn Season In India.

And when the sun rays get trapped in these clouds, they cast an aura of diffused light under which all the trees and greenery around us just look pristine and heavenly. The variation in shades of daylight is just amazing and can leave anyone spellbound.

Chill of mid-autumn is very instrumental in stimulating many biological functions in seeds, plants and trees. Continuously receding temperature and chill of the night, assign distinct smell and flavour to the fruits and vegetables.

When autumn advances further with time, petals of roses grow in size and thickness, and feel more velvety when you touch them.

A Morning of The Autumn In The Outskirts.

Our township is situated in the flood plains of river Kosi which emanates from near the Mount Everest in Himalayas.

One morning, in this autumn, we planned to have a trip to the outskirts, which we often do, to spend our time solitarily in the lap of nature. But our plan for this trip extended a bit further towards the river embankment of river Kosi.

Himalayan rivers, often during autumn return back to their original bed limits and vacate the flood plains to be reclaimed again by the farmers. Farmers have robust food crops and vegetables on them.

Swampy tracts of these regions are dotted with numerous shallow waterbodies in which flourishes the magnificent aquatic life.

The most prized thing here, in this autumn morning, was the spectacular view of colony of blooming Lotuses with their long stalks and beautiful petals. The pristine beauty of lotus instantly captivated me. Its aura of purity and grace was spreading all over.

Lotus flowers have their last blooming in Autumn.
Lotus flowers have their last blooming in Autumn.

For them(the Lotuses), this is the last blooming of the year. Because with the onset of winter, they will die, and their seeds will lie dormant in the mud below, to wake up again to life in the April, next year!

The famous Hindu festival Durga Puja takes place in autumn. Night Blooming Jasmines and Lotuses both are favourite and dear to the Goddess. Both these flowers are offered to Goddess Durga with great reverence. And both these flowers have special connection with Autumn – the eternal connection of arrival and of departure!… And also the connection with Goddess Durga!

Is there anything between the lines, for you there, reading this post ?

Autumn Season Signifies the Eternity of Transition!

I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Autumn season, which created in me a deeper sense to understand the beautiful emotions that a phase of transition (like Autumn) can create.

Transition of seasons, transition of daylight, transition of food, flavour and aroma, transition of dress and fashion, transition of colours, transition of age and understanding – all these makes a person thrilled about the next and forthcoming; and at the same time, makes him or her nostalgic about the previous and passing.

( Do leave a comment, if you liked this post.)

Categories
Gifts of nature.

What Lessons Did the Nature Whisper This Summer?

Tiny birds swinging on white cable in summer morning.
Tiny birds swinging on white cable in summer morning.

I always find in nature a great companion, guide and advisor. What lessons this summer, I got from nature is something that might interest you as well.

Subtle Side of Nature.

The first crude feel of nature is its physical existence. And then comes the feel of myriads of lessons it spreads out. The sensitive and receptive minds amaze at it, praise it and experience the bliss associated with it.

To me, watching nature is like roaming in a world which is so subtle yet so sensible, so enormous yet so approachable, so complex yet so simple. For me it is like Godliness expressed, translated and explained.

Lessons of Summer in a Sunny Morning.

morning sun beam carpeting the floor
morning sun beam carpeting the floor

Early July, year 2023. Dry summer was slowly giving way to the onset of monsoons over South Asia. I rose late in the morning, this day, when morning sunbeam had carpeted the floor of the hall, in which, opens the door of my bedroom.

In otherwise moderate to cool summer night temperatures in the Terai regions of eastern North Indian plains; nights this summer had been oppressively hot.

Most of the families in general, in these regions are still not used to of using air conditioners. Thus a proper sleep is possible in later part of night. Even myself also is not too much in habit of using AC to parry the heat of the summer.

Anyway I was late to awake this morning and was somewhere filled with the guilt of not rising at the first chirp of birds.

These birds were racing and stirring the morning calm with their lovely playful bustle. From my residence at the first floor, I rushed to open the main entrance door at the ground, because it were only few minutes to go when our housemaid would come.

Soon a Bulbul(bird), flied past my head and lost in to the canopy of our only mango tree in the garden.

With sudden spurt of curiosity, I followed and tracked its course and finally spotted the bird with straw in its beak, busy in weaving its incomplete nest at some safe location in the branches.

I was completely bewildered at so many things which started darting in my mind at this sight. To me this tiny avian appeared no less than an aeronautics specialist. Their survey for a base tree branch to construct a nest, might have a lot of calculations and assessments related to aerodynamic stability and protection from their natural enemies. A lot of considerations regarding protection from intense sunrays, blow of local prevailing winds and rains would certainly have factored in their decision making.

Thought of their skillful work for architecture and design of nest, and identification and procurement of suitable raw material for it, pushed me to another level astonishment.

And along with this all, the lessons of this summer that percolated in me was to remain attentive to our priorities and work hard to achieve them.

Tiny Birds Were Like Bubbles of Lessons This Summer.

Tiny birds swinging on white cable in summer morning.
Tiny birds swinging on white cable in summer morning.

Tiny birds at large are very fascinating. They are like tiny bubbles full of amazements and many pleasing attributes. They look so cute and brim with energy. They are specially lovely to watch in morning time, when they are far too busy in their own world.

My balcony on first floor finds a nice aerial view of our neighbour’s campus below. The campus is not well maintained. Rather it wears a deserted look, due to owner’s negligence, who is a Nepali citizen but owns property in India as well for the reasons not known to me.

Anyway, above the green yard of my neighbour’s campus ran a contrasting white thick electric cable, which supplied electricity to the household from the electric pole.

On one fine morning I caught view of few seasonal newcomers. Big Kadamb tree, laden with its golden fruits, and growth of some other wild shrubs in the immediate surrounding might have attracted them for their temporary stay in my neighborhood.

Kadamb tree with golden fruits.
Kadamb tree with golden fruits this summer.

Pale green in colour, with extended sharp beaks; these tiny birds created a great view, when they sat on the smooth white electric cable. The cable swung like a hammock every time they flied off or alighted on it. These distorted cuboidal shaped birds in their pale green robe and sturdy black beak in the panoramic morning environment, appeared feast to the eyes.

The more awesome was their flight. They took flight in vertical concave shape for their first half, and then with a blink of eye; a swift vertical concave return to the cable in their later half.

It took me some time to discover that they were targeting the insects that were flying above and around. Their takeoff and comeback had left the cable swinging in a rhythm and the birds sitting on them were like riding on a hammock.

This view of birds, set in me also, the waves of untold pleasure and exhilaration. Nature is full of myriads of tiny pleasure. we must have appropriate discerning senses to feel and enjoy them!

That Unfortunate Butterfly: A Bitter Experience This Summer.

Drive to outskirts.
Drive to outskirts.

But I would like to mention one such incident which I still detest. Our new SUV(vehicle) had some issue related to tyre air pressure. I and my 14 year old son, on a cloudy morning, took a drive towards garage and after getting the issue resolved, we thought to get the fuel tank filled as well.

As the weather was incredibly pleasant, we deliberately chose to visit the fuel station, which was located on the outskirts. Within few minutes we were on the outer road of the township.

The smooth black coal tar road was flanked on both sides by the lush green vegetation. The cool breeze and the seductive view of blue Himalayan mountains on our right were further adding to our joy. My son like me, is also nature connoisseur and is very much comfortable with intricacies of photography techniques available over mobile phones. So he was totally absorbed in taking pictures of changing frames of sceneries outside.

Then suddenly happened the unexpected. Birds catch insects is a common phenomena ,we observe. But what we saw now, jerked us. A big brown sturdy bird with long tail, came out of the blue in front of our racing vehicle, and swooped at a gorgeous emerald butterfly that was on its flight across the road, dancing in the air with its shapely royal wings. The hunter bird clenched it in its beak and vanished in to the canopy of trees.

With my foot on accelerator, and hands on the steering, I felt like left behind in time at this scene. I stared in my son’s face, who was also awestruck and was staring at me with shock and surprise written all across his innocent face. Time had fallen still for us, and the vehicle…kept racing towards its destination.

Categories
Gifts of nature.

Lessons From Birds.

A Sunday afternoon of early summer.

I woke up after having a deep afternoon sleep, walked through the corridor to reach our common sitting place where my Mom announced with playful smile, “today pigeons have had enough to their fill.”

Receiving these words in my ears, sleepy me strove to awake fully to take notice of what she meant. Meanwhile she went on explaining further, “Pigeons today freely enjoyed the wheat grains spread in the Sun, before them, unattended for long hours.”

Though the information given by the mother was about the loss, these birds had caused to us, but also inherent in her voice was the satisfaction that the pigeons enjoyed much and had a lot of fun while picking this vast spread of wheat grains.

From time immemorial, these birds are co-sharers of the human food grains, without caring for the economics behind it.

I remember my childhood days , when our house campus had enough free space. There my Grandmother used to sow Maize plants during the season along with other seasonal vegetable shrubs and creepers.

When the Maize plants bore new corn wrapped inside the multilayer green husk, the Parrots soaring across the airspace, caught the glimpse of these corn ears. Though I had seen many parrots in cage, but watching the flocks of parrots alighting on the maize ears of my garden, tear away the green husk cover, and then pecking at the sweet corn grains inside, was like something extraterrestrial for me! Beautiful parrots with myriad shades of green, yellowish green, and in between; their bright red curved beaks, and the ocean blue ring like formation around their smooth velvety neck left me spell bound!

Despite my granny’s strict instructions to prevent these parrots from damaging the corn, I gladly would late it happen, and, noticed the activities of these innocent beautiful parrots from a distance without disturbing them in their enterprise! The racing of these parrots across the garden was scene worth millions, for the child that I was.

Today when most of the free space of my campus has been lost to commercial use, I wish I had a mobile phone at that time, so that I could capture those glimpses of beautiful parrots to revisit them now. Today the house campus has concrete construction all over, sparing a patch of land, occupied by two lovely Mango trees, one Parijat tree, extensive Rose bed and lawn grass.

Until 15-20 years back, Sparrows were very common to our courtyard near kitchen windows, where they could find eatables. These small tiny lives would always alight in folk and their chirping sounds filled the air with energy and bustle.

My sister Guria, had special affinity for Gauraiyaas ( Name for Sparrows in Hindi). She would sprinkle rice on the floor of courtyard and would wait for their arrival. She used to say , “these Gauraiyaas (Sparrows) are my sisters. Just see how letters in their name resemble with that of mine!”

Once we got a chance to watch and see a Nightingale couple raising their family in our house. Our house had a big hall which was not properly complete yet, and was meant for renting it out to some office in future.

The hall was on the first floor which opened to north with its four giant sized arched gates. six foot high windows were planned in its two walls to the east and to the west. The hall was almost a doorless shelter, through which birds moved across freely.

My mother was very quick to notice that a pair of Nightingale birds was frequently approaching the dark foliage of Dracaena plant, which we had grown in an earthen pot in this hall, and was surveying its surrounding. Soon they started the construction of a new nest amidst the branches of this plant. The two bird architects built a small but awesome dreamhouse for their coming little guests.

Dracaena plant

To our great surprise the nest was aerodynamically stable. It also dawned upon us that the selection of this dark hued plant was an strategic choice to provide camouflage against strangers and possible predators.

At some opportune time the female nightingale laid eggs in the nest which she and her partner had woven so meticulously with great perseverance. Within two or three days, new creatures came out of the shell. This was great news for us also. Everyone of us couldn’t wait to take glimpse inside the nest.

It was very fulfilling and surprising to see how these Nightingale birds with food for their newborns in their beaks took a sudden change of route and would sit and wait when they saw any of our family members coming in their way. Even we also were fully conscious to allow free and fearless passage to these parent birds impatient to feed their newborns. My father took special care for their protection from cats. I don’t remember exactly but he had improvised some arrangement with the help of old mosquito net to block the access of cats to this new family.

Gradually both humans and avians of this house developed harmony and cooperation with each other. We were putting to practice the learnt lessons of synergy, cooperation, giving space to each other, feeling happiness in happiness of others and feeling sad when our neighbourhood sinks in some problem.

Within 4 to 5 days these newborns had wings. Now the parents began their training for flying. First day they only became able to come out of the nest, fly up to 4 to 5 foot distance in one go, and then would sit on concrete shelf made in the wall and would relax. I was amazed to feel that how the Invisible Supreme, which we say God, was taking care of all the biochemistry, physical dynamics, psychological settings, and observation and response mechanism in these little new creatures! Here was the place and moment when I could realise that life with all its complexity and simplicity are set on auto pilot mode by that Almighty God, the supreme creator, protector and destroyer!

The next day parents brought them out under open sky, and in next few days they flew towards the bamboo thickets in our backyard, never to come in our notice again.

The new lives thus got well set and adjusted in this endless universe! Their left out nest often reminded us of those unique and special days. The joyful days in fact. We didn’t remove that nest till it got withered itself, lost, and got assimilated into nature, The Mother.

We humans have become too absorbed in ourselves and have grown insensitive to our surrounding. Sparrows and many other birds are now in the list of endangered species and are on the verge of extinction. Thanks to the pollution and radiation caused by mobile towers dotted every where.

Covid times proved great teacher for this human civilisation. Reduction in industrial and transportation activity saw the nature relaxing and reviving. Many children in metro cities experienced the darkness of night sky and cool of moonlit sky. People woke up in the morning to the sounds of chirping birds. For the first time, in these days, birds, butterflies, honeybees realised that this earth, this climate is theirs too!

In this market driven world, can we ever be considerate and generous enough to think about recreating and bringing back the past rich glory of our forests, rivers, and climate? Can we? If we could, we certainly would take steps to restore and rehabilitate our nature, and ofcourse the birds would chirp again !