Welcome visitor

The bulbul visited our kitchen again! There is nothing great about a bird entering a kitchen. Many a cat, rat, spider, lizard, cockroach, friends and relatives visit our houses and so did a bulbul. Sparrows used to nestle in the kitchen of our Bangalore house quite often. that was the time when they were also allowed to live in Bangalore. I am excited about this present visitor because these visits are one of the things we thought that we may miss in our new abode. I am talking about my house in Ponda, Goa. It is nearing two years since we shifted to this place. Before this, we used to stay in a block of apartments not very far from here. The apartments were at the border of the municipal limits of Ponda and beyond our apartments there were no more buildings. There was a play ground and then gentle slopes of the hillocks that surround our city. There were three things which fascinated us in our flat.

I had made a small place amongst the kitchen shelves where we kept the few idols of the various gods that we possessed. A box containing the Saligram and other accompaniments of “god’s habitat” or “devara goodu” as we call it. Some months after we occupied that flat, one morning we noticed that the sun light from the kitchen balcony fell directly on the box of Saligram. That was not a miracle or heavenly intervention in our affairs. Sun light does fall on any object in it’s path and our Saligram was in the path of sunlight, for about a week or ten days in a year. But we did feel good about it. There is no reason or logic or any explanation why one should feel good about any astronomical or physical happening or whatever. It was only our feeling.

Let me now shift to our bedroom balcony. I had nailed an old wooden box in the balcony on top of which we piled used, unused and useless pieces of cloth. On many occasions we had noticed a Magpie Robin flying in and out of the balcony with strands of fiber, twigs, pieces of thread etc. Some months later when I looked on top of the shelf hoping to find a suitable piece of cloth for some errand on hand, I was surprised to find that the Robin had built a nest on top of the shelf and laid eggs too. There after we followed the progress eagerly and could see the hatchlings out of the shell, their parents feeding them and witness the young ones fly away. We observed this for two to three seasons till we shifted out.

Coming back to our kitchen in the flat, we used to hang bunch of bananas on a wooden stand meant for the purpose and had placed it on our kitchen platform. There was a tree right next to the kitchen balcony which was liked by squirrels, crows in search of squirrels, as also bulbuls and Robins. We could see into the kitchen from our hall and on one occasion when no one was in the kitchen we heard some noise and looking over, found this bulbul enjoying the bananas in our kitchen. We did like its presence but to prevent indiscriminate destruction of bananas we used to keep one fruit out on the balcony which used to last about two days for the bulbul. Still the bulbul was partial to the fresh ones hanging from the stand and did sneak in, to enjoy it when no one was around. we sort of indulged it.

When we shifted out of the flat to the present house, we thought that we would miss out these things that we had liked. The gods had been given better accommodation and they now occupied what could be termed “devara mane” instead of “goodu”. The “mane” is only a partitioned part of our living room but it is a improvement on what our gods were used to. Every individual deity had his/her own niche and was placed according to protocol and hierarchy with sufficient space to move around and create miracles if she/ he wished to. But this location was at the centre of the house with no chance of any rain or shine coming near the gods. We missed the sunlight falling on our gods. We shifted in October. Some time after “sankranti” One fine evening we were very pleasantly surprised to see the sunlight falling directly on the idol at the centre of devara mane. The light came in through a circular opening near the ceiling made on a wall quite a distance away.the onset of uttaraayana after sankranti must have been responsible for the sunlight passing into our devaramane for few minuts in the evenings for a few days. My son was present at site when the wall was being built, and when only one or two rows of bricks were left to be placed, he had pleaded that an opening be kept to allow any bird to enter our house if it so wished. No bird has ever made use of the opening as there are many better alternatives available for them but the sun light did fall on our God! It made us happy.

Out of the three things that we thought that we would miss here, two remained. And yesterday I found that two fruits out of the bunch of bananas that hang on the stand had been pecked. I had almost forgotten about the bulbul. I thought it must have been that rogue of a rat which used to raid our dust bin and had thought me a lesson by biting off a part of the door and frame when I shifted the bin inside at nights. I also thought of the cockroach but had not seen one with such a healthy appetite as to finish off a quarter of a banana at one go. Then the tube got alight. It was the bulbul! This morning I placed one banana on the kitchen balcony and spent half an hour observing the antics of the bulbul around the fruit and i managed to click two snaps inspite of limited knowledge in using the digital camera. That’s the reason for my excitement. even though i used all of my limited mental resources,(the wee little, that was available after using the camera) i could not get the photographs to appear on this blog. i will try again later.



Now I feel I can try placing some old rags in a corner of the other balcony and see if the magpie robin returns too.