My Winged Neighbours!

I have a neighbour, who has a large car and parking space enough for two cars. But his car is always parked on the narrow road in front of his house blocking two thirds of the road. This irritates me. There is another, whose habit of burning plastic bags in front of their house, irritates my wife no end. There is yet another, whose pet cat thinks that my scooter seat is there only to satisfy its scratching urge. And my patient's two wheelers, often parked carelessly in front of the clinic, obstruct the road and bothers all three of them. So, It is tit for tat or give and take or whatever, and we live accepting the irritations as part of life.

In contrast, we have these winged neighbours, the Barbets, Bulbuls, Coukal, Cuckoo, Hornbills, Robins, Sun birds, Warblers and a few others not introduced to me yet, who are a pleasure to have around! They enliven the mornings with their twittering and enliven the surroundings with their flittering. The Bulbuls sometime destroy the  Chikoo fruits in the tree and help themselves to a share of Bananas from my kitchen but the pleasure that I get from them is certainly more than the sustenance they get from me!

Now and then I try to get their pictures but they are not used to sitting and posing for cameras. That being the case I was very much surprised to see the family of Hornbills who reside in the tree opposite my house, sitting on the coconut leave next to my window in the morning. I usually hear their harsh call but rarely see them. Once or twice they alighted on my balcony for a few seconds and once they tried to break my window! Today they spent a lot of time sitting there relaxed, calling to their friends and preening themselves. Since I have tinted glasses in the window, I could see them clearly but they were not aware of my presence.  Had I opened my window, I could touch them! I spent an enjoyable half an hour looking at them and got a good many pictures. Few of them are here.

The Bulbul's yearly family building programme is on. The nest this year is on the loops of electric cable hanging above my clinic door. They seem to have an affinity to electricity! Probably they select places which the cat can't reach!

The Family - one parent and two siblings

The child in full splendour!

The parent and child - Having opposite views?

Another pose.

The site of Bulbul's home - the year before

Remnants of the last year's home !

Mother providing warmth of love and putting the off springs to sleep, after feeding

Managed to get the picture of the hatchlings when the mother was not around!

This year's nest, in the coil of power cable above the door. And it was an adventure, risking my limbs, to photograph them. I had to keep one foot on the railing another on the window sill and use both hands to take the picture!

After a long time I tried posting a video - the Hornbills preening and grooming themselves!

Lick Your Fingers And Be Ready!

When I was in second standard I changed my school and joined one which was a little away from our house. It wasn't very far but at the same time not a 'walkable distance' either. Then I started to take a city bus to go to school. I usually purchased a monthly concession pass but on occasions when it was not renewed in time, I had to buy a ticket. The ticket then costed five paisa and the conductor usually pocketed the coin and never issued a ticket. This, in fact was a blessing for me because, when he did issue a ticket he usually licked his finger, tore out a ticket and pushed it into my hand in a hurry. The ticket sometimes had a generous coating of his saliva and it even wet my hand. This was very disgusting for me and hence I usually hesitated before accepting the ticket and tried to get hold of a part of the ticket which was not soiled by his spit. Usually the end at which the tickets had been pinned together. In the process I dilly dallied and got scolded by the conductor for delaying him. I gingerly held the ticket by the tips of my fingers and dropped it as soon as I alighted from the bus.

I always tried to catch hold of this end of the ticket!

Unfortunately I turned out to be a dentist and was forced to spend a life time in other peoples mouths  enjoying cooling sprays of saliva on my face half a dozen times everyday, but my disgust towards finger licking has only steadily grown.

I go to the reading room and see at least half  the people reading there absentmindedly licking their fingers before turning pages. The finger lickers usually turn the pages by the right bottom corner and so, I have developed a habit of turning the pages of a borrowed book always from the top right corner!

I give a set of sheets to the xerox fellow to make copies. He gets the copies, licks his fingers, counts them and hands them over to me. Sometimes I object and try to tell him that he should not do so but he is usually surrounded by half a dozen people who are licking their fingers to check their copied sheets. I shut my mouth, accept the sheets and do whatever I can to assuage my disgust.

It is the same situation when I have to accept change from hawkers/shopkeepers and even when my patients pay me. In fact it is even worse in the clinic. Apart from the habit of finger licking to count cash, my patient's fingers are always in their mouth after the treatment either confirming that an offending tooth is not there any more or a filling has really been done! Sometimes I send them to wash their hands before paying me. But it is hopeless. So, all the notes that I receive from my patients invariably go into the formaldehyde vapour steriliser and I retrieve them after few hours!

Since most of the finger licking is for counting cash and turning pages, our banks used to be the best places to observe the habit. Every one of the workers there used to be either counting cash, handling paper slips or turning pages of a ledger! Now with  ATM machines handing over cash and ledgers having been replaced by computers, I had thought that there is not much scope for finger licking in the banks.

I went to the bank this morning for some work.  I was a bit early and the counter clerk was just then logging on to his computer. Before he logged himself in, the manager had to authorise his logging and he requested the manager to do the needful. The manager in turn had to confirm his identity by pressing his thumb on the electronic thumb print recorder attached to the computer. He pressed his thumb on the panel once, twice, thrice. Nothing happened. Then he casually licked his thumb and pressed it on the recorder and voila! There was a flash and a beep and it was done! Now I am curious to see what the ATM machine is going to do next!

Whenever I go to renew my driving licence or passport I am asked to press my thumb on this recorder and I always pressed without thinking twice. I understand there is a plan to incorporate Adhar number while buying air and train tickets and you will be required to register the thumb impression before entering the airport/ railway station. Now that we have sensitised our electronic gadgets to accept only licked thumbs, I hate to think of my fate.