Wednesday, January 28, 2009

praying for ill-will


Due to various factors over which I have no control, the only place that I get to do my Yoga exercises is the space in front of our living room balcony. I went through the routine and had a short nap of 10-15 minutes in the guise of ‘shavaasana.’ When I opened my eyes, the sunlight was just appearing between the branches of the jackfruit tree opposite our balcony. As I kept watching, the sun came up and posed. I was compelled to oblige. First surprise- found the camera. Second -fully charged batteries inside. Third - something visible after I clicked. Since I had the picture, thought of posting it on the blog. The following is the caption.

I like the look of these trees which create the illusion of a jungle out there. They are a cluster of jackfruit, mango, banyan, coconut and few other trees which I can not identify. They house a number of birds which tweet, chirp, hoot and caw to welcome every new day. The sounds vary according to the season. Till recently the beginner was the most vociferous of the lot, the horn bill. It rarely comes in view but you can not help hearing it if you are anywhere in the vicinity. It makes a pleadingly harsh noise as if calling for help to save it from torture. Sometimes the crows do torture it and create a parallel cacophony. But the horn bill outcries them. All in all there is a racket every morning. Since the last two days the cuckoo opens the symphony. Summer is approaching. The whistling thrush comes along for just a few minutes to confirm it’s presence. Some days all these birds remain silent. It is their voice and their choice and I can’t complain, but if I don’t hear these sounds in the morning, I feel something missing. With out the trees and the birds our surrounding would be very drab.

We face the back of the house in picture, around which the trees have grown. The occupants of the house are the old tenants of the land, whose forefathers built their dwelling decades back. Now, the land has been divided into individual plots, and my house stands on one plot. The tenants have the right to retain the house and stay there as long as they please but can not rebuild or modify the house with out the land lord’s permission. The land lord can not evict them. Both the parties need to join hands if they intend ‘developing’ the particular piece of land and benefit from it. If not, everything remains as it is. In this case, I think both the parties want things to remain as they are. More over the tenants have encroached up on some additional bit of land and have offended the land lords. A compromise is not in sight. Once they reach an understanding, I will be treated to the sight of a grand multistoried building opposite my house instead of the sun peeping through the trees with their enchanting occupants. I hope that my act of offering an additional flower to the gods and praying for the continuation of non co- operation and ill-will between the tenants and the landlords is not considered very wicked.

2 comments:

Sushma U N said...

Beautiful post!! Amazing photography!!!!! :)

A. Knight said...

The description of the photograph borders on poetry!! Very beautiful!! :))

Am in mumbai right now and was just thinking the other day how all i see and hear in this city are crows! and the occasional pigeon :( Your blog just painted a lovely picture or rather a lovely video (with sound effects) of a more sublime place called home :))

Thank u!