Of Sights and Sounds..

It happened when I was about to caress the golden locks of the blond mermaid on the lonely picturesque island. All my life, I wanted to touch the mermaids, but this is the first time I came close to caressing her golden tresses. It was persistent and was invading into the thick fog of my sleep to scare away the mermaid and put an abrupt end to my tryst with her. I cussed as I could not locate the mobile to cut off the 'jal tarang' music, I kept as an alarm tone.




I finally cut off the alarm and stretched lazily to savor the early morning sounds. The chirping and twittering of the birds. I think Banglore is one place, where you can still hear the busy birds in the early morning despite the invasion of the concrete jungle in to the pristine nature. As I lazily tried come into the day, I wondered about the mermaid and remembered the umpteen travel brochures I have been going through. No doubt,I was in close proximity with the mermaid, but I do not remember the 'Fishy Odour' that is associated with all marine creatures!

While listening to the pleasant cacophony of the birds, I peeped out of the window to see the birds of many sizes busily hopping on the Neem tree. I, not being an ornithologist, can not differentiate between the birds, but one thing is certain. They will make your day a bright one with their exuberance exhibited during their early morning rounds.

But of late, I am missing one bird, which even my limited knowledge of ornithology vouches for!




This is one bird , which is with me since my childhood.It is also a paramount example of the social bonding, which we people lack. If per chance a crow is either electrocuted or dies of any other cause, all the remaining crows gather and sing an obituary fit for a politician. However much you try to shoo them off, they will not leave till they finish the program.I still vividly remember that whenever a crow crows at my house, my mother used to say that some relatives are coming. I still do not understand the relation between the relatives and the crow (Is there any pun in this belief?). When some one dies, the funeral program includes feeding of crows also. But of late, I fail to see the crow in the urban scenario. If they vanish and become extinct, what will happen to all the souls that want to eat the last offering of their loved ones through the majestic black bird? How will we know the arrival of all the relatives that may come to our house?

Cow is another animal that is sacred to all Indians, as we wrote in so many essays in our childhood. But this sacred animal is also so lightly cared for. We always learnt that Cow's milk is the good supplement for those unlucky children, who could not get sufficient milk from their mothers. But all we get now is the local dairy milk, which may or may not contain cow's milk but a cocktail of Bufallow's and some other animals like goat or in some areas, camel also.I am reminded of my personal experience, while I was working at Hyderabad. On a Sunday morning, I came out to see when someone was shouting and selling something. I called him and inquired about his merchandise. I was surprised to know that he is selling Donkey's milk. My friends later told me that in rural Telangana, people believe that if an infant is fed with Donkey's milk, his immunity and his intelligence will improve!! Some asinine intelligence, it must be!!!.

One thing that baffled me time and again is why all the women activists concentrate on conserving stray dogs instead of a sacred animal like a cow.

Talking about the stray dogs , I am really facing a problem with these stray dogs of late in our colony.We have an army of strays and most of my friends are afraid of going for early morning walks as they bark and attempt to attack them.



Talking about the dogs and donkey's remind me of Cleopatra, who, I read somewhere used to bathe with donkey's milk!!

The beauty that set so many hearts aflame was maintained with ass's milk!!!