I wander into your room and see you peering out of the window…full of wonder, excitement and curiosity. “What is it?”I say in my (usual) irritated mom kind of tune. But when I look out towards your balcony, I saw what your excitement was all about. There were two eggs laid by the mother pigeon, she was hovering around her eggs and wondering what all the fuss was about.
“Wow, this is awesome…….” Before I could even finish my sentence, you started your barrage of questions….. “Mama, will these eggs become babies? When will they become babies? When will they fly? Are they going to live here with us? Will they fly away when they will grow up…? And many more that I don’t seem to remember.
“Mama, you know Sanju didi showed these to me, and you know yeh mother pigeon toh didi ko dekh kar darti bhi nahin hai……….. Kya mein inko touch kar sakta hoon? Mera dil kar raha tha…. Eggs ko utha ke andar le aayein kya?”
I had to take a deep breath and tear my eyes away from the eggs (after all it was for the first time that any bird had laid its eggs for hatching in our balcony). I asked Manveer to catch his breath, calm down and then tried to explain all that I knew about the question bank put forward to me …… god, do their minds work so furiously all the time ? Are these kids always like these little dynamites…..bursting with ideas, questions, activity and energy off course?
“Nahin, beta! You should not touch the eggs otherwise the pigeon will not hatch them…..And yes now these eggs will become babies and they will then learn to fly as well……… rest of the things watch them as they happen……. Ok?”
From that day onwards, not a morning went and not an evening passed when you didn’t go out there to watch… “Mama, abhi tak babies nahin hue…kab honge yeh babies…. Batao na?” you were so impatient and seeing mother pigeon always sitting on her eggs, you were beginning to worry how long will it be before you got to see the eggs. You used to go and shoo her away, just to have a glance at the eggs. “Mama, abhi bhi nahin hue …….”
“Mama, Sanju didi se toh pigeon darti bhi nahin hai….eggs pe hi baithi rehti hai …”
Now even your papa was keenly involved in this. Whole of the house was waiting for the babies to come and start chirping. Your papa suggested let’s put some food grains and some water right there so that pigeon doesn’t have to leave the nest at all. So started the daily routine of giving rice and water to the would-be-mother………….. Then father pigeon came into picture as well. They were now taking turns at sitting on the eggs for hatching them. I was wondering “Are they really so different from us humans?”
After a long wait of around two weeks, we saw two small little pigeons……
“Mama, why are they yellow? They should be grey like their parents?” your quizzing was back yet again and I simply smiled.
We all felt like proud parents and wanted to get really closer to have a good munh dikhaii ki rasam, but the mother pigeon was all like a fighter, hovering around the chicks like a warrior daring us to step ahead. We stepped back and gave her space. She settled down delicately on her chicks…. “Mama, who apne babies ke upar baith gayeee…. Who toh dub jayenge…?” you were really worried. We had to explain that it is alright and she is just protecting them and keeping them warm.
So now every day all of us watched them growing up and become strong pigeons. They were growing quickly and starting to represent their parents (turning grey, you know). They were ready to fly off but even after they left their nest, they do come back at least once during the day …… do they have memories of their home that guides them back … what is the pull that calls them back time and again?
Is it going to be any different when you will grow up? I want to build such a beautiful nest full of memories with you. Fly away around the whole world and explore yourself, just remember there is one nest where you can come back when it becomes dark. Someplace where you are cherished for being yourself, someplace where you belong……. A global citizen’s own little nest full of memories.
