Unexpected Visitors - Part 2

I understood that the pigeons were fascinated by the wooden plank on which we kept our potted plants. The plank served as their landing, resting, breeding and shitting ground and they wanted to occupy it. Yes, this was the war for the wooden plank.

I loathed hearing the guttural sounds of the pigeons. The cooing sounds turned into an irritation trigger. I imagined making a pigeon biryani our to the shaheed pigeons. The maid complained of cleaning the mess that the pigeons made. We finally gave in, removed the plank and kept the potted plants on the ground. In that way, we could save a few plants.

The pigeons did not stop there. They were angry at losing the wooden plank. They wanted to occupy a greater territory.

Even to this day, I remember the evening one of the brave pigeon's waged a single-handed war on us. I was in the guest room and working on the study table. My hubby was sitting on the bed, close to the window, with his head rested on the window sill. Both of us were engrossed in our work. All of a sudden, my husband jumped at me, as though he got an electric shock and started rubbing his head.

I was startled and asked, ‘What happened?’

He replied,’ The pigeon…’

‘What about it?’

‘I think the pigeon got into the house’

‘Where?’

‘It should be behind the window curtain’

‘What?  Really!’

We slowly moved towards the window. The pigeon was behind the curtain. We wanted to safely direct the pigeon outside, without any causality. The pigeon was on one side of the window. My better-half slowly went to the other side of the window, and slid the glass panes so that the pigeon could fly out of the created space. The pigeon flew out. We breathed a sigh of relief.

My husband later told me that the pigeon thought of his head as some of kind of walking bridge to enter into the house. The pigeon walked on my poor hubby’s head and hid behind the window curtain. The ulterior motive of pigeon is a mystery which can never be solved.   

The pigeon's attack reminded me of another incident which happened before our marriage. I was staying in Bangalore and my fiancé (now husband) was living in Hyderabad. I visited him on one of the weekends. My train to Bangalore was in the night. We took an auto to the train station.

Parting away times are always painful. Moments spent away from your loved one seem like eons. We were seated in the auto, close to each other, with our hands held together and brooded over the good times we spent and planned our next meet. It was in this romantic moment, that we heard some flapping sounds and got steady thwacks on our backs, for a couple of seconds.

Both of us jumped out of our seats. My fiance asked the driver, ‘What’s there in the auto?’

The auto-driver casually remarked, ‘It is a hen’

A hen in an auto? Was the auto-driver giving a ride to the hen? Where did the hen intend to go?

The hen became privy to our conversation. It wanted to let us know how deeply it felt about our separation by jumping around wildly in the auto and scaring us out of our wits.

My hubby and I, emit an avian aura, from which the birds cannot escape. When our horoscopes were matched for marriage, not only our stars but also the birds' stars got linked. The birds want to get close to us, either to trouble us or to let us know their grievances. After the brave attempt by the pigeon to enter the house, we now keep our windows narrowly open. We gave up the balconies to the pigeons; all we have is the apartment and we will not give it up.

‘

                                                                             THE END