When I returned from my ten day vacation I noticed something had changed in my house. We had an uninvited guest.An Athithi..somebody who decided to visit us without informing us of the Thithi.
My small city apartment balcony squeezes in my noisy washing machine (which reminds me during spin cycles of a fettered animal spirit, rioting to break free), a barely alive frigid Tulsi plant and a stronger braver money plant , the last two being attempts by my mother to make my flat a home. As I was moving through said balcony freely, I was stopped on my tracks by the sound of the beating of strong wings flurrying in panic, hitting wildly at random objects. I noticed this big mature blue green Apartment pigeon (city slick cousins of the Rock Pigeon) breaking into an escape through the narrow grills of my balcony. She seemed to be building a nest under the cover of a big green basin we had placed outside. This nest building is an occurrence that is becoming more and more common each day in Bangalore.
Over the last few days I'v been observing her. After laying her little white egg, she sits on it smugly, slightly nervous only when we throw the balcony door open abruptly, unthinkingly. Sometimes we see her flurry out when we are up and about in the adjoining kitchen. She tries to spend as much time as possible hatching her egg in the unusually severe cold winter.
I keep thinking of the odds stacked against her. The winter coupled with our unexpected return surely disturbed her plans. Are the conditions warm enough to bring forth burgeoning life? I wonder.
It is bare survival for her and the little life within the fragile shell which, after all, has just the right amount of strength to serve its purpose. Thankfully for the pigeon, it seems emotions, anxiety, tension, worry etc. are qualities exclusive to humans!
Mothers are unique creatures. Almost anything will be done to ensure survival of progeny. Human moms are just the same too that way. Unfortunately, even when the costs are too high. In the face of domestic abuse,absence of love,respect or care in the marriage etc. , self respect,dignity and quality of life are the first to be thrown out of the sinking ship of marriage. Who needs those as long as the children are fed,clothed and have a place to sleep.
Today I felt this is where human behaviour differs a bit... in that humans get used to living like that. Long after children become self sufficient, often long after their self respect can be salvaged, the abusive chains remain. Sometimes timely help arrives in the form of good friends or spirituality.
A woman needs to learn from a very young age that all that is required is within her .. whether it is courage, wisdom or the ability to not only rear a child but to lead her own life exactly the way she wants to, without suffering a beating to her body or mind. If there is kindness,love and compassion to support you well and good.. if not? Even the pigeon trusts in itself or in the laws of the universe when it starts building its lone nest and prepares to bring life into this world. Can't we evolved humans too?
