By Shona
I always wondered what attracted the human race to birds and watching them. To me, honestly, it didn’t matter much if a bird had glossy wings or sparkly shades. I mean just birds right?
Well, my list doesn’t end on birds; it has mountains, green climes, clear blue skies and more, which have never ever caught my attention. Maybe belonging to a hill station like Shimla is to be blamed; too much beauty all around forever!
Marrying an Army officer added more nature to my life. It took me further to far-flung stations, thus into more jungles, endless insects, snakes, trees, lakes and, of course, more birds.
Accommodations in field areas are surrounded by lush green trees, flowers, thick jungles and sometimes even elephants. All our discussions in such stations usually centre around all the strange species to be found, what harm they can do to our children and anecdotes from the senior lot who have seen far more challenging climes than us; a rattlesnake under the cupboard in the kids’ room or teaching children how to run as fast as possible on seeing a wild elephant!
However, sooner than you can imagine, such small stations make you adore and appreciate the beauty around. Going on long walks on roads, which not many get to see, keeping a track of all the shades of green seen on trees (believe me there are much more than one can imagine),counting the colours on variety of birds and even knowing their melodies, becomes an inseparable part of you.
In the present station, I must confess that I am noticing a variety of colourful birds visiting my kitchen garden. When did I start enjoying their company I wonder? Strangely, I even own tiny love birds and a few famous ‘Kadaknath’ hens too. These are jet black in colour with shades of shiny navy blue glossy feathers here and there. Looks absolutely great! I now love birds.
