THE PIGEON NEST.

My flat has a beautiful balcony attached to it which makes mornings and evenings a sight which touches souls, standing there barefoot looking onto the green patch foreword makes me feel so pure and peaceful.

Enjoying my morning tea and newspaper, I could hear the birds chirping, and once in a while when my eyes would look up- pigeons sitting on the wall, in groups, would be a normal sight. But today was different, along with the peace and beauty my nose was irritated with a foul smell. As is human nature, being my inquisitive self, I started searching for the target, the area which was emanating this foul smell. I searched and searched my small cozy balcony but except the flowerpots and some unused things there was nothing. Then I noticed something, three pigeons were still sitting there on the wall not feeling afraid in my proximity.

The balcony is covered by a shed, below the shed is a small space to keep things, I never gave this place a thought ,but today, it caught my sight,  got onto the balcony wall and peeked into the space…and…what do I see! There is the source of foul smell… I could see the excreta of pigeons scattered all over the place and that was not all, in one small  corner they had collected twigs and dry leaves and upon that were two ugly creatures…slim beaks, lean skinny body without feathers. They were a horrible sight.

 I got down angry…how dare they take my peaceful little space and make it dirty. We bought this flat and they have encroached the place free of cost and are making merry and keeping it unhygienic. The day suddenly changed. It felt dark and depressing. I shouted at my husband …couldn’t see my daughter. I wanted this space back and clean.

I entered my bedroom, just surrendered to the bed…there while I was lying down ,kept thinking about it ,how to get rid of them. And then my mind just did a quick flashback and I came across those days when we left everything and came to Jammu, we felt so empty from inside and outside without our homeland, till now we are not over with it. In the depth of our hearts we still want to go to the valley and live it, that’s why maybe I look forward to the green patch through my balcony.

These small creatures, what are we doing to them, taking their forests away and creating concrete jungles, where will they go if we destroy their homes. The concrete is the only place left for them to make a cold unnatural home for survival. So who is the real villain they or us.

I got up from the bed and looked at myself in the mirror and thought do I want to do the same thing to them what I faced few years back…no…

Thus, they will live their along with us. The pigeon nest remains intact.