Birds can do what human beings can only imagine – fly. Besides, nature has endowed them with quaint features, contrasting colours and singing tunes that fascinate our eyes and ears. Yet common birds and their interesting ways do not quite get the attention that they deserve. I did not care to see them either until recently I became interested in photography and captured them in my camera.
Sparrow perching Bougainvillea tree
While photographing birds, my eyes opened to their joyous ways of flying from one branch to another. Taking off needs w.efforts and birds flutter their wings, but going some distance, they glide, using the momentum and again work their wings to reach the destination. Sparrows, sunbirds, black drangos, silverbills and green bee-eaters perch on the branches for a short moment of rest. It is in those short whiles that I direct my camera, focus on them and quickly press the shutter, or else they would quickly move to another place and disappear. But interestingly, they would return to the same place after some time. So I stand there with my camera, waiting patiently, ready for a click.
Silverbills collecting straws for nests
Birds love open spaces in the jungles where they fly from one place to another, unhindered. It is here that they spend time and engage in conversations with each other, settling atop or on the branches of the trees. These are also the moments when snapping them results in sharp images, leaving the background blurred.
Birds build their nests and take care of their young ones in cozy homes. I often see them carry straws to build their nests or grub in their bills to feed their young ones. Multiple sorties are undertaken to collect enough materials for their cozy nests or food for the chicks.
A parrot flies on the top of a tree
What is near and common is often ignored as if all interesting things have to be exotic and happen only at a distance. But doing photography, I discovered that looked at closely, common birds are amazing subjects for pictures. Chirping of birds is pleasing to our ear and indicates their presence in an area. Whenever I pass by the woods and hear birdsongs, I pause for a moment and take a look at them. Their existence confirms that the environment around us is healthy and life goes on around us, whether we see it or not.
A cock welcomes the morning by crowing while a crow starts cawing right from the wee hours of the day. And as the day dawns and the sunlight hits the tops of the trees, the entire bird community wake up, flutter their wings, fly from one branch to another and chirp endlessly till the evening. Dogs roam the streets and engage in mock fights with each other.
A human can do many things. But perhaps the best way to greet the magical new morning and start the day is to go for a walk. A walk in the morning presents us with a view of nature, of the rising sun and the comfort of empty streets free from traffic, crowd, noise and dust. I have been doing this for years and do it now even with greater energy and enthusiasm.
Thick canopy of green over BHEL Township
Ideally, morning walks need to be done in peaceful places like parks or streets under cover of trees. In today’s vertically growing cities or gated communities, walking spaces are created by beautifying the streets with decorative plants, building parks, walking tracks or even skywalks on the terraces of multi-storey buildings – the architecture weaves walking spaces into all modern necessities of life.
However, for me, the township of BHEL – the company that I work for – offers a wide network of streets, natural green cover, the touch and smell of earth and an atmosphere of serenity for a morning walk. The township was built about fifty years back, covering an area of 16 sq km.
The township has everything that you ask for – school, college, stadium, library, club, temple, mosque, gurudwara, market, park, forest and what not, apart from the manufacturing factory. It is here that I spent a long time of my career. I live outside it now but have made it a habit to walk through it twice or thrice a week in the mornings.
Walking track inside township
The most alluring thing for me is the urban forestry around the township. The area was once a rocky terrain of Deccan Plateau, mostly barren with patches of green lent by shrubs and Palmyra trees. Human beings can do wonderful things – the barren landscape has now been converted into urban forestry. When I joined the company, trees were being planted. Now it is a grown up forest with peacocks crying, birds chirping and insects buzzing all the time.
Main gate of the township is quite far from my residence. The forest surrounding the township is near my home; so it is easy for me to enter the township through the forest, which, apart from being convenient, puts me on nature trail every morning. There are pathways made by people walking or cycling through the space between trees.
Going through the woods, I see peacocks and peahens roam and break into a short flight to reach the branches of the trees. There were birds of all kinds – mynas, doves, cuckoos, kingfishers, cranes, Ibis, parakeets, coucals, etc. Sometimes, I carry my camera and try to capture them through my lens. The insects that remain invisible keep buzzing all the time, making the sound ‘zhi-zhi-zhi…’ from the boughs or the branches of the trees.
Morning walk through the forest
The narrow pathways through the forest meet roads inside the township. One day I walked up to the inner edge of the jungle and into a road inside and chanced upon an old colleague of mine who was a regular morning walker. He was surprised to see me suddenly appear out of the woods. ‘Where are you coming from?’ he asked. ‘From the MIG housing colony,’ I answered. ‘Where is the way to MIG here?’ he laughed at me. ‘Yes, there’s a way.’ ‘I’m living here for a long time. I don’t know and you know.’ ‘Let me see,’ he said and went to find the way through which I came out. Finding a pathway, he said, ‘Oh, this is the way for you.’
Township presents a wide panorama of scenes – you can have a glimpse of rural India in a crane taking a free ride on the back of a buffalo or a pack of dogs chasing pigs, or in contrast, a snapshot of an industrializing country in machineries manufactured by the company being transported in lorries out of the factory. The township gives people living near it the space to go for a walk or a run. They come to the township early in the morning to exercise their bodies by walking or running. Their enthusiasm is contagious! They infuse me with energy to walk longer distance.
Peacocks of the township forest
In the middle of the township, there is a stadium and a walking track surrounding it. Men and women, conscious of their health and determined to remain in shape, are seen to enthusiastically walk down the track. Their gaits are a study in contrast – the rhythms in their hips, legs and feet have a certain grace and leave signatures of their varied genetic make-up.
I happen to meet known faces while walking on that track. They greet me with a short ‘hi’ or a smile and move along while some look the other way and pass by without acknowledging me as if I will stop them and engage in a long conversation, upsetting their rhythms.
Township is for employees who live in quarters – medium quadruplex houses for four families. Each of them, I know, can tell their own tales of joy and sorrows, endeavours and aspirations and their service in BHEL.
Township attracts visitors from the wild
Morning walks have been an integral part of life since my childhood. When I go on a trip to a hill station or any place to tourist attraction, I do it just for exploration. While exploring the nook and corners, I often hit the blind alleys. But on some occasions, to my surprise, I discovered hidden streams, tiny waterfalls or pastures of some kind.
On a daily basis though, BHEL township where I have spent a long time and of which I have seen enough holds an unending attraction for me. Entering it, I have an unmistakable feeling of coolness and freshness because the of trees and the shade they provide. This is just the kind of outing I need to do every morning to stay positive and energetic for the entire day.
Trickles of Tales 