10
Darzi
does not like to be disturbed
Darzi was not one to be disturbed,
once the sun had come up. He had to quickly feed himself and pick up some
insects for his partner, Darzeee, the female tailorbird, who was sitting at the
nest that he had made so lovingly for her. This was the correct time to feed
upon the insects infesting the tasty sap that began to flow from the babool’s
bark. There were insects of all kinds here. Red and Black Ants, small Beetles,
big Beetles, Spiders and the very tasty caterpillars. These were absolutely
great. Darzeee loved to be fed the new caterpillars once they hatched out from
under the babool’s bark. She did not like the hairy ones. She did not like the
red and black ones either. It was these smooth green ones that she loved.
While he was eager to pick up one of
the caterpillars and fly off to Darzeee who would be waiting for him, here was
Phoolchuki with some strange story about Dominga wanting Darzi’s help. Amazing,
thought Darzi. For Dominga was never friendly to Darzi. But Phoolchuki gently
reminded him that Dominga had never harmed Darzi either. So why not help
Dominga? Darzi’s brother came flying in from the neem tree to listen to this
conversation. He was very impatient because he had to fly farther than his
brother had to. He told Darzi to go ahead and listen to Dominga while he would
go and tell Darzeee that her partner would be late. She may as well get out of
the nest and feed upon some of the nearby insects.
Darzi did not like it one bit. But he
agreed to go down to the ber bush and listen to Dominga. It is all because of
you, he told Phoolchuki. Otherwise he would not have stopped searching for food
for Darzeee. Phoolchuki told Darzi that it was because of Teetiri that they had
to fly low, because it was well known that lapwings could not come and perch on
the tree branches. She had offered to help and she had convinced Dominga to
seek Darzi’s help. Otherwise Dominga would have flown up inside the babool
tree, Phoolchuki said. Okay, okay, said an irritated Darzi. Just this once.
Never again. Teetiri was also a good friend, so he would go down to help and
advise Dominga.
Darzi flew down to the ber bush along
with Phoolchuki. Dominga was looking very sad. Darzi forgot all his anger just
by looking at Dominga’s sad face. Teetiri was giving company, encouraging
Dominga to be courageous. She was telling Dominga that Darzi was sure to give
good advice. Dominga told Darzi everything. How Dominga and Domingi loved each
other very much, how they had taken a lot of trouble to build their nest
together, and how Domingi had very lovingly laid four identical eggs. They had
spent five days taking care of their nest and how one day, suddenly, one of the
eggs had changed its colour. The size was also different. What should Dominga
do?
Phoolchuki was angry that Dominga did
not tell Darzi how he had been fighting with Domingi since then. Phoolchuki
told Darzi that Dominga had made Domingi’s life very miserable. He had not been
feeding Domingi at the nest since then. Poor Domingi was quite starved by now,
Phoolchuki said. Teetiri tried to defend Dominga and said that he must have
felt quite upset that one of the eggs had changed colour so suddenly. Also the
size had changed, as Dominga said. Any bird that had lost his or her eggs would
rightfully know the anguish, said Teetiri and calmed down Phoolchuki. Anybody
could be rightfully upset. But not at ones’ partner, so angrily and so
unjustly, until one came to know about the exact reason, Phoolchuki argued
again strongly.
