25
Salonki
meets Guturgu
Salonki flew up to the roof of the
nearest shed. There were about twenty blue-rock pigeons sitting there, cooing
loudly, with two very vain male pigeons, rotating themselves in circles, trying to impress the lady pigeons. It would
be better to seek information from these pigeons rather than Bade Miya or Chote
Miya, thought Salonki. The pigeons were present on about six to seven roofs of
the grain sheds. A very audible humming noise could be heard once one landed
amongst the pigeons. Salonki wondered whether they chatted with each other.
Whether they gossipped with each other.
The pigeon flock seemed totally unlike Chimini and her cousins or
Salonki' relatives when they gathered together. You could hear them throughout
the grassland when they started talking.
The pigeons became strangely silent
the moment Salonki landed on the shed's roof. The humming stopped, and the vain
male pigeons stopped circling themselves, and stood warily, watching Salonki.
It was then that Salonki realised that there were hardly any other birds within
the pigeons on the roofs. Alarmed, she looked around at the nearby sheds. Again
there were none, except if you included Kaawla's cousin, who was cawing above
the sweet merchant's shop.
She wondered if the pigeons would
attack her because she had come inside their space. But then, she remembered,
pigeons did not attack mynas. So she must be safe. Was she, Salonki wondered.
She asked the nearest pigeons about Guturgu. They did not answer. She walked inside the flock, and asked the
vain male pigeons about Guturgu. They kept silent. And suddenly, one of the
female pigeons made an abrupt gesture of flapping her wings and jumping up and
down on the roof, as though in alarm. Taken aback, Salonki stepped out of the
flock's space on the shed's roof.
From up above among the clouds, flying
about almost unseen, a young male pigeon, very proud of his ability to fly in
tight circles for a long time, flew down rapidly like an arrow, and came to an
abrupt halt, barely two inches from Salonki. He stood beak-to-beak, barely an
eyeblink away from Salonki's eye, and asked, and who asks, may I know?
Surprised, Salonki replied, I am Salonki, from the grassland. I have come to
meet Guturgu. The answer did not seem to have satisfied the young male pigeon,
for he did not move away from Salonki, and asked again, And why do you think
Guturgu should talk to you? All the other pigeons seemed to step closer now,
including the vain male pigeons who seemed to have been frightened earlier.
