Teetiri protects the grassland - 18 - Salonki remembers the stranger from the village

18

Salonki remembers the stranger from the village

It was an animal that Salonki had seen only once before. Salonki had seen it inside the village. It was the time that she had accompanied her parents to the village. She and her brothers and sisters had left the nest and had begun to fly just a few days ago. Their parents had wanted to celebrate the fact that all their young ones had begun to fly with confidence, and her father had insisted that they go to the village. He had said that it would be his party. He would treat them to a wonderful feast.

At the edge of the village was a house that belonged to the rich sweet-merchant. Just a week before, a family of mice had successfully made a large hole in the roof of the sweet merchant’s house and had brought out some sweets to feed upon. This had been seen by a flock of mynas who had come to rest at that very moment on their evening flight back from the grassland towards their night roosting trees. Some of those mynas had gone boldly inside the sweet merchant’s house through the large hole to feed upon the uncovered sweets.

They had come back to their night roosting perches in the Peepul tree in the village and had sat drunk after having eaten too much sweets and drunk too much sugar syrup. They seemed so happy and so content throughout the night. Salonki’s father had decided to take his wife and children inside the sweet merchant’s house.  That day Salonki’s family had enjoyed themselves. They had perched on the roof and gone inside the shop, one by one, and fed upon the nice golden yellow coloured sweets. They had been very tasty. They had also eaten the dark brown coloured ones floating on sugar syrup. That syrup had been very intoxicating.

After having eaten more than they could, the family had flown out of the shop and was resting on the roof. They could hardly move off from the roof. A nearby banyan tree had its branches spread over the roof and offered them very welcome shade from the noon sun. The family had decided to take a quick nap under the shade offered by the banyan tree. They had been resting peacefully that day. Salonki could still remember her father and mother smiling very proudly at him and his brothers and sisters. Salonki could remember the day like it was yesterday.

Suddenly, out of the banyan branches, a brownish yellow animal had jumped on to the roof and picked up one of Salonki’s brothers and ran away. They had hardly realised that something was wrong. By the very next instant that they had realised that a member of their family had been taken by this brown-yellow animal, it had disappeared from sight. They had flown up in panic, and gone towards a corner of the village where they could hear some crows cawing excitedly. There, half hidden under an unyoked bullock cart, was the brownish yellow animal, sitting quietly, hissing at the myna family and the crows. There had been no sight of Salonki's brother. 

Teetiri protects the grassland - 26 - Salonki is examined by the pigeons

26

Salonki is examined by the pigeons

The young male pigeon did not seem to want to step away. He continued in a questioning voice, for Guturgu does not talk to strangers. Especially those who come without prior invitation. Salonki, surprised at the hostility, took two steps back, and said, Hey, cut out this hostility, my friend. I am an old friend of Guturgu, probably even before you were born. So can you just shove back, or step aside, and just point me towards Guturgu. And go back to whatever you were doing, up there in the sky.

This was new to the young male pigeon. He was not used to being opposed. He had had been having a good time until now. All the other pigeons feared him. Nobody opposed him. There seemed to be silence among the flock of pigeons now. All the hmmmming and grmmming that was going on in the flock was gone. All sat quietly on the roof of the grain-shed. They were watching the young male pigeon and waiting for him to react. Perhaps he may throw Salonki from the roof, said one vain male pigeon to a disinterested plump aunt of his. It was not to be, however. The young male pigeon stepped back. Watching the retreat, slowly the pigeons made a path among them, for Salonki to walk through towards a broken window in the shed next to the roof.

Salonki walked worriedly, towards the broken window, wondering as to what was happening. The young male pigeon, humbled and quiet, followed her very closely. The three vain male pigeons accompanied him, hoping that the female pigeons would think highly of them as they did of the sky-diving young male pigeon. A shy young female pigeon walked alongside Salonki. She whispered that the sky-diving young male blue-rock pigeons were their guards, for they had decided to protect themselves from animals like Billi and Naag. They came up to the broken window and the shy young female pigeon called out in a very low voice.

The window was very dirty, with cobwebs and grime settled on the panes. There was just enough space between the broken panes and the window frame for one pigeon to squeeze inside. Any large animal like a dog or cat trying to squeeze itself through the opening would suffer cuts from the broken sharp edges of the window pane. Salonki stood outside the broken window and tried to peer inside. It was a clear drop and it seemed to be very dark inside. Even rats or mice could not enter through this opening. Only birds could squeeze through and fly to any particular perch that they wished to inside the shed.

Salonki could hear the low hmmmming and grmmmming of many pigeons inside the shed. There were probably more than fifty pigeons inside. What were they doing inside this shed? Salonki asked her companion. These are our nesting aunts and uncles, the shy young female pigeon said and added, they are sitting on eggs at the nests built on various perches inside the shed. We protect them by preventing unwanted strangers from coming near this open window. Any bird or animal or reptile, including the dangerous Naag, would have to first cross the thirty pigeons who are always present on the shed's roof. We stay on the roof throughout the night and day. The shade from the nearby neem tree protects us during the day.