Quite often we government employees ignore our health problems for the sake of office work. Only when we are diagnosed with severe diseases, we would take long leaves. Recently, I was diagnosed with TB. It was virtually after a decade that I was enjoying rest. No office files and worries; no official phone calls and queries. I was alone at home and I began to love the loneliness; no, it wasn’t loneliness; I had the company of winged musicians.
It was during this rest that I realised that there are so many birds in our compound.
A pair of purple-rumped sunbirds would come every day early morning, chirping intermittently. They hunt spiders. Sunbirds are nectar-drinkers, but they are spider eaters too. They are the best spider-hunters among birds. Spiders weave their webs in trees at night and catch the little insects. In the morning sunbirds come and catch almost all spiders skilfully.
Jungle babblers are the early risers. They perch in almost all trees in our compound and start their boisterous music in the early morning. During this tumultuous orchestra, the red-whiskered bulbuls come with their gentle chirping. They look for fruits among the wild creepers in the compound. It is real ecstasy to watch the tree with squirrels running hither and thither and several birds sitting idly on the branches and pruning their plumage.
When time progresses beyond 10 am, the grand musicians come—Indian Treepie (Olenjaali) and Golden Oriole (Manjakkili). They never cease singing. Then comes a horror musician—Racket-tailed Drongo. He makes the exact sound of cats! At first I thought that a cat had arrived in the compound and went out in search of the cat. But the mewing sound was coming from a tree! And I traced the mimicry artist. Suddenly, I heard sharp chirps from woodpeckers.
There was a male (with red crest) and a female (with black crest). I enjoyed their perpendicular movement on the tree trunks till they flew away. Then I returned to the room; swallowed the pills and lay down. A pair of warblers came and perched on the twigs of the plants. Their music made my eyelids droop and I slept. This pattern repeated almost every day and my health started to improve.
The most interesting fact is that every day, exactly during lunch, I would wake up hearing the boisterous music of the babblers! They were waking me up, sensing that there was nobody to do it. Really, it was the birds and their music that made my fight against the malicious bacterium—Mycobacterium tuberculosis—so easy and enjoyable too.
Sukumaran C V
Email: lscvsuku@gmail.com