I have been wanting to share this for a while :) When in Mumbai, as you may all know that I had pigeon abodes at almost all of our house windows. Watching the babies is so much fun because they make funny kind of moments like standing up and sitting down again when they see humans or maybe when they are scared. A pigeon baby takes around 25 to 30 days to grow up fully and fly away. Once the pigeon learns to fly, the dad doesn't allow it in the abode, I guess maybe he has started preparing for another round of children.
Another interesting thing about pigeons is that they are very individualistic. Like they keep switching their partners after every round of children. And as soon as the pigeon learns to fly, the parents stop feeding it by mouth, hinting that the pigeon should find its own food from now. Sounds very American, doesn't it? Even in the evening when they rest at the terrace area, they don't like a fellow pigeon intruding their area. I don't know how they demarcate their space, but they start dancing (some strange ritual ) as to establish their personal space. Almost all of the babies are very eager to fly. After the 15th day they start taking small jumps to test their wings every now and then. Once they make it out of the window, its pigeon day out!
Then when I shifted to Mylapore in Chennai, the house windows did not have any extensions, so no pigeon abode :(. But just opposite to my window, there was a window sill with some extensions done for a/c box, where to my relief a pigeon couple lived. In Chennai, you will always find pigeons below the a/c boxes. Its like even they need a/c ;).
This window sill was kind of 10 feet away from my window, so couple gave birth to a little one. Around the 20th day pigeon had fully grown and almost ready to fly. So I thought in a few days it would be gone. Then I checked back around the 24th or 25th day and saw that the baby had grown to the extent that it was difficult to differentiate between mom and baby. Then checked at the 30th day, fully grown baby pigeon still happily occupying half of the nest that it was difficult for mom to be there. Then checked again after a couple of days and still it was the same! At one point, I was like grrrr fly man don't you wanna explore!!! And to my disbelief the parents also did not kick it out and even fed it. Then at the 40th day finally it was missing from the nest, so I thought finally pigeon thinks it has grown up. But after a couple of days it was back resting at home, whereas the parents were not to be seen. I thought, great so you are so lazy that you don't wanna find a home for yourself? And by this time the parents had started to prepare for the next round of children because they had started with their dancing rituals. But baby was still happily taking its noon nap. Finally, I guess around the sixtieth day baby was finally not to seen.
I don't know if its one off incident but I couldn't help resist drawing parallels!!!
Mumbai People/Pigeons:
1. Very ambitious
2. Eager to explore
3. Love their space
4. Change partners frequently
Chennai People/Pigeons:
1. Grow up late
2. Love to laze around
3. Can't live without a/cs ;)
4. Love to live with their parents!
Another interesting thing about pigeons is that they are very individualistic. Like they keep switching their partners after every round of children. And as soon as the pigeon learns to fly, the parents stop feeding it by mouth, hinting that the pigeon should find its own food from now. Sounds very American, doesn't it? Even in the evening when they rest at the terrace area, they don't like a fellow pigeon intruding their area. I don't know how they demarcate their space, but they start dancing (some strange ritual ) as to establish their personal space. Almost all of the babies are very eager to fly. After the 15th day they start taking small jumps to test their wings every now and then. Once they make it out of the window, its pigeon day out!
Then when I shifted to Mylapore in Chennai, the house windows did not have any extensions, so no pigeon abode :(. But just opposite to my window, there was a window sill with some extensions done for a/c box, where to my relief a pigeon couple lived. In Chennai, you will always find pigeons below the a/c boxes. Its like even they need a/c ;).
This window sill was kind of 10 feet away from my window, so couple gave birth to a little one. Around the 20th day pigeon had fully grown and almost ready to fly. So I thought in a few days it would be gone. Then I checked back around the 24th or 25th day and saw that the baby had grown to the extent that it was difficult to differentiate between mom and baby. Then checked at the 30th day, fully grown baby pigeon still happily occupying half of the nest that it was difficult for mom to be there. Then checked again after a couple of days and still it was the same! At one point, I was like grrrr fly man don't you wanna explore!!! And to my disbelief the parents also did not kick it out and even fed it. Then at the 40th day finally it was missing from the nest, so I thought finally pigeon thinks it has grown up. But after a couple of days it was back resting at home, whereas the parents were not to be seen. I thought, great so you are so lazy that you don't wanna find a home for yourself? And by this time the parents had started to prepare for the next round of children because they had started with their dancing rituals. But baby was still happily taking its noon nap. Finally, I guess around the sixtieth day baby was finally not to seen.
I don't know if its one off incident but I couldn't help resist drawing parallels!!!
Mumbai People/Pigeons:
1. Very ambitious
2. Eager to explore
3. Love their space
4. Change partners frequently
Chennai People/Pigeons:
1. Grow up late
2. Love to laze around
3. Can't live without a/cs ;)
4. Love to live with their parents!
2 comments:
Beautiful post !!! What a wonderful analysis ... seems Chennai has a lot in common with Kolkata .. :)
@ benny: :D
Post a Comment