verandah

*** this incident happened a couple of years ago***

GBee and KBee, my kids extraordinaire (the amount of T.V. they manage to watch without any boredom is extraordinary) were at it again, watching the idiot box, commonly known by mere mortals as T.V.

I wanted them to get away from any screens and play outside. I turned off theT.V. and brought them both, into the verandah. KBee is at an age, where every new particle, item or thing finds itself in his mouth! He is an explorer with a taste, LOL!

Anyways, I was chasing them both playfully in the verandah.

Suddenly, I saw something black fly past me, behind GBee, at probably 2 feet above the ground. I thought it was bat. We see bats on a regular basis near our house and after 7 p.m., I don’t let the kids out for playing, because bats scare me! (Thanks to COVID virus scare.) Someone also told me bats can suck blood, like vampires and draculas, as shown in movies like Van Helsing. I don’t think that is true, but I have no intention of experimenting.

The bats I have come across, love to hang around custard apple trees and we have one in our yard. I see bats daily from 6 p.m. till 10 p.m.

Fearing the worst, I still ran in the direction of the black shape, turns out, it was a beautiful black bird with maroon coloured wings, which swooped from behind GBee and took a spot on the telephone lines!

The bird, I found later is called Greater Coucal, found in India and other Asian countries.

Unknowingly, I began singing a Telugu song, Nee nagumome extraordinary…. (only hummable song from Telugu movie, Cameraman Ganga tho Rambabu!) Since the bird was so stunning and unique, I began singing songs, in its praise, like a poetess!

Anyway, it looked to me like the bird was staring at something on the floor. I followed it’s gaze and lo, behold, I saw a beautiful, jet black butterfly with lemon yellow dots on its wings. A beauty for sure!

On closer inspection, it looked half dead, unable to move or fly.

I put two and two together and came to a conclusion that the bird was the predator and the nearly dead butterfly was the prey.

I carefully picked up the butterfly, showed it to GBee and KBee for closer inspection and appraisal! I placed it gently, on the pillar, hoping that is enough motivation for it to fly away to safety.

The butterfly hardly moved.

GBee, brought a plastic chair, placed it carefully beside the pillar and continued his observations.

The bird, probably wanted to grab it’s prey but GBee was unknowingly protecting the butterfly. The bird was too afraid to be caught. (Poor Coucal didn’t know that GBee, KBee and QB were harmless humans!)

The Coucal kept coming back and forth, unsure if it was allowed near its prey.

Vexed at watching the plight of the Coucal, I brought the kids inside the house, closed the grill door and waited, in silence.

Once we were out of the butterfly ‘s personal space, I waited for 5 minutes, and slowly opened the grill door to check the progress of the situation. The beautiful bird had vanished, as did the delicate butterfly!

That’s when it struck me, that even a bird as beautiful and seemingly harmless one like an Coucal can still be a cruel predator in the eyes of lesser beings like butterflies, worms and the likes!

P.S :

1. Normally, I would have tried to save the life of the butterfly, but as it was already half dead, I decided the best course of action was to let it die.

2. As I was searching the net for images of the beautiful Coucal, I discovered that the male Coucal brings presents for the female, as a part of their flirting, so the butterfly could well have been just a present, than food for the female. Interesting!

3. I am still humming the above mentioned song. I wonder how a director who made Pokiri can make a movie like Liger! What a fall for director Puri Jagannath.

4. Incidentally, I saw another Coucal recently near Malpe Beach House, during our trip to Karnataka, about which I am writing as a part of my September vacation series.

Van Helsing is the first ever movie I had seen of Hugh Jackman. Interestingly, in the said movie, he turns into a werewolf at the end. Years later, he went on to play Wolverine!

P.P.S :

Both the images are from the Google search engine and I take no credit for them.

As usual, at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I was eagerly waiting for the return of GBee from his school. Just as he put his foot inside the hall, I saw his face. It was covered partially with green colour on his cheeks and forehead. That was when it hit me that tomorrow is Holi!

The rectangular thing in my hand is supposed to be a cell!

Looking at GBee in colours reminded me that, gone are the days when I would look forward to Holi!

I remember the days when we used to return to school with traces of gulaal (pink colour) in our hair, faces and hands. The more pink one appeared, the more proud we would feel. Being pink meant, we had played and enjoyed the festival!

QB with pink highlights in hair and some random classmates talking about Holi

There used to be this gang of rowdy boys, who would come to our apartment every year on Holi, They would catch hold of the guys in our apartment and brush their teeth with gulaal and blue colours! (Yuk!Who would want dirty colours in their mouth and teeth? Beats me!) They would also throw eggs at us kids. Phew, who would want smelly eggs on their heads, mixed with bunch of colours? Double yuk! If you are being chased by someone with an egg in hand, suddenly sit down on the floor and you probably would avoid being hit!

Trying to avoid an egg on the head? Just sit down suddenly!

Those were the days, we would drench each other in buckets of gulaal water and begin to shiver. To stop the shiver, we would stand under the Sun, in the middle of the road! (Who even does that now?)

Even the uncles in the apartment would play Holi. I remember one particular incident when someone brought silver colour to play and the next day, my father and I had severe rashes on our faces. (Silver is danger!)

The ladies in the apartment would play with the good old kumkum and haldi. We even had fun scaring away the domestic helps, who would come to their respective flats to work. We would sneak attack! If we sneak attack now, we may get beatings, people are less forgiving these days.

During one Holi celebrations in my schooling days, I had taken an egg in my hair, from K, who was younger to me. (How dare he mess up with a senior!) I waited in the verandah, till my mom had hot water ready for my bath . Meanwhile, I was fed lunch, by my dad. What fun!

I pity the generation of kids who have no idea how to spend time away from a t.v. or cell. They have no idea of how safe our world was and how carefree we were, while we played on the streets, away from deranged people who lay hands on innocent kids or the violent stray dogs or the lack of traffic and vehicles on streets. Those days can never come back!

P.S:

Before going out to play Holi, it is better to apply oil on your face and hands. This way, you won’t look like a pink alien in office. This is for all those who hate looking like they drank gulaal!
My favourite Holi song is Arey Jaa re Hatt from Navrang, a very old Hindi movie, directed by Shantaram. Not everyone likes it, but check it out. The dancer Sandhya acts as both boy and girl in the song. It was a sensation in those days. (Let me be your DJ for Holi and suggest grooving to these songs…)