All Things Not Too Bright And Beautiful | Flash Post 373

Button, the calm here permeates through every pore of your being and makes you feel whole. There’s none of the familiar city sounds. All you can hear is the whistling of parrots and the sound of fluttering wings as they fly from one tree to the other. The chitter-chatter of sparrows and non-hued love birds is broken occasionally by the sharp call of peacocks you are bound to encounter as you make your way to the gardens for your morning walk or to the hotel cafeteria. You’ll see them on rooftops, on balconies, on tops of domes, preening to look their macho best, this being their mating season. There’s no way you can miss the chirping of crickets that make you perk your ears and take note of their music.

I can see you’ve had a good break in Udaipur.

However, an unfamiliar experience greeted Dost and me last night as we made our way back to our rooms.

What was that?

Some birds that had perched on trees for the night seemed restless and were fluttering around as if unable to sleep. I wondered if some of them had eaten a bit too much for dinner and were thus having a disturbed night or had had a disagreement with a friend!

I had a tummyache after eating all those cashews yesterday.

I notice a lot of this in Mumbai too where I hear birds fluttering around noisily in the dead of night when they would have, in the normal course, return to their nests sometime towards the evening and wake up early next day to wake us up with their morningsong.

Could they be anxious? Could they be depressed about something? After all, they are a living species being subjected to drastic environmental changes all around the globe?

That’s been my line of thought too. Anxiety from not getting enough to eat. Anxiety about not being able to find a proper perch where they can have their chit-chat before falling asleep. Anxiety over not being able to build a nest where they can make love, lay eggs, roost and procreate as more and more trees are lynched by insensitive people. Could they be suffering from depression realising that they are a dying breed?

Well, if humans suffer from depression and anxiety pangs, why can’t other living species? Humans are capable of taking medication to manage depression and anxiety.  What about the others?

It’s the same way our pet Labrador continues to suffer from depression after losing her playmate of almost 10 years.

Don’t you feel our planet is metamorphosing into a strange and complex place neither you nor I quite understand?

What do you think is the solution to this problem?

Well, destroy everything and start from scratch like God did when he ordered Noah to build the arc and load onto it a male and female of every species and set sail. He then sent floods that destroyed the rest.

I remember you telling me this story.