July 3. “Button, this is in continuation with yesterday’s entry.”

“Tell me. Any other observation?”

“So long, I thought bird-watching was a boring affair. This morning after I had put out food and water for the birds, I happened to look around and found the speckled pigeon sitting on a window ledge on the other side of the building. I was happy for him since there were no black pigeons around. Thinking that he would get to eat properly, I went back to whatever I was doing.”

“And?”

“I went back a little later to find that he was already there on our window ledge eating away. There was only one lone black pigeon waiting his turn to get to the food and, the scene was a complete reverse of what I had witnessed yesterday. The black and white pigeon was lording over the food, pecking the tiny black pigeon and trying to chase him away. I stood and watched for a while and came to the conclusion that pity is usually a wasted emotion. Whether it’s a human being, animal or bird, each have their way of defending themselves. They know when to lie low and when to strike. ”

“The lessons you get to learn from life are indeed fascinating.”

“Like Dost says you get to learn nothing from textbooks. Life teaches you everything there is to learn.”

“Incidentally, why did you all run to watch the news?”

“Got a message from Dost, who is in Kolkata, that there was a bombscare at the airport where he was waiting to catch a flight back. We switched to NDTV to see the latest news.”

“And?”

“And found out that the exercise was actually a mock drill conducted by the security.”

“That can be quite dicey. There can be a stampede. People with weak hearts can suffer heart attacks.”

“Incidentally, Dost came home earlier than expected.”

“How?”

“The Jet Airways flight took off earlier than scheduled.”

“Isn’t that dangerous because flights are meant to take off as per schedule!”

“I guess it is but Dost came back home safe.”