Braving the hot winds

 The red-vented bulbul is a brave, noisy bird with lots of heads-on attitude. When the heat is at its peak in the afternoon, it sits grandiloquently on the dead boughs of the dry neem tree and bravely faces the sun. Maybe it challenges the sun to burn its wings. I have seen it in this position quite a few times. Or maybe it wants to get tanned to look handsomer. He looks a mystical comprehensor of strange realities, sitting under the hot afternoon sun, staring into the distances.

A swallowtail couple tried the feat on a nearby electricity wire. They looked a nice pair and much in love as they sat side by side, his tail wire prominent and hers barely visible. They gave competition to the sun-daring bulbul for some minutes but then the lady gave in to the heat. She flew away with a lovelorn song-girl’s quintessence. He too swooped and entailed her balmy beauty. I’m sure they flew away to chatter in the shade of some leafy tree. Lovebirds have better things to do than challenging a crazy bulbul on a hot afternoon. But the bulbul noticed their flight and taking it as his victory and their defeat gave a shriek of laughter.

As the loo sighs with its chauvinistic attributes and cruel determination, carrying pools of scorching heat to bake the village, the honeybees have to fetch water to save their larvae in the heat. It’s a busy bee-world around the water bucket in the yard. A lot many tumble into the water, many swim back to safety and many die. But they have to carry on. They live a collective life and that is the main reason of the survival of their colony. I try to keep the water level to the brims so that those who get a tumble into the water can swim back to the rim edge. It’s a happy sight to see them coming ashore, all panting, sloshed with water, their wings cutting the water like oars. They shake and flick their snouts and wings to dry themselves and get on with the mission.

I put some dry stalks and parijat leaves to make a floating life-saving platform for those who might not make it to the shore by themselves. The world will be sweeter with a few more honeybees around. Isn’t it? In the natural scheme of things, life and death may look a blind roll of dice on the board containing deft expressions of destiny, but it serves the purpose of mother nature if we create chances for life’s thriving, however minute it is. If you actually act to save an ant, bee or some insect, it’s highly probable that you will at least have empathy and kindness for bigger species including your fellow human beings.