Homelessness...

This one is a break from the previous graph posts. But it will be short one, with some pictures. So, one fine day, I look out of the window of my parent's flat. I don't remember why I did that - perhaps to check out the kids shouting at the top of their voice as they played cricket or to check out for the nth time the dumb guy who can't reverse his car and has a reverse siren so shrill that I have at more than one time thought of throwing a rock on his car from the top, or perhaps, I looked out for no particular reason at all. Anyway, I found a pigeon perched behind one of the flower pots in a corner. Now usually they fly off as soon as they get wind of a human around, but this one didn't.

My natural suspicion was that s/he had probably setup a nest behind the flower-pot. I confirmed about this with my Mom. So, the nature photographer in me was aroused and what resulted was these pictures.



That was two weeks back. This weekend, I found that those two eggs were now two yellow haired chicks. The she-pigeon made me wait a lot to get the following picture and videos. She would not budge for around couple of hours. The fact that my Mom spread out some rice grains for her didn't make my job easier. She didn't even need to fly out for fetching food for its young.



Next weekend I hope to capture some more pictures of their ongoing transformation.

So, how's this all related to the post title? These nests have not been uncommon in my house. Every mating season some pigeon or sparrow tries to find a spot where it can nest. (Only this time I could observe one this closely.) What's happened is this: our need for homes has made these creatures homeless - lack of trees to perch upon, to setup nests safely in the mating seasons. I have known the term destruction of natural habitat before but probably for the first time, I am able to understand what it means. It means being rendered homeless.

Is there a difference between thousands of Americans who are living out of their cars, have to queue to perform daily ablutions, etc after the credit crisis and this pigeon who has setup nest in our home? Both have been a result of excesses: excesses of ambition, excesses of population, excesses of poverty... Or wait, may be it's not the excesses but the lack of reasoned thought, lack of acknowledging the idea that the life that we can't restore we have no right to take, lack of the knowledge that we can live harmoniously between us as humans and with others on this earth... Wishful thinking? Or is it?