From My Balcony : Putting Things Into Perspective

Ever since I have started paying attention, they have become inevitably ubiquitous - on my way to work and on my way back home, early in the morning and later in the evening - their chirpy, little birdsongs seem to be following me everywhere. The cuckoo has now given way to lesser known species such as the red-vented bulbul and the Indian rock-chat. The mynas are always out there, as are the pigeons, and slowly as the seasons change, I hope to learn more about different birds and the sounds they make. But as of now, I have this story to share.

One morning, I woke up to tiny, little warbling sounds coming from our balcony like some newborn chicks were chirping away somewhere very close. I went to the balcony and peered all over the place, only to find nothing there. This went on for a few days until I finally gave it up as a bad job.

Then one day, I was talking to our neighbour from across our other balcony, and she told me that a little bird had made its nest right on our balcony grill. Surprised, I rushed to the spot, only to find the birds exactly where my neighbour had pointed out.

As I looked at the nest, I began to wonder why was I unable to spot it all these days in spite of trying so many times. And this brought to my mind an important point - perspective.

Up until a few days back, I had been looking for the birds all over the place, but I never looked for them in the one place I never expected to find them - right under my nose, or in this case, right over my head.

I looked for them in the adjacent neem tree, deep inside the neighbouring mango tree and on the boundary wall - everywhere but inside my own balcony. If only I had looked for the birds without any presumptions, including inside my very own balcony, I would have spotted them on the very first day itself.

Rigidity comes at a price. And isn’t this something we often do, if not always? We form ideas and opinions based on our limited understanding of things, and arrive at conclusions based on mere assumptions, sometimes even without pausing to verify the facts. What’s even worse is that most of the time we are convinced that our conclusions are nothing but the truth. 

Keeping an open mind is the key here. And sometimes letting go off a bit wouldn’t hurt either. And this is the little lesson I learnt from the little things in life.

Cheers to the little things in life!

xxx

Oh, and the chicks turned out to be a pair of new-born red-vented bulbuls. I also had fun watching the parents teach the young ones how to fly. It was a long, noisy process involving a lot of chirpy encouragement from both the parents. But the chicks were fast learners and flew out of the nest in a matter of days.