A divine display

Yesterday was awesome. Nature put on a very special show for our benefit….First of all, the day was unusually warm. With the mercury dipping to 1.0 deg only a few days back, it was heavenly to stand on the verandah and not feel the chill.

Perfect weather for a trip to the small oasis in this ugly concrete jungle that is Gurgaon: Leisure Valley Park. Overcrowded on weekends, we had the park all to ourselves except the few couple…they were anyhow, tucked away in the remotest of corners! Like the warm weather, another bit of luck, eh?

A little inside, the small enclosed rose park was a RIOT of colours. Roses of all hues, a single rose, big as a small tea cup to tiny clusters …what a sight to behold. After a pleasant amble, we left and made our way to the parking lot outside. Ah, life was already smelling of roses!!

And then, we saw this most amazing display, put on, as if, just for the two of us. From the far end of the near empty large parking lot, up they came without a warning, a huge swarm (they were definitely not looking like a flock) of the common myna (shalik in bengali), putting up an uncommon display. They came at an angle, swooped low and soared up, and at some hidden signal, the whole swarm separated into different flocks and flew in opposite direction, and then came together again and again and just as suddenly, flew to different trees and sat on the topmost / outmost branches, sort of outlining each tree and the whole process began again. I don't know much about birds habits (city dwelling ignoramus that I am), but I don’t think it was something common. The parking attendant and his two cronies too were watching it, agape. I wish I had carried a camera with me. It was like looking through a kaleidoscope where the figures, merge, meld and break up in perfect symmetry.

To imagine, I have lived so long and yet have never seen so many roses of some many hues, birds in rapturous display...and it must have always been, as long as birds have been, as long as roses have been....

I carried the images with me even as A negotiated his way through the totally un-symmetric chaotic mess of roads, cars, metro diggings, back to our home.