Right next to my house, growing over my terrace is a wild fig (Ficus brachypoda) tree. It has bright red berries that are a favorite with all of the twenty or so species of birds that frequent my hospitals campus. On the rare days i mange to wake up around seven, the tree is a zoo, full of chirping hopping tweeting defecating birds. Mynah, Bee eater, Koel, the humble crow, the proud Grey Hornbill, the simple sparrow, and more un identified multicolored feathers adorn that green haven everyday.
I love sitting and lying on the cemented terrace under the tree watching clouds through the leaves, birds as they flitted from berry to berry, crows fight off koels, and the hornbill bully them all. It was my fave spot to enjoy the rain, just the right amount reached to baptize me, each drop bearing the caress of a hundred leaves.
Today, when I went out to find out what the noise was, two men were chopping the big branches that grow over my terrace. Apparently a branch growing so near the house is a security risk. That it has been there for fifty years and young doctors hardly have anything worth stealing is suddenly secondary.
My hope is that the other branches will grow tall and free, and that the chirping of the birds, even if disrupted for a while will resume and life will manage to fight its way back from human oppression.
Perhaps I should have protested, and tied myself to the tree. Or, maybe as my superintendent asked me as I stood there clearly displeased, “would you rather your house be robbed, than rob the birds of their home?”
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that totally sucks. maybe the birds will nest on your window-sill for a while, till the other branches grow big enough
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