Haze and Mist

 This morning a bird fell from the sky with a damaged wing. Not a fledgling but not fully an adult, a common Indian hawk. That's the generic name. On refining my search it is most likely to be a common hawk cuckoo, 'Brainfever' as it is popularly known owing to its call.  ( This is not Bal-mukund but a common Hawk cuckoo"brainfever" )  I'm not into ornithology. I like looking at birds. They are an industrious lot. Peacocks and other "elite" birds are fine because they are bestowed with glorious plumages, breath taking coloring, some with purposeful, strong beaks and others with fascinating crests. But a bird without beauty is beautiful too. I am intrigued by babblers. What do they have, really, just one indeterminate tawny color with some variation – like an embarrassing consolation! They keep babbling and they are busy picking this and that from here and there. A babbler is the underdog and I am the supporter of any underdog. I used to take lunch at...

Luca and Jean Pierre were seated bare chested on a rock, basking, sipping beer from the bottle. Bala saw them.  He rolled a joint quickly & started walking in their direction.  As he approached them, he lit the joint. The scent of hashish mixed with the marine sea-smell briefly soothed his nose before disappearing in the breeze. Bala was looking towards the sea, not the firangies, deliberately, because he wanted them to smell his joint but not him looking at them. He wanted a conversation with them. He wasn't a drug peddler. Bala was curious about white people like his million other countrymen.  He blew a large cloud of smoke and hoped the scented cloud would target the European noses. It did. Luca and Jean Pierre suddenly acted like two Salukis in the sands of the Sahara. They sat up and sniffed at the air, their necks straining. Bala, without looking at them saw, his peripheral vision informed him that his scent-cloud had achieved its objective. He blew another....

 A black cat has made Parul's varanda her home since about a month. She is healthy and seems to have no abnormalities in her behaviour. Parul despite her allergies to dander has began feeding her.  Since a few days another, a replica of the 'Parul's' cat, was spotted lurching in the bushes. This one was aggressive. At a closer look I saw that she had abrasion on her neck. She was attacked by an animal or possibly a human. This cat was in need, but I felt that cat lovers should be concerned before me. I'm a dog fellow, not cat-crazy.   Last week my dogs tugged at their leads, making me look and I saw that the aggressive cat was hissing at them from under a bush close by. I threw a tiny pebble at it but it remained stay put. I took the dogs away with some force and forgot about it– I have little interest in cats.  Last night I saw the cat curled up in a corner looking frail. It appears that her time has come; she's going to die. The year end of 2023 saw a cat ende...