MY LONELY HOURS AT DUSK

The air at dusk is very vigourously and mercilessly churned by the shrill, sharp and incessant chatter and noisy brawls of the winged communities which have been thickly populating a few trees in the lawns.
The luxuriant leaved flowering plants have decorated themselves-at the extremities of the tiny branches-with the bunches of flowers-yellow, deep pink,pale pink,etc..
The coarse cries of the crows have been drowned by the shrill thrills of the MYNAHS ,the chatterboxes.
Why all the birds,irrespective of their hues,sizes and shapes and voices fly in the same direction in the mornings and in the same reverse direction in the evenings!?
But for the Electricity Boards' overhead power lines criss-crossing even the remotest villages, many many species of birds would not have been known to me.These distribution lines have brought all winged birds into my thirsty view.I am really proud that I had been part and parcel of TNEB for almost 30 years.
The birds cosily perch and enjoy the dreamy slight swing of the long-spanned lines in the winds surveying this world from a delightful height in all their majestic aloofness!
The shrill cries of the mynahs at dusk make me think that thy will grow hungry even before midnight.
The embrace of the intermittent winds thrills my soul through and through!
For a man starved of serenity,space and silence this PILLAIPERUMALNALLUR gas plant complex near THIRUKKADAIYUR is a heaven on earth. Happily I drink the joy in cupfulls and quench my thirst for peace and space.
A little mound grown with the grass opposite my room and a lengthy wall of NETTILINGAM trees on the otherside fascinate my lonely hours.
Really I am delighted and I thank God for landing me here.
Five days of total rest from works and worries! The very tiny star-like white and violet flowers of grass thrills me to the core! These unsung and unplucked but trampled flowers have to be really closely scanned by eager eyes to be seen and enjoyed; such very small flowers also give happiness to the soul in immense measure.
'SEND-OFF' bajans to the DAY by the winged world have begun in right earnest.
Wings are restless prior to their resting on the branches for the night.
The dense calls of all the full-throated birds at dusk finally merge and emerge out into a formless andintense 'KOCHA..KOCHA..KOCHA'! This ebbs and flows but never dies till night perfectly perches on them.
The neatly tarred roads, the water channels skirting around, small youthful trees and dust-free air and the blue skies add charm and peace and harmony to this day and hence to life.
God must be living in this land of beauty and serenity!
Oh..where are the birds now that chatter so loudly at dusk?
Or, do the trees themselves create this cacophony at the fall of the day?...such is the scene ..so much noise but no bird is seen!
Oh..how strongly I yearn for a sharp ,sensitive microphone to capture this riot of sounds of this winged world in all its true intricacies and inexplicable majesty and its cadences at dusk's mystic march!
What do they talk?.. and to whom?..and why so loud?..and
so non-stop?
Is it a greeting or a fight?
Is it a thanksgiving for the day?..or, a cry of fear for the invading night?
Is it a united send-off for the sun?..or,a united fight against the menacing darkness?
Do they cry aloud beating their hearts emptying their throats for the dying day which fed them with delicacies?
They change branches and trees every minute without rhyme or reason.
Suddenly a group takes to wings and after a huge circling, settles on another tree to retrace again to their former perch.
At 6.15pm. the chatter and commotion have not died down but have become a little mute.
And every tree is a UNITED NATION OF BIRDS at dayfall!

---written on 29.09.2009 at dusk.

--S.CHANDRAKALAADHAR