APPLE OF MY EYE...

A custard apple tree stands just outside my window. It is the first thing I set my eyes upon every morning as I open my windows and clear the curtains. In the last one month, it has become my constant muse. Two parakeets, with bright red beaks and grey (almost bluish) tails, come visiting often to eat the apples which pop out at the crown of the tree.

 That tree has always been a home to many kinds of birds. I get to spot olanjali (rufous treepie),  mynahs, teeny-weeny sparrows, pigeons and magpies often resting on its branches. Since we have a temple pond bordering our backyard, Little Cormorants, kingfishers and Little Egrets are also a common sight. Not perched on the tree, though.

But these parakeets won't let you ignore them. They are so noisy that sometimes I feel I almost understand their chatter. That I can make out when they are fighting, when they are singing and when they are bored to death. Me and my little girl often sit by the window staring out or photographing them. They like to bend over the fruit rather precariously and peck on it.

My mother-in-law is quite disappointed. ``Most of the big apples have come at the top. How do we pluck them?'' I told her, ``Amma, lets eat the bottom ones.'' But our kids are missing the good ones, she laments. I am not sad though. For, I think the birds deserve the top ones. It is how Nature shows its care for the winged beings.

I have seen the parakeets in a coconut tree stump by the other side of the pond. Nesting inside a hole in the tree. But in the last rains, the wind had shoved the tree down and the parakeets had to find another home. Unfortunately, the second home was next to a jackfruit tree, which once caught fire when the Corporation employees set fire on the garbage which residents dump below the tree in the shade of night. I do not know the exact tree in which they are nesting now. But it cannot be far away.

If a single fruit tree can invite so many birds to its branches, how lovely it would be to have a few more in the garden. And how good it feels to share those fruits between your kids and birds. They could be screechy and scream-y, they whistle and trill but they make my mornings so endearing that I am ready to give up a few apples.