42 - Sparky’s ‘On Course’ World

 Hello, Sparky here.

 

A shower has calmed the season’s run.

Though it feels like winter now,

the summer is not undone.

Patiently biding his time, is Sun.

The glorious summer might be back next week,

or we could have a thunderstorm overrun.

If we didn’t know much of it is due to climate change,

It would all still be fun.

 

That’s the kind of week we have had. A bit of everything, really. The customary fireworks were missing from the pre-monsoon shower and hence the showers themselves were quite subdued but at least we know that matters are ‘on course’.

After the shower that brought down the temperature, the mangoes have started ripening and we have all started making a beeline to the mango tree every day. The mangoes aren’t fully ripe yet so it isn’t yet as sweet as we like it to be but we are getting there so no one is really complaining.

This is the time of the year when the winter visitors begin to depart for their summer homes in far-away lands with their little ones in tow. This year one particularly stubborn Painted Stork put his foot down, or to be precise he put his wings down and refused to fall in line with his parent’s plan of moving for the season.

His argument was rather simple, ‘If I was born here, why cannot I live here?’

Every argument that his parents put forth fell on deaf ears. Finally, the parents consulted Mrs. Ulukah and Mr. Goldback and sort of handed the baby over to their care.

Well, I cannot say I understand all these ‘migrating birds’. I wouldn’t risk making an arduous journey across landscape that wouldn’t even be the same as last year because humans would have in the last 1 year alone made innumerable changes to it. Built roads and bridges where there were forests and lakes. Filled up lakes to build hotels and apartments and then built swimming pools in them. Burnt large swaths of forest to farm the land. Put up power lines and wind turbines where there were rolling hills and grasslands. The list is endless. It feels like madness to launch into a journey when the map you have is outdated. For all we know they have done something to alter the magnetic poles as well. I am with that baby and will be keeping an eye on him. In a way, all of us will do our bit for this bold one, he will be the Banyan Island baby.

The Koels have started their singing, the call of a male koel is like a peppy cool breeze on a hot summer’s day, you don’t know where it came from but when it touches you, it sooths you and excites you all at once. Adding to the chorus this year along with the Barbets is our ‘stranger from across’, our marooned peacock. That’s the beauty of nature there is space for everyone within her gigantic canvas but what Mother Nature hasn’t taken into account is we all have just a pair of ears and a brain apiece to process all that. Sometimes it gets so cacophonous, thinking becomes difficult.

With the male Koels setting up their orchestra many birds on the island got a bit jittery. Just a bit jittery, not more because they are all neck-deep in work this time of the year - building nests, wooing partners, feeding and keeping cool. If you recollect what happened last year, you will recall that Mrs. Koel, a brood parasite, meaning a bird who bypasses all parental responsibility by simply laying her eggs in other birds’ nest did just that last year in Mr. & Mrs. Drongo’s nest and when caught had promised to help feed the chicks once they hatched only to disappear.

So, with the male koels calling out to the to-be-mothers, many birds like drongos, jungle crows whose nests the female koel prefers to lay her eggs in, went up to Mrs. Ulukah to complain. Well, Mrs. Ulukah advised them to be vigilant. What else could she have done? What is one to do about a crime that hasn’t taken place yet, although we fully know exactly how matters will unfold? For that matter how does one even enforce their will and assert their right on another species? For the crime that humans have committed and are yet to commit, have we been and will we ever be able to hold them accountable in any way?

See you all next week. In the meanwhile, if you would like to write to me, email me at Sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com

41 - Sparky’s ‘A stranger from across & a dream that's come to pass’ World

 
Hello, Sparky here.
 
Spring feels long departed,
but mangoes are yet to be ripened.
The river is ever frequented,
there is an insatiable thirst to be quietened.
 
That really sums up the week. The temperature is rising but the rains, the pre-monsoon showers to be precise which usually come by now to placate the burning earth has remained elusive. If I say anything more, it will again take me towards human bashing.
 
Instead let me report of the 2 new arrivals on the island. No, it’s not the Swallowtail butterflies from the caterpillars that the Kiwi-Civvy pair of monkeys took a fancy to last week. For that matter, they are still slumbering in their chrysalis (that’s right, it’s chrysalis and not cocoons. Not all caterpillars build cocoons.)
 
This week we had some humans who came over to spend some time on the island. Nothing extraordinary about that. The nicest of humans who visit are the ones who come and leave the place without taking anything or without leaving anything behind. These lot were nice as well but either their negligence or someone else’s stupidity or just our plain rotten luck has left a huge impact on us.
 
I really wish, they can come back and take back the one thing they unknowingly brought and the thing that they knew they left behind but couldn’t do anything about it. The boat they boarded on the mainland had been tethered to a tree trunk for a week, so in a way it had become a part of the scenery to the peafowls I mentioned who have come to reside there. So, this peacock was taking his siesta on the sun shade of the boat when the humans boarded the boat and crossed the river. A boat, tethered or not, does usually bob about in water but shouldn’t a peacock know the difference between the bobbing by the bank and that of a boat in motion? This dunce of a peacock couldn’t tell the difference. Imagine his surprise when he woke up later to find himself in a completely different scenery. Now try and imagine our distress as this peacock carries on a conversation with his family on the other bank. I am glad I don’t understand peafowl-tongue but I wish their conversation could be carried on beyond the frequency audible to us like Elephants, Giraffes, Dolphins, Bats and Whales are capable of.
 
This Peacock is one happy-go-lucky fellow, I will give that to him. Had it been me in his situation, I would have panicked. His first reaction on finding himself in a new place was to promptly jump off the boat. As the humans sort of realised what had happened and started to panic even the peacock’s share of panic, this guy unfurled his wings and strutted around. Thus having calmed the humans he sort of sent a testing note into air which soon grew in strength and tempo till he was having a full blown conversation with his family on the other side of the river. Having established the fact that they are within hearing range he has since then behaved like he’s on a holiday. 
 
The humans even wondered if there a way they could take the peacock back to where they brought him from but though the peacock well understood what they wanted, he wouldn’t oblige them by getting back on the boat. Well, I don’t blame him. Who can trust humans?
 
Am sure getting back to his family is on his mind, like it is on everyone’s mind on Banyan Island. Especially when the peacocks have a conversation we try to think of a way by which he might be able to go back, but then soon he settles down to other activities and we sort of settle down into our pre-peacock days of calm and quiet.   
 
This week one of Udra otter’s friend, Bringa came visiting. She went around the island for a stroll and came back and casually said that there was a Jackfruit sapling that was growing near the far side of the island. None of us mammals on the island, even the Otters who had teased us and treated us with jackfruits last year have ever seen a jackfruit tree.
 
This piece of information soon led to a long and continuous line of visitors marching towards and then beyond the mango tree to check this new resident on the island. Need I mention that all of checked on the mangoes as we walked past the mango tree. 
 
All of us stood around the sapling like we were taking part in a ritual which in a way we were. We were all recalling the beautiful fruit that we had savoured last year. Spiky on the outside, then cut open to a skilful game of hide & seek revealing the arils within. Soft and shiny to look at and melt-in-the-mouth deliciousness to devour and savour.
 
Bringa quite astonished by what she was seeing, cleared her throat and said quietly, ‘It won’t fruit for at least next 3 to 4 years, you know.’ It wasn’t that we were waiting for it to fruit. Well, it would have been difficult to explain to an outsider what the jackfruit means to us.
 
Kiwi’s mother nevertheless tried, ‘You taste with your tongue but yearn with your heart.’
I chipped in with my bit, ‘Heaven once seen, can never be unseen.’
Ghumphu monkey added, ‘A present for our collective devotion’  
 
By now, Bringa had concluded that if ever there was a loony lot, it was us. She threw one look at Udra and Samudra beside her and shook her head.
 
The resident Otters thought they had to say something now, after all they were the reason we had been so bewitched. Udra said, ‘None of us here will ever eat from this little sapling, but the fact that this plant will grow to be a tree and bear fruits that will provide for our children makes us happy. Hope is a very powerful thing. Let’s keep that and we have a light that will see us through the darkest of days.’ 
 
See you all next week. In the meanwhile, if you would like to write to me, email me at Sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com

40 - Sparky’s ‘Mistake-ridden’ World

 Hello, Sparky here.

 

Spring now, summer an hour later,

dreaming of mangoes in the morn,

just to be wishing away summer, soon after.

 

Such is the situation now. Things in nature are always transient but it has always been a gentle movement like the swaying of leaves in the breeze but what we are experiencing now is akin to thunder and lightning – you never know where it will strike next. Human-induced Climate change is staring us in the face and all of us are able to feel its fury, except the humans themselves. This is such a sad commentary on the ‘most intelligent of all life forms’ on the planet.

 

All of us make mistakes but we usually make amends and tune our ways. Mother Nature is ever watchful and benevolent, even when one keeps blundering she gives us enough warnings before she unleashes her fury on us. Have you ever heard of a lion that killed all the herbivores in his range, just because he could?

 

Anyway, I for one believe that mistakes should be such that either you learn from it and correct it or you can laugh at it. If it’s neither of that then you are doomed and probably deserve what’s coming.

 

Enough with the innuendo. Let me tell you of a mistake that Civvy & Kiwi made this week which sent the whole of Banyan tree residents into raptures. The 2 monkeys had gone exploring around the island. Their daily excursions from the Banyan tree are for checking out if the mangoes in the Mango tree are ripe enough to be feasted on but for reasons that they best know themselves, they do not want others to find out about it. If I were to venture a guess, it would be because if Mr. Goldback were to know of their reason for their excursions he would be disgusted into saying, ‘Are you monkeys or humans, can’t you smell from here if the mangoes are ripe?’

 

Now, back to their excursion. They had ventured a little way off their usual course early in the week and had found a bush covered with what they thought was bird poop but what they found funny was it didn’t smell like poop. The curious monkeys that they are, they wanted to find out which bird’s poop didn’t raise a stink. So, while they were making plans to consult a few birds about it, Kiwi’s mother wondering what the monkeys were up to went along with them to inspect the bush and the ‘stink-less’ poop.

 

When the three of them returned to Banyan, the mother looked angry and the 2 teenagers looked genuinely perplexed. That’s how matters rested for a day but the next day they came to me and asked if I knew of any bird whose poop ‘grew’. I laughed at their theory and said they take a look at it again the next day and report back on how much it has grown since their last visit. 

 

The next day, having confirmed that the poop was indeed growing, the curious teens who were unable to account for the fact that the grown-ups weren’t taking them seriously, changed tack and approached the mystery in another way. They told their mothers that there was a lot of bird poop on the far off part of the island where no birds reside so some birds were paying nocturnal visits to Banyan Island. ‘Shouldn’t we find out who they are?’

 

Kiwi’s mother who had all along thought they were playing a prank on her realised they were really in the dark and told them that it wasn’t bird poop but caterpillars. For once, those two were impressed. A bird-poop mimicking caterpillar wasn’t something they had heard of or seen before.

 

That wasn’t the end of this episode either. 2 days later they came back to the Banyan in a panic and told us that overnight someone has ‘replaced’ the dark-green poop caterpillars with bright green ones.  I asked them if they were sure if the caterpillars had been replaced and not actually been painted? They thought I was being funny. When Kiwi’s mom asked if these new ones ‘smell’ they went away lamenting the fact that no one was taking them seriously.

 

That is how it is with teenagers. They take themselves too seriously and they think no one else takes them seriously. Funny part of this episode was for once those 2 monkeys were genuinely perplexed and the rest of us were having fun at their expense.

 

We all knew from day 1 when they described the poop on the bush that they were talking of caterpillars of Swallowtail butterfly. The metamorphosis of a butterfly is common knowledge what isn’t known as commonly is that many insects in the larval stage which is what a caterpillar is, has different sub-stages called ‘instar’.

 

Caterpillars have their skeleton on the outside unlike us who have it within us, which means as they grow their skin cannot grow because of the skeleton which limits its growth, so it first grows the new skin beneath the old skin and then it sheds the old skin bringing forward the bigger skin. This process is called ‘molting’. What the monkeys saw were the various instars of the Swallowtail butterfly. The first few instars do indeed resemble a bird poop to appear unattractive and inedible to birds. Then towards the later stages they come to become something totally different from their poop-like appearance with even lines and streaks on them. It’s indeed an experience to see caterpillars stuff themselves silly, grow big and fat then go to sleep before emerging as a beautiful butterfly.   

 

The poop mimicking Swallowtail caterpillar on a lemon plant

The fifth Instar of the Swallowtail caterpillar 

This was explained in detail to the two monkeys. They now keep going back to the far-off bush to check what the caterpillars have turned themselves into next while checking on the mangoes as well without needing to give a reason for the daily excursions. Another thing about their age is everything is new and there’s that thirst to keep learning. If only we can find a way to keep doing that all our lives, we will never lack for a purpose to living or happiness in life.        

  

 

See you all next week. In the meanwhile, if you would like to write to me, email me at Sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com