Here’s the fifth part of our ‘Birds of Chopta’ series – with the following seven birds and poems dedicated to each one of them. We hope you enjoy it.
Poems by Sourabha Rao. Photo courtesy shared below each image.
1. Green-tailed sunbird
© Pradeep
so many colours on such a small being
we unknowingly learn to love inconsistencies
this unsuspecting teacher has taught his lesson
and is about to fly away
how is it, then, we also learn
to love that which is about to leave even as we watch
the sunbird sheds light
on the possibility of such love between humans, too
this is how we shall learn to give each other wings
2. Alpine accentor
© Rahul Khadiwala
proximity acquires new meaning
a sight so soulful that it doesn’t need a touch to make it more real
on the zenith of Chandrashila visits a companion, wings and feathers and all
flits about all around you – a strange intimacy you’ve never known before
you know it’s flying away any minute now
but you are home to a new love already
and its leaving will never hurt
for its wing-flutter still lingers in your heartbeats
a whole new world you carry within
and never felt lighter
3. Black-throated tit
© Sam Jacob
then there are beings with wings
who visit you fleetingly
and before they flee
leave behind a message only you can fathom
like an intentionally intimate one
it may all cease to exist one day – the pine, the mountains, the snow
or that we may, leaving this all behind
but there are meetings that come with worlds of memories
in our offering of loyalty to them
we remain aware of the fragility of life
and that the most special day of all is always today
4. Grey-hooded warbler
© Khushboo & Rahul Sharma
when this Old World warbler visits your vision
the joy is always new, eternal
a young yellow-green furry blob you want to be so close to
you are possessed by ridiculous wants, like swallowing it whole in one gulp
this is how you know a ‘consuming’ love can be featherbrained
but it is love nonetheless
and then you giggle even as the ave leaves its perch
for love is freedom, a thing with wings
your fluttering heart reminds you you had always known this – an old world wisdom
5. Chestnut-bellied rock thrush
© Pradeep
as if the earth and the sky decided to collide
into a fragile little thing
an impossible union that grows wings
blues and browns to paint all the colours you feel
when you think of some words – flit, fly, free
with all this love, you don’t need a sky to soar to
this earth is enough
and on it, this bird is enough
to be so captivated and to be so f r e e
6. Green-backed tit
© Ronak Joshi
some loves need not be afraid
of losing what is loved
no despair invades you when what is loved leaves
we need to talk more often
about these infinitely beautiful things
the green-backed tit, for one
when it prances before you and flies away
it leaves you to a wise aloneness
from whose warm womb, you emerge anew
simpler, like clay the world could draw from
7. Russet sparrow
© Krishna Kumari
this exoticism is tinged with a certain loss
we come to you from cities that the house sparrows have left
you are different but you are loved for you and for another
is it too much, darlingest sparrow, this warped admiration? for we try
to recover parts of childhood in your presence
while a new love for you blooms within
you allow room for a deviant one, too
for those who left us because of us
in your infinite generosity, how unclear we feel
if it is hard to be magnanimous, it is harder
to be the one on whom it is thus lavished
More:
Birds of Chopta - Week 1
Birds of Chopta - Week 2
Birds of Chopta - Week 3
Birds of Chopta - Week 4