....the essence of motherhood....

Our house houses a family... other than mine... a family of 2 birds, called "Red-wattled Lapwing" or "titodi" in our indigenous language. the two birds in each season lay eggs n put their heart n soul into the endeavour of making them grow up... alive... making them survive.

These birds nest on land n like the other birds the mother protects and nurtures the eggs n the father guards against predators which r found right at their doorstep n everywhere around, like snakes monkeys n dogs. Its a tougher life for them after their young ones come out of the shell coz then they are mobile n easier for predators to spot.

It so happened that this season they laid four eggs.... all four of them were fortunate enough to survive to see the first site of this beautiful world. But every evening there is the fear of predators... monkeys watching from tree tops, snakes from places u cant even behold, all waiting for an opportunity to attack n take away the little ones.

But whatever it is.... its a great pleasure to see the cute little beings hop here n there in the garden, sometimes trying to hide themselves in the herbs of the kitchen garden n sometimes playing hide n seek with their siblings in the hedges....

That day my family was sitting in the veranda n gazing at this happy family. The 2 birds were guarding their young ones n the little ones hopping here n there in the garden. Suddenly after a while ... we heard squeaks of the 2 adult members of the family, they had started flying vigorously for some reason we could not understand. Then we caught hold of a monkey running n coming towards this happy family. All of us got up n tried to scare the monkey off.. but it eventually took one of the little birds with him. It went n sat on the compound wall n was feasting on its newly caught prey, n the mom n dad birds were continuously chirping loudly and flying atop the monkey.. trying to hurt him... as if they were forcing him to leave their baby alone.....
Mom went that way, n we followed. She said "बड़ा दर्द होता होगा न इस
माँ को... इसके अपने बच्चो को कोई इसी के सामने ....."
The next evening when i came back from PS i got the news that another kid was taken away by an eagle, and two days later the family was nowhere to be found in our premises.....