March 22nd 2020 was an unusual sort of a day. It was the day of the ‘Janata curfew’ declared by the government.In keeping with the government’s orders or rather request to its people, all of us stayed at home.
I realized the immense implications of this day only when a beautiful haunting call caught my ear. It felt almost as though someone was drawing my attention to it. Peeping out of my window I caught a glimpse of the Indian golden Oriole.
“Hey, look out of the window. There is a rare bird there !” I called out to my sister from my balcony to hers.
“It is a regular visitor” my sister observed drily. I hear its call often.She then proceeded to share the picture of the oriole I have posted in this blog.
How come I had missed it? All these days busy with the business of life I had never known about its existence or heard its call.
And so I sat in silence that day . The number of vehicles on the roads had drastically reduced and the whole of earth seemed to be enveloped in a blanket of stillness. And then from the stillness, various sounds met my ears, the sound of a mynah screeching, the usual caw of the crow which is so hard to miss, the haunting notes of the koel…the list was endless.
These sounds had always been there but had been muffled by the sounds of humans-the cars purring by ,the buses with their blaring horns , the lorries trundling on, the phat phat of motorbikes.
Sitting at my balcony and absorbing the sights and sounds, I realized that I felt like a top that was slowly unwinding.
Once the curfew is over, Earth will go back to its hustle and bustle and its blaring noises but this day of silence has given me a glimpse or opened a window to a world we humans often bypass.
And yes once we limp back to normalcy and I have to be part of the busyness of the world ,I am determined that I will be conscious of the stillness and bird songs behind all the noise.I can be part of the world but need not be swallowed by it.
And the next time the oriole calls, I will be there to listen!
Still Flowing Water 