From the pigeon’s post: 358

The Rockface pigeons under discussion, have happily shed the tag of “living in pigeonholes” and the centuries old word 'pigeonhole’. The high-rise buildings offering rent free spaces, why would they settle for less? With them focused on a mission in life to survive and proliferate, it becomes next to impossible to evict these two-legged squatters.

Reluctant to go outdoors, I decided to study the roosting pigeons by adopting this observation-questions -published information technique - a Q&A with self-study. I chose three all-weather observation posts, with guaranteed visibility, that are within a few steps of each other for this purpose. The O.P1 is on the sunshade, below an outdoor ac unit of the opposite apartment, with a view from my bedroom window. The O.P2 is on a similar sunshade of the same apartment, just in front of my standing room only balcony, though sighting is through defensive nylon net backed by a grill work intended to keep away pigeons. The O.P 3 is on a sunshade of a neighbour’s apartment, with an anytime view from the common corridor.

The male pigeon struts around and waddles on the sunshade moving its body from left to right, bobbing its head back and forth as if practicing its own brand of ramp walk. On the other hand, the female, smaller in size, appears calm, unhurried and cautiously moves around. Sometimes, for the fun of it, both keep tracing imaginary circles, without their bodies touching each other like the spools rotating in a tape deck.  To impress the female, the male flutters its wings and puts up an impressive airshow with take offs and landings.

Physical attraction having been established, the pigeons start working on the body chemistry and then move on to biology classes. Intuitively knowing the purpose of their life, the pair selects a location to build a nest with slender reeds, sticks from broom, fibrous material or simply use any depression on the surface of a sunshade. Their objective is to have a nest with protection from the elements and a safety net for the eggs from rolling off the ledge. The roosting pair has to remain alert to danger from the cheeky squirrels. These fury-tailed villains think that the unguarded eggs, or squabs are fair game, for fun or pizza.

I gave up identifying one pair of pigeon from one another as it was like saying this and particle is different from that sand particle. The pairs of pigeons come home to roost at the same location, driven by the motto -   Familiarity breeds squabs.

The twin mysteries, why they choose to rest - perched precariously on drainpipes, edges of sunshades, and other uncomfortable niches and in this position how do they manage to sleep without falling over?  The pigeons must have gone scientific by adopting a unihemispheric sleeping technique, where one-half of the brain is resting the other half stays awake & alert to threats and falling off from the perches.

To be on the safer side, I confirmed with the published materials that my observations cum conclusions on gender identification, distinguishing pairs and their courting rituals are more or less correct.

The story from O.P 1:

A pair of pigeons made several flybys to select the sunshade under the outdoor ac unit. Their logic must have been to make use of some of the machine generated heat for use in hatching the eggs. Since this Observation Post was not under my constant surveillance during courtship and the delivery of eggs remained like an unread   chapter to me.  Returning home after a few days of absence, I noticed a solitary egg, carefully set amidst some trash material. One of the pigeons was maintaining the line of sight while the other kept the egg warm.

Given little more time, I would have understood that the pair shared the duties in the nest. The single egg was a pointer towards two possibilities. The female is yet to fully mature and build up stamina or has past its prime with depleted strength. Due to my inexperience, I had missed the important physiological indicators like colour of feathers or other physical characteristics.

Left to its own devices, when the parents were away from time to time, the egg had started to change position every day till the shell started developing hairline cracks. Finally, when the shell broke into two halves, I was able to view the dark lump of a squab. An ominous development occurred when a squirrel emitting squeaks had decided to investigate the site for its own nest, on the wall mounting bracket behind the outdoor unit.

By this time, the pigeons thinking that they have done all they could do, started to keep irregular visiting hours. Unaware of this lurking danger, the squab in the eggshell continued to shift around. The squab residing in the broken shell must have presented a tempting opportunity. Emboldened, the squirrel seized control of the situation. Belting out loud ‘squeaks’, it scurried down on to the sunshade a few times, to assess and plan its move but tactfully withdrew sensing my presence.

Next morning, alerted by the unusual noise, I hurried to the window. The agitated pigeons were flying over the spot where the squab should have been.  The loss of the squab must have formed an emotional storm and waves of distress in their tiny brains. They could do nothing but aimlessly walk on the sunshade and emit repetitive moans, which sounded tragic & forlorn. The grief-stricken pigeons were trying to understand what had gone wrong, probably thinking that their agitated pacing would bring back the squab well and alive.

Oddly, the metallic sounding squeaks and the squirrel have gone silent. I could only guess that either the squirrel has pushed out the squab in the broken shell, to prevent the pigeons from disturbing its nest or might have feasted on a free meal.  A heart wrenching sight for any human observer. I watched them for some time lost in thoughts as to what could I do to console them.

The story from O.P 2:

The neighbours did not pay heed to my concern about the health issues attributed to these squatters. Unable to sleep under the unrelenting heat wave, I migrated to my stamp sized balcony to appeal to the clouds to stop debating and start raining. Undisturbed by my presence, pairs of pigeons clung to drainpipes, wall mounted brackets, exhaust fan frames, windowsills and sunshades as their sleeping quarters.

Next day morning, I noticed a pair of pigeons busily engaged in spreading sticks of a broom, on the sunshade opposite to my apartment. Correcting my earlier mistake, I easily identified the male pigeon by its body build, strutting, loud coos and puffed out neck and chest feathers. To actively court the partner, he attempted to dazzle the female with bright iridescent feathers on his neck. 

The sleek female pigeon, with not so iridescent neck feathers, participated enthusiastically. At times she refused to play along by crouching down flat on the sunshade to discourage further entreaties. After some more cooing and ring-a- ring-a- roses dancing, the female pigeon playfully attempted to adhere to the wall.

 Piqued by this act, I stood rooted to my spot, recollecting the published facts that being monogamous and in their prime, the pigeons continue with the courtship which triggered the ovulation cycle in the female pigeon, signaling her readiness to start a family.

After a few reruns of this episode, the pigeon playfully attempted to adhere to the wall, delivered an egg after a few days and by pure chance I happened to witness the egg being delivered, in real time. Then, using her beak and legs she started to nudge the egg around to keep it safe behind the barricade of arranged broom sticks.

I geared myself to clock the arrival of the second egg and chronicle the hatching event. Unaware of this developing situation, a squirrel was sprinting up and down, along a vertical drainpipe with whatever mission it had in its mind. I called it a day after verifying that the second egg has not been laid yet.

The next morning, the vacant space told me the sad story. The egg and the sticks of the broom have been swept off the sunshade. The clueless pigeons, vainly searched for the missing egg and the sticks of the broom. Tragedy notwithstanding, the female pigeon was on a clock to lay the second egg within 48 hours, before it gets air dropped. Their plan to hatch a male and female squab at that place going terribly wrong, the heartbroken parents might have departed in search of another location.  

Who stole the egg and removed the sticks of the broom? Whether the second egg was laid in time, in another place? Mysteries fit to be solved by Sherlock Holmes! Needless to say, I closed my observations with a heavy heart.

The story from O.P 3:

This neighbour had refused to clear the debris and fill the shallow pit on his sunshade. I had even pointed out the pair of pigeons eyeing the shallow depression and debris for a possible hatching site. For good measure I reminded him that that a pair of pigeon or the bulbuls chose the same place again, perhaps for sentimental reasons after having completed a successful batch. I drew his attention to the bird droppings already on the sunshade to drive home my point.

After a few days, my apprehension became a certainty. The female pigeon was calmly doing sentry duty guarding two eggs. The debris, the depression and pigeon droppings had become home for the eggs.

Whether the pigeons counted the days or not, I did. In the interim, I learnt that a mature female pigeon is a fast breeder reactor, brooking no delay or disruption in her egg laying cycles. She can initiate her ovulation cycle at will. Typically, she delay-starts the hatching process by 2 days, to match with the arrival of the second egg.

Within 4-6 weeks and at times even when the hatched squabs are still in the nest, she is ready to lay the next clutch of eggs. I started to wonder whether the pigeons are targeting to achieve the maximum number of hatchings like the possible number of New Moons or Full moons in a calendar year!

With such energy consuming activities ahead, the parents share the workload in nest keeping duties. The female stays with the eggs/squabs from late afternoon till about mid-morning and the male takes over for the midmorning to the late afternoon shift. This shift rotation allows the female pigeon to recuperate and refresh.

On the fag end of the 3^rd week, the broken shells announced the increase in the population of pigeons, with at least one female squab. A squab of Rock face pigeon starts as an indistinguishable lump, with pale yellow or yellowish gray coloured feather, at birth. As it matures the colour gradually changes to gray.

The squabs must be feeling lucky as both the parents take turn to feed them with specially secreted crop milk. As the squabs age, the frequency of parental visits becomes sporadic as the squabs have been fed with enough nourishment.  The parents have done their best. The infrequent visits and hunger make the squabs to leave the nest early. The absence of the marauding squirrel remained a puzzle, but it had helped the eggs to survive, avoiding a heartache to the parents.

After building up sufficient strength to survive on their own, the fledglings fly away, probably vacating the space for their parents to start the next batch, though I am yet to confirm this. In the world of pigeons everything has to run like the parts of a Swiss clock.

The squabs mature in about eight months. But within 4-7 months, the yet to fully mature female pigeon might start laying one egg per clutch signaling the arrival of another fast breeder reactor. Older or under nourished female pigeons adopt this one egg per clutch rule to ensure survival of the hatched squab.

No doubt, the pigeons proliferate and use our premises as their washroom facilities. The stink arising from their droppings and fallen feathers ranks alongside the foul smell that assails travellers as the train approaches the outskirts of a typical metropolitan city.

Setting aside my deep-rooted pathological aversion to the pigeons to take a closer look at their life cycle was immensely rewarding.  It forced me to learn published materials, become a Zoolinguist and an avianliguist to understand their feelings on my way to become an indoor ornithologist!

Toeing the line: 347

 Imaginch had this eerie feeling of being suffocated by an unwashed blanket. If he ever thought like this aloud, he would have been summarily court-martialed and sent to a solitary confinement cell. Why?  His better half is a stickler for hygiene and except the structure of the house everything inside of it must get disinfected, drycleaned and irradiated by IR and UV for the heck of it. She is a martinet, holding a firing range and a boot camp on permanent lease, to punish non-compliance, be it a person or an inanimate object.

As he is scared of solitary confinement (he likes the freedom to move around) and afraid of the firing range (she never scored a bull’s eye in all practice sessions) and the boot camp (he is stamina deficient), he goes to a park or some such public place to air his views.

The elected or selected elders or youngsters, without gender discrimination, take to this toeing the party line very seriously. Not only they get to stage a walk out in protest against this or that but earn bonus points for adhering to their physician’s advice. As a small fee, they have to assume as if they are standing on the party’s plank and recite the party lines like parrots before walking out.

Imaginch is not worried about Netas toeing party lines, but he was concerned about parties willing to turn “double the Nelson’s eye’ on the happenings that affect the nation and stay focused with three eyes on their electoral prospects. “If Opposition is not for walk outs, then what is democracy?” a one liner he favoured and unsuccessfully tried to popularise it.

His mind was racing against his thoughts to spew out more one liner, parallelly thinking about selling them to willing political parties for use as their slogans during election times.  Becoming prolific, he came up with “No publicity is like a walkout publicity.” “No win is like a walkout win”. “No order is like an order being expelled for disruption”.

What struck him odd was the elders sitting among youngsters and vice versa. Was it by design, to have young voices to vociferously protest and energetically walkout to allow the elders to catch their breath and trail behind to show their commitment & solidarity.?

Though immersed in his thoughts, the din a group of parrots were making did not escape his attention. The green winged and red beaked parrots stirred an imagery of the elders and youngsters engaged in heated debates as law makers! His mind started to look for similarities in the behaviour of humans and avians of interest to him.

He imagined that the parrots, in the wild or in captivity, would be communicating vital social, safety, and emotion related information with their flock members. Their context would be clear with specific vocal calls, regional dialects, and body language (he would love to watch one such performance!) aimed at maintaining social bonds and ensure survival of the flock.

Coming back to the elders and youngsters without gender difference, he did not strain his imagine much. The path followed by them mimicked, in toto, the parrots as far as the social bonds and their own welfare measures are concerned. The print media accounts and trolls in social media are validation enough for the above parallel drawn by him. He was sure that the body language of avians mostly might be benign (with one lark not making the summer type excuse) but when it comes to our elders and youngsters. While they vehemently agree to disagree (papers, mikes and wooden furnitures bearing the brunt) the same benign outcomes cannot be guaranteed. See, they are not averse to use their might to fight for their rights. Oops! He had missed to be the author of this powerful one liner!

When a parrot repeats some words what has it understood?

Parrots that are out of social contact with other parrots try to fill this gap by considering humans as their flock. They learn to use human speech and other familiar noises to interact with them. Often, they “practice” and perfect these sounds by talk to themselves or to other pets in the house.  By mirroring the daily chatter of their human household, they adapt to their caged environment with as much comfort as possible. These parrots repeat exactly, what someone else has said about something or someone, without thinking and often in a mocking tone!

Imaginch expected a better behaviour from the elders and youngsters. But they have found a survival mantra in emulating the parrots. They repeat exactly what someone else has said about something or someone, often mockingly or without thinking. What the parrots did not have which these people have is the fall mechanism – misquoted, quoted out of context, work of unseen hands with gloves(foreign)or without gloves(local). When the political heat raises, the flock of the same feathers of elders and youngsters try to construct barricades, fortresses around the offender.

The caged parrot would like to have some of the freedoms these uncaged elders and youngsters enjoy. To roam and to invoke ‘slip of the tongue, quoted out of context or misrepresented or blame the involvement of one or two foreign hands. It could only wonder why for the same slip of the tongue,  gets it jailed (caged) and these out of context wallahs get bails!

When they walk out, what is the issue and what they do?

Even if a parrot gets incredibly disappointed, frustrated, unhappy, overwhelmed with dislike or upset about a situation, it exercises its absolute right to "protest" and walk out or fly away refusing to interact. It protests with loud, screeching noise, raises the wings and lunges at the opponent. If it turns bitter and violent, the caged parrot could destroy toys, paper, or furniture by poking holes in the upholstery.

Imaginch was not surprised to read or watch a similar outburst from the elders and youngsters. The malady of following in the footstep of the parrots. Small disappointments, frustration or upset about issues, the elders and youngsters become “sick as a parrot” and promptly stage a walkout, knowing fully well that they could come back after a few minutes. If overwhelmed by frustration, they can tear papers, throw mikes all over and upend or break furnitures. After a brief suspension, come back to the benches or seats.

Unless the caged parrot has a political leaning, a walkout or destruction of property means, it would be the end of its story. This is the oceanic difference between the parrot’s unpaid-for walk outs (no party line to toe) and elders and youngsters staging their paid-for walk outs (fearing the noose of the party line)!  Given the choice, the caged parrot also would happily toe a party line!

The last laugh: 346

 Once a powerful public figure, an acerbic orator and a go- to politician for fixing internal squabbles or for slinging mud on opponents, he had done it all. Instead of blood, loyalty ran in his body. Blind faith, instead of acumen ran his career. But on the question of loyalty, he took it as a sky lark. Was loyal to whoever was powerful at that time.  

His versatility flowed from his ability to switch loyalty from ‘A’ to ‘B’ and back to ‘A’ like a servo motor. For both the traits – loyalty and blind faith, he had chosen the navigation chart with clarity of mind which could cut sharp corners, where there was no such thing in the statute books. If needed, he did not hesitate to give new meanings and if not available, he wrote his own chapters and books. 

A smooth sailing in others' troubled waters combined with the faith of the masses in deliverance on the expected promises will be fulfilled. He did not stay long in that party to face the same electorate. He changed   his constituency as easily as getting into a new shirt. 

His road to success was laid over and again by gauging the changing winds or sensing the infinitesimal changes in the rising heat, due to his hoarded wealth. Now you understand the frequent loyalty-blood transfusion and travels from ‘A’ to ‘B’ and then back to ‘A’? 

He reaped twin benefits - one in his personal advancement by swimming in multiple currents, and two being accepted in any other party at any time. Anticipating the black day that would surely come, he had compiled a dossier of ‘bargainable’ intel, wherever he was active as a powerful public figure. 

If merciful, a work horse of the party is always put to pasture when its output diminishes. Otherwise, it gets sidelined and the party waits for an opportunistic moment to offer it as a sacrifice, to save the rider! 

His pre-emptive measures to delay the inevitable kept on tinkering with the loyalty-blood pressure and the muscles of the heart and kidneys. Constituents of the body started deserting the assembly. 

As this internal battle was going on, the suppressed conscience rose like Phoenix from the ashes to demand its over dues. In his prime, he had defaulted on many payments at will, shielding himself against penal actions by loyalty cum turning chameleon gene expressions. That trick did not work with his conscience.  

Silently, the DNA was expressing itself by generating a host of other illnesses to remind the politician who was the supreme boss. Under the shadow of these expressions, his conscience became hyper active to torment him without let. The internal and external heat becoming unbearable, he sought refuge and succour.  

Then he remembered the word-of-mouth whisperings "you will find the money well spent. No one will bother you as they don't allow visitors and you can plan your next move from the comfortable CICU instead of hiding in some hell hole.” 

He would let all the others to think, whatever they want. He knew where aces and rabbits are kept hidden. He had the source code to unlock the deck (playing cards) and the warrens. He did one thing that no one expected him to do - as per prearrangement, had an upcoming Vlogger tagging him behind the ambulance.   To make sure, he had waved a thick black colour folder at the Vlogger’s camera. For a telling visual effect, he had even stuck a yellow rose bloom with stem in that folder. 

Going by the word-of-mouth, he had chosen this multi-specialty hospital.  Yes, true to the name, specialists have been visiting him, scribbling something in the case sheet and leaving in a hurry without even uttering a hello to him. He wondered whether they are aware or ignorant of the fact that his stay costs him a hefty sum every day, leaving his nose bleeding?  

When the news of him occupying a bed in CICU made its way into the media (he had engineered it by another leak), his detractors sharpened their sound bites and the IT cell of his current party got busy in planning an AI generated obituary. But postponed its release fearing the expose’ in the form of that black folder stuck with a yellow rose bloom with stem. 

The ever-hungry media headquartered in glass towers or the freelance tubers churning out from kitchen shelves, ate and regurgitated the diet meal from the CICU. Few enterprising astrologers eagerly submitted hourly predictions competing with the hospital's health bulletins. 

For the once a powerful public figure, the CICU reminded him of solitary confinement with tubes and monitors pinging away for his money’s worth!  His mind was in a turmoil recounting missed deals and half-brokered deals. The question of succession has been addressed to some extent but grooming a protege to safeguard the chosen successor stood at the crossroads.  He berated himself for waiting too long to tie up all these loose ends of his political legacy. 

The wily political hyena packs remained at a distance, smelling something fishy but hesitating to untie the parcel. For now, they decided to keep vigil, on the patient as well as the other opponents. The once powerful public figure, after coming to know of this vigil, laughed at himself first and then at the hyena packs. 

The rest in CICU has rejuvenated his health and spirit. He got the clarity that even though once a powerful public figure, now, "holding a thick file adorned with a rose bloom on its stem, is the key to any power vault" is still unbeatable! 

He had another hearty laugh and discharged himself out, but not before shredding the papers and disposing of the emptied folder. The hospital staff gladly obliged, in lieu of a negotiated future favour. 

He would let the wily pack of hyenas keep guessing. He had pen drives, SD cards and so many other storage pouches. The black folder might have done its job, by now! He could surely come up with another decoy, if another occasion warranted it! 

He fully understood that the word-of-mouth whisperings "you will find the money well spent. No one will bother you as they don't allow visitors and you can plan your next move from the comfortable CICU instead of hiding in some hell hole." It was insanely true and based on sound logic. He laughed once more at the exit of the hospital, before getting into his chauffeured limousine. 

The vlogger captured his quiet departure, wondering what happened to that black folder? He was not alone, the wily hyena packs once again smelling something fishier than the last time, stood transfixed, wondering about the same missing black folder!

Battle of creaky bones: 351

A battle-scarred grandfather, wanted to send this request to his grandchildren – “leave my old bones alone!” He was tired of wearing protective gears, even while asleep. The children habitually ganged up to invent novel tricks to tie him in knots. They thought his experience will automatically get expressed as innovative thinking and face whatever tricks they could come up with. The parents safely stood aside to let the issues get sorted out among themselves. They were wary of the creaking bones and his weighted average shrapnel like comments. 

Alas! The metabolism and mechanism in his body have not been designed for the onslaught of the second generation (children, grandchildren). Like El Nino and La Nina, he came under the influence of Nil Nino or Ill Nina. Though figuratively different, his nil and ill brought the same environmental effect- extreme discomfort! 

At 70+, managing a ragtag army of grandchildren, once considered a gift, tested his energy reserves and frayed nerves. Like everyone, ‘youngsters thought that all those around them are also young, while the elders thought that all those youngsters are old enough to take care of themselves’. These youngsters are fast and furious. Their conversations echo like a rapid-fire questioning round.

The creaky bones, in the old body wondered from where they got this style of speaking! As they were growing up, he had seen them watching only innocuous cartoons. Little did he know that they have quietly graduated to some serious stuff like the minions, paw patrol, Masha and the Bear, kung fu pandas and the fire breathing dragons spewing out crispy dialogues. He had lot of catching up to do!

His personal experience was ‘nothing worked in his favour without a resultant reaction, if it happened by chance’.  While discussing about various languages, he had inadvertently asked them the tongue spoken in the God’s own country. They replied with a mischievous smile, "geographically speaking, it must be Malayalam!". Nodding in appreciation, he made the mistake of pointing out that it has the distinction of being a palindrome. Explanations that followed settled the issue for them. Suddenly, they asked. "Whether palindrome exists in numbers?" 

To buttress their point, they showed him a series of numbers - 6116, 3773, 393 and so on. Caught in the web of his own over enthusiasm, he had to hurriedly make an exit, to dive into the realm of numbers. For once, luck partially favoured him - they did not zero in on and asked about palindrome in imaginary numbers. During his student days, he had difficulty to understand the real numbers themselves, and imaginary numbers did not fit in his scheme of mathematics. Frantic calls went to …Google help me! His call for help was answered, in the affirmative, by Wikipedia. 

What they intended to do was to showcase their curriculum bound general knowledge and willingness to think beyond those classrooms. Is it not too much for the creaking bones - to struggle and remember or revisit and learn anew? Since he only had himself to blame, he kept quiet. 

Sensing that the grandfather had somehow wiggled out of the number game, they sprung another trap. “The mother cat moves her assets - the newborn kittens, from place to place to safeguard them. Now, tell us whether “the birds also change the nestlings from one place to another? If not, why?" 

Weary bones are not; he had to scramble and scratch his brain to formulate a logical answer. Feeding them with an off the cuff explanations will be a boomerang, sure to come back with more tough questions! 

Wondering where from they have acquired “assets”, he tested the water with trepidation and said, “The cat has a wide mouth to pick up and redeposit its assets, in another nook or corner. Why does it do it? To prevent predators accessing its assets! Moreover, a cat does not fancy itself as a builder. Instead, it makes use of the flexible mouth, teeth and the thick, fleshy "scruff" on the kittens to ensure safe transportation. 

Birds on the other hand, being arboreal, out of necessity build nests and really do a good job while at it! Coming to your question, since birds have rigid, sharp beaks, meant to be used as tools for feeding, preening and nest building, find it unsuitable for handling living creatures. Nestlings are incredibly delicate with hollow bones, often featherless and have no scruff to hold onto. This is the technical difficulty. Moreover, the birds cannot open their mouths wide enough to accommodate the size of the nestlings, which grow very fast and often weigh about half as much as the parents, within two weeks. 

Hence, the bird parents cannot safely carry the weight of their babies.  The parents are driven by instincts and generally do not move their fragile hatchlings. Instead of hurting the nestlings, they keep and guard over them in the same nest!” The grand old man silently thanked his stars for having studied about the red vented bulbul and its nesting habits. 

As expected, the boomerang came swishing through the air. “Why, the birds are not able to or engineered to open their mouths wide? After all what is required, other than a collection of elastic muscles and hinges at the junction of the neck and head!” 

Really a tough question on evolutionary biology and unfortunately for him t his uncomfortable situation of today had evolved about six decades ago, when he had opted out of studying biology, leave alone the evolutionary biology! As a grandfather, he felt proud when these kids with indomitable spirit boldly offered suggestions on ways evolution could have modified the mouths of birds as a multiple utility tool!  

With some mid-day moonlighting, he had refereed, collated and assimilated information with which he would be able to wing it. An apt modus operandi for this situation on avians, where he found himself floundering like a fledgling bird and hoping to land on solid ground. 

“Flight is a biological imperative that demands a lightweight and a streamlined frame. The small, feathered, carnivorous Theropod dinosaurs was the template. Building on this, around 150–165 million years ago, the avian species per se started evolving as a specialized subgroup of Theropods. 

Thus, the birds can be considered as the living dinosaurs and descendants of bipedal, reptile-like ancestors. In the bird’s family tree, their immediate ancestors were the small, agile and feathered dinosaurs such as Dromaeosaurids and Troodontids. By the late Jurassic era, the species with a mix of dinosaurian traits (teeth, long bony tail) and bird-like traits (feathers, wings) had evolved. 

After spending over tens of millions of years in body size shrinking exercises, these ancestors repurposed the feathers of the dinosaurs and ended with hollow bones, a Wishbone (furcula), and the three-toed limbs to suit the needs of perching, holding and flying. 

While being shrunk in size and repurposed, the birds ended up with small mouths and sharp beaks only as tools to feed and survive. Today, these birds carry a 66-million-year-old dinosaur lineage, which miraculously survived the catastrophic Cretaceous extinction event. 

You are all familiar with the red vented bulbul and taking it as an example let us see why birds do not lift heavy, squirming nestlings. A nestling may weigh up to 10 to15gm. Consider this - the bird has to take to air with a nestling, fly through wind resistance and against gravity. This effort requires immense strength and specialised gripping tools, which an adult bulbul simply does not possess. In this condition, even lifting an egg, weighing just 2-3 gm, itself will be a herculean task and where is the question of the bird shifting the nestlings? Will this not be a tall order for an adult bulbul, itself weighing about 40 to 60gm? 

They are not alone in this regard. Even powerful birds of prey, like eagles and hawks which have strong, razor-sharp talons do not attempt to grasp a fragile chick.

The kids had one last question. “Is there any exception in the avian world?” 

“Yes. But like that saying, ‘one lark does not make the summer, if at all some birds do shift their nestlings, though it would be the rarest of rare occurrence.” 

The grandchildren were wonderstruck and confused in equal measures, unable to digest or decide why they troubled him with that boomerang question. They thought, “All along he had been feigning ignorance by pointing out at the level of education he had received. Was it a smoke screen? Or, is he trying to hoodwink us with overflow of information, which could be relevant to us only after another 4 to 5 years? Or is he trying to scare us, wanting not to be burdened with us during summer holidays? Or is he trying to learn things in the pretext of clearing our doubts? If doubts can be cleared while answering other’s doubts, then why many don’t try this technique?”

After a day, the grandfather came to know the real purpose. The grandchildren were chit chatting among themselves, thinking that 'with his not so sharp hearing’, he may not come to know of the content of their discussion. They did not realise that a gentle breeze blowing towards their grandfather became their villain. The breeze carried the conversation into the ears of their grandfather, clearly but not loud enough, who strained himself to catch every syllable that came his way 

The eldest in the gang grilled the younger kid, “Why were you asking questions, particularly about the birds and their young ones? The kid with an innocent aplomb replied, "Don't you know that school will be reopening tomorrow and grandpa will be leaving shortly thereafter?" 

“What these have to do with your questions?” 

“Dummy! I have to submit a short write up on some aspect of life form!” 

“Then why should it be about birds and not on sharks or whales?"

“Our grandfather had been telling me many times, that he is afraid of depths. Why to frighten his old bones? The birds appeared to be a safe bet.” 

“Suppose he had been telling you, that he fears heights, then what would have you done?" 

“Easy peachy. I would have settled for earthworms! I had options!” 

After hearing the entire conversation, the old man understood that they did not ask their doubts to clear their or his doubts but to collect material for a write up, based on his sound knowledge! 

Then he thought, why do we do what we do? Will Google or Wikipedia help?

ChintaMany’s secret weapon: 352

Long ago, ChintaMany had learnt two things. One, keeping counsel to himself. Two, never engage in verbal exchange, whatsoever be the provocation. This he had learnt from watching movies and T V dramas, where the first character speaks the scripted dialogues and after hearing it all, the responding character completes his or her delivery. Oftentimes, commercial breaks introduce a nail-biting suspense about what the dialogues in reply would be. Naturally, he tooled himself to keep his counsel to himself.

This mastery did not occur overnight. During student days, he had overheard or eavesdropped snippets of conversational gems that vented hard feelings on a third person. Sometimes it was as monologues. His baptism in silence started when that third person happened to be dearer to him or a family member of the grownups whom he liked, over unresolved adult to adult issues. At that age, he had unknowingly experimented in controlled shaping of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, windpipe and jaws in crushing contact with teeth to speak to himself without making a sound. 

He had developed a mindset that allowed him to understand that others also had the right to have their own mindset. Instead of getting into a fracas, he had chosen these techniques to stay away from the troubled waters. Before this time, he had never appreciated the power of silence, which required sealed and locked lips, which now he was able to command at will. If his chosen ‘keeping counsel to himself’ weapon is not given a proper name, then how would he be able to popularise it! 

An old dictionary followed by a Google search presented him with such a name - Embouchure (ˈɒmbuˌʃʊər). but the direction to pronounce it scared him off from trying it. With the number one secret weapon in his arsenal ready for deployment, he decided to name it as silentium embouchure. The silent way to control the facial muscles, lips, tongue and teeth as exercised by a trumpet player! Trumpet player does all these to control the air to enter the instrument to sustain pitch and clear tone, whereas his purpose would be to seal the air inside his respiratory system to sustain silence. 

The search for the second weapon, to attack the provocative angle, left him high and dry, as options thrown out by the dictionary and Google search required him to attend meditation classes, anger issue management courses and, if all else fails to try an advanced version of silentium Embouchure for clues! Though initially sceptic, on deeper analysis he understood the profound nature of this suggestion. The first choice required enrolling in gymnastic classes to control facial muscles, tongue, lips, teeth and windpipe to remain passive by not reacting to external stimuli. 

The anger management might need a deep pocket. He felt confident that he could add some more parameters to bolster this version with suitable upgrades and bring out a silentium Embouchure Ver 2.0, for the secret weapon number 2. He mused, “Why not bring out a new software in another name? 

Worries persisted in ChintaMany’s mind. What could be the sports beyond gymnastics? Or is there a version 2.0 in gymnastics? What would the special requirements that could be adopted or adapted in developing the next, untitled version? He likened his situation to that of a square peg being hammered into a circular opening. 

Having read stories about marauders repeatedly attacking to plunder wealth from famous temples, or about spiders never giving up on attempts to complete their webs under impossible conditions, ChintaMany took it upon himself to come out with a new version, calling upon the ‘ears’ to toggle between ‘hard of hearing’ to ‘acute hearing’ mode at will. This saying, ‘Like the unsaid words, the unheard words also would become valuable, in silence!” 

The solution in the form of ‘ears’ just popped up in his mind when he started to wonder about the import of this saying. His mind on a nostalgic trip reminded him the fact that he had been practicing this technique, albeit unconsciously, by tuning out parts of the eavesdropped conversations that would have upset him.  Now the ears appeared to be a good choice. 

Since it an upgraded, new version, he once again went back to the same drawing board to refer to the dictionary and trouble Google for clues. Since only a few would be really hard of hearing, he rejected suggestion to rule out invoking physical impairment in the hearing apparatus.  While he was struggling to imagine how could the ears be accused of having a link with emotional disconnect, the fine print prompted him to understand that referred to his own disconnect with his own emotions.

 He did not let it go without questioning why not call it as emotional blindness which was equally disconcerting but promptly enlarged the scope from “OWN” to “ANYONE”. This transposition appeased his troubled mind. 

The next thread he pulled out was the mismatch in emotional capacity, which could bear the blame as the root cause. To complicate the matter further, this thread came along with a hint that unexpressed feelings might be watering this root cause. It posed a question, “When kept nourished, will not the stem and branches get up to greet and speak, that being ‘hard of hearing’ is a default mechanism?” 

ChintaMany went nuts when he imagined with horror that the users may have to consult top-notch ENT specialist along with a psychiatrist or psychologist, before or after reading, his untitled version. Focused on arming to the teeth for effective utility of the weapon number 2, he decided to sidestep this issue of before or after during the initial deployment phase. To give prominence to the ears, he chose the name “Auribus quietis” an elegant description, in Latin, as the ears have to go to silent mode. 

Overly concerned with the ears going silent, ChintaMany started worrying about the poor heart that would be bearing the brunt, by way of suffering with induced stress due to emotional disconnect or emotional blindness, if not properly addressed. His worry struck gold when his mind prompted with alacrity, “why not rope in the eyes and programme it ignores what it observes. 

By this trick if he could safeguard the two-way bond with the dear and other concerned parties and if at the same time, he could spare the heart from griefs due to bottled up feelings, he was ready for blindsiding. Before employing such a trick, he reassured himself that great scientists like William Rowan Hamilton, Hermann Minkowski, Hendrik Antoon Lorenz, Erwin Schrodinger and Albert Einstein had travelled on this route to confuse or explain how the universe and things in it work. 

No matter, if the scope of this new version got enlarged as long as its purpose remained noble. Having brought the eyes and heart together, he forced himself to explore for a new name. He thought, “having decided to explore, why not honour the Spaniard like Christopher Columbus. With many competing Spanish marineros on the seas, he chose the Spanish language for the title, to avoid causing heartburns in their departed souls. The idiom “Quod oculos non videt, cor non dolet” meaning what the eyes does not see, the heart does not grieve over, stole his appreciation and approval. He shortened it as “QonvonT” to entice the users. 

The entire design cycle will use systematic methodology to transform abstract concepts in human feelings as in VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration). Though euphoric, ChintaMany hosted a doubt whether, in his over enthusiasm he had created outlines for three different techniques namely “silentium embouchure”, “Auribus quietis” and “QonvonT”.  Now, he had to call upon three set of experts - software engineers, developers, coders and visual platform builders. To hasten the process, he sent out appeals seeking help in locating the experts through WhatsApp, Arattai, Instagram and Facebook and chose to wait with his fingers tied in a knot. 

This finished software will allow a user to create an animated figure with appropriate emotions- felt but not revealed in real time by the user for diplomatic reasons - that are to be expressed now, on-screen. If these projects get completed without a hitch, then he would personally conduct the phase one trials before officially marketing it. Moreover, these softwares will have the unique built-in flexibility to function as a training module with which the user can get trained to show appropriate overt or covert reactions, in case the user is e yet to experience such situations. 

Part -3 The wagging of tongue (The formal speech gets in to books): 336C

 My friend had a doubt. “How the formal speech got in to printed form?”

In reply I said, “Before discussing about it, let me give you an over view. Later on, I may use some of these points, to buttress a context.”

Human feelings such as fear, anger, love, hatred, astonishment, hunger, thirst, victory, defeat etc needed expressive adult sounds. The infant’s nascent cry became inadequate. They started developing structured syllables and words by combining vowels and consonants and permutation. I, they n turn combined with each other in different ways to generate the structured and grammatical sentences.

Eager to grow and slowly fortified itself, this ‘spoken’ language gleefully absorbed many tribal dialects. Riding on this euphoria-spree, this nascent language further evolved with rich expressions of a given region, imbibing its customs and culture.  The languages of today, probably began their journey from different corners of the Earth, about 20 millenniums ago. This trans-continental migration played an important role.

In the intervening period the human vocalising organs were undergoing gradual upgradation to make proper speech. These ‘spoken words’ thoughtfully spent many centuries, to transform themselves from signs, symbols, proto alphabets, to firm up as alphabets. The primitive arts and ‘speech’ preceded the alphabets for writing. Dramatic changes occurred about a few thousand years ago.

Infused with new roots and words, these languages flourished to claim wider following. This did not happen easily as these languages had to bend their backs to come out as winners in the fields of literature, science and technology by enriching themselves with new words every year. The dialects and languages which were lethargic to move forward became redundant or extinct. The era of modern languages had arrived! 

But the original, gritty first cry of a newborn, emitted countless millenniums ago, survived annihilation by aligning itself in tune with the written words of lyric to become the language of Music. Is this not a far cry, for the sound of music of the cradle fame? 

For the writing systems to gradually evolve, the humanity had to toil roughly another 5 to 6 millennium, with improved cognitive abilities, tool-making skills, agriculture, abstract thinking, technology, art, science, cultural diversity and languages. We are the only surviving species of that Homo genus fortunate enough to read our own history! Our ancestors walked to talk, and today are we not asking someone to 'walk the talk'. 

My friend interjected, “Is it a surprise or a coincidence or an imprint in the gene!” I managed it with an “all of them!” 

Immediately, he and my inner voice raised the doubt “Why there are so many languages, particularly in the Asian continent, when only the same ancestors crisscrossed across all the continents!” 

This question left me speechless with the thought that neither of them will leave me alone till such time I gave them the answer. A vacant look at the wall did not offer any assistance. Bingo! Countries and their topographic features started rolling through my mind. To make sure, I opened an old copy of Atlas and gazed at the map of the Asian continent. 

Imagining what could have happened I answered, “The continent’s geography with Snowcapped mountains, mountains, islands, jungles, plains and valleys and the river systems coursing through the land acted as quarantine for the settlers. This isolation of being trapped in typical weather phenomenon such as extreme to moderate cold, temperate to hot climate and heavy to sparse rain fall might have seeded the development of so many dialects/languages, in the range of several thousands.

Add to this the number of dialects/languages brought by the inbound migrants, you get the picture. Sure enough, many of these dialects/languages slowly joined the endangered list, or like the dinosaurs simply became extinct.” 

Both my friend and my inner voice disappointed me by not coming up with any comments. To keep them engaged I announced a little loudly, “Next my focus out will be to find how those surviving languages are faring today. But before that, let me trace the development of dialects   becoming spoken languages and later adopting symbols and alphabets to become the written languages.” 

My friend questioned, “What set off these processes?” 

Replying, I said “When our ancestors started to walk upright, two things happened. ONE: To sooth a baby from a distance, the mother made use of rhythmic sing -song vocalisation of cooing sounds which emerged as the proto baby-talk. TWO: Before their walk, they had only the baby-talk as the language, without properly articulated words. They had to surpass the ability of some of the other species who could also use gestures, vocalisation and facial expressions to communicate. Our ancestors accomplished this feat with their cognitive complex. 

However, they had to wait long for biological changes like the development of brain with specific location to handle processing of language and nervous system to control tongue, lips and vocal tract. This brain power left behind the animals and birds with only the ability to mimic or to communicate by sound without grammar and symbolism.”

My friend asked, “Maybe by the slip of your tongue, you had mentioned something about tablets to printers and time capsules. What did you mean by that?”  I was surprised to hear him repeating that phrase. Though it was a remark in passing, I decided to make use of it.

“It was a long process for the language to blossom into a handwritten and printed form. It achieved this by metamorphosing scratches to symbols to scripts to alphabets. Interestingly time capsules in the past, were sealed and buried to let the future generations to know about their civilisations. The time capsule we had sent into deep space was to let another civilisation to know that we inhabit a planet around a star system, probably millions of light years away from that civilisation! 

In both the cases, the objectives were to proclaim the state of advancement of respective civilisations.

Showing involvement, my friend asked, “How the writing systems underwent changes?”

Sumerians developed the cuneiform, about 6 millenniums ago. Cuneiform was most common form of writing found on the oldest, ancient clay tablets. Scribes used a fully developed system with 600 to 1,000 distinct characters to combine syllables and word-signs. After dominating for thousands of years, this system was replaced by the Ugarit scribes of Syria, who started using a cuneiform-style alphabet consisting of 30 distinct letters. Eventually these alphabets made their way onto clay and wax tablets, maybe around 3.4 millennium ago. 

True linear alphabets, like Phoenician, were developed to make use of materials like papyrus, leather and wax instead of clay. For ease of erasing and rewriting the alphabetic text, wooden boards layered with wax came into usage. 

In the subcontinent, the Indus Script, an older proto-writing system, came in to existence between 4600 to 3900 years ago. This, largely undeciphered, pictographic script failed to transform into alphabets. 

Brahmi was the first standardized alphabet and written scripts appeared in India, by about 2700 years ago. It followed an abugida style, a consonant-vowel writing system. All modern Indian scripts eventually evolved from Brahmi script. 

For example, Tamili script having Tamil, and Telugu lineage, appeared around the same time. Scripts like Vatteluttu and distinct Grantha and Tamil scripts emerged out of the Tamil-Brahmi tradition. 

During Emperor Ashoka’s reign, the first widespread use of standardized Brahmi script across the subcontinent occurred. He had commissioned monumental Rock Edicts written in Northern and Southern Brahmi, about 2300 years ago. 

A Brahmi variant changed in to the Gupta script and later became the Devanagari script, by about 700 to 800 years ago. Hindi and Marathi languages use this script. 

Astonished he asked, “With so many languages, will there not be countless systems for writing?” 

Referring to my notes, I replied, “Of the estimated 7000⁺ languages, half of them did not have an alphabetic system for writing. For the remaining languages, a wide variety and different types of writing systems exist. The main types being Alphabets Systems used in Latin, Greek, or Cyrillic, where each symbol represents a single vowel or consonant sound. Abjads Systems used in Arabic and Hebrew, where symbols mostly represent only consonants, and readers infer the vowels. 

Abugidas Systems like Tamil Brami and Devanagari, used in Hindi and Marathi, where each symbol represents a consonant with an inherent vowel, and small marks modifying that vowel. Syllabaries Systems fused in Japanese Kana or Cherokee, where a symbol represents a syllable. Logographic Systems used in Chinese characters, where symbols represent whole words or ideas rather than specific sounds. 

Not to leave with any doubt he asked, “How about the number of alphabets are in use by these systems?” 

I clarified, “Writing systems are tools designed for specific language. The term "alphabet" doesn't cover all the ways people communicate in writing across the globe. Likewise, even the number of ‘alphabets ‘differ! Read this page of the notes to understand what I said. 

Khmer (Cambodian): 74 letters, Sinhala (Sri Lanka): ~60 letters, Sanskrit: 47 primary letters which can go up to 54, Thai: uses 44 consonants + numerous vowel combinations, Russian: 33 letters, English: 26 letters. 

Tamil script relies on combinations 12 vowels and 18 consonants to get 247-character.

Korean Hangul: 40 basic alphabetic letters (Jamo), uniquely combine to create over 11,000 distinct syllable blocks. Chinese uses a logographic system encompassing tens of thousands of distinct symbols, containing over 50,000 characters” 

After reading, he murmured, “Why at all to write with all these permutations and combinations? Why not say what you wanted to and move on?” 

I explained that this is why? 

“Humans understood natural sounds and what they meant to someone in mystical ways. Instinctive emotional cries and the languages must have evolved from spontaneous, rhythmic vocal reaction to pain, surprise, fear or joy. Evolving in an arbitrary manner, the languages revealed no natural explanation or reason as to why a particular sound should mean a particular thing. Due to this arbitrary nature, different languages came out with different meanings to the same sound. The expressions used might have been unique to each language.  An unconventional convention?

Social bonding played a key role in human evolution and in those communes’ dialects might have originated. Later on, the dialects evolved into languages and with a yearning to live as long as possible and lent themselves to be written down and buried in time capsules to preserve their history along with that of the humans who practiced them.

As the humans migrated from continent to continent, the languages also migrated with them, enriching themselves with foreign words, roots and grammar. While developing the language got scribed on tablets, in the ancient times. From unsophisticated usage, it slowly graduated to present cultural richness in the form of poem, prose and epic. Unmindful of its greatness, the modern "tongue" gets twisted and squeezed, barely escaping mutilation in the name of abbreviations. 

The invented vocabulary dangled the carrot of advancement in Science and Technological fields, often preceding the inventions and waiting with apt describing words. Due to this, few languages received preferential treatment. It is not the preferential treatment that is to be blamed for this but the users of other languages for orphaning their native tongues. It is sad to note that many tongues have already become extinct. More are in the queue to suffer neglect, like the medical condition dubbed as the "Cauda Equina Syndrome (CES). Most importantly, how a civilisation could prepare their time capsules?

My friend again had a probing question. “What role the so-called experts played in all these?” 

I replied, “Many experts have contributed to give us the full picture. Theories on origin of language could only capture small pieces of the puzzle namely imitation, emotion, rhythm, music, gesture, cooperation and symbolic thought. Probably all played some role, but none could provide a complete answer. A language started evolving so long ago and continuing to so in many gradual steps. We will never be able to pinpoint a single moment when it all began, unless someone decided to travel back in time. 

As of now, the birth of language remains shrouded in unsolved mysteries. The theories of anthropolinguists try   to explain what makes us humans! Language being the most human thing of all, the cryptologists and anthropolinguists are still attempting with hope to decipher and bring to light languages that have eluded discovery. 

Collective efforts of the Archaeologists, paleoanthropologists and evolutionary biologists brought out the important facts that humanity relied on cave and rockface arts, much before they were fully equipped with developed anatomy to start speaking properly. They explained how those invented pictograms and symbols transformed into the alphabets. Now we can conclude that the cave & rockface arts preceded scribing, writing and printing. Various technological inventions and innovations culminated in the Modern-day printing technology”

I was not sure, how much of these ‘meets and talks’ benefited him. Looking at my voluminous notes, with a sense of awe, he said, “Languages have undergone stupendous transformations and now I understand the arduous journey of the tablets to printers and to time capsules.”