A Pigeon At the Window

 

I noticed some activity at one of my bedroom window and when I went to check, I found out that a pigeon was trying to settle down in the gap between the window pan and iron grill, perhaps to assemble a next and lay eggs. I made sound to scare it away. The bird was back after a few minutes and hence I scared it away once again. This went for 4-5 times in next 10 minutes.

After a while, I felt a bit guilty for scaring away the pigeon. I noticed that I was not feeling bad about what I was doing, i.e. scaring away the pigeon at the time of its need. In my subconscious mind, I tried to find out why was not feeling sympathy of kindness for the bird. I realized that it was mainly because of the articles I have read which have convinced me that pigeons are bad for cities, are not real birds, these do not live on trees like other birds, produce lots of waste and spread several disease. In short, the knowledge acquired from reading had taught me to feel indifferent towards pigeons, if not outright hate those.

Although I understood where my behaviour was coming from, I could also recall the past incidents where I was sensitive towards pigeons, and I had even written few blog posts about those episodes. I wondered if remaining a bit naïve makes us enjoy life better. Knowing objective information about all things sometimes kills the fun which comes from a bit of lack of knowledge.

Well, one of the tragedies of growing up is loss of innocence.

- Rahul