Pigeons on my Balcony

It happened recently that I kept a few pieces of cardboards from old cartoons on my balcony’s iron grill, expecting those to provide a ‘curtain effect’, i.e. privacy. And then I forgot about it. After a few weeks, today, I realised that a few clever pigeons had grabbed the opportunity with both hands and made their home below the cardboards! 

If you look at two ‘couple-pigeons’ sitting anywhere, you can immediately sense that those are ‘couple’, not some random stranger-pigeons or brother-pigeons or boss-employee pigeons. I don’t know what is so special in their body language that we can immediately understand that they are a couple! And these ‘couple pigeons’ have been living rent-free under my balcony’s cardboards for several weeks! 

After I discovered their encroachment, I immediately remembered the news and awareness articles from the ‘internet’ which tell that these pigeons in big cities are carriers of several types of disease-causing bacteria and viruses and that is why these pigeons are called “pests of the sky”. I have been practicing hard to hate these pigeons for this reason, and with time I have understood how hard it is to ‘go against the genes’. How can we hate some birds who look so beautiful and innocent? But after they encroached upon my balcony, I got ‘hard-reasons’ to hate those criminal-pigeons. 

Finally, I carried out ‘bulldozer action’ by collecting all the cardboards from my balcony and packed those together to be thrown out. And then I went to the office. After I returned and went to the balcony, I found that those pigeons were wandering around barefoot, as if trying to ascertain what had happened! I wondered if they understood that a human (i.e. me) had purposefully destroyed their home, or if they blamed it on the ‘act of God’. I did feel ‘guilty’, almost as if I had ‘sinned’. In one moment, those pigeons had become martyrs, and I had become the East India Company. I think I should not have looked at those pigeons in the ‘eye’! 

Anyways, I have hardened my heart and become totally determined that I shall not let those pigeons live on my balcony again. I plan to fill the gaps and make more fortifications to stop the pigeons from encroaching there. I shall be vigilant and not forget about it all, like I did last time which caused this situation. But all said and done, deep inside, I know I shall not be able to live guilt-free after driving those pigeons out. 

I hope the pigeons ‘quit’ and find another place to make their nest. Whether they are ‘pests of the sky’ or not, my balcony is not their favourite hangout. 

"I'm very old-fashioned. I believe that people should stay married for life, like pigeons and Catholics." - Woody Allen

- Rahul Tiwary