Beautiful Villages

A village is beautiful with greenery, ponds, farm lands, open houses and surrounded with dense forests and hills. Lush green paddy fields look like a green carpet spread across the village. Paddy fields dance to the whistle of the wind is something worth to watch. When the wind passes through the paddy grass blades it makes a melodious whistling sound. When open paddy fields cover with a thick fog from sunset to sunrise in winter we need a thick blanket to sleep. Village is calm and not crowded. The atmosphere will be filled with calls of birds and other creatures. Different kinds of birds will sing in different melodies. Since the houses are surrounded by trees and plants many species of birds can be seen around. So we don't have to go to any park for bird watching. Villagers don't wait and watch birds either. It is nothing new to them. Only I would get immersed in the calls of birds and other creatures. Crows will sing a classical note at times. They say it is for guests to come. Want to believe? Cocks around there will crow on time early morning in a gap of 5-10 minutes as if to wake up all. So there is no need of alarm cloak. Cattle grazing around will keep bellowing. When cicada creaks you will have to plug your ears. Comparing to Mumbai’s, dogs, cats, rats, bats and crows population is less.

When day creatures finish their activities by nightfall and rest at their shelter, night creatures start their activities. Owls, male and female will hoot responding each other. Foxes will howl in high pitch. Mass howling is really annoying. They come out to have a feast with crabs they get from the paddy fields. Night birds will sing at night. Fire-flies are like stars on the earth. But they can be seen only in a particular season. Toads, male and female croak responding each other is funny to hear. Jungle fowls will crow at night sometimes. The villagers are very superstitious about that bird. They say if it crows somebody will have to go. Its calls would take my breath away. When my grandfather was living, a jungle fowl came and landed on the roof of our house and started calling. Its calls can be heard from distance places, not to speak of if it is closer it will be loud. The calls have a peculiar vibration which is eerie. I was only a 3-4 year old. My grandfather got annoyed and tried to shoo it away by pelting a stone. Annoyed by the stone-pelting it flew down in a swift to peck him on the head. He ran into the house. If it touched somebody it should be considered as absolutely inauspicious. Thereafter my grand father was bed-ridden and he passed away when I was a 6 year old. You don’t have to believe in it. It must be a co-incidence. In the summer months dust devil can be seen in open places. The wind blows giving out a whistle like dog's howling. Once I was standing on the veranda of my house I saw the dust devil on the nearby lane. I told my grandmother, "See how it looks!" Suddenly it came with a force and lashed me and passed through the back window. Dust got into my eyes. Scared I stood there for a while. My grandmother started scolding me for calling the devil. People say, embers will break out suddenly on the way while walking in the darkness. Only men might have seen it. Women cannot go out at night. There are reptiles in the compound. Sometimes poisonous snakes will crawl into our house. I had to fear wicked human beings more than these things, still I fear them.

The greenery that looks beautiful in the day becomes fiery at night. The trees stand like monsters. Silhouettes of the tree would scare me in my childhood when looking at them constantly. I would watch the Moon playing hide and seek. In Moonless nights I would count the stars. I still like the toys we would make from palm leaves. A grass will not grow without my consent in our house compound. I like to see caravan steadily moving on the lanes. I prefer bullock carts to these life-taking vehicles. If all were born like me there would be only bullock-carts on the roads. I like village very much. But I cannot go back. My family took root deeply here in Mumbai. Now it is too old to transplant.