Nature does not give a damn!

I woke up to the chirping of birds today morning. Which was surprising as I live in a large upscale apartment block - which means it has humans living in building surrounded by manicured lawns, artistically cut trees, pleasant smelling flowers and pretty looking bushes, all designed to please the human senses. None of which attract too many birds, though several pigeons flap around all day.

But today was different. It was a janata curfew day to fight the COVID19 disease, and human activity was ordered to a grinding halt with humans being ordered to strictly stay indoors. The past few days had seen the traffic come down to a trickle, and raucous noises of kids and adults had quitened down to being just twittering of smiles and squeals.

And today, the birds were chirping. Not just chirping, I think some of them were screaming their tiny lungs out. I had forgotten how noisy birds could be, familiar as my ears had become to honks, screeching of tyres and elevator messages.

I found myself involuntarily smiling and luxuriating in their sounds. Birdsong is soothing. Reminded me of my younger days, when I woke up at peacocks screaming and streets smelling of bird shit. And then I remembered why there was the curfew and the dread of COVID-19 came and hit me on the chest, a body blow of dread and foreboding.

The birds are singing because we, the humans, have quietened down. This song is not for soothing me. This is their triumph. They are immune to this obnoxious virus, but it is our mortal enemy. I feel cheated - how can the birds chirp and sing lustily when we are cowering in fear? Do we not feed them? Do we not keep seeds out for them to eat on the bird basins which build? Do we not stitch together their wings when they are injured? And look at them now, singing in abandon, mocking us!

The birds flew past me as I stood in the balcony. It caused a flutter loud enough to snap me out of my lazy thoughts and sleep. I saw them make a graceful curve and settle down on the champa tree. Then, the chirping began again.

Then, it hit me. They are happy this is happening to us. They are happy they can reclaim the sound waves. They are happy that there are no noxious fumes in the air. They are happy there are no people shooing them away. They are just nestling back into mother natures lap, and expressing delight in their moment. We humans have robbed them of so much, so so much. And we expect them to think of us as their friends just because we give them seeds? Ha, of course they won't!

The Champa tree though was just there the way it always is. Graceful and fragrant as always. It does not care about the birds sitting on its branches, it does not care that its flowers are fragrant to us. It just is. It does not seem to be affected by our cowering down. It is just the way it always is. It is just being itself.

That itself is just plain old nature. Mother Nature really does not care, does she, about us humans? Whether we respect her or not, whether we exploit her, or mine her, or rape her or harvest food for us out of her. Whether we are living or dying. Whether there is a virus that is killing us. She just is. Nature does not give a damn!