A few days back, when I was hanging out clothes to dry in the balcony, I saw that one of the gunny bags there was splattered with sticks and knew that pigeons were trying to build a nest in our home. Being very repulsive to pigeon droppings and all that shit, I took all the sticks to throw them away. However, I thought that pigeons must have spent so much time collecting these, so in order to help them I kept all those on the edge of parapet.
Two days later, at night, when I came to hang out another set of clothes, I watched to my surprise, that on another box, a beautiful small white egg was lying on bunch of sticks. And, now I could not do anything about it...I have to live with them :)
Every alternate day, I check their progress. Today, the mother-pigeon was sitting on the egg, and was not even concerned about me coming so close to her nest. She was determined and not frightened at all!!!
This is the first time, that I am seeing a nest, an egg and the incubation process. Am eagerly waiting for the baby pigeon...if it had a birth certificate, it would have said:
Place of birth: On the box,Balcony,B47,NTPC Township,Sec-33,NOIDA.
Well, the above address is where we currently are. We, meaning me and Alok. I quit my job in Dec 2009 and shifted to NOIDA with Alok to build our first nest :)
I needed to have all the experiences, so I thought, why not quit the race for a while, do what I want to do, and then a year later, I may or may not join back the race.
We were alloted the Quarter No. B47, and on the first day we tried to wash it clean. It was like a clean canvas and I could paint it the way I like it. There was a medium sized drawingroom, two bedrooms, a very tiny kitchen, a small passage and a balcony. It was more than sufficient for the two of us and I was glad, we did not have the C-type, which are still larger.
We first bought the very basic necessities - two mattresses, pillows,a hot plate, 3 glasses, 4 spoons, a sauce pan, a bucket&tumbler and al electric rod heater. On these we lived for one week and next we had to go to Mumbai for my cousin's wedding. There we bought a lot of things from my favorite Dadar market. We packed all those things and asked a Mover & Packer to transport these along with my things.
Once we were back, we went on a market research and a shopping spree. Internet, fully automatic washing machine, TV, 4 chairs, double bed, single bed. Then again a lull in shopping. A few days before my brother's arrival - we bought a lot of utensils, booked a gas connection, got a cable connection and then Dada(big bro) arrived. Mom had packed in a lot of things, including a pressure cooker, some pearl-pet bottles and many such useful things. The things from Mumbai also arrived and one of the bedrooms got converted to a store-room.
Slowly and surely, the house was getting transformed into a home. In February, my inlaws were coming over, so we cleaned up the store-room, added two single beds to it and the mattresses and lo and behold ..the guest room was ready! For the 3-4 days, my inlaws were here, the home really felt like a home. With so many people filling up, having wonderful conversations, 3 women in the kitchen (which I initially had thought gets over in 5 steps) and drawing room filled with conversations, I was really happy! And the day Yash (our nephew) was here, it was mind-blowing! A child really can do wonders to the atmosphere.
On a Saturday, all of them went away, one-by-one, and we were left alone in our new nest. We hope, this nest sees a lot of people, friends and relatives, who add colors to life and make life a thouroughly enjoyable experience!
P.S. - With the mention of colors, wish you all a very Happy Holi!
Also, hope that I write more often, rather than a blog-a-year!
