Die Pigeon, DIE!

Sometime a ago I had written a post about lizards being the most annoying pests in NLU, well, I was wrong. Until then I did not have the chance to come across, or rather be affected by the presence of another pest in the campus, well I realised I had met my nemesis here, no it was not moots, not public speaking, not drafting memos, but Pigeons! Yes, those disgusting, ugly looking two legged birds with red legs and red eyes, who the hell has red eyes, anyway?

I have heard of a boy who actually bought an air gun to try and shoot the pigeons away! And my ever shining beacon of hope, who actively encourages me in my every pursuit (does not!) , told me that the pigeons have a tendency to find a way through the mesh, and end up dying in the balcony! Yes, trust him to talk like that, and I did not pay much heed to that warning, when I should have.

The pigeons took a while to figure out the existence of my hostel. By the time they did that, I had to be one of the unlucky ones who did not have the presence of mind to get a mesh put in the balcony, and as a result spent an entire semester with a pigeon colony in my balcony. At any given time there were atleast seven to eight pigeons perched on my balcony grill, every single day. I gave my VI semester finals listening to pigeons cooing, and watching this big fat monster incubating mom pigeon sitting on my cooler, which I could not switch on courtesy the Pigeon Colony.

There were times when I used to feel that the mom pigeon was watching me with angry eyes, when I was loitering about my room instead of studying! True Story! They are everywhere in the corridors, in the bathrooms, sometimes according to a few girls, staring creepily at them. Ew. They reproduce at an unbelievable rate, and there are eggs every few days in every other balcony!

And so, the minute I got back to Jodhpur this semester, I called a carpenter and got a mesh put in my balcony. All seemed fine for the first few days, and despite several heroic attempts no pigeon was able to get into my balcony. Fort Knoxx was secured, or so I thought. One morning I woke to hear wings flapping in my balcony, I looked in only to see a Pigeon flying around in my Balcony! Fort Knoxx breached! I ran to SN Halls at 6 am to find a bhaiyya, who valiantly went in and threw the pigeon out, and sadly he did not put the mesh properly in place!

I did not notice that, a few more days later, paid dearly for it ( literally!). I was returning from class oneday to see a flock of pigeons in my BALCONY! Yes! There were 4 pigeons in my balcony, or so I thought! I met Vinnie on the way who offered to go into my blacony and try to shoo the pigeons away! Well she came up and went in bravely to my balcony and whoosh! six pigeons flew up! and Vinnie ran out!

I panicked, and called SN halls to send a bhaiyya, and Vinnie and I waited half and hour for the "Pigeon Warrior" to turn up and save KungFu in my balcony. So after an hour and a half of trauma, my balcony was safe! And I called up the Carpenter and yelled my lungs out at him, and paid another one to finally put the mesh in place and fasten it in place. And so now, my balcony is safe. Atleast for the time being.

I believe in Music

It's a sunny day in Jodhpur, and I have just returned from class, and switched on my laptop, and decided to listen to some music. I opened Media player and Last Kiss by Pearljam started playing and it made me realise what a great thing music is. Music is something that has always been a big part of my life, whether its my love for singing or having a minor musical celebrity at home, or my wonderful and very radical Carnatic Music teach who encouraged us to listen to and appreciate the beauty in all kinds of music.

As I finish writing the above paragraph, my Media player who seems to always be insync with my head, starts playing a beautiful renderation of 'Seethapathe' by 'Nookala'. Khamas is a wonderful ragam and has a soothing effect. Nookala's amazing exploration of the ragam in the alapana has never failed to enthral me and he is one person who I know I respect. You can almost hear him becoming one with the music that he is producing. Maybe that was what they call divinity.  

I know my share of musicians, and the ones who I respect the most are the ones who have the ability and the passion to create music of their own. I have seen Ammamma going into those phases where she's making music, it's a beautiful thing to watch her sit with her  regal Bobbili Veena and spend hours composing new songs, and I felt honoured to perform her songs in my recent concerts. She is one of the few composers of the present day who makes secular music, yes very rare in Carnatic. I only hope that one day I'll be even half as good.

And then the player switches to Colorblind by Darius, which is one of my favorite songs. I think the song has a great lyrical value, and the music is really good. Yes, thats one debate I have with my teacher always, who feels that lyrics are not as important to a song as the music itself. I have always and will always disagree ( maybe that's the writer in me acting up) I think both the lyrics and the music are equally important. Whats the point of having miraculous music if the lyrics don't manage to convey the message.But that's what I think.

I think music is, apart from food, the way into a persons heart. Music touches you where words cannot possibly go. It made me a lot of friends, I love all the times I spend singing with my friends, Karaoke or otherwise :). 

Po achieved inner peace with Kung Fu. I think I know how I'll achieve mine. I think it's the feeling you get when after practising a song for hours, that one time you sing it, after singing it a million times, that you know its perfect. You know that one time, you have that song in your heart, and you and that song have become one. I think that moment ( which is hard to come by for me) is when you are at peace with yourself. 

Music has helped me deal with some of the most troublesome times in my life, I dunno what I would have done otherwise. I think my feeling about music can be summed up into these following few lines which are a part of the 'theme' of 30 Seconds to Mars:

                        

                        Some People believe in god

                        I believe in Music

                        Some people pray

                        I turn up the radio!

And my media player appropriately starts to play Sultans of Swing, one of my dads favorite songs :) Yes, I miss him.

Peace.