The Ash Dove
Shilpa was surprised to see her grandma taking a broom upside down, raising it and waving it high in the air on the verandah. She tapped the old fashioned ceiling fan too with it, tap, tap and then tap, tap again. Not only that, there was Ramiah, the cook, waving his arms about and clapping loudly too.
“Gran,” asked Shilpa,
“Is this a dance?
“No dear, I’m trying hard… Yes. …to shoo away the birds and Ramiah is helping me”.
Just then, a whirr of wings and a handsome, spotted bird, sleeker than a pigeon , flew away.
“But why?” retorted Shilpa angrily. “Why not?” snapped back Grandma. “I need to work the fan. The birds nest on the fan and then they lay eggs and sit on them one at a time for a long time.” “How lovely,” exclaimed Shilpa. “No, not lovely at all.
I can’t use the fan and we play our card games over here when my friends come. Also, they dirty the ground here, all over .” “Mmmmmm,” murmured Shilpa and thought it better to end the conversation as Grandma looked determined.
Shilpa went down the steps of the verandah to the garden and walked under the fruit trees. “Oh poor Ash Dove,” said Shilpa to herself. She was staying with grandma for the holidays as her younger brother had been quite ill with a bad attack of measles and her parents had sent her to her grandmother’s home in Deniyaya. Shilpa loved visiting grandma and enjoyed the old house, the plantation and country life.
Later, Shilpa met her grandma again at lunch. There were only the two of them at the table as Grandma lived alone with Ramiah, the cook who did all the other house work too. “Grandma, the Ash Dove is called by another name too. It is the spotted dove. Gran, they are beautiful birds and have ash white colour with dark spots on them.They are like the size of mynah birds but stouter. Their tail feathers are longer than the mynah birds tail feathers. They utter a nice sound, grandma, it goes kookoorookookoo. They nest from time to time and mostly lay only two white eggs.”
Grandma, looked at Shipa in amazement. She asked, “How do you know all this child?” “I looked it up in Thath’s bird book and I wrote an essay on the Ash Dove too.” “Good! But why did you choose this subject?” “Why Gran? Can’t you remember? Last Christmas, when we all came to stay over, the Ash Doves were nesting, then the eggs hatched, the babies were squawking all the time. The two big birds were very busy flying and finding worms for them. Then, the babies were becoming big and we had to leave.
But you wrote to me and told me how they took the little birds, one at a time and taught them how to fly. You told me how the parent birds chirped and encouraged them when the little ones fell over trying to fly.”
“Yes, dear, you are so right. But they can’t nest on my fan again. That is an order!”
Both finished their meal of rice and curry in silence.
Shilpa played on the verandah, at the other end, that evening. Then she heard a familiar sound of Kookoorookookoo.
“Ah!” She muttered to herself, “Mr. Ash Dove is nearby and probably nesting too. But, I shall keep it a secret.” She went to the kitchen in search of Ramiah and found him.
“Ramiah, please can I have some grains of rice?” “Rice! For what, Shilpa Baba? “I like to feed some birds.” “Here’s a handful. Do take it to the garden and don’t drop any rice grains on the verandah.” “Ok and thanks,” replied Shilpa and ran.
She went to the garden at the other end of the verandah and she scattered the rice here and there on the ground and some on top of the pots too. She knew that Mr. Ash Dove would find the grains soon and feed well. She decided to scatter the rice grains every day.
Shilpa was smiling that evening when she went to get dressed for dinner with grandma.
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