Birding With Pastels

A dusty box of oil-pastels in the cupboard reads mixing ka magic – richer and intermixable: 15 shades. There is no paper or pencil around. There is an abandoned file on the shelf. It becomes my canvas… the oil-pastels, my medium. A black ball point pen, my highlighter and a bottle of whitener (thanks to ‘sarkaari naukri’), my enhancer.

- Piyusha Pramod Jagtap

With the love of birds on my mind, my ‘colourful’ journey begins. A white flicker passes by the window. A Paradise Flycatcher, its tail swaying gleefully as it flies to the small waterhole in my garden. It is a sweltering May afternoon and thick mango canopies impart a certain flavour to the setting. Pleasant memories of bygone years come to mind. School summer vacations, papers and crayons…

The central Indian hilly landscapes of Melghat where I am posted are full of dense deciduous forests and wonderful birding stations. A fortuitous few get a chance to see these avian wonders up close. If I could have my way, I would go out in the forests for birding all the time. However, strict medical advice of rest at this stage of my pregnancy has turned me into a ‘window birder’.

FROM MY WINDOW