Abra e Rehmat Barsa ( Shower of Blessings)

Abra means cloud, Rehmat means mercy/ blessings and Barsa means shower. So translated to my ability it means Shower of Blessings or Mercy whichever way you look at it. I'd rather look at it as a Blessing . It has a nice musical feel to it like the song of the rain.

My last post i talked about my early morning raga and i hope the soundtrack regaled but for ease and for comfort i would like to have it here again so that i can hear and see the artists clearly right in front of me as i talk of my discovery of them and more about whatever i have ascertained of them. And in any case this is one music that i can never get tired of. Just like the sound of the wind or that of the flowing river or for that matter of the rain.

In the dark i must admit i did assume them to be some kind of a black birds...and i chased them too...in the dark as they changed their platforms of performance now and then when finally deciding to disappear from my horizon for the time being. Feeling content however with whatever i had witnessed or heard, i would then get back to my chores without much ado about them. Then it would be during the day that i would hear them again. The same signature tune coming from perhaps the road adjacent to my colony...sometimes while i was cooking and other times while i took my showers. It would make me anxious to go and look out for them which i would but much to my chagrin they would be there singing but somewhere hidden in the dense foliage. The denseness of the foliage perhaps or the size of the bird or both making it virtually impossible for me to have this rendezvous with my particular morning ragaa guests who would be near yet hidden from me.
The distinct call of the one bird of the couple each day and every day impelled me to turn towards my resource Mr Google and confirmed my erstwhile assumption of it being a courting/ territorial call of the bird. http://birding.about.com/od/birdbehavior/a/How-Birds-Claim-Territory.htm. As i was learning facts the urgency to see them was assuming gigantic proportions too. i was beginning to get desperate.

Then finally one day it happened as Paul Coelho has rightly said in ' The Alchemist' , “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” 

That particular day my domestic help suddenly ditched me without any prior notice. Sure it was nothing new, have seen it happening all my life. Newness happened as an aftermath to my domestic helps' ditching me and my many mood swings later during the same day.

i had a wonderful time with my early morning raga but by afternoon my spirits were beginning to sag and mostly not being used to handling all in a day was beginning to take it's toll on me. Primarily because there were many unfinished jobs and all i wanted was to sit down with my cuppa and my books and my music. The chores seemed endless. Suddenly everything looked dirty...everything needed cleaning and i was beginning to get crabby, irritable and hopelessly out of sync/ tune. Blame it on the weather too which was getting hotter and lousier. i was getting worried about my babies too (plants) on the terrace. i had not checked on them since morning. Could not manage the time to go and water them even. While i managed the three C's ie cooked, cleaned and cursed, i was having visions of my babies crying out for help drooping, shriveling like home made potato crisps in the hot sun crying out , " Waaater! sumone ! any...one... waaa...ter...!! HELP !! " 
Couldn't bear it any longer and leaving certain things undone/ cluttered/ halfway which definitely is not my way of doing things i hurried to the terrace carrying my phone with me hoping that the domestic help would call letting me know about her plans. And like a woman possessed i got on my job without noticing anything or anyone for that matter.

Plugging the hose tight on to the tap, attaching the sprinkler and turning the tap on to feed my babies who were dying out of thirst just as i had thought, i went about my job till all my Centurions (100 and a couple more) were quenched of their thirst and attended to like i normally do. My irritability which had risen like a tide was now beginning to ebb like one too by now. Maybe there was something in that ' saundhi khushboo' the smell of the the first drops of rain on the parched earth that i was emanating from those pots that held the nourishment matter that fed my babies. A few days back i was a skeptic but while providing life giving moisture to my babies i was beginning to believe. Skeptic yesterday believer today of the information that came to me as news that this smell is now being sold as a fragrance at one of the Old Ahmedabad outlets and has the magic of bringing stability to a disturbed mind. Probably just like how certain aromatic oils are supposed to do. Haven't had any aromatherapy done as yet so how would i know but today i was feeling it...some kind of therapy happening with that 'mitti kee khushboo'  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Now-get-mitti-ki-sondhi-khushboo-in-a-bottle/articleshow/3208802.cms

And as if this was not enough and they would beautifully say in poetical Urdu Abra e rehmat barsa...like a cloud showering blessings on me i suddenly started hearing my mystery birds very rather just too close to me. They at least one of them was there all this while, when i was attending my babies. Only thing i was too pre-occupied to notice.

Both my birds.  i saw my mystery birds in the broad pre afternoon hot summer daylight nice and clear. Up and close. The male was perched up high on the Margosa ( Neem) tree not the same tree on which they sang in the dark early mornings but another tree slightly further away. Only thing even from that distance from where i was seeing it, i was beholding a charming slim, silhouette of black with some whites against the blue sky. His female acting pricey and quite a coquette who at first seemed disinterested was a brownish grey and she first sat on the small cylinder which is a part of the solar heater on the very same terrace where my babies are. Later she rested on the parapet and started singing too maybe answering to his advances. i could recognize the tune so well. Cannot express enough in words my feelings. Mystery coming to light. i just kept listening and watching. Also wondering if so many of them were together would i be able to single out my couple. i guess not just by looking. But yes if all of them were together and they sang i would definitely be able to single out mine.

My Oriental Magpies. Yes they are mine. i know them so well by their tune. And i am extremely grateful to them for introducing me to a host of many of their kind. Each one melodious AND each having their own ragaas. Did not know until i met my couple that the male dances too. Sure he prances around moving his tail up and down sometimes to ward off potential suitors other times to entice his female while he is singing his courtship song. Also when he is a bit angry his tone is a bit gruff and not that melodious as when he is on his courting spree. My greatest discovery about his looks was that he is not jet black as i thought with some white but a really mysterious deep metallic blue black. Very attractive color. Slim rather slender and not more than 17 cm in length overall, then black feet, round sparkling bead like eyes which are black and his beak is black too. Altogether the combination is very pleasing with a band of white on both his shoulders and also along the edges of his tail.

And as nature would have it his lady looks less attractive than him...a dull brownish grey. With beady cunning looking eyes. Black feet and black beak she looks more cute when puffed up or when she is singing or coochee cooing (making love) along with him. i mean relatively she looks less attractive than him. Both are beautiful together otherwise but it's the male which looks and sounds more attractive than the female. All this because like i said in my earlier post i have been observing them quite a lot lately and they it seems might be sensing my interest in them too. Nature conspires in ways we can never imagine or anticipate.

These days as i go about my chores they keep me company and i feel more than blessed. For not only do they drive my loneliness, boredom away but sometimes they are my therapy too. Their duet rains like some peaceful music that relaxes a stressed body or mind and thus the singing induces some freshness into me just like a cup of freshly brewed leaf tea. They also keep me looking forward to the rest of the day with some excitement too. i might be inside perhaps doing something and they decide to pay me a visit and although i can't see them through the young- fruits- laden- mango tree i hear them sing...and it feels like someone you have been yearning for had suddenly gatecrashed. Yippee i feel hap hap happee !!

Now my husband, my domestic help and whosoever comes to visit me,  they all know my Dhayals very well too. Yeah for Gk ( General Knowledge) sake i have come to get some fresh updates too. That it is also known as the Doel in Bengali . And how did i need to know that or why is because it is the National bird of Bangladesh. For the rest that i can retain and remember of my couple as to what they eat and when their nesting season is i am glad to have my own personal copy of  Grimmet and Inskip always with me.