Kolkata Report #6
OK, so it a tropical country, teeming with life, human, non human, vegetable and whatever is in between. Everyone and everything is to be considered Survival Experts. Teetering on the edge of death and destruction, everything seems to find a way to survive and carry on regardless. Humans live in close proximity to and in the very midst of wildlife in the city of Kolkata. There is still an amazing variety of foliage in the city, despite human's propensity to destroy and generally remove anything green that can be seen in close proximity to bricks, mortar and concrete. Even so, the plants are equally adept at finding footholds in amazing nooks and crannies. Left to itself, Nature takes over everything here. Ferns and mosses, moulds and wild figs quickly grow out of cracks between old brick walls, their roots digging ever deeper into every structure and eventually engulfing and choking it.
Armies of various types of ants, beetles, worms move into buildings. Snakes and skinks come to live wherever they can. Birds relentlessly find apertures in window wells, cornices and ventilation shafts to nest and raise their young. Rats burrow extensively underground into long tunnels under sidewalks, emerging at night to forage and wreck their own havoc.The city's feral cats and stray dogs live lives of misery, even though the dogs are an essential part of neighbourhood security networks. Even the mange covered dogs seem to be well fed. Some one or the other seems to be feeding them other than what they can gather from trash heaps.But they are carriers of various kinds of parasites and infections, bravely living despite everything. Many form canine gangs and are very protective of their turf and even people who live on it. Every newcomer human to their turf is scanned with attention and they can quickly figure out the dog lovers from the dogsceptics.
Inside the houses live many varieties of ants, cockroaches and of course, gecko lizards called Tiktiki. Apparently, the strange name comes from their calls- 'tiktiktiktik..'. It has been years since I have heard a tiktiki. But they are still around in houses, stalking and eating insects that plague us inside our homes.
My mother used to echo an old saying 'Tiktiki holo Ghor er Lokkhi' (Tiktikis are like Goddess Lakshmi gracing the home).
They certainly are the householder's ally against cockroaches and flies.
There is a young one that fearlessly chases all kinds of prey around the kitchen at night. If I switch on the light at night, I find it looking at me with bright beady eyes and a lizard grin. Goofy but cute.
There are seasonal wildlife pests as well, Occasionally langur monkeys invade the city's leafier suburbs in the south. One decided to tease my sister's dog by running back and forth on a wall, outside of the frenzied dog's reach. Meanwhile, the neighborhood was deafened by the dog's furious barking and then the refrain picked up by the other dogs in the neighborhood. The monkey evidently enjoyed this game much more than its companions, who sat, eating mangoes from a nearby tree. When it got tired of the dog, it went off to eat mangoes.
The suburbs of Kolkata are also haunts of jackals, which gather in the night to raise the loudest of terrible wailing cries 'hukkahuwa.,wa, wa..'. Though their sounds are heard less, as the countryside is encroached by developments, but it will be a while, before people cease to hear the cries of these jackals, the screech of owls and hawks, the call of parrots and mynahs, arguing and complaining, the harsh cawing of the crows and the melliflous 'kuhukuhukuhu' the cuckoo's call, rising in crescendo from some nearby tree.
We become immune to their presence, but if one day, these sights and sounds and the presence of some of these, vanishes, our lives will be poorer. Much poorer.
OK, so it a tropical country, teeming with life, human, non human, vegetable and whatever is in between. Everyone and everything is to be considered Survival Experts. Teetering on the edge of death and destruction, everything seems to find a way to survive and carry on regardless. Humans live in close proximity to and in the very midst of wildlife in the city of Kolkata. There is still an amazing variety of foliage in the city, despite human's propensity to destroy and generally remove anything green that can be seen in close proximity to bricks, mortar and concrete. Even so, the plants are equally adept at finding footholds in amazing nooks and crannies. Left to itself, Nature takes over everything here. Ferns and mosses, moulds and wild figs quickly grow out of cracks between old brick walls, their roots digging ever deeper into every structure and eventually engulfing and choking it.
Armies of various types of ants, beetles, worms move into buildings. Snakes and skinks come to live wherever they can. Birds relentlessly find apertures in window wells, cornices and ventilation shafts to nest and raise their young. Rats burrow extensively underground into long tunnels under sidewalks, emerging at night to forage and wreck their own havoc.The city's feral cats and stray dogs live lives of misery, even though the dogs are an essential part of neighbourhood security networks. Even the mange covered dogs seem to be well fed. Some one or the other seems to be feeding them other than what they can gather from trash heaps.But they are carriers of various kinds of parasites and infections, bravely living despite everything. Many form canine gangs and are very protective of their turf and even people who live on it. Every newcomer human to their turf is scanned with attention and they can quickly figure out the dog lovers from the dogsceptics.
Inside the houses live many varieties of ants, cockroaches and of course, gecko lizards called Tiktiki. Apparently, the strange name comes from their calls- 'tiktiktiktik..'. It has been years since I have heard a tiktiki. But they are still around in houses, stalking and eating insects that plague us inside our homes.
My mother used to echo an old saying 'Tiktiki holo Ghor er Lokkhi' (Tiktikis are like Goddess Lakshmi gracing the home).
They certainly are the householder's ally against cockroaches and flies.
There is a young one that fearlessly chases all kinds of prey around the kitchen at night. If I switch on the light at night, I find it looking at me with bright beady eyes and a lizard grin. Goofy but cute.
There are seasonal wildlife pests as well, Occasionally langur monkeys invade the city's leafier suburbs in the south. One decided to tease my sister's dog by running back and forth on a wall, outside of the frenzied dog's reach. Meanwhile, the neighborhood was deafened by the dog's furious barking and then the refrain picked up by the other dogs in the neighborhood. The monkey evidently enjoyed this game much more than its companions, who sat, eating mangoes from a nearby tree. When it got tired of the dog, it went off to eat mangoes.
The suburbs of Kolkata are also haunts of jackals, which gather in the night to raise the loudest of terrible wailing cries 'hukkahuwa.,wa, wa..'. Though their sounds are heard less, as the countryside is encroached by developments, but it will be a while, before people cease to hear the cries of these jackals, the screech of owls and hawks, the call of parrots and mynahs, arguing and complaining, the harsh cawing of the crows and the melliflous 'kuhukuhukuhu' the cuckoo's call, rising in crescendo from some nearby tree.
We become immune to their presence, but if one day, these sights and sounds and the presence of some of these, vanishes, our lives will be poorer. Much poorer.
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