Bats and Chicks

In the past few decades I had developed a habit of planting trees wherever I could and I try to water them as regularly as possible.

And in each session I plant atleast 2-3 of fast growing trees that give good shade and are also bird friendly.

The tree Sakkarai pala maram (Ornamental cherry tree) is one of them and is a favourite  of mine, for it grows fast, gives good shade, is bird friendly and has no fuss. Very hardy.... grows anywhere and is generally useful to humans and birds alike, with its small red delicious fruits .

My capacity in planning and forethought is limited.This has resulted in many of the trees that I planted and which came up well,  being cut off by the nearby houseowners, shopowners, landowners and the like.

I had not planned the location right, with consideration to the nature of the people nearby.

What I cannot grasp is why people do not understand the ease  of bringing up a tree and the invaluable goodness of the proximity of a tree.

There is no other comfort which can soothe the mind than sitting under the shade of a thick foliage of a tree, especially during summers. 

I remember a neighbour who used to invariably park his two wheeler under the shade of the neem tree i was nurturing, but always complained about the leaves which fell from the tree and landed on the road in front of his house. He could never consider growing one in front of his own house.

But he was very willing to cross the road and park his bike in front of our house, under the tree, where I wanted to park my car, by the way.

'I dont mean any harm, I just want the shade' he informed me once. 

Tamilians are very particular about keeping their front yard clean, bereft of any greenery, and while planning a house on a site will cut off all the trees there as step number one.

In contrast Ive heard that the Keralites will first plant trees on any site they want to build a house.

Why not shift my residence to Kerala.....🤔🤔

And trees Iike the Neem ( Veppamaram) and Indian Tulip tree  (Poovarasu, meaning king of flowers) are such that they just do not ask for anything, absolutely no fuss... one can plant them anywhere, water them once a week or so and  they still grow up nicely.They remind me of some people who  never ask for anything for themselves, happy in any surrounding and generally try to be useful to others.They never fail to amaze me... the tree and the person.

The neem grows slowly over many years, but the Tulip grows quite fast soon becoming a treat to the eyes, more so when it starts flowering.

Most Tamilians might have memories of the small wind instruments which can be made by rolling the large leaf of a Poovarasu tree, which they must have played with as children.

I have vivid memories of a large Poovarasa maram near the well in my aunts farm, which used to spread its branches low and wide.And of the small 'trumpets' we made by rolling the leaf and then pressing one end flat. 

The fragrance in the air when one walks past a neem tree when it is in bloom, is difficult to describe, my vocabulary and expression  being limited....I can say this - if  the fragrance of a jasmine makes us giddy with pleasure the neem's  is earthy and makes us feel good.

At present I live in a small house which I bought for the sole reason that it had a small patch of land in the front and in the back, so that i can grow a few trees to my heart's content.

The house itself is of an average quality in build and plan.

There is one each of my favourite trees in the front, on a thin strip of earth...and they are all doing quite well.

When I had the same trees near my clinic a few years ago, there used to be plenty of the sweet red fruits on the sakkarai pala mara trees, and i had developed the habit of plucking and eating them fresh from the tree, though they had to be wiped clean of  the dust from the vehicles.My clinic was on the highway. 

Now my house is in a relatively less polluted area with a farmland next to it and there are quite a variety of birds that live here.There seems to be a competition between them and my family in plucking the fruits and I am happy to say that we are losing very badly to the birds.

In the past six months or so we have managed to obtain maybe a total of about twenty small fruits...which is miniscule to what the tree bears.

In all the places where I've seen these trees the fruits generally fall off and the ground under the tree is covered by them.

I think it denotes that many cities have ceased being a home for birds and hence the falling of the fruits onto the ground.

And my one tree is not sufficient for the birds here.

But I am glad to say that some bats too fly around the tree in the evenings, bats are very fond of these fruits I think.

Not so glad though to hear some of my neighbours asking me to cut off the branches for the same reason, because they have a fear of being bitten by the bat and also about diseases spreading from them to us.I had explained to them about the necessity of bats for pollination and the natural cycle of things.

This one rumour of diseases has had many of us chasing away the bats and also cutting of these cherry trees which are a feeding place for them. 

When one really sets to contemplate  the concept of diseases spreading from birds, the bizarre way in which a human mind works is shocking.

There are many of us who breed thousands of chicken in crammed up  tiny cages which are cruel to the chicken and unhealthy for the humans who live nearby.

There have been many recorded outbreaks of chicken flu in the past.

When this happens, we kill the chickens in hundreds by burying them or burning them alive.

Some kind hearted people try to strangle them before burying.....

And once the mass murder is over we bring a fresh batch of chicks to be bred and killed.

No out break of any kind of flu has dissuaded us from mass breeding chicken.

But a vague theory or rumour that bats spread disease is enough to make us cut the trees which feeds the birds and chase the bats away.

We have even managed to establish stories through the ages about vampires who suck human blood.

These stories have succeeded in making the bats a bad omen.

I wonder what kind of an omen we the humans are to all the other beings on this earth.

Not a good one I can say for sure.

And mind you 'not a good one' is euphemism at its highest.