“There is a peacock on the balcony outside our room. I cannot believe it. Quick, take out your camera and lens.”
Indeed, there it was. Unbelievable for city dwellers from inner city
areas of Mumbai on a tour stop at Kanya Kumari and staying at the Hotel Tamil
Nadu facing the Indian Ocean and the meeting point of the Arabian Sea with the
Bay of Bengal. Our room faced the ocean and we had a spectacular wide-angled,
nearly 180 deg, view stretching from the temple and all the way across to the
green groves at the Hotel premises. We had seen the peafowl moving around in the
campus, yesterday, on our arrival, and we had been excited to see them so very
commonly and fearlessly, walking about amidst the tourists, local housekeeping
staff and rickshaws speeding about.
Today, at this early dawn hour, it was very different and
tremendously awesome. We could see the peacock from within the first-floor room,
through the window that looked out at the ocean and also had a view of the
balcony. The peacock was seated on our balcony wall and was calling out loudly.
We had never heard a peacock call out in such a shrill and high-pitched voice,
up so close. You did not need an alarm clock if you were booked into these
rooms.
We stood nearer to the window, hoping that it would not be alarmed
and would not fly away. He did not. He kept a steady watch on our movements and
yet was looking out keenly at the gardens and groves of the Hotel compound.
“He must be calling out to attract the peahens,” I said, “we are in
the early week of March and it would be summer soon. I think it is much earlier
in South India. They will need to start nesting very soon if the eggs are to
hatch before the monsoon. But, I think that they are quite well protected in
this large estate of the Hotel and the nearby premises.”
We took some photographs from behind the window but it was not so
very perfect. The window glass was reflecting the glow from the ocean and
created a mirage sort of disturbance over the photographs. We could not open
the balcony door, for sure that the peacock would instantly fly away. After a
while, it was quite tedious to hear the peacock call away, and the sound was
getting a bit stressful. The doorbell rang and I went up to answer it.
The room attendant brought in our early morning order of coffee and
biscuits. We would have to get ready and go down to the restaurant for the
breakfast, he informed. I nodded and smiled. He pointed at the peacock in the
balcony.
“Do not worry,” he said. “You can open the door and allow it to fly
away. Otherwise he will keep calling out like this and you will get very
disturbed. He just likes to call out from one of the balconies in the morning.
Later he goes down to the children’s playground and moves about and continues
to call from there. You can go down there and try to take photographs if you
are interested. Many tourists have taken excellent photographs at that
playground area.”
I nodded and allowed him to leave the room. The peacock called out
for another couple of minutes and flew down to the gardens below. We had our
coffee and got ready and walked down. It was going to be a long day for us and
we were all ready for it. We were planning to go to the temple and later stand
in queue for the boat to go out to the Vivekananda Rock. There would be a crowd
and a very long queue for the boat tickets, first thing in the day, we had been
advised. It was better to go later in the morning after a good breakfast. There
were no eateries out on the Rock.
We had some time to wait it out after breakfast and we thought that
it would be a good idea to follow up on the suggestion from the room attendant to
try and get good photographs of the peacock and other peafowl at the children’s
garden. We walked up to the garden and made ourselves comfortable at a good
stone seat in the shade. It was getting humid and hot, rather quite early. The
peacock was at a distance and we wondered if we could tempt him to come nearer.
We did not have any bird feed and we had not thought of packing up something
while we had our breakfast.
Just as we were about to give up, four young children, probably six
to eight years old, school going kids in uniform and with their school bags,
came nearer. They whispered amongst themselves and pushed the eldest one to us.
“Saar, good morning Saar,” the kid said. “Do you want to take photographs
of the peacock? That is reason why you are seated here. Morning tourist here
are always want to use camera and take photo of peacock. Correct, is it?”
I nodded in agreement. I was curious. This seemed like a rather
perfect arrangement for these kids to turn up and want to help us take
photographs of the peacock. The camerawallahs
among the tourists would probably pay some money to these kids. I was ok with
the idea but I wanted to know if this was a properly rehearsed arrangement.
I gestured for the kids to come nearer. “Yes. I want to take
photographs of the peacock. The room attendant uncle told us to come here and
wait for you all to come and help us. He said that you are experts at peacock
photography.”
The eldest boy smiled proudly. “Yes. That must be Natesan uncle. He
is father to the small girl in our group. He is my uncle also. My mother’s
brother. So you are his friends, then? Will you pay us if we bring the peacock
closer?”
“You are all in school uniforms. You are also carrying your school
bag. Do you attend a school actually? Are you studying? Are you good students?
Or do you sit here all day in the school uniform and help us to take
photographs?”
“No, No. We are real students,” the boy said. “We are to go to the
school. We have one hour before the school starts. It is very closeby. Just
behind the Hotel compound. I got first rank last year in the Class One. It is
English medium school and our teacher is very good. Natesan uncle does not know
that we take money for photographs.”
“Ok. Let me see how you will bring the peacock closer to us. My
companion here will take the photographs. That camera is better than mind. Do
you call him? Does the peacock know you by now and come to you for eatables?”
The boy got busy. He spoke to a younger lad who brought out a grubby
looking newspaper pouch and sprinkled what looked like powdered idli and medu
vada and steamed rice and some soaked gram on to a grassy patch. The elder boy
and the younger girl called out to the peacock. He seemed to know what was
expected and came up to eat. My companion got busy with the camera and was
quite happy. I knew that the photographs must have been perfect.
I asked the young boy. “What do you do with the money? Do you spend
it all on sweets, snacks and ice cream?”
“No. I do not waste the money,” he said. “I am saving it for all of
us. We want to become Dr. Abdul Kalam.”
