I battle with pigeons almost every day of my life. All they want to do is build a nest in my balcony. All I want is a clean balcony. I keep chasing them away. They keep flying back and I can’t jump off the balcony to fly and pursue them like an eagle.

When the coast is clear, they return. When the coast is really clear, they come with twigs and start building a nest.  I chase them again. Hundred of times! They don’t mind and they don’t care. Once they managed to build a nest and lay eggs. I relocated the nest. But soon they were back again. They keep trying any time in the day 365 days in a year. No matter how many times I chase them or scatter their nest, they don’t give up.

The pigeons are familiar now. I can recognize every one of them. They all looked the same to begin with but not so now. Some are fat. Some are thin. They have different colours near the face and some have albino patches. They are like different people. I feel like naming the pigeons but that would be getting too familiar to them. Too friendly and too attached… And my job is only to chase them from my balcony, right? And their job is never to give up. They are almost machine like in that aspect.

Ah! To be as persistent as pigeons!

Pigeons and doves both come from the Columbidae family. They have managed to survive in whatever habitat the planet has provided them: urban or rural. They share a long and lasting relation with the human race. To find out whether the waters had receded after the Great Flood, Noah sent out a dove to check. Even today the white dove is a symbol of peace. Both the Egyptians and Persians used carrier pigeons 3,000 years ago. They also carried messages announcing winners in the Ancient Olympics. (In the 1948 Olympics as King George VI declared the games open, 2500 pigeons were set free)

In modern times, Paul Reuter used homing pigeons to deliver messages between Brussels and Berlin, a major news breakthrough in that era. The pigeon was also quite active during both World Wars. They delivered secret microfilm images and hundreds of other messages. In fact, 32 Pigeons have been decorated with the Dickin Medal (The British medal for animals). Racing pigeons have raced distances up to 1800 kilometers.

During research, scientists also found that pigeons could be trained to differentiate between the paintings of Picasso and Monet. In On the Waterfront, Marlon Brando was more distressed by the killing of pigeons than of humans.

All this makes me feel guilty chasing away the poor defenceless pigeons. In fact I even feel some vague karmic connection between them. (But I can’t have a stinking balcony, can I? Ah! The vague shallowness of it all…)

But they say everyone can teach you something. That goes for animals and birds too.

I think I’ll adopt a new mantra.

To be as persistent as a pigeon!

© Sunil Rajguru