The Myna’s Wisdom

I think that I’ve mentioned about the pair of myna which keeps building their nests in the exhaust pipe-line of my chimney.  Its happening again now – the nest building – for the past 1 month. I make sure that the chimney is always off, when the cute birds hatch their off-springs. Some days later, I hope to listen to the young ones, squeaking while I cook.

As soon as I get up in the morning and open my kitchen windows, the chirping mynas greet me and cheer me.  I can stand and watch those two forever. But the moment they know they are being focused through a lens, they fly away.

With the load-shedding in Chennai going on seriously onto its 4th month, the Chennaiites have sort of got used to this grueling routine and I allot that time to sit in the balcony and read something. And of course, to watch the mynas.

These birds are the active the whole day and I can hear a lot sounds inside the pipeline during the day.

As I sit there and watch them, there is something interesting that I noticed. Both the mynas are still in the process of picking up stems, leaves, sticks anything that can make a nest. They are up early and keep collecting them during the day. If one myna returns early with a stick, it waits for the other to join by giving a particular set of chirping. If the two are together, the chirping is on a different scale and the note is quite a happier one.

What stuck me interesting was, a whole month was spent on building a nest, just for the sake of hatching the eggs. After the little ones come and are taken care of nicely, all the mynas leave this pipeline and fly away.

There is no attachment to the material things like the nest but there’s lots of love. The mynas seem to realize their duty is to hatch the little ones and nothing more.

So much of hardship has gone into building that nest, which is abandoned just like that, after the little ones fly away.

Of course, a new nest might come up, when there is a need, later. The same pipeline may be chosen, nobody knows.

With all this detachment, comes the freedom to do things, as the myna wishes.

And the myna is not even a bit worried that they are leaving the nest. Only by leaving the nest, the myna can fly off to reach the skies !!!

Then comes my wisdom thought – Are we, human beings, bound so much by attachment to various things and people, that we are unable to fly away and reach the skies of utter freedom and bliss ???