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Wild City — Nature Wonders
Next Door
Ranjit Lal, the author of Wild City—Nature Wonders Next Door, has written both fiction and non-fiction. He writes for children and also for adults. His repertoire includes The Crow Chronicals, The Life and Times of AltuFaltu, That Summer at Kalagarh and The Bossman Adventures. He lives in Delhi and is very passionate about bird-watching. This book shows his concern and fascination with wildlife. If each one of us spared even half as much thought about them, they would prosper and ensure that the world around us keeps in top health. The author creates before us the scene of a routine morning and includes in it the sounds that we tend to drown out in the hullabaloo of a chaotic morning. Tuning in to the melodies of these birds around us is not difficult, just turn the volume of the TV or radio down and lie back for a few extra minutes before arising out of bed and listen. You will be surprised at what we choose to ignore. The chapters on birds are as colourful as these winged delights themselves. What you dearly miss though are equally colourful pictures to go with the vivid descriptions of birds that leave you wanting to get up and go looking for them. He details their mating calls, rituals and preening with the thoroughness of one who has learnt not just from books but by observation. That they have come to accept cities as their homes is illustrated by different examples such as the one where a father and daughter have crows playing cards with them. He also warns against training animals for any kind of activity meant to amuse or surprise. However, endearing a talking parrot may be but the truth remains that if he so enjoyed talking he would do it in the wild as well. He emphasises the importance of preserving each and every species to maintain balance in nature. We can do this by sending the right messages to future generations and not glorifying talking parrots, dancing dolphins, elephants standing on balls and the like. The cruelty meted out at the circus is nothing new but turning a blind eye towards a problem does not solve it. The methods of captivity and subjugation that he describes are sure to put you off such entertainment forever. The author talks about his experience at the Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park and Night Safari which he finds well-meaning but surreally artificial. Though it works at breeding endangered species, it sends out a mixed message by displaying its avian inmates dancing and singing to manmade tunes that make you wonder whether they set out to educate us about them or train them as entertainers. He categorises the book under the headings ‘Birds’, ‘Animals’, ‘Insects’ and ‘Ramblers’. The way he goes on to describe each one in the detail of a life science lecture but the passion of a story, you are hooked. That the animals can coexist maintaining order and balance without human intervention should tell us something. To appreciate beauty you don’t have to cage it or kill it and mount it on your wall to prove your superiority. Just be a bit more sensitive to all the natural beauty that surrounds you, even in the most metropolitan of cities. Look around and you shall not be disappointed.
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HOWEVER,
sophisticated and civilised man may become, he will always feels the
pull towards his roots, the wild. Having descended from apes (or
vice-a-versa, as the book suggests) he can at times find downplaying his
primate-like characteristics very difficult. He may have left his wild
quarters long back but his neighbours have crept in on him, taking to
city life like never before. Willingly or unwillingly they have thronged
our neighbourhoods. Indiscriminate annihilation of their natural
habitats has forced them to seek shelter in places alien to them. Slowly
but surely they are adjusting to the new environment. But we are not too
happy to share our private spaces with them. After all it is our right
to encroach on all the spaces that belong to species that cannot rebel,
but that doesn’t mean that they can get away with the same.