HOWLERS

  The other day after aimlessly wandering around Koreagon Park (one of the most touristic parts of the city), Mathieu and I ended up standing by Pune's biggest river, the Mutha. It was wide and unclean but had a riverbank busy with people hanging the nearby hotels' laundry on long wires. Meanwhile, the rubbish that was lying around us was full of various domestic and not so domestic creatures: pigs, boars, cows, goats, dogs and chickens. As we were watching this bustling cavalcade, strange voices caught our attention. They grew louder and louder as the river carried them from the other side. We could clearly hear some kind of a weird howling sound that was then repeated by a larger group of people. As it went on and on, we started guessing what it all could have been. A religious ritual? A festival? Some kind of a meditation practice? 

  Failing to find any sensible answer, we decided to take courage and ask a passing by stranger. The stranger- who turned out to be a chapati bread supplier for the local hotels- was happy to answer our question: 'It's a training' he explained, 'a class for those, wishing to collect pigeons. The teacher knows how to make special pigeon sounds that attract the birds. After the course, students will be able to call and catch pigeons which they can sell to pet shops afterwards.' Apparently, it's a rather profitable business in India because well- off people like to have their own pigeon in their house. In a country where colourful birds and green parrots are flying around freely, pigeons become the peculiar ones. Knowing this, isn't it time that we in Europe re-evaluated our attitude towards our pigeons and maybe showed a little more appreciation to them?