I found this link on youtube. It is a great recording of what Mr. Beeper sounds like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk9u4_CjnXY
And it also shows the constant call of crows and others in the background. I am still investigating to find out what the other birds I hear are. One of them sings a song that sounds like a rendition of "Whoops there goes another rubber tree." What? You don't know that song? Actually, I didn't either till I looked it up. My mom only ever sang that part of the song, and that's all the bird sings, too. But it turns out it it's in a song about an ant by Frank Sinatra called 'High Hopes.' There you go. You learn something new everyday.
Really, I'm very grateful for the bird soundscape where I live. We're very lucky to live in a secluded part of the city with a lot of trees around. The soundscape of most of the city seems to be cars honking. My theory is that they decided to paint on the back of the big trucks "Horn Ok Please" and everyone took it as a personal invitation to honk all time. Apparently the message on the big trucks is an invitation to honk to ask them to move over. Or as a friendly reminder, "hey, I'm in your blind spot, please don't squash me." That kind of thing. But honking seems to be an incessant unconscious form of communicating "get out of my way" to anyone at all. I will have to dedicate an entire post to mumbai traffic for you to get a better idea of it.
In the meantime here is a picture of one of the windows of our
bedroom. We live on the third floor, so we get a view of the green canopy all around. And the birds roost in the branches right outside. The hanging plants you see end up working a lot like bird
feeders. After the maid waters the plants, the birds come to them and
drink the water. The crows are the bravest. They will land right on the
windowsill and look inside the house. They never enter according to
Deepal, but if you leave food on the window they'll take it. They look
right at you, too, if you're nearby. It would be easy to be
creeped out by them if you've just watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.Or if you naturally find birds creepy. Here's a crow come for a drink of water:
And the last picture is of the trees in front of our building. I took the picture from the upstairs walkway. I wish I'd taken it earlier because they had even more flowers before. But here you can still see a lot. These trees were like a little welcome present when I moved here because I had no idea that they flowered before and they were in full bloom. And I love flowering trees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk9u4_CjnXY
And it also shows the constant call of crows and others in the background. I am still investigating to find out what the other birds I hear are. One of them sings a song that sounds like a rendition of "Whoops there goes another rubber tree." What? You don't know that song? Actually, I didn't either till I looked it up. My mom only ever sang that part of the song, and that's all the bird sings, too. But it turns out it it's in a song about an ant by Frank Sinatra called 'High Hopes.' There you go. You learn something new everyday.
Really, I'm very grateful for the bird soundscape where I live. We're very lucky to live in a secluded part of the city with a lot of trees around. The soundscape of most of the city seems to be cars honking. My theory is that they decided to paint on the back of the big trucks "Horn Ok Please" and everyone took it as a personal invitation to honk all time. Apparently the message on the big trucks is an invitation to honk to ask them to move over. Or as a friendly reminder, "hey, I'm in your blind spot, please don't squash me." That kind of thing. But honking seems to be an incessant unconscious form of communicating "get out of my way" to anyone at all. I will have to dedicate an entire post to mumbai traffic for you to get a better idea of it.
creeped out by them if you've just watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.Or if you naturally find birds creepy. Here's a crow come for a drink of water:
And the last picture is of the trees in front of our building. I took the picture from the upstairs walkway. I wish I'd taken it earlier because they had even more flowers before. But here you can still see a lot. These trees were like a little welcome present when I moved here because I had no idea that they flowered before and they were in full bloom. And I love flowering trees.
Yay for green. I really am so happy about that. Excuse me for being an obviously uneducated and offensive American, but when I think of Mumbai I think of hot, dusty, loud, overcrowded everything.
ReplyDeleteAnd can I get a Whaaaa? for having a maid water your plants?! What utopia have you moved to?
Wow, your image of Mumbai is certainly a version of the truth. I say wow because I had no image of Mumbai at all before coming here. ...that may be why I was willing to come... ;) hehe
ReplyDeleteI will probably have to write a whole post about the servants here. They are a whole section of the economy, and many things people could do for themselves they do not because someone could be paid to do it. And it's a way to help them out.