Trees

Last week I saw the branch of a tree, in front of the window in my room, being chopped off. It was so painful to see, it was almost like I was seeing a butchering.

I wanted to close my 7 month old son's eyes and take him away from this brutality but I lingered internalizing the whole scene.

Our window overlooked the main entrance of the apartment buildings and the tree in question was right next to it. The branch must have been pretty heavy, I am guessing it must have weighed more than a 100 kgs, because when it fell, it made a wrecking sound and broke some tiles on the roof the gate. Once down, a wood chopper used a fueled chainsaw to start butchering the branch. First he cut off all the sub branches with leaves, which the staff helped take out. There must have been atleast 20. Then he started chopping the main branch up. The saw he was using must have been so powerful that when he put it to the wood, it felt like hot knife through butter. There were shreds and wood saw all around. The colour milk brown, looked powdery but I am sure felt rough. He cut up the logs very evenly and then loaded them into the back of a mini truck. It felt like I was witnessing a scam in progress, almost as if the converstaion went like

Wood chopper guy - Hey that tree needs cutting.

Our admin -Okay if you say so.

Wood chopper guy- Thanks. But sneakily Imma gonna get this nice wood for free and make some crazy expensive door out of it.

Our admin - Hey I want some in it too. I gave permission after all.

Meanwhile, the person who planted the tree, the tree and the people who love the tree - who gave admin that right??

Anyways, I think I love trees. There is another tree near my balcony. I used to sit for hours just marvelling at it during my pregnancy.

It had a long branch in which some bird, which I dont know the name of had made its nest. This particular bird is green with a brown head, looks like a pecker bird but not a wood pecker. Two of these bird have their nest in the middle of a hollow of the tree branch. I'd see them everyday flit in & out. I enjoyed spotting them in the camouflage of the green leaves. When I came back after my pregnancy, after almost 5 months and when I had a moment to look at the tree, it took me sometime to realize that the branch was gone. I was instantly so sad. But upon observing for a couple of days I found that the birds were still there, they had moved their nest into the hollow of the tree at the place the branch used to be. All of that love returned but not for long. We now had a nasty black crow in our admist. This black crow flew a packet of sooji I had lying in the balcony, which we had gotten to stock up just as the lockdown had started and we had sanitized the whole packet and left it in the balcony to dry off, right out of the window and I wonder what must have happened because it crashed middway and the sooji packet broke and now there is sooji stuck in places in my balcony that I cant get out off. Well this evil crow was then spotted by my husband, having something white in its beak. We got discussing on the sooji mess and the tree in front and I told him about the broken branch (we used to see the nest together sometimes), he connected the dots and said maybe the white thing he saw in the crows mouth was an egg. It crushed us to think the crow was eating those birds eggs and this is not even the scary part. A few days later we see pigeon feathers stuck on the branches of the tree. A total crime scene, reminiscient of a big bird having attacked the pigeon but what a surprise attack it must have been for the pigeons feet to tbe still stuck on the branch. Horrifying. I immediately thought it was the crow but my husband said it must have been an eagle to take down a pigeon and I agree.

On a lighter note the squirrels on this tree are adorable. Seeing them chase after each other, all over the tree, I am reminded of alvin and the chipmunks from my childhood.

Edit: I have found the bird- It is a coppersmith barbet!

Coppersmith barbet