BIRD TALK

After reading ‘Being with Bird’ by Col K Bhattacharya in the Feb 2010 issue of ‘The Signalman ‘I feel, I can now make sense of the ‘Bird Talk’ from yore that had intrigued me all these years

It was some time in 1980, I was then commanding FCE, that on my wife joining me at Mhow, we were allotted a hutment with the No T 214, marked in bold letter and figures, on the Generals Road that was in a dilapidated state, derelict about to fall and with all rooms leaking during the monsoons. However, General’s Road was indeed a very prestigious sounding name and yes Gen Sunderjee the Commandant College of Combat did live on the same road, though alone in the appointment house a massive double story old bungalow.

My wife and I would often go for an evening walk past the Flag Staff house and across the old bridge on the normally dry nulla, where on the left side of the now, past the generals house, the track of the road there was a vast bare ground , possibly where the present Signal Vihar stands .

On certain occasions we would be intrigued to witness to a strange phenomena of a large conjugation of Crows gathered from far an near on the ground with more flying-in and joining those already there: the chatter among them was deafening, leaving us wondering of the reason for the massing gathering of Crows and the furious bird talk going on .

Possibly somehow with their bird sense they had come to release that soon they were going to lose their favorite meeting place as the process to acquire the land for Signal Vihar was in full swing under the patronage of Gen Paintal the than Comdt Military College of Telicommunication hence the frenzy.