'Didn't We Actually Have Good Times ?????' - The Pigeons' Story

Today as I sat down in my lawn trying to think about anything that comes into my head. It had been quite a while since I sat there and there was practically nothing I could possibly think of. I began staring into eternity untill something interesting caught my eyes.

Almost ten metres from the bench where I sat, I saw two pigeons that flew in together and perched themselves on the grass. There were some food grains which were littered on the lawn and maybe they had flown in to fulfil there hunger. They started pecking at the grains which were littered.

What was eye catching is that both the pigeons were picking up the grains with their beaks and feeding each other !!! Initially I thought that it was a coincidence or maybe I had seen it wrong. But no, they were really feeding each other. I started observing both the pigeons. They were flying a bit low around the littered food grains and then come down and start feeding each other.

There was an instance when one the pigeons was on the grass and the other pigeon started flying around the pigeon that sat on the grass. The moment the pigeon which was flying perched down, the sitting pigeon took off and started circling the previous pigeon.

I started becoming more and more fascinated and tried to study the pattern of both the pigeons. They were merrily playing with each other, feeding each other and completely enjoying each others company. It was so very evident that both the pigeons were mutually dependent on each other.

Suddenly one of the pigeons flew towards the water fountain which was in the middle of the lawn I was sitting. It perched itself on the edge of the fountain and drank a bit of water. After drinking a bit of water, it stood still and after a while it flew towards its companion which still sttod on the grass and then both the pigeons flew towards the fountain and started drinking water.

Though I didn't understand the intention or the pattern of this strange behavior of these two pigeons. What I thought to myself was that maybe the pigeon which initially flew towards the fountain to have water wanted to check whether the water was safe for consumption or not. Once he was satisfied that the water was good enough, he flew towards the other pigeon and egged it on to drink the water from the fountain on order to quench its thirst.

After the second pigeon drank the water, it nudged the first pigeon and both of them started nudging each other. After a while the nudging became violent and within a fraction of time both the pigeons flew away in different directions.

I was taken aback!!! I thought 'Did both the pigeons fight?' I didn't have an answer but what unfolded in front of me was something I was unable to decipher.

I kept looking at the fountain when one of the pigeons flew back and perched itself on the edge of the fountain and started looking in every direction possible. Now I was damn sure that it was looking for that pigeon with which it had initially flown in. Now even I got involved with the pigeons and started looking in the skies to see whether the other pigeon was around. But it was nowhere to be seen.

After a while the pigeon which had flown back to the fountain flew away cooing very loudly. I sat there for almost twenty minutes after that to see whether either of the pigeons would return but none of them returned.

Maybe the other pigeon had come back in the hope of finding the first pigeon and when it did not find the first pigeon, maybe it flew away never ever to come back to that fountain again !!!

While the pigeon was flying away, the only thing that I could decipher from its cooings was that maybe it was trying to ask the other pigeon,
'Didn't We Actually Have Good Times ?????'. But there was no answer.....

I sighed deeply, got up from the bench and went back home with the incident which had just happened, deeply entrenched in my mind.