In these chilly Delhi winters my sleep is erratic. Some days I wake up at 6.30 AM, on other at 7.30 AM, and yet sometimes at 8.30 AM or even 9 AM. I know I am being a bad boy, but what can I do? It is just so cold. I suspect much worse than previous year. I can’t go out evenings because it is cold. I can’t work because it is cold. Damn cold! Chills us, breaks us, makes us lazy, and inhibits works.

Every morning when I wake up the first thing I do is put grains for birds who come to my terrace. These days I wake up erratically and put the grains at all hours 6.30, 7.30, 8.30, 9, different each day. Yet, within five minutes of my putting the grains the pigeons are there, so are the parakeets, bulbuls, crows, sparrows, mynahs, and some time doves.

Does the cold not inhibit them? Okay, they have feathers, they have fluff, they snuggle up, and they are endotherms. So are we humans. We are so evolved that we have clothes, houses, organised food, and brains to help us find our way through nature. Why then do we get so affected by the cold while the simple birds who have none of our advantages manage just fine, with perhaps no complaints?

Their flights don’t get delayed. Their roads don’t get blocked. I wonder if development through the centuries has made us less capable to being at peace with nature. We are not talking Antarctica, just a slightly more than regular Delhi cold. Have we humans forgotten something?

Tags: birds, cold, humans, terrace