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Published: September 25th 2008
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Peacock is India’s National bird, right?
Maharashtra, our State, is supposed to be 'peacock country' with its vast sugar-belt.
"HABITAT The Peacock likes deciduous forests and semi-open country flanking hillside streams, with thick undergrowth and thorny creepers. Also forages farmland, particularly dense, tall crops such as sugar cane."
This is what I found on the Internet about peacock’s habitat, which applies quite well to Maharashrta.
However, we never had an opportunity to see the peacocks in the wild, despite our various visits to various National Parks; though on a recent visit to Lonar Crater, we heard their mating calls.
It is ironical that we saw peacocks only in captivity.
Long ago, I saw both a white peacock and a blue one courting a peahen in the ‘Peshwe Park’ at Pune.
It was a hilarious scene. The peahen pretended to be totally uninterested. To do her justice, she was also very busy caring for her brood. A bevy of peachicks followed her around.
Both the peacocks tried their best to engage her attention, spreading and quivering their tail-feathers and trying to corner her whenever she turned towards her chicks, but she simply was not
in a mood to watch the flippant endeavors of these young roués. She had more weighty concerns on her mind - her chicks.
Motherhood is the first priority of all females.
Some of her chicks were dark grey and some were white.
We enjoyed the domestic scene and indulged shamelessly in character assassination of the peahen quoting the couplet:
“Aai bi kali an bapus bi kala
Hi gori pori konachi?”
(This is a famous Goan folk song, which was adapted in some Hindi movie too. Translated, it means, “The mother is dark and the father is also dark, then how come the daughter is so fair?”)
We had no compunction at all in casting aspersions on the poor peahen’s character.
The peahen was least bothered by our comments. She just gave us a haughty, supercilious look.
Unfortunately, we had no camera with us that day.
The San Diego zoo afforded us another glimpse in the peacock courtship, because that is where we saw a peacock dancing with a fully-blown tail.
I was a bit surprised because it was a perfectly sunny day without even a single cirrus cloud in
the bright blue sky, which was unsuitable for a peacock’s romantic involvement, from what poems I had read.
But the peacock had not read any poems.
We probably have some pictures - faded, ‘spotted’ and perhaps sepia-tinted - of that peacock in our albums but they are not digital and not worth scanning.
However, at the Toronto’s Center Island zoo, recently we again saw a peacock’s courtship.
The sky was overcast and the nimbus clouds threatened rain; perhaps the right weather for a peacock’s romantic inclination to burst in a song and a dance, as we are led to believe by poets.
For almost twenty minutes the peacock tried to impress the peahen but again, ‘she had a headache’.
A peacock is a gentlebird. He kept his ardor under control and coolly collapsed his tail and sulked.
For the first time I understood the meaning of ‘crestfallen’ vividly.
I am uploading some pictures of the peacock’s courtship, attributing human emotions to his demeanor.
Oh, don't be so dejected. You will get another chance, my buddy.
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