I noticed this Bulbul in our garden, perched safely under foliage when it was raining.
I also traced its movements in the garden. It moved from the safety of a sheltering branch under the foliage into the open, perching in lesser strong twigs and finally on a slender twig and a broken branch!
The Bulbul was singing while perched in the slender town and a broken branch !
I happened to remember a music composition by Param vir, which was presented in two parts in an opera in the early nineteen eighties. The story is of an old musician in a king's court based on a tale of 'Guttil Jatak'. The strings of the musical instrument breaks one by one, and yet the music becomes even more enchanting and magical! The music transcends the instrument and transforms the listeners into a moving experience of bliss. The music did not get disrupted when the strings broke one by one, instead even more captivating.
The Bulbuls's movement from the safety of the protected foliage to the open sky and singing while perched in slender and broken branches of a tree, brings out an inner secret about the soulful singing when it is windy and raining !
It is as though the adversity of wind and rain outside brings out a melody from deep within !
The Bulbul's was a downward movement from safety to vulnerability!
From being in that state of vulnerability, its tuneful and loud singing was a call for endurance and hope to other avians in its proximity and beyond, threatened by the weather.
There is an awakening within us of something unusual when one is threatened by an adversity!
I heard a widow with two young children, now in her late thirties, referring to a recent loss of her husband, testifying that they 'lived to the fullest although short lived'! There was a contentment amidst grief and loss !
It is not security that gives depth and enlightenment in life! It is often walking through bewildering and disturbing experiences.
Dr L.B.M. Jospeh was the director of Christian Medical College, Vellore for two terms of seven years each. Referring to the season of two months old strike in 1975 sponsored by one section of the staff paralysing the work of the hospital, he once said, that it was the best season in his tenure, when he saw, 'God carrying the institution forward through a storm' ! With the local government doing everything possible to support the striking employees, the local collector withdrawing the police protection and arresting the associate direct of the hospital, a disaster was in sight! But what happened in 48 hours was a respite from the government action by th intervention of the central government and the employees calling off the strike. This year is the 50 th anniversary of that historic turning point in the life of Christian Medical College, which is 125 years old this year. The out-patient numbers which used to be less than thousand a day went beyond three thousand following the strike in about six months! The college and hospital received a momentum of growth and transition to a new level of its vocation and excellence since then! The new life it received when it was almost 'broken' carried it forward to be what it is today with new hospitals in Bhagayam, RUHSA, Ranipet and Chittor with about fifteen thousand patients visiting the hospitals each day!
There is a soulful song when we are made to go through adversities or voluntarily choose to move out from being sheltered to be vulnerable!
The tuneful bird calls of the Bulbul from its perch in the slender and broken branches resonate within me !
M.C.Mathew (text and Photo )
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