Garden visitors!

Birds, squirrels and cats are regular visitors to our garden.

The squirrels are fond of fruits that they can chew. The birds pick on fruits that are fleshy. The cats are scavengers  in the backyard. 

It is a habit of the squirrels to bite on all the about to ripen fruits in a tree so that they can claim it for themselves. This first claim they make entitles them to have the fruits for themselves. I have watched squirrels chasing the barbets away.

Most people who are possessive of the fruits in their garden would use transparent plastic pouches to cover the raw fruits to keep the fruits for themselves. If that is not done we would get only partially eaten fruits.

This is a dilemma. We do not gather papaya fruits from one of the three trees in our garden to allow squirrels and birds to feed on them. But it does not seem to help because they have no respect for our needs.

This is the difference between humans and avians. Humans can train themselves to become mindful of others but avians are conditioned to live in fear because of which they develop a self preserving instinct.

What a sad state of affairs when humans behave in a self preserving way!

I listen to the political leaders sometimes on TV shows. The present political party whose government is at New Delhi seems to think that the majority they have in the parliament gives them the right to do most things that suit their ideology. The latest in their economic policy is to sell the profit making government owned public undertakings to the private sector! They are indebted to the private sector because it is the donations which come to the party from the private sector which sustains them. This political party has used to their benefit the weakness of the opposition parties to create an alternative narrative of governance. 

The instinct of grabbing with no respect for others is not a human behaviour. It comes from elsewhere.

When I watch the intense lobbying that is going on in Britain on account of Brexit and the impeachment inquiry in the USA against the president, what is evident is the pursuit of self preservation by dominating others.

The human calling is for self giving with utmost regards for others. Others are not our enemies but neighbours!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)