The View

The Batra family moved to the second-floor flat hoping now for some privacy. The earlier house, located on the ground floor facing the main road, had been perpetually subjected to prying eyes. Well, whether anyone pried or not, Seema Batra always felt vulnerable. She had to keep the windows closed and ensure that all the doors were always locked. When the children complained of stuffiness and lack of view, she would snap back, "What view do you get in any case? Just the boundary wall."

Being on the second floor would mean open windows. A big balcony gave them a view of the pathway around the apartment complex. And, there were no blocks facing hers, so absolutely no prying eyes. Now, she could see without being seen. What a relief! A special bonus were the trees that formed a relief to her sore eyes.

It hadn't taken them time to decide to move in here. If mosquito menace had not been so intense, they would never have closed the doors even at night!

Sometimes Seema and Vishal enjoyed peeping out of the balcony and having a conversation with their neighbours walking downstairs. The kids would call from downstairs and ask for a ball or something else to be thrown down so that they didn't have to waste time coming up to take what they wanted.

Liberation, that's what it was. Finally, finally, they had a life, Seema felt. She felt she was part of the world.

Watching the trees gain height was another joy and now the branches came to just below their balcony level.

But what is this! Now her view of the pathway was blocked! All she could see was dense foliage. No longer could they chat with their neighbours or the children call from below. She could see people moving but not make out who.

"Do you think we can ask the association to have the branches cut off to get our view back?" she asked Vishal.

"Seems a little selfish," he said. "Though, I agree, I really enjoyed the view. Now it is just the leaves!"

Seema shook her head in despair. "Really, I feel hemmed in again." They stepped out and looked down in dismay. Though they continued to open the balcony door every morning, the desire to spend time there was completely gone now that they could not watch the activities. Only the persistent cuckoo and the playful squirrels calling out to each other filled their home. Initially, it irritated them. "Whoever said the cuckoo's call was sweet! Someone ask it to stop!" Seema exclaimed. She could hear the cuckoo from 7 to almost 9, cooing non-stop for two hours. But what is this? She could hear some tapping sound. She went to the balcony and figured out it was coming from one of the branches and something in a striking colour was pecking at the wood. "Woodpecker!?" she was astounded. She had never seen one. She called Vishal and the children and the four watched as the brightly coloured woodpecker went to work.

Her ears became attuned to these sounds. Soon she discerned other new sounds. She managed to spot birds she had never seen before. Google Lens helped her to identify them and more reading showed that they were rare birds.

"Can you imagine! They are rare birds but we see them every day!"

Vishal got his DSLR out and every morning, spent some time before going to work training his camera on these birds. And he caught other things too -- butterflies, colourful moths, dragonflies. Even the ordinary squirrel had a very busy life some days, the male and female playing a running and catching game till the male caught up with the female to mate. "It's like the hero-heroine running around the trees," he laughed as he showed Seema the photos.

"Give them some privacy!" she exclaimed but stood with him watching the love-play the next morning, sipping tea. As the year passed, she realised that the birds and the bees had a life that was fascinating to watch. She started keeping some grains for the birds and was enthralled when a parakeet and a cuckoo visited her balcony. She built a birdhouse and started keeping food regularly. She kept a few plants and watched butterflies flitting in and out. She even noticed that the tree too had a life that she had not noticed hitherto. New leaves came out coiled, tender brown in colour. They slowly uncurled, the colour changing to a rich green, deepening to dark green before drying up and falling to the ground.

She also noticed that the tree was now forming a canopy overhead and her view of the ground was clear.

But she found herself staring up and into the branches more often than at the pathway. People were still walking and the activities must be just as interesting. But her perspective had changed. And she found the gently swaying tree housing many birds and insects just as fascinating, if not more.