The birdwatching has been so slow recently. I don't know if the pollution has finally started to catch up with the wetland, or if it's just too hot and the birds are hunkered down in their grass homes. Regardless, my morning excitement was feeding some bananas to a pair of big cows with long orange painted twisted horns. These cows are used for pulling carts of dirt. There's not much I love more than a slimy cow nose. If I could get a cow home through customs, you bet I would. Shiva also gave the drivers some bananas but as far as I was concerned if you weren't a cow you didn't matter.
Shiva told me as we were birdwatching that the land surrounding the wetland and I suppose the wetland itself is actually private property. Okay...so why is it covered in trash? I don't understand how privately owned land becomes the new garbage dump. It's all very perplexing to me. I can't decide if the owner is aware and somehow makes a profit from the process, or what is going on, but I don't like it.
The very last site, is the one over by the crematorium that is under construction. Shiva and Shyam have a weird fascination with the whole area, as it is so close to the graveyard and occasionally there will be some smoke from a burning body. I don't think twice about it, everyone dies eventually. There is a very intense superstition, however, among the Indian students. The girls won't get out of the car when a body is burning and the boys are always laughing and saying they're going to go take selfies in the graveyard. I don't quite understand it. I just count my birds and go home. The old man who is essentially the security guard for the area, has become good friends with Shiva. Shyam and I walk down and count birds while Shiva goes and sits with the old man. Apparently the old man is eighty six, which tells you how dangerous the area actually is. Shiva told me that the other day he asked the old man if working near the graveyard and crematorium ever scared him. The old man responded that everyone, even he, would end up there in the end. I could tell this had had a very big impact on Shiva. I looked at him and said, none of this is actually about birds. And it's not. Birdwatching is just the tie that brings all of the things that we're learning together.
Shiva told me as we were birdwatching that the land surrounding the wetland and I suppose the wetland itself is actually private property. Okay...so why is it covered in trash? I don't understand how privately owned land becomes the new garbage dump. It's all very perplexing to me. I can't decide if the owner is aware and somehow makes a profit from the process, or what is going on, but I don't like it.
The very last site, is the one over by the crematorium that is under construction. Shiva and Shyam have a weird fascination with the whole area, as it is so close to the graveyard and occasionally there will be some smoke from a burning body. I don't think twice about it, everyone dies eventually. There is a very intense superstition, however, among the Indian students. The girls won't get out of the car when a body is burning and the boys are always laughing and saying they're going to go take selfies in the graveyard. I don't quite understand it. I just count my birds and go home. The old man who is essentially the security guard for the area, has become good friends with Shiva. Shyam and I walk down and count birds while Shiva goes and sits with the old man. Apparently the old man is eighty six, which tells you how dangerous the area actually is. Shiva told me that the other day he asked the old man if working near the graveyard and crematorium ever scared him. The old man responded that everyone, even he, would end up there in the end. I could tell this had had a very big impact on Shiva. I looked at him and said, none of this is actually about birds. And it's not. Birdwatching is just the tie that brings all of the things that we're learning together.
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