Rana, the white-eyed pigeon
- Gaurav Kodnani
- Jan 3, 2021
- 5 min read
Gaurav Kodnani is a Commerce student studying in 11th grade. He likes listening to music, playing cricket and spending time with his family. His motto in life is to stay happy.
Hi everyone. Today I’m going to talk about something close to my heart. I have a lot of experience and good memories with it. Any guesses what it could be? Yes it is Rana - The white-eyed pigeon. It has been 2 years since we started feeding Rana. The first time we saw it was in mid-March 2019. At that time my 9th std. final timetable was released and I was busy doing my revision for the exams. Wait, let me try to remember the date. On 9th March 2019, my masi had come to stay with us. She had come for one week and was going to leave on 17th March. Yes, the first time we saw the pigeon was on 17th March 2019. OMG! How do I remember the date? Actually, I’m very good at remembering dates, so that’s not a very big deal.
Ok, now let’s move further in our story. So, when we saw the pigeon, masi exclaimed how cute the pigeon was and said, “Let’s give it something to eat.” I went searching for food in the house but I couldn’t get anything. So what did we feed it? Here’s the answer. After some time, I saw some white rice which I had not eaten during lunch. I thought we could feed the rice to the pigeon. I quickly gave the pigeon the white rice to eat and it gobbled it quickly as if it were very hungry. This happened in the evening on 17th March 2019. It was our first day of feeding the pigeon.
Now comes the time when it starts to visit us daily. We wondered what we should feed it every day! It was in May of last year. Yes, for one and a half months, we were feeding it roti and rice. We started searching on the internet about foods that could be fed to pigeons. We came to know that pigeons like to eat bajra seeds. So, we bought bajra seeds from a nearby shop and started feeding it twice a day - in the morning and evening. In the evening, I used to feed it. Now, like this, one month went off. It was June. My sister was home at that time; she thought we should give it a name as it had been a long time since we started feeding it. Almost three months had gone. A question might have come to your mind, why did I say she was at home ‘that time’? Well, because at that time she used to study in Coimbatore. I told her about the pigeon when she came home in April 2019 after completing her 3rd year of college.
So, now comes the story of naming the pigeon. The story goes like this: - One day, my sister and I were sitting together in the hall and talking. It was evening time, so we were also feeding the pigeon. Looking at the pigeon, my sister asked me, “What should we name it?” I said, “Let’s give it a cute small name, not a big name.” We started thinking and suggesting each other the names. But, we were not getting any cute small name for the pigeon. Like this, 15-20 minutes passed but we could not think of a name. Suddenly, my sister suggested the name, Rana. She asked me, “What do you think of this name?” I said, “It’s a nice name.” Then we asked our parents and they also agreed to this name. And this is how Rana got its name. The naming ceremony happened in June 2019. Now since you know this story too, let’s move further.
Now, Rana is used to this place. It has been living with us for two years. It knows us very well. So it has become our family member. Every day at dusk, it sleeps outside our home itself - on the gas pipe. First, Rana used to be scared and wondered, “Will they give me food daily? Will they even take care of me?” But it gradually evolved and by the end of 2019, it began to freely stay with us. It also sleeps in the mornings near the plate where we feed it. Now let me tell you the characteristics of Rana.
It is a white-eyed pigeon.
It is an ever-hungry pigeon.
It is a cute loving pigeon.
It is not a sharing pigeon; it does not share its food; it does not allow anyone to enter its territory.
It likes to eat from my and my sisters’ hand, so we sometimes feed it from our hand but not always.
Oh! Have I talked about its family? No? I’ll tell you now. So, Rana is a male pigeon. Its female is relatively small, has dark orange eyes as most pigeons have. Rana has three babies. Oh sorry, chicks. They also have white eyes like Rana. And they are so cute. OMG! I can’t express it enough - tiny cute pigeons. I love Rana’s wife and chicks also; my sister also does.
Now I don’t know whether Rana ever moves away from this place or not, because I haven’t seen him do that often. And I also do not know if the other pigeons that come here are Rana’s friends, because I have always seen him moving away from those pigeons. But I think that Rana does fly away from this place sometimes.
Rana also likes to eat ghatiya!
The End
I hope that this story reaches your heart and you like it. The inspiration for this story is Rana. But, the credits go to my sister. Thank you all and meet you soon in the next story. That’s all I can say. Bye.
Oh wait, before you go, do watch this video of me playing with Rana.
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A very Happy New Year!
With the advent of a New Year, we decided to start something exciting for this blog too! We reached out to our friends and family to be a part of our writing and collaborating journey. This post is a part of our first guest post series. We will be posting seven new blogs written by seven persons from January 1, 2021, to January 7, 2021! February onwards, there will be one guest post every month.
Thank you, Gaurav, your relationship with Rana is adorable; we hope to keep working with you!
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