Pigeon at the window: The trip diary has something important missing. And that’s the Hyderabad pigeon population. I get it. We are considered pests. We are chased and subjected to all kinds of humiliation with brooms, water, pebbles thrown at us. But we persist. And we thrive! Hyderabad is so tired of us that people have installed nets on their balconies and have covered entire sections of their buildings. Guess what this means! The humans are in the cages while we rule the city (hee hee hee). So, how do we claim a spot in the India Trip blog, you may ask. Let me tell you the reason why we occupy the top spot in animal musings. It goes by the name of Leena!

Leena, the little girl, came from far off lands. She underwent some winter migration and landed in the heart of Hyderabad. And from day 1, she insisted on feeding our population! Wow, finally someone who understands our worth. We made full use of Leena’s kindness and proceeded to occupy one window sill of the apartment that usually shuns us. We would wait for our breakfast, and should Leena forget, we weren’t too shy to enter the apartment to give her a polite reminder that she is forgetting something. In fact, whenever we arrived, all the people in the apartment would call out “Leena”. And no matter what she was doing, Leena stopped her work and would dig in the fridge to find some old rice, idli or pigeon feed for us.

Sadly Leena has migrated back to her homeland. We think its a bit early for her to return, since its peak winter where she lives, but she is gone. We have been once again chased off the windowsill with brooms and now continue to inhabit every hole that we can find.

White Paws the dog: If there is one thing that you must know about me, it is this. I am a friendly dog! When I see a nice human, I do the following. I run over flattening my ears and wagging my tail. Once I have ascertained that the human is indeed worth the hype, I stretch my body to show my happiness to the human. After this, I curl my entire body into a ball, so that my snout is almost in my butt. The combination of body curl and waggy tail is irresistible for most humans. They proceed to let out wails that sound like awww or oooh. They pet me and often leave treats for me. Psst, I politely accept what they give, but I don’t always like the offering. I am not a derelict who will go for just anything edible. I have my standards. I occupy one of the best spots in Hyderabad and my confidence shows!

Last month was the nicest. Little Leena quickly became my favorite from the first moment we met. Leena (and Tanya and their mom) were quite sweet to me and would talk to me in the nicest tones. But the funniest part was when they would pretend to not have seen me (even though I was right there), and would try to get by to see what I would do. I knew what they wanted. They wanted me to wag my tail. I obliged. As soon as they went by, I would do my wag, jump up, run over, stretch and curl routine. In return I would get pets and treats. I do like Parle G, thank you very much. Sadly Leena is gone, but I am sure we will meet again. In the meantime, let me enjoy the morning sun.

Madhur the dog: I have a collar! That’s right folks. I am not an actual stray. Someone put a collar on me. It’s the vendor who sells tea at the park. So I belong to a human. That said, I loved the Zwart girls from the first minute. The first time I saw them, they were giving a roti to White Paws. I looked a bit sadly at them and they got the message. A piece came flying to me. The next day, I went to them. They gave me cookies, and I was snatching it off their hands. I am not that polite as White Paws. In my defense, I am a big boy and need nourishment. In exchange for the cookies, I cuddled up to the kids. I was even interested in jumping inside their car, but their grandfather gave me such a stern look that my heart shivered. Sadly I didn’t see the girls again, and White Paws tells me that the pigeon told her that they have migrated back home. But the same pigeon also said that I have been named Madhur, which, of course means sweet. Sweet!

Dumpling the puppy: I am the only dog who didn’t get clicked by the Zwart girls. But its not their fault. I move fast. I came, got my cookies, and then bounded off. I am social, you see. I am also a growing pup. I don’t really mind that they didn’t click my picture because I will look completely different in a few months when I am all grown up. They can click my photos then! Off I go.

Yoga Peacock: Kindly refrain from laughing at my name. I am called the Yoga Peacock because I hang about the place in the peacock park where humans are usually doing Yoga. I look at their feeble efforts at flexibility before proceeding to clean out and oil my entire tail. Can you imagine the flexibility required for that task? Humans would be twisted in a knot and collapsed in a heap if they did that. So why am I featuring in this blog, you may ask. There are hundreds of Peacocks in the Peacock park, but I am the one that matters. This is because I ate out of Leena’s hand. She had pigeon feed, and she put some in her hand and called me. I boldly went and pecked it right out of her hand!! It was a terribly exciting experience. Since that day, I have been surrounded by girlfriends. All the peahens are vying for my attention and admiring my beautiful feathers. Unfortunately my girlfriends would not let me free, and I could not repeat my performance with Leena. But hey, I did it once!

Kylo Ren the dog: Grr. Enough with all these Indian animals. Guess what?! I am back in business. I had gone for a walk with Papa one afternoon. When I was entering the house, I heard noise. My hair stood at its ends. Do we have an intruder? Am I as lucky as that? But it turned out, I was even luckier! Impossible as it seemed, the girls were back. They were sitting and waiting for me to come in. What an excitement it was. I broke free from Papa and jumped over all the girls, whining, licking, biting, jumping, crying, whimpering, you name it!! If anyone had any misgivings on what my reaction would be, I wiped them off immediately. It was a most joyful reunion. Oh, I am still reeling with excitement. My head’s spinning (falls over).

Rosie the dog: (pushes Kylo aside to take the keyboard). Well, my friends. I must tell you this. I was the first to see the girls enter. And I also want to proudly let you know that I had not forgotten that the girls had been gone for quite a while. Not only did I remember them, I also remembered that we hadn’t met for awhile. So I proceeded to yowl and bark happily at each of them. I got warm hugs and kisses and so I am quite happy. My achievements from the last month include not dying, laying in the sun as much as possible, pooping to my heart’s content and generally tiring my Papa out. Oh, here comes a chicken.

Daisy the chicken: My comb is cold! I hope I don’t get another frost bite, because if I do, we will have to go to California again. Coming back to the topic of the day, yes! The girls are back. Now before I say anything else, let me tell you, I agree with Crazy Cookie. We all loved the handsome rooster who came to feed us every morning. We tried to woo him in every possible way. The problem was that he was not woo-able. He would give us food and water and would let us free for the day. At night he would come back to lock us up. As a result, there was no time for romance. We felt dejected. Its so nice to have Leena back. She gives us hot water every day and good food. Plus, we don’t have to face Kylo Ren the dog each morning. Goodbye for now, handsome rooster (sob)!