One evening, my mother called me excitedly from the balcony. I went up and looked to where she was pointing. I saw some eggs on the roof of our patio. I thought there could snake eggs. Sometimes we did spot snakes slithering among entwined creepers! But, eggs could not have been so big! Then it occurred to me that it could be a peahen eggs. There were many in our neighborhood.
The next evening, my mother told me that she had spotted another egg. Wonderful news! This meant we had a regular visitor. I have always longed for a pet, I was lucky to own one!
The next evening I noticed another egg and i was sure of our friends intentions. She had decided to make our friends intentions. She had decided to make our roof her home! I was overjoyed. I repeatedly counted the eggs .The following day was the most memorable there were four eggs. The next morning, I finally saw the peahen. I dropped the few pieces of bread and bun on the roof.
I had to wait for twenty-one days for the eggs to hatch. It had become the daily routine that to watch the mother bird . I didn't see her moving an inch in spite of the sun. On some days, it rained heavily and i was sure the bird was cold too. Thought it is nice to have some shower in the hot season for the mother hen it was not so.
My mother told me that the peahen went away sometime in the night. There were some cat in the vicinity and I dreaded the thought that they might snatch the eggs.
Every morning I would go and take a look at the peahen. A fort night later when i went to the balcony, I was aghast at what I saw a cat was scurrying away with an egg in its mouth. I shrieked at it, and in the hullabaloo it dropped the egg. I felt very sad looking at the pieces of the broken egg. I hoped that this would not happen again.
The peahen continued to visit, without loosing hope. One afternoon i heard my mother calling out to me. I ran upstairs. I saw a teeny-weeny chick next to its mother. I ran in to get the camera, and just at the moment the peahen got up and another itsy-bitsy chick was there. They followed there mother, and while we were looking at them the peahen flew from the roof into the ground. One chick followed. I just stared at it taking such a flight from the balcony. It was indeed not a small height for a baby chick. How would it come up again?
The mother peahen flew back again and flew down once again. The other chick which was just standing on the edge followed. We were looking at them wondering how would they flew back again. The peahen walked towards the hedge and out of our house with her chick following her.
I asked my mother how the minutes-old chicks could fly from such a height. She smiled and answered that it was the trust the chicks had on their mother.
