Birds from my Window by Ranjit Lal
Rating: 5/5
I first got to know about this book from Prabha Mallya’s website. The book cover seemed appealing to me and when I found out that the book is about birds, I just had to buy it.
The thing that really intrigues me about the book is its theme: One can easily spot common and also not-so-common birds of India in their neighbourhood; all a person needs is love for birds and a little patience. The author nicely points out how bird lovers can watch birds and observe their antics from a window without actually having to go out into the woods every time, “The thing is you don’t have to go tramping off into the wilderness in order to see birds (though you must never lose the chance to do so)”. There are a number of amazing birds found in India that are so common that a bird lover only needs to stare out of a window once in a while to spot a House Sparrow twittering nearby or a flock of Common Pigeons soaring in the sky, or a pair of Oriental White-eye flitting in a nearby tree, or a Coppersmith Barbet heartily pecking at a fruit. The book has a number of nice articles sprinkled with wits and humour on some such birds found in India and how pleasant their presence can be in one’s garden and surrounding areas.
For serious birdwatchers, this book might be ‘just another book’ that contains a person’s birdwatching experiences. But, if you are one of those birders who can relate to the author’s situation (like me) of watching birds from your windows and still be almost satisfied with it, then this is a book you should surely pick. And, after all, common or uncommon, it’s love for birds that we share which brings birdwatchers from around the world together, beginners and experts alike. Indeed, it is the common birds that keep us company all the while and provide us with a simple comfort of life, an assurance that there are birds still around us, flitting, twitting and all in all, living in perfect harmony with us, regardless of the continuous destruction of their habitat and that they are still with us even if they could have left a long time ago.