Ode to a skylark

The valley is surrounded by giant walls of Himalayan mountain. The climate is rising on her best form, people are busy in their fields and the skylarks are singing high in the sky to make the valley colourful with their melodious song. It is like as if birds are extending their hands in the fields and encouraging farmers.

The day, I arrived in the middle of farmers at Pipiting village in Zanskar. I visited fields with the purpose of watering. Both my shoulders equipped with tools which are used in the fields for water. As I was going through the fields I enjoying listening to music by some music player. At the same time a natural song was singing over my head, I was fool I was not aware of it.

The fields had already ploughed and new sprout began to appear in the fields. It was time when spring turns into summer and huge glaciers start to melt. But in the beginning the weather was quite cold and the valley had still little water for fields. I could see that snow had not molten even lower parts of mountain. Molten water flowing by streams provide harmony to the valley. A big stream is shared by four villages and due to cold weather, it is difficult to get water for field properly. It took almost a month to water the fields and as fields drank, it become green.

water the field

But in between I experienced an emotional or rather disappointing incident. As I had been to fields everyday with the purpose of watering them and one day I found a nest of skylark. The incident took place as one day I took a few minutes rest and I was willing to take stroll around the bushes. As I was passing by the boundary of fields a bird flew suddenly beside me.

It was a skylark! The bird was singing high in the sky and filling the surrounding with melodious song. The bird flew and left her nest with three small eggs. I thought it was not safe to keep the nest as it was, because it could be easily seen by everybody. If the visitor were naughty children then I was sure they play with it and break it. I put some grassy soil around the nest for protection. After that I visited and checked the nest every day and returning with satisfaction.

The process was going on for a week and one day I had not found the nest but the scattered straw and pieces of broken eggs and skylark feathers everywhere. I could not understand at first sight. In a second moment my eyes were filled with tears and faint for few seconds. That was the evil act of a wild beast, the cat. I have seen cat in the fields the day before and I was not aware of their evil hunting journey. I felt excited by their present in the fields. I thought they also like to visit in the green field and to enjoy the nature.

I was thinking of watching the little chickens come out from the eggs. Everything was gone. The beast left no thing,  killed the skylark and broken her little eggs. I was not willing to work in the field after that incident and started to return but after a few steps I decided to work in the field whole day to pay tribute to the skylark and her three little eggs. As time passed I had involved in many events and almost forgot the incidence.

Back in Varanasi after the summer vacation, once again the memory of skylark is rising in my mind spontaneously as we had a poem about skylark in our syllabus. “Ode To a skylark” by Percy by byshe Shelley. The poem was written two centuries ago but the description over their characteristics  is same. How they fly high in the sky and disappear but we always hear their melodious song. I added with the poem that the skylark which was seen in Zanskar had disappeared, but she always remains in my mind by melodious song.