The fetish for everything exotic

There was a new member in our gated society.. and before you run your wild imagination, that am ogling at some handsome dude or a very rich family that is making sure the rest of the society residents know their worth and respect them (which happens in our society quite often), this is nonetheless a story about richness but of a different kind. I am not sure if it’s a cliche to use the word exotic, but given the limited choices I have, will go with it.

Now your mind would again start running in several directions. Relax, with the supreme court order in India to transfer all the stray dogs to non-existent shelters, somebody in our society painted the good old kaalu (Indie pride) to make them look like a Siberian husky. Now the human painter (he’s a dog-worshipper) has listed kaalu as exotic in the society and is relieved because the court order was for strays. Kaalu is now exotic but somewhere he responds to his name, kaalu. He was stunned to find his new avatar in the society clubhouse glass door that made him question his identity. Never mind, kaalu is a street fighter and he will find a way to survive the recent court order and his new exotic skin.

Sorry, I got pulled by the court order but I didn’t want to be summoned for contempt of law. Coming back to the new member in our society, this member has technically no idea that it’s a prized possession. There’s a fairly trending demand for birds that were supposed to be in their native locations, but somehow the gated society people in their rush to collect everything exotic, are spending more than their neighbours to grab rare and beautiful birds.

Because small Chintu wants it, but wait, even Naina has it. So, he’s not alone.  Chintu’s growing crush to get a pet (dog, the first love) was turned down by Chintu ‘s mom and indirectly squashed by his dad.. he will not say it directly but will play along with mom to subtly kill that crush. Over weeks, the fascination gets transformed into a revolt and one find day, Chintu decides to strictly lay down his terms and conditions to continue staying at home. This was bound to happen, so mom and dad had already explored ultra mellowed versions of pet, which doesn’t demand more and spares them the horror of potty training.

Enter the exotic birds. These birds are exotic for humans and vice versa.  They have their own homes aka exotic cages which are decorated nicely, sometimes with IKEA toys. Everything is exotic to them too, since they are not residing in their native forests. They must be wondering that they are on vacation – visiting exotic locales before they can go back to their hometowns. Because just like in vacations, they are clicked a lot, they stun social media and are also a topic of discussion when guests arrive. And then if they find some of the guests trustworthy, those chosen humans are allowed to pet them until the birds start throwing exotic green, yellow tantrums on their shoulders or whichever part of the body they would have travelled in that short span. Once the living room display time is over, the birds are transferred to the balconies – here they get accustomed to social unjust, polluted city air and other human experiences in the form of weekend loud party music, morning prayers and evening aarti rituals and finally learn to raise their voice.

This, my dear friends, was the new bird pair in our gated society which was shouting on top of their voice from the 23^rd floor of our neighboring tower. Initially, the birds, a cockatiel pair was not clearly visible to me from my own 20^th floor balcony. But the pair ensured their presence through raised voices, endlessly. I realized they must have been sent out for recreation for couple of minutes but gradually as weeks passed by, the cockatiel pair were seen spending more time outdoors – who knows maybe they started demanding more fun. Now for the better part of the day, the cockatiel pair rests in their cage in the balcony – absorbing the freedom that could have been theirs only if they could have bargained with humans. The nonstop chatter disturbed me as I tried to spend some calm moments outside but I realized maybe they were trying to communicate something – that now, no one likes them for their chirpiness so much as they were once liked a few months back. Also, I have never seen other free birds coming to their rescue or even socializing with them. While the cockatiel pair keeps shouting everyday with renewed zest, I wonder if anyone was listening. Did it pay a heavy price for being exotic, but it never knew it was exotic in the first place. It was we humans, who had put a tag on it and when the tag seemed less worthy, we let them become common, but in bondage. Haven’t we paid a lot for these socially playful birds, so we keep them with us all the while waiting for a Chintu to overgrow his fascination with them or if somehow the birds decide to call it quits.