On a recent trip to Wai, in the Western Ghats, I spotted this hooded Swallow couple, whose incessant “chissick” calls caught my attention promptly. There it was, this beautiful couple with a orange rump and chestnut crown. I captured this frame on my Nikon and the photograph is forever etched in my memory. I instantly wrote this poem as a tribute to this beautiful pair.
Ours is a story set in the mountains and grasslands
Those dry winter mornings
And you retained my moisture,
Eye to eye on a barbed wire
Ignorant of humans and their mire,
My flight was slow and yours buoyant
Our call was flamboyant,
A nip in the air
And we became a couple,
There was this culvert
Quickly did we convert,
A mud nest with a tubular entrance
To welcome the hatchling
And set a prudence
