Nest Building

Part I

"I'm bored!" declares my brother loudly, throwing the remote to the side. I look away from the screen to glance at him as he lays sprawled out on the floor in front of the TV. I shrug wordlessly and focus again on the cartoon. We had been lounging around the basement since lunch, watching Cartoon Network. It was summer. It was hot. And for a bunch of kids who didn't have to go to school for two more weeks, it was boring.

"Maa...!" cries Raghav, as he gets up from the floor. "I'm hungry!" He bounds up the stairs, leaving me alone in the basement. Ten minutes later, he's back on the floor, ripping open a packet of Oreos. I reach for one, but he jumps out of the way. "They're mine!" he cries, "I went up and got them."

"So?" I retort. I start chasing him around the room, trying to grab the cookies out of his hands. But he's much faster than me, and so he manages to dodge my attempts to catch him.

"Raghav! Ranjani!" Maa's voice comes drifting down to the basement. We freeze, waiting for her to appear at the foot the stairs. She doesn't, so I venture a reply. "Yeah..?" I cautiously call out.

"Come up!"

Grudgingly I switch off the TV and we trudge up the stairs and emerge into the kitchen. Maa is standing at the counter, beginning preparations for dinner. She looks up at us when we enter the kitchen and gives us an annoyed look. Raghav and I exchange a quick glance before he asks, "What is it?"

"You both have been in front of the TV all day. Get out of the house. Go play."

After a brief moment of contemplation, and another look from Maa, Raghav and I decide that we could use some fresh air. Minutes later, we're out on the street calling our friends away from their own television screens. Soon enough the entire gang is gathered and we are roaming the streets of the neighbourhood, looking for something to do. After half a dozen games of the usual hide-and-go-seek and a few rounds of tag we were bored again. As the sweltering hot sun beats down on our rag-tag bunch of kids, one of us is struck by a stroke of inspiration.

"Let's build a nest!" exclaims Karthik, the oldest of the group.

"Why would we build a nest?" his brother asks him. Dhruva always looked for ways to argue with his older brother.

"Because it's hot and the birds need a place to cool down," Karthik counters, his voice full of authority. The rest us of chime in, agreeing to Karthik's idea. We like the thought of helping the birds and we didn't have anything else to do. No one seemed to realize that the birds must've already built nests of their own, and if someone did think of it they didn't point it out. So all of us head to the little grove of trees at the end of our street.

As soon as we reach the copse of trees, Karthik sends Dhruva and Raghav to collect fallen twigs. He then sends two more people to collect leaves. He's taking advantage of being the oldest among us. While the four disappear among the trees, those of us who are left, try finding a suitable spot for the nest. After a couple of minutes of searching we settle for the base of a large apple tree, reckoning that the low hanging branches would provide shelter for the nest. Karthik sets us with the task of collecting as much grass as we possibly can. When the twigs and leaves have been brought, we start the task of nest building.

Karthik, obviously being the more creative and knowledgeable one, starts weaving the twigs together. The rest of us watch, fascinated, as the skeleton of a nest starts forming. Once he's satisfied with it, Karthik places the twig structure in a niche between two roots of the apple tree. Now, we start weaving grass and leaves into the skeleton, building outward from it. We line the inside with more grass, trying soften the brittleness of the twigs. After what seems like hours of hard work (but might have actually been a handful of minutes) we have a beautiful green nest, nearly twice the size of the original skeleton. Raghav races back home and returns with two slices of bread. The bread is crumbled and is scattered in and around the nest. Then we all stand back and proudly survey our handy work.

By then, the sun has begun to set and we can hear the voices of our mothers' trickling in between the trees, telling us to come back inside. With a last look at the nest all of us return to our homes, hoping that it would be able to provide a weary bird shelter.