Darjeeling

 

 As we walked past the pheasants,

You stopped -

Of all the winged wonders

In Darjeeling’s zoo,

Lady Amherst’s

Mesmerised you the most

 

Not the Monal,

Nor Khalij

Nor the ruddy tragopans

But the bejewelled Amherst.

I couldn’t deny,  though

The iridescence in their wings

 

‘But they are visitors’

I did not understand

Why that depressed you

‘Not from here,

They are from far beyond

These hills will never be home…’

 

It is only now

Decades later,

Perhaps I understand:

That cage was far bigger;

Even if they were released

Those colours would be stranded

 

They would never find home

Even in the serenity

Of the Himalaya

To start all over again,

Smoothening all rough edges

For pinpricks to persist

 

These hills will never be home -

The denizens wonder

Where is the ache,

Unable to see

The cageless cage

Of the migrant birds…

 

15^th June’ 2025

 

The Lady Amherst’s pheasants are found in China and Myanmar (unlike the many other pheasants housed at the Darjeeling Zoo). They are named after Sarah Amherst – a rarity for a bird to be named after a female zoologist. Sarah Amherst had apparently lived and collected hundreds of specimens at the Botanical Gardens in Shibpur, Calcutta before returning to England. Her collection included a pair of pheasants gifted from Burma that were later named in her memory, as Lady Amherst’s pheasants.