March 19, 2009

Of Me and Pigeons!



Pigeons… [Sigh]…

Wikipedia says, “Pigeons are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills with a fleshy cere. The species commonly referred to just as the "pigeon" is the feral Rock Pigeon, common in many cities”. Well, these are the ones that have made my life miserable! Most of you who read any of my tags must be wondering, why do I always mention Pigeons in anything that I post about myself? Especially when I talk about hatred or fear. Well here are the answers to all the questions and wonderings:

Pigeons for me are like… The most irritating living organisms. They are so ugly, actually forget about ugly, that is the way that God made them, besides that is individual preference. But they are so dumb! I have seen them going round and round… Rotating around themselves for a whole day continuously! And to top it all off, they are super duper pricey! I mean, they just fly into our house [without permission. But it is ok because they are dumb] and they just sit anywhere, they fly here and there without caring about running fans on the ceilings. And when you try to hit them or throw hot water near them to shoo them away, they come back again! They are so stupid, they just flap their wings in that irritating fashion and I just cannot take that noise. Oh how can I forget their Ghutar Ghutar… The worst sound in this world. And I am not scared of admitting that I suffer from Liviaphobia [That is what I found when I googled fear of Rock Pigeons].

Why I hate them so much? Well there are a few incidents. The first one was when I was 8 years old, but I still remember it all so vividly, because it is one of those incidents which haunt you for the rest of your life. Well so I was playing downstairs with all the other kids, and back then we did not have a playground so we used to play “Pakda Pakdi” around the building. And I was being chased, so I was running full speed, I remember I had a good lead too… And I turned around for one second to see how far the boy who had been chasing me was, and right at that moment my leg fell into this small bucket which was lying in my way. Instantly I felt something biting my leg, and when I looked down it was a Pigeon! And it was flapping its wings rapidly and biting the hell out of me. Oh my God, I was so scared… I still remember. The watchman had to come and save me! I cried so much! L

The second incident was once when I was napping in the afternoon time at my place, and I had the best dream. I was 12 years old that time, and I used to watch a lot of WWE. My hard crush was The Rock [Dwayne Johnson] and I was dreaming about him! In the dream I was witnessing his match with Triple H for the WWE title [It was WWF back then] and The Rock won hands down. Then he asked me out on a date and took me to a seashore in his arms. There was a table where we were to have dinner. So we sat facing each other and gazed into each others eyes, and then suddenly he picked up a knife and started stabbing into my palm really rapidly! I was crying for help and I woke up from my dream just to find out an ugly Pigeon dancing on my palm. I was so irritated! I had screamed my lungs out that time!

Since then, I am petrified of Pigeons! They have such an adverse effect on my life… I cannot sleep till late in the morning, because in my house especially in New Delhi we don’t have grills, and my Boyfriend refuses to have any! And at about 8 30 AM every single day they just fly into the house and invade the whole room! Not to forget their loud Ghutar Ghutar which echoes in the whole house. Even if I sleep at say 5 AM, I have a recurrent alarm tuned everyday for 8 AM when I wake up and close the windows. I have forgotten how it is like to stand at the window, because even if a Pigeon flies at a distance of say 1 meter, I start screaming and yelling like a woman who has been possessed by some Aatma! And it is all so uncalled for, I have scared all the people around by this behavior and I have almost stopped socializing because of this! My boyfriend is so unhappy living with me because I don’t let him sleep either! What is more, I have been named “The girl who is scared of Pigeons.”

I hope someday I am able to conquer this fear of mine because I think it is extremely shameful for a girl whose profession itself is based in the sky. I am not scared of anything else! Be it Lizards, Cockroaches, Crows [I Love them!] or even Vultures, Seagulls or Eagles. It is just these Pigeons! But, at the end of the day they are nature’s creation too, so I have to respect them. But one day…. “Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad…!!



25 comments:

  1. I HAD to comment on it the moment i saw it. I'm petrified of pigeons too. There's a pair of huge, gigantic pigeons that have made their home right next to my window...and I'm perpetually terrorized by the incessant flapping of wings and that noise they make..whose imitation my sister has mastered and has made it her life mission to scare me every unsuspecting moment. I can't even go to the terrace because of the abundance of these creatures. Your post scared me even more...They ATTACK!!! I didn't know that!So, Liviaphobia...that's the name...i was beginning to believe I am an isolated case...but since they have named a phobia...there are others like me too...and there's you!Let's form a club or something? :P

    ReplyDelete
  2. a post puely about liviaphobia aka pigeonophobia..... wonderfulll.. i thought i was de oly crazy erson in de whole world... btw i'm scared of lizards .. esp in de dark... but we all ve our own reasons na.... guess i too have few things because of the incidents that i underwent during my childhood.. i too still fear them but one fine day.. i faced my worst fear ....... vil save it for de very own post in reply to yours.... :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. btw i love pigeons... i adore them.. i did have them as pets too... they're wonderfull creature... guess i could help you in removing the liviaphobias u ppl have:P

    ReplyDelete
  4. I seriously doubt it. My fear of birds is so deep rooted that I sometimes feel they are my nemesis!! It all started when I was three years old and around this high, and was late for school one day. I waited at the gate as the morning assembly was going on. Suddenly something pecked me hard on the back of my head...and I turned around to see. I nearly fainted with fear. Four or five Swans, the neighbouring pond, were right behind me, and the one that pecked me was even taller than me...and worse was flapping its huge wings frantically on my face! My heart must have been strong to have survived the ordeal as a 3 yr old but things were never the same again. I can tolerate the worst scenes of blood, and gore at the hospital where I study, but will faint at the mere contact with a bird!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ash and pigeons ....who knows it better than me :P.....i still remember ur scream and jump in the kitchen.....i always knew ur fear but realised it intensity when i saw it......and that incident of u being alone and pigeons ...gosh i know how we tried pacifying u .......but pigeons and u are just like lizards n me :P

    but now i know ur secret to ur 8.30 i used to wonder we slept at 6 and still the alarm ...now i know :P

    ReplyDelete
  6. liviaphobia !!! nice info ;) Guess we all have our phobias ... who cares if they sound funny or crazy .. it is there to haunt u all life !!

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOLZ :P he he
    Pigeons aint that bad :P

    ReplyDelete
  8. Quirky my girl... Giant Hug to you >:D<

    And about the Swans, shit, that must have been bad... I can imagine it!

    I don't have a problem with doves and brown pigeons as such its just these ugly grey pigeons :|

    Thanks a lot for the read!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kings! Yeah sure... I am looking forward to your post, I will save my counter reply about Lizards and my experience for that post too ;) And yeah maybe sometime if we do end up meeting or something you could give me some Pigeon Love gyaan!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nabs... Hahaha... I KNOW! I remember your expression.. It was like WTFFFFFFFF... And Ash's expression was like.. See.. I had told you!, LOL!

    You will not believe this but I had the song Masakali playing all night in my dreams :|

    ReplyDelete
  11. Prats!

    Yes, for sure... But I have to conquer this :( I mean BIGTIME! It is turning out to be an embarrassment. Do you have a phobia too?!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nan

    Yeah that is what everyone tells me :( Once my Maternal Grandpa tried to show me how nice Pigeons were, by holding one in his hand, and I screamed so loudly that he just let go off that Pigeon, he was so scared himself. :P

    ReplyDelete
  13. LOL...but yeah even I am not that fond of pigeons..! And these Delhi ones I tell you :x!!

    Nice info...Liviaphobia!!
    May God give you all the strength in the world to conquer this fear!! :P

    Cheers
    *PEACE*

    ReplyDelete
  14. Aarthi,

    The Delhi ones are HUGE! And they just don't wanna go!

    4 years ago when my guy lived alone here, he had gone out of station and well a Kabootar was trapped inside the closed windows and doors of the front room of the house. He returned after a month to find a dead pigeon in there. Now he is not less, he just preserved the Pigeon for all these years and he had kept it in one of his closets. Just the other night he pulled out a Pigeon Skeleton out of nowhere to scare me! It was soooooo huge! I was shitr scared.. LOL

    And thanks a lot, I hope I am able to conquer my fear soon.
    Amen!

    and Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  15. QuirkyMon,

    I just read your response again and I remembered one more incident. I had fainted while dissecting a Pigeon in my Biology Practicals when I was doing my HSC! Holy Mother of God.... I was so scared!

    And we have more in common than we think :P Because I am guessing you are a Medical Student and you deal with all these kinds of blood and stuff on a daily basis, On the other hand I am a Pilot! I am supposed to not be scared of birds. And I am not! But just these stupid moronic creatures!

    @#$#$%$%@

    ReplyDelete
  16. haha.....
    Everyday i open my door in the mornin these pigeons flap flap flap... fly away putting my heart into my mouth... tat sound... hehe

    It hasnt harmed me though... Hope u get out of the fear... :)

    n hey, u r the first girl i know who isn't scared of.. n that too love lizards and cockroaches..... :P hehe

    Cheers..!!
    Arjun

    ReplyDelete
  17. Haha Arjun!

    I love Crows! But Lizards and cockroaches don't bother me either :D

    ReplyDelete
  18. The moment i read your post and esp how you are afraid to stand near a window anymore...Story of my life nowadays! I thought I was the only one around! Once I had gone for a medical survey, and was trying to appear all authoritative and composed in front of the people I was interviewing, and suddenly a few pigeons landed nearby, and I nearly jumped on the lap of the person I was interviewing!! Height of embarrassment! "Authoritative tone" went for a six after that!

    And you're a pilot! Awesome! I was feeling all proud of having learnt to drive...and here girls are flying the skies! :) Now I can flaunt and say , Hey I know a pilot! :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. And I loved Delhi 6, but had goosebumps during the song Masakali! There were so many!! My sister said if she ever got very angry at me, and decided to get rid of me forever (as she often does)...She'd leave me in Delhi 6, or any of those famous city squares abroad...I'll go into shock for the rest of my life! And now you know, if i don't post for a few days, the most probable reason is...I'm in coma after a pigeon flew into my room!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ouuuhh ! Pigeons are so cute, loving and fun.

    But then I guess, everyone has their own 'hate' and 'love' choices.

    But still, pigeons are cute .

    *****Peace and Pigeons*****

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hmm... so now I know your reason for hatred for pigeons... All I can say is I sympathize... I hate ANY animal getting too close to me for my comfort... My orkut profile reads on the question for pets 'They look good in zoos' coz I seriously feel that way...

    ReplyDelete
  22. I agree Ilashree :D Thanks for the read!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Akansha :( *Big warm hug*

    I understand... I really do!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Quirks...everyone hs dem! But u put ur own into words in such a beautiful way!
    thanx fr sharing it! luvd it! :)

    ReplyDelete

Comments are sexy.