Usha Lachungpa -
OPD of STNM Hospital Gangtok Sikkim
Extracts from old 2003 article in local newspapers on TREE, not House Sparrows: Pl remove if not appropriate:
SINGING TREES: It was uncanny, but the Out Patients Department of our government hospital STNM, Gangtok, seemed immune to the magic of birdsong on its doorstep. The steady streams of vehicles, the piercing whistles of the traffic policeman, the chatting of passers-by……..hardly anyone paid heed to the cheery chirping of scores of tree sparrows as they prepared to roost for the evening in the lone ‘Dhupi’ tree outside. Apparently they too were unaware that all hospital areas should be ‘Silence Zones’!
Almost every urban area has several such ‘singing trees’. I looked up the trunk of this particularly lonely tree and showed my children what none seemed to notice. In the darkness of the foliage, tiny fluffy brown bodies dotted every thin branch. The whole tree was alive with these invisible bundles of energy. It was around 4.00pm and going to be dark in a while, but as we watched more and more of these little birds dived into its shelter. Not one could be seen outside the tight foliage of this exotic tree. Like perfume, the tree was exuding all this song! And no one was listening. It was amazing that none of the human traffic underneath so much as even noticed all that cheerful commotion over their heads as they passed beneath. How immune one gets!.....
Extracts from old 2003 article in local newspapers on TREE, not House Sparrows: Pl remove if not appropriate:
SINGING TREES: It was uncanny, but the Out Patients Department of our government hospital STNM, Gangtok, seemed immune to the magic of birdsong on its doorstep. The steady streams of vehicles, the piercing whistles of the traffic policeman, the chatting of passers-by……..hardly anyone paid heed to the cheery chirping of scores of tree sparrows as they prepared to roost for the evening in the lone ‘Dhupi’ tree outside. Apparently they too were unaware that all hospital areas should be ‘Silence Zones’!
Almost every urban area has several such ‘singing trees’. I looked up the trunk of this particularly lonely tree and showed my children what none seemed to notice. In the darkness of the foliage, tiny fluffy brown bodies dotted every thin branch. The whole tree was alive with these invisible bundles of energy. It was around 4.00pm and going to be dark in a while, but as we watched more and more of these little birds dived into its shelter. Not one could be seen outside the tight foliage of this exotic tree. Like perfume, the tree was exuding all this song! And no one was listening. It was amazing that none of the human traffic underneath so much as even noticed all that cheerful commotion over their heads as they passed beneath. How immune one gets!.....
