We bought a flat some time back. The flat had been vacant for few months with almost nil maintenance; we then decided to rent it out. Search for a tenant started and we found a suitable person to rent our house to. We then had to get the house cleaned and whitewash done. Work started to enlist a good contractor!

I was supervising the search and started visiting the flat often. I found a good contractor and told him to finish the work in around 7 days as the day the tenant was to occupy the flat was nearing. Work started!!

That's when I observed that 2 pigeons had used the kitchen loft to build their home and I could see one of the pigeons sitting in the nest day and night. Appears she/he (male and female pigeons take turns in warming the eggs) had been incubating the eggs since some days as pigeon eggs need about 18 days to hatch. I am not sure if the eggs had hatched or incuabation period was going on. But their was no chirping of baby pigeons at that time. 

One fine morning (after couple of days) when I visited my flat, the kitchen was filled with very soft and cute chirping of baby birds. In the dimly lit kitchen, I could see the small cuties raising their heads and playing with their mom / dad. The soft chirping was music to my ears. I just stood there mesmerised. I smiled looking at the pigeon family play n take care of the babies. During the night one of the pigeons would occupy the window shelf outside the flat n spend the night there while the mother n babies would play/sleep inside.

That's when my dillema started. What should I do with the nest? What about the babies? Should I place the nest on the high shelf outside? Should I get it moved to a high tree? Should I talk to the tenant and delay the occupation of the flat?

With these thoughts I left the flat. The only option that sounded workable to me was the last one - tell the tenant to delay his occupation of the flat or occupy it with the pigeon family in the kitchen!! I had already told the contractor not to touch that part of the kitchen.

Next day morning I entered the flat and went straight to the kitchen. Complete silence!! Were the baby pigeons sleeping? I didnt take time to realise what had happened. There were feathers strewn across the kitchen floor. The next sight made me speechless and shocked. My eyes filled with tears and I felt an empty feeling inside me. The almost fully eaten dead body of one grown up pigeon (I assume mother pigeon) was lying in one corner with just the bunch of feathers attached. There was no sign of the baby pigeons. The nest was empty. The father pigeon was moving in and out of the window as if searching for his babies and companion. Appears a cat had come in the night and cleaned up the baby pigeons and their mother.

My dilemma ended but thats not the solution that I wanted or ever expected. It was cruelty at its best. What was the baby pigeons or their mother's fault? The sight of the little pigeon babies, the sight of the mother playing with her babies, the sight of the male pigeon sitting outside on the same shelf for many days after this incident just dont seem to leave me. Even today I can feel my ears filling with the cute chirping sound. But that's LIFE!!!!!