I tended to take things for granted especially those routine things I encountered often. So I would neglect to record these simple and routine features in my surroundings. Then after a few years as I had to move away from the old routine, I couldn’t recall the exact images of my old routine world of everyday life. I realised that I had to remind myself of the uncertainty and sudden changes in this world. So, I have begun to take photos of my surroundings from time to time.
The surroundings around the Yannawa temple seemed like a permanent features which couldn’t change easily for a hundred years. But ing recent years, I have seen more old trees cut down and new construction projects popped up on previously empty space. I wondered if the pier would be changed one day. So long as the river still remained alive and flowing, the pier with all the pigeons and big fish under the pier would still be the main features for visitors.
The temple made some money from selling fish food to visitors who would then feed the fish at the pier. These fish have become very big and lazy. They would just wait to be fed by visitors. The tour guides for the Vietnamese tourists organized a stop over at the pier so these tourists could do good karma by feeding fish. On the other hand, there’s a big sign telling people not to feed those waiting pigeons.
People would spill fish food pellets on the ground, children would make quite a mess on the floor when throwing food pellets into the river. These pigeons have become opportunists and lazy birds. They just perched on the roof of the pier and watch out for visitors with buckets of fish food. If they didn’t make such a mess on the roof and ground, these pigeons would probably be welcomed to hang around the pier.
But I saw a few people disregard the warning sign. They came with left over rice and bread crumbs to feed these pigeons. There was no harmonious ecological system at the pier; no hawks, no owls and no big snakes to keep pigeon population in check. The temple cats weren’t fast enough to catch these pigeons; I only saw one stray orange cat that caught a pigeon some time. That cat was very desperate and skinny. I did feed him twice so far but he kept on moving around.
Some visitors liked to play tricks on pigeon. They would made the pigeons gathered in one place then they would make loud noise to frighten these pigeons. Then they would take photos of flying pigeons around them. These birds were quite easy to frighten though some could be quite smart and got used to naughty humans’ games. Though their brains were rather small, some birds did look very tricky and seemed to understand human nature.
I wondered what would happen to these birds in time of war or famine. I knew that during very hard time, poor people would steal fish around temple pier for their food. It’s mite difficult to catch those fish as people wound need a boat and fishing tools. I could see that these fish could be taken for food in really hard times. But the pigeons might also disappear as they would be much easier caught with a net. I hope that future situation wouldn’t b Ed so bad that hungry people had to resort to catching pigeons and fish in various temples around the city.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
