I was taking a long walk on the foothills of the Himalayan mountains…it was rather the beginning of the elevation from the ground …a sort of the low level mountain range, from where you could watch the Ganges flowing noisily in front of your eyes…I could hear the controlled fury of the river, just like a sophisticated married woman, whose anger goes unspecified to the outside world!

Then I saw him! A lovely little bird, with a body of maroon color and velvety dark blue feathers: the feathers had opened up in frills and were looking incredibly beautiful and lovely!

The bird’s feathers were fluttering hard even in his sitting position, as though at the speed of a couple of hundred times a minute! I was fascinated by his looks, by his silky feathers, by his ever-roving neck and eyes and by his small built and lightweight body! He was so little that I wanted to take him in my cupped hands and keep him protected from the wild world!

It was sort of mesmerizing, like the opening song in the Opera! It was sort of creative, like the Mona Lisa of Leo Nardo Da Vinci! It was sort of spectacular, like the crackers in the sky on your independence day and was a sort of ecstatic, like being with some one you love so much!

I had positioned my camera, adjusted the lens according to the dimness of the early morning hours and was about to arrest him within my frames that he had flown away!

I was so disappointed that my eyes had started following his movements continuously and I was waiting unconsciously for him to settle down somewhere nearby, so that I might try again!

The bird had flown around, circled away, came back, fluttered above one of the rocks lazily and then had flown away once again! I was watching him, fascinated, and was wondering about his next move! He had moved with the wind as though floating on the clouds and had finally settled down on a small rock!

I gave him some space to cool down and without alarming the bird, I had moved on slowly towards him, trying to aim his ever-fluctuating body. By the time, I was ready to get close to him for a good shot he had flown away again!

I started enjoying our little game by now! May be, he had realized that I wanted to capture him in my lens and was playing hide and seek with me, before surrounding to my love of his picture!

I had once again started following him with my eyes and by the mild movements of my body, trying to focus on his whereabouts and trying to have an idea as to where he might land next? This had happened quite a few times more! He was either landing a bit further on and was not close enough for me to shoot him with my small camera or he was landing on and was taking off so fast that I was unable to focus on him in anyway! Sometimes, he had seemed to be talking with himself happily and I didn’t have the heart to disturb him in such a jovial mood of his!

More than a couple of hours must have passed in this way and the Sun had become all gold and silver and got mighty and mightier! The time had come for me to go home!

I had returned highly disappointed, for not having taken the picture of the bird, to the location of my stay. Somehow, the day had passed on and the night had come. The last thing I had remembered on the night in my heart was the clear-cut picture of the bird and the first thing on the next morning; I had woken up with the memory of the spectacular features of the bird again.

It was as though I could see him very clearly in all his minute details, the velvety feathers, his little and light weight, maroon colored body; his constant wavering mood of roaming around, floating away, fluctuating, oscillating, talking to himself and talking to his surroundings…I had smiled to myself! It had finally dawned on me that I had captured the picture of the bird with all his minute details, in my heart of hearts!

I had finally captured the moments!