A common interest in avians defines the friendship between neighbours CM Smith Mawlong and Sanjeev Singhania, reports Canvas
THEY ARE birds of a feather. And they owe it to the birds.
CM Smith Mawlong and Sanjeev Singhania have a few things in common apart from their address – Golflink, Polo Hill. Among them is their love for chirpy creatures with beaks, claws and wings.
Mawlong, a nature lover, never thought concrete would dictate terms in Shillong. So he carved out a green space of his own, his backyard. He began growing all kinds of flowers including orchids and fruit trees. But he never expected his flower garden cum orchard to invite myriad birds.
If the feathered visitors made him go back in time to his childhood days when Shillong offered more fresh air, they inspired the photographer in neighbour Singhania, equally attracted to nature and wildlife.
“I have two chestnut trees, two orange trees and a macademia fruit tree. Many wild birds visit my backyard to feed on the fruits of the chestnut and macademia trees,” Mawlong says. “The common sparrows and crows aside, there are the mynas, cuckoos and various other birds my neighbour has painstakingly captured on camera. I was initially surprised we still have these charming visitors from the wild.”
Singhania shoots off the name of these birds –owl, brown shrike, chestnut-tailed starling, ashy drongo, spotted dove, grey-headed canary – as fast as he presses the click button.
“I have been an ardent bird-watcher but never thought of taking up photographing birds as a hobby. The first bird I clicked with a small digital camera was an oriental magpie robin. It came good and my friends and members of my family asked me to keep going. One day, I purchased an SLR camera and as they say, there was no looking back,” he says.
The casual shooting that began in Mawlong’s backyard has become an obsession for Singhania. He now moves around Ward’s Lake and adjoining areas in search of exotic birds. “I start early morning, at around 6:30am every day till 10:30am. It requires a lot of patience to spot and click the birds but the wait is worth it,” he says.
Both Mawlong and Singhania cannot imagine not being woken up by the birds every morning. “They melody they make is just fabulous, and nothing compares to seeing them hop from one branch of a tree to the other singing away to glory,” Singhania says.
The feathered visitors have made Mawlong optimist about coexistence with nature within the urban limits. He also feels planting indigenous fruit trees can kill two birds with one stone – give birds an ideal urban home and owners of such trees an added income.
“Macademia is a rare species in Meghalaya. I am given to understand that the fruit of this tree can fetch up to Rs 500 per kilo,” he says.
