By Shreya Barnwal
“It’s an Asian Paradise Flycatcher!!”
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I stopped to marvel and click pictures, disregarding both my journey and destination to honour this moment. Crowds of people passed by, completely unaware that they were amid an A-list celebrity.
This is how it has been most of my life as a birdwatcher. Finding these obscure celebrities in hiding; the ones whose existence is also not known to most, and finding happiness in noticing and knowing their name.
Walking through the Tagore-West pathway and finding a friendly face in an Oriental Magpie Robin (a ubiquitous presence) is like finding a home in a foreign place; reminding me of the first time I saw it with my father, the excitement to together search for its name, and several facts related to it. But other times, finding an uncommon or rare bird species is a completely different extravagant experience.
It can only be described as inter-species interaction, usually completely one-sided; you know everything about the bird, but for them, you are just another human.
However, Isn’t it the same for celebrities? You may know their favourite foods, admire them from afar, or even know their whereabouts through social media, but in the end, you may just be another fan. Still, if you see them at an airport or just living their lives, you can’t help clicking a picture or wanting to tell everyone you know in the present and future that you saw them there today; discounting whether the recipient of your excitement understands the gravity of the experience or not.
It is quite strange, how sometimes what starts as wanting to know a name can lead you to know things and want things; now, whether the name you learn of is of a bird or a celebrity is completely up to you, because for me they are quite literally the same.
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