Hello. When I was glancing fifth Standard Hindi textbook of my daughter, I came to know about one book. Out of curiousity, I purchased that book and then I read it. It is the only book of an Indian writer which has received the greatest award for children- literature in the U.S.A.! ‘Gay-neck: The story of a pigeon’ written by Dhan Gopal Mukerji! By gay-neck, the author meant a pigeon with a colourful neck. This book is the story of this pigeon. Published in 1925, this book is a glimpse of the golden childhood experienced by the author. Today we have traveled a great distance from those times. But in this book, we can read how were those times of roaming freely in the nature, staying in forests and mountains for days and nights!
This book narrates experiences of the author with his favourite pigeon. The author talks about his experiences during early 1910s. While reading this, I was reminded about my childhood. When I had seen the famous song “Kabutar Ja Ja Ja”, I too had longed for one pigeon for some time! In those days, pigeons were pets brought up in almost all households. They were trained and even their competitions would take place! Knowing about this is surprising. Mother pigeon knows the exact time to open up the egg by pressing her beak, how does she know this, how the pigeons build up their nest by bringing straws, how they can fly hundreds of kilometers- all this is very stunning! For assessing navigation skills of his pigeon, the author and his friends take his pigeon towards Darjeeling and Sikkim region. An eagle- assault, defense of the pigeon and the author’s search to get back his pigeon- all this is just wonderful.
