Each one of them is a beauty of exquisite shape and colour. Some parade deep indigo, others violet, still others magenta and a large majority green with a shade of light yellow. No primary colour of red is on display but patches of red in other clamorous colours get conspicuously noticed. Yet the lustre of the red of their curved lips is brighter than any lipstick man has ever invented.
It is certainly a beauty pageant like a gala fashion show, catwalk or miss world or miss universe parade. But here is a fashion runway where the models are in cage. They are the feathery beauty contenders who need no Armani or Christian Dior dresses or makeup paraphernalia to present them before the spectators. Rather, the spectacular attributes they are born with can beat hands down the best ever design and colour fashioned by man.
Two such beauty pageants were held in the capital lately -one on the National Press Club premise and the other at the Sher-e-Bangla Agriculture University. Both pulled a large number of visitors -mostly those who claim to be bird lovers. Who is not fascinated by the feathery friends? It is the birds' spread-eagle freedom of soaring in space overhead that have actually inspired people to go about making aircraft. But sadly, there is hardly a man who in his childhood has not desired to take birds as pets. Girls are found to be appreciative of the winged creatures but usually show little eagerness to cage a bird.
In real life though, women are mostly more possessive than men in their love. But in case of birds this trait seems to be different. Not many people do recommend imprisoning birds in cages. Love for birds of those who develop the habit of taking the beautiful winged species as pet is, therefore, not without blemishes. It is said not for nothing that animals are beautiful in the wild and babies in mothers' laps. But who cares? Love is so overpowering that the self-proclaimed bird lovers would stop at nothing to procure the birds of their choices for domestication. Some even have discovered the commercial value of breeding the rare exotic varieties.
Today, some avian breeders and traders in this country boast a large variety of foreign birds such as macaw, lovebird, baazigar, grass parrot, cockatoo, finch, conure, lory and lorikeet along with foreign doves in their pens. Some argue that the fascination for foreign birds have saved local birds. Myna and parrots of indigenous varieties known for their ability to imitate human speech are still in demand but when an array of their foreign counterparts are available, at least the pressure on the domestic birds has somehow eased off.
Trade in foreign birds has received a momentum with a segment of people knowing not what to do with their limitless money. They are always on the lookout to add to their material possession something extraordinary or even bizarre. During the military-backed government people got a glimpse of what some people are doing with their new found wealth. Some had deer parks within their palatial compounds, others took pet of rare imported animals following their wealthy counterparts in the West.
Compared to the large animals, the birds are certainly modest collection. The manors, garden homes or dachas a section of the wealthy people has built may still have this kind of arrangement for housing animals and birds. But they are rarely found contributing to charitable causes. If they did like companies and financial organisations do as part of corporate social responsibilities, the poor could have at least have a small share of the largesse in order to live a little better life.