Dhaka, Nov. 15 -- A robin, young and red-breasted, has become a great friend of mine over the past month. It looks out for me and the moment it espies me sitting down at my laptop by the window in the morning, it decides to draw my attention to its presence. This it does by launching into a series of songs, at various scales and what seems like an infinity of musical forms, on the tree a couple of yards from my window.

That is how the morning begins for me these days. I can see the bird singing away, keeping its eyes focused on me as it does so. It then becomes my happy responsibility to wave at it, call out to it --- I have given it a name to which it appears to respond. Its melodies then begin to take an even more degree of seriousness...