India, Aug. 13 -- The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is considering issuing an advisory to prevent the feeding of pigeons in public places, which includes our balconies and terraces. The MCD wants to ward off diseases associated with pigeon droppings.

In the concrete jungle that I live in, pigeons are the only birds I ever spot and feeding them is in my DNA. My interest in pigeons increased manifold when I read Twilight in Delhi (1940) by Ahmed Ali. In the book, the patriarch, Mir Nihal, loves pigeons and is an ace trainer with a family history of flying them at official functions such as the Delhi Durbar of 1903. The summer of 1911 has been exceptionally cruel, and many of Mir Nihal's pigeons have died. He visits the pigeon market held ...