Hi, my name is Ole Pertang Pertang Biscuit Barrel John Smith (Ole for short), and. I am a bird! Most younger people, out of respect, I think, call me by my full name and they seem to enjoy that, and I like that, but I like adults to call me Ole.
Did you know that I had a ‘peg to my name’? It was Sir, and imagine combining it with my full name, it just looks silly. So I dropped it. In bird world you can drop anything. Pity humans cannot do that easily, and I have so many human friends who are struggling with this.
My father’s sister (Faiba) gave me my first name, and this is a tradition in our Indian bird families. It was John. However as I grew up different names came along and finally a title! In due course, I shall describe the origins of the others names, save to say that Biscuit was given to me when I was in Kericho, on the other side of the Rift Valley in Kenya, Barrel when in Kisumu, near Lake Victoria. And of course, one of the Pertangs from California and the other Pertang from UK.
You might think that all birds have no feeling, or senses, and you may be right. However, my family has been blessed. We can talk, walk, fly, and combined understand a lot more than most people. Well, where do the expressions ‘bird’s eye view’, ‘helicopter vision’ and ‘cannot see the wood from the trees’ come from?
So a lot of what I am going to talk about is what a an interesting world it is. Humans are such curious people and they have changed so much of the world, some for the better and some for the worse. In my view the ones that stand out are those that want to understand everything, and so I have made friends with some very special ones, and read about even more interesting ones.
Oh, forgot to tell you my wife’s name is Ladki, a traditional Indian name, although when I flying over in England, I call her Joseph because she is so kind and considerate. I know it does not make sense, but that is a human trait I have learnt, that not all things can be understood.
If I was to go back to around 1890 my grandparents were in India in a town called Kanar, near Rajkot, Gujarat. Prior to that their forefathers came from the Lohar valley in the now Pakistan, and folklore says that they were at one time Sikhs. And it goes that, when it came to war, they were not true to their tribe of being strong Sikhs, so they ran away to Gujarat, and became Gujus.
Now Guju birds are no different to other birds, the male dresses in bright colours and the female in more modest colours , and usually the husband and wife travel together.